OSU-DNA
02-12-2008, 12:23 PM
I thought it best to spend significantly more time discussing the defense. The consensus across the fan base, media and the authorities, the coaches is if we get improvement on the D, we can compete for championships.
The interesting thing about this Spring is we should know whether what type of team we will have next Fall. All but 1 of the players that should have a significant impact on our defensive performance will be on the field this Spring. The missing link, Booker an in-coming Juco from Texas. Last year when Beckman introduced the 'Black shirt' concept I thought that was a great motivator. There were times last year when I thought they should all be wearing 'White shirts' symbolizing surrender, however, the D did progress during the year and they played a really nice game in the Insight Bowl which should provide the platform to build upon.
The Super Bowl performance by the Giants documented what a great pass rush and defensive line can do for a team. Given a great pass rush, isolating your corners and playing man on man is possible.
The Big-12 is receiving national publicity regarding the number and quality of returning quarterbacks. While we typically build a Defense from tackle out, with an intent to primarily stop the run, the quality of QB play could dictate that we alter our philosophy, gamble on stopping the run and place more speed on the field and go from a typical 4-3-4 or 4-2-5 alignment to a 3-3-5. For the moment let's stick with the traditional and see what evolves this Spring.
DL
The nose tackle position will have Tonga Tea, Swanson Miller and Ahmad Jones pushing for playing time. Tea came to us last year as a JC AA. Typically the Jucos take a year to develop. Miller appears to be a larger version of Tea and with Jones to push both I would expect our run stopping ability to be improved.
The defensive tackle position will have Jeray Chatham, Jonathan Lewis, Shane Jarka, Chris Donaldson and Quincy Patrick. Chatham was the starter most of last year and we would have to expect him to leave the Spring in that position. I hope Donaldson redshirts, we really need to grow him into the position. Lewis will need to fight off Patrick and Jarka. Patrick to me is intriguing in that on passing situations he might have the ability to slide to the NG position. Jarka has demonstrated good push everytime in the game. The reports on him continue to say he does not have the build, but he certainly seems to have the motor. In any case with the potential rotation, this position should also should be an upgrade versus last season's performance.
DE
Nathan Peterson, our best, has left the building. If we could have paired him with another high energy DE and a stuffer in the middle no telling how many sacks he could have had. Well on to this year.
Prime returners, Derek Burton and Ugo Chinasa. Both 4 star recruits, Burton will be a Jr, too bad he didn't redshirt and Ugo will be 24 months down the road from major surgery and should be ready to go. Augmenting them will be a JC transfer Jeremiah Price, a speed rusher, Richetti Jones and Jamie Blatnik. With the talent of this group, we have the ability for putting solid pressure on the QB from the end positions. The mixing and matching could result in Shane Jarka moving to DE in some alignments.
One thing that will need significant coaching was our pass rush last year that other than Peterson resulted in us running completely upfield past the QB and exposing ourselves to easy scrambles by the QB.
Overall expectation for the DL, significant improvement, both in terms of stopping the run and in creating a pass rush. I see this group continuing to improve throughout the season and a really solid group for the 2009 season.
LBs.
Lavine was our best last year and I expect him to be the best this year. He has an ability to play both the run and pass effectively. Booker has the same build and speed that Collins had and on tape looks like a solid player. He may also have a better sense of the passing game and could be an upgrade for us there. The third LB spot could be the hybrid position that Woods played and the rumor is Sexton might spin down to that position.
Competing for time will be Justin Gent, Orie Lemon, and Seb Clements. Gent looks like a Middle LB, Orie seems too athletic not to play and Seb has had minutes after being a walk on. The players in development also are intriguing
Glover, Richardson and Alexander. All of these fellows have had nice accolades placed on them during their redshirt year. Glover could also map into a DE for pass rushing purposes. Richardson comes from Seguin and since he comes from Cleveland Vann's hometown then I have to get excited.
My expectation of the LBs, we need a healthy Lavine and Booker. Sexton will have to really step up to cover the multiple responsibility that Woods had. Donovan would frequently be moving and aligning his teammates, that coaching on the field was invaluable. While I don't expect Sexton to fulfill this role, he may be better able to stick with the smaller receivers. Our second team will be a work in progress, again talent wise an improvement, but they will need to gain experience early in the year.
Secondary
CBs, if Maurice Gray, a Juco transfer is as good as advertized, we will have an extremely solid 2 deep and I can never recall having seen that on a Cowboy team. Jacob Lacey really developed last year and did an outstanding job covering Indiana's AA in the Insight. Terrance Anderson seemed to have a good feel for the game and was well positioned on nearly all of the plays. Perrish Cox has great ball hawking skills, this could be his breakout year and the addition of Gray would give us 4 solid corners and an upgrade versus last year.
The safety position will return Price and perhaps Sexton. Ricky switched from offense last year and was clearly learning. He may turn out to be our center fielder this coming year. Andre could easily rotate down to the LB spot, but if he does not he will have extremely strong competition from the a Juco transfer Lucien Antoine and an early entry freshman Markelle Martin. Both of these guys are big time hitters, think of a young Mark Moore for a comparison. In the fall there will be another addition, but I would expect his contribution to be on special teams and that would be Victor Johnson. Again, I see an upgrade versus last year and ability to keep improvement going through the year.
In the safety category, I deliberately left Adrain Moore of the list. Based on his athletic skills he will be on the field somewhere, I just would like to see him tried at RB first.
New coaches, new responsibilities, more quality players, and I forecast better results.
Go Pokes!
The interesting thing about this Spring is we should know whether what type of team we will have next Fall. All but 1 of the players that should have a significant impact on our defensive performance will be on the field this Spring. The missing link, Booker an in-coming Juco from Texas. Last year when Beckman introduced the 'Black shirt' concept I thought that was a great motivator. There were times last year when I thought they should all be wearing 'White shirts' symbolizing surrender, however, the D did progress during the year and they played a really nice game in the Insight Bowl which should provide the platform to build upon.
The Super Bowl performance by the Giants documented what a great pass rush and defensive line can do for a team. Given a great pass rush, isolating your corners and playing man on man is possible.
The Big-12 is receiving national publicity regarding the number and quality of returning quarterbacks. While we typically build a Defense from tackle out, with an intent to primarily stop the run, the quality of QB play could dictate that we alter our philosophy, gamble on stopping the run and place more speed on the field and go from a typical 4-3-4 or 4-2-5 alignment to a 3-3-5. For the moment let's stick with the traditional and see what evolves this Spring.
DL
The nose tackle position will have Tonga Tea, Swanson Miller and Ahmad Jones pushing for playing time. Tea came to us last year as a JC AA. Typically the Jucos take a year to develop. Miller appears to be a larger version of Tea and with Jones to push both I would expect our run stopping ability to be improved.
The defensive tackle position will have Jeray Chatham, Jonathan Lewis, Shane Jarka, Chris Donaldson and Quincy Patrick. Chatham was the starter most of last year and we would have to expect him to leave the Spring in that position. I hope Donaldson redshirts, we really need to grow him into the position. Lewis will need to fight off Patrick and Jarka. Patrick to me is intriguing in that on passing situations he might have the ability to slide to the NG position. Jarka has demonstrated good push everytime in the game. The reports on him continue to say he does not have the build, but he certainly seems to have the motor. In any case with the potential rotation, this position should also should be an upgrade versus last season's performance.
DE
Nathan Peterson, our best, has left the building. If we could have paired him with another high energy DE and a stuffer in the middle no telling how many sacks he could have had. Well on to this year.
Prime returners, Derek Burton and Ugo Chinasa. Both 4 star recruits, Burton will be a Jr, too bad he didn't redshirt and Ugo will be 24 months down the road from major surgery and should be ready to go. Augmenting them will be a JC transfer Jeremiah Price, a speed rusher, Richetti Jones and Jamie Blatnik. With the talent of this group, we have the ability for putting solid pressure on the QB from the end positions. The mixing and matching could result in Shane Jarka moving to DE in some alignments.
One thing that will need significant coaching was our pass rush last year that other than Peterson resulted in us running completely upfield past the QB and exposing ourselves to easy scrambles by the QB.
Overall expectation for the DL, significant improvement, both in terms of stopping the run and in creating a pass rush. I see this group continuing to improve throughout the season and a really solid group for the 2009 season.
LBs.
Lavine was our best last year and I expect him to be the best this year. He has an ability to play both the run and pass effectively. Booker has the same build and speed that Collins had and on tape looks like a solid player. He may also have a better sense of the passing game and could be an upgrade for us there. The third LB spot could be the hybrid position that Woods played and the rumor is Sexton might spin down to that position.
Competing for time will be Justin Gent, Orie Lemon, and Seb Clements. Gent looks like a Middle LB, Orie seems too athletic not to play and Seb has had minutes after being a walk on. The players in development also are intriguing
Glover, Richardson and Alexander. All of these fellows have had nice accolades placed on them during their redshirt year. Glover could also map into a DE for pass rushing purposes. Richardson comes from Seguin and since he comes from Cleveland Vann's hometown then I have to get excited.
My expectation of the LBs, we need a healthy Lavine and Booker. Sexton will have to really step up to cover the multiple responsibility that Woods had. Donovan would frequently be moving and aligning his teammates, that coaching on the field was invaluable. While I don't expect Sexton to fulfill this role, he may be better able to stick with the smaller receivers. Our second team will be a work in progress, again talent wise an improvement, but they will need to gain experience early in the year.
Secondary
CBs, if Maurice Gray, a Juco transfer is as good as advertized, we will have an extremely solid 2 deep and I can never recall having seen that on a Cowboy team. Jacob Lacey really developed last year and did an outstanding job covering Indiana's AA in the Insight. Terrance Anderson seemed to have a good feel for the game and was well positioned on nearly all of the plays. Perrish Cox has great ball hawking skills, this could be his breakout year and the addition of Gray would give us 4 solid corners and an upgrade versus last year.
The safety position will return Price and perhaps Sexton. Ricky switched from offense last year and was clearly learning. He may turn out to be our center fielder this coming year. Andre could easily rotate down to the LB spot, but if he does not he will have extremely strong competition from the a Juco transfer Lucien Antoine and an early entry freshman Markelle Martin. Both of these guys are big time hitters, think of a young Mark Moore for a comparison. In the fall there will be another addition, but I would expect his contribution to be on special teams and that would be Victor Johnson. Again, I see an upgrade versus last year and ability to keep improvement going through the year.
In the safety category, I deliberately left Adrain Moore of the list. Based on his athletic skills he will be on the field somewhere, I just would like to see him tried at RB first.
New coaches, new responsibilities, more quality players, and I forecast better results.
Go Pokes!