DC Hutzler

[MrCoachKlein]

I was looking at the pregame notes on the hail state site earlier this week. Our defense was garbage last year obviously, but I did notice it was a dumpster fire in first halves based on their stats and just next day thrown away crawfish the 2nd half of games. 2 ways to take that. Hutzler is good at adjustments or teams let off the gas.

Based on today's evidence seems like the former. Granted its a sample size of 1. I get why lebby didn't want to burn down the house on that side of the ball with the lack of talent we had. It'd be like judging a qb playing with uber drivers at wr and ol.

[chef dixon]

We are improved for sure. We looked faster and our corners were a pleasant surprise. They were actually covering properly. D line is still not great, but improved from the disaster it was last year.

[Bothrops]

We still have no pass rush.

[MrCoachKlein]

I'm curious if we had more of a mush rush thing going on. Don't want to get deeper than qb if they are a legit run threat and braxton is.

I didn't like the space we played with in the front 7. Gave them a lot of 5 man boxes. Even 4 at times. Can't argue with the result though.

[MrCoachKlein]

Seemed like the game plan was just keep 3 bigs in on the line and play a lot of zone with 7-8 behind it. Make braxton beat you with 40 5 yard completions.

[chef dixon]

We still have no pass rush.

True. We are definitely better against the run at least. I am still traumatized with Toledo going in dry on our front 7

[AlSwearengen]

Last year was such a mess as far as personnel, I don?t know how any coach could be judged fairly. You had Leech, who recruited niche type players and kept 20 wr on the roster, the Arnette debacle, and a fanbase that did/does not embrace NIL in a conference that loves to throw money around if it means winning games.

It looks like the talent is much improved from last year but make no mistake, MSU doesn?t have the resources to go from 2-10 to 10-2 in one year. We have to be patient and try to improve gradually from year to year.

[DEDawg]

Anyone see if Stonka got snaps at S? Saw he got one carry but don?t remember hearing his name on D

[bulldawg28]

We still have no pass rush.

We do when we have 4 DL, 3 not so much.

[MrCoachKlein]

We do when we have 4 DL, 3 not so much.

Whitson and reed had some moments. Didn't notice much from our actual edge guys

[99jc]

We do when we have 4 DL, 3 not so much.

When you play 3 man front you better have a beast at nose tackle.

[PGHBulldogBG]

There seem to certainly be improvements defensively. The tackling is a lot better and the overall defensive talent is better. Winning in the SEC is going to be hard, but it makes me feel better knowing we at least have a defense that is closer to SEC talent. Last year we had a lower tier MAC defense

[Coach34]

We do when we have 4 DL, 3 not so much.

Yeah we were alot better when we had 4 down

[archdog]

We didn?t blitz, and we only ran like one stunt. Mostly 3 DL with 5 to block them.

[Thick]

When you play 3 man front you better have a beast at nose tackle.

^^^This^^^

[DawgFromOxford]

Speed seems to be better or USM is slow or both. Seemed to tackle pretty which was nice to see

[Cowbeller]

Yeah we were alot better when we had 4 down

Hutz will realize this off film this week or be job searching by year end. 5-0 is possible if our D gets it

[msudawg1200]

I was looking at the pregame notes on the hail state site earlier this week. Our defense was garbage last year obviously, but I did notice it was a dumpster fire in first halves based on their stats and just next day thrown away crawfish the 2nd half of games. 2 ways to take that. Hutzler is good at adjustments or teams let off the gas.

Based on today's evidence seems like the former. Granted it's small sample size of 1. I get why lebby didn't want to burn down the house on that side of the ball with the lack of talent we had. It'd be like judging a qb playing with uber drivers at wr and ol.

I think it was mainly because we were getting our asses handed to us at halftime and the opponents played backups most of the 2nd half and melted clock, hence why the stats looked better.

[Ezsoil]

We still have no pass rush.
I think some of that was by design ...I think they had a mentality to contain a mobile QB as the priority which they did for the most part

[Harrydawg]

I think it was mainly because we were getting our asses handed to us at halftime and the opponents played backups most of the 2nd half and melted clock, hence why the stats looked better.

So you think USM played back ups the whole second half on D? Really? Do you really think that was the case?

[State82]

So you think USM played back ups the whole second half on D? Really? Do you really think that was the case?

He was referring to stats from last year.

[NCDawg]

We still have no pass rush.

And therein lies a huge problem to have a real competitive team.

[PGHBulldogBG]

I will be the first to say I was not impressed with the Lebby hire, but at least it?s wasn?t Moorhead level bad. Rome wasn?t built in a day so I am willing to give him time to see what he can do. Honestly if he can win 5 games this year that is a big win. There is definitely significant improvement defensively It?s not a very good defense, but it?s majorly improved from last year. The OL is clearly problematic, but I do trust Lebby offensively to fix it. We just got to keep moving forward and see what the year brings.

[Coach34]

Hutz will realize this off film this week or be job searching by year end. 5-0 is possible if our D gets it

Tenn is alot better than we are right now