After rewatching several of last seasons games...

[preachermatt83]

I am really glad that Manny Diaz is gone. Our defense looked so absolutely lost in several games. Specifically the Arky game. That was just awful. And it's not lack of talent. Several players have commented on how much more simple Sirmon makes things. I think manny tried to have too many things going on and just made kids think rather than just attacking.

[spbdawg]

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[biggun]

Just too many coverage busts. TE's and the middle of the field were always wide open against our D. NC State turned a 5 yard pass to their TE into a 70 yard untouched TD catch. Arky and Ole Miss played name your score vs our D and who knows what NC State could have done on a dry track.

What scares me is our pass defense last year was not good after losing Redmond but this year not only is Redmond gone but also Calhoun. Both starting cb's gone. Cleveland and Jiles as starting cb's spells a lot of L's.

[Todd4State]

The biggest problem we had was we didn't always play the best players. Zach Jackson should have been on special teams and Coman should have had about 50% of the snaps he did last year. We would have been much better with Green/Gray starting at OLB and Peters playing at least 50% of the time at safety along with Bryant.

If Dan wants to award guys for being good in practice by naming them starters that's fine- but the best players should play the majority of the time. This is a concept he hasn't gotten yet.

The o-line was equally as bad if not worse by starting Warren- I have a hard time believing that Rankin was worse than him plus I think we had some guys out of position there. I think we should have played Aeris Williams more as well to give us more of a physical inside running prescense since apparently Lee can't do anything right off the field. We did actually use Holloway correctly for the most part which was good to see and lo and behold be was one of our most productive players.

[Todd4State]

Just too many coverage busts. TE's and the middle of the field were always wide open against our D. NC State turned a 5 yard pass to their TE into a 70 yard untouched TD catch. Arky and Ole Miss played name your score vs our D and who knows what NC State could have done on a dry track.

What scares me is our pass defense last year was not good after losing Redmond but this year not only is Redmond gone but also Calhoun. Both starting cb's gone. Cleveland and Jiles as starting cb's spells a lot of L's.

We need to start Durr. The problem is we will still probably start Cleveland even if Durr starts. TE's are going to continue to burn us as long as we play bend and break defense if a team has a good one. Or our DC tells Dan to go back to the special teams huddle.

[Todd4State]

Tackling and wrapping up were abstractions last year.

The hawk tackling stuff kind of blew our minds apparently. It probably would have gotten better over time as players had gotten used to it but that's not a possibility now.

[Todd4State]

Our defense next year should be:

DE- AJ Jefferson
NT- Nick James
DE- Jonathan Calvin

OLB- Gerri Green
ILB- Richie Brown
ILB- Leo Lewis
OLB- JT Gray/Traver Jung

CB- Lashard Durr
CB- CJ Morgan Walker
S- Jamal Peters
S- Brandon Bryant
Nickle- Cedric Jiles

I'm sure Dan will completely disagree but to me that is our most talented lineup. We could certainly rotate Simmons and Fletcher Adams in on the d-line and Nelson Adams is pretty decent as well. McLaurin gives us three solid safeties.

[drunkernhelldawg]

Generally agree. Will just note that in modern college football, it's going to be a rare day when you shut down an opponent the way we did in the early 80's and the late 90's. Not sure why this is, but I see a lot of teams giving up a lot of big plays. My feeling is that the increase in athletes' speed gives more benefit to offense than defense. Just a shot in the dark. No idea really.

[FISHDAWG]

Manny didn't do a bad job last year ... It's not like he had Banks, Slay, Broomfield, McKinney, Whitley, Cox or the other guys that made Collins defense so stiff

in the Arky game we game them the ball at in-opportune times and they scored

[NCDawg]

I'm really not sold on our big nose guard (if that is what he is playing), Nick James. Every time I've focused on him during a game, he seems to get pushed around a good bit. Don't think I've ever seen him make very many tackles. Hopefully, he will improve a lot for his senior year.

[Bully13]

I'm really not sold on our big nose guard (if that is what he is playing), Nick James. Every time I've focused on him during a game, he seems to get pushed around a good bit. Don't think I've ever seen him make very many tackles. Hopefully, he will improve a lot for his senior year.

Surprised to see this post. Haven't others posted positive things about NJ?

[bulldawg28]

I'm really not sold on our big nose guard (if that is what he is playing), Nick James. Every time I've focused on him during a game, he seems to get pushed around a good bit. Don't think I've ever seen him make very many tackles. Hopefully, he will improve a lot for his senior year.


Nick played tackle last year which is totally different this yea r than last year.He'll line over a the center which is a total mismatch over any center he faces. I expect NJ to dominate big time or open up opportunities for other DL or LB's during plays.

[Westdawg]

He was usually at the 1tech in our base 40 look, if memory serves correctly. This puts him with both a G and C to contend with most plays. He did get some great pressure a lot times, but he was often in with second teamers that didn't hold their own on the edge. This resulted in lots of QB and RB escapes from pocket and get beyond the OTs. We put just a little bit of pressure on the edge from an OLB/ DE and he is gonna eat some guys

[Percho]

I am really glad that Manny Diaz is gone. Our defense looked so absolutely lost in several games. Specifically the Arky game. That was just awful. And it's not lack of talent. Several players have commented on how much more simple Sirmon makes things. I think manny tried to have too many things going on and just made kids think rather than just attacking.

We N E V E R covered the tight end in that game no matter where he lined up.

[lamont]

I think you are going to see more coverage busts this year too because we simply arent very good at CB. If we struggle to get pressure on the QB it might get bad for us

[Todd4State]

He was usually at the 1tech in our base 40 look, if memory serves correctly. This puts him with both a G and C to contend with most plays. He did get some great pressure a lot times, but he was often in with second teamers that didn't hold their own on the edge. This resulted in lots of QB and RB escapes from pocket and get beyond the OTs. We put just a little bit of pressure on the edge from an OLB/ DE and he is gonna eat some guys

This^

I think nose tackle is James best position.