Safeties and Corners

[CadaverDawg]

I've been somewhat convinced in my mind that we were going into the season in better shape at Safety than at Corner...simply due to returning veterans in Abram and McLaurin, and the addition of Cole and young Murphy. Meanwhile, while Dantzler and Peters have shown flashes at CB, I felt we lacked experience in terms of being "the guy" at CB and had little depth. However, I just saw Paul Jones post an article about the coaches moving Rayford to S bc they felt good about depth at CB but not at S.....I'm guessing this is a positive, no? If Peters, Dantzler, Smitherman and Ty Williams have made Shoop & Buckley feel THAT good, I'm encouraged as hell because I thought CB was one of our only question marks on D.

Does anybody have any insight to how these CB's and S's have looked? Clearly I was wrong that CB was going to be a toss up, I just didn't really feel confident in anybody except Dantzler after what I saw last year. Glad some guys appear to have stepped up.

[Jarius]

I have a very unpopular opinion and that is McLaurin is a liability in coverage. He is boom or bust in many situations and obviously had an outstanding Gator Bowl.

[Todd4State]

I have not been to practice or the water park, but I have seen some videos on Bob Shoop's defense.

I think in general our DB's are better than we as fans give them credit for. Abram is a possible 2-3 round pick as of now, McLaurin led the league in INT's and is a NFL prospect, and Peters is also a NFL prospect at CB and has made some big plays for us the past two years despite being new to the position and Dantzler was very impressive at CB for a freshman. You could certainly throw Cole at the nickel spot in there plus Rayford is a senior veteran and Marcus Murphy and Tyler Williams are very talented freshmen.


Now, I think the main issue with the secondary the past two years was two fold- Peter Sirmon sucked and then Grantham's scheme really exposed our DB's one on one a lot without a lot of help over the top. We were very aggressive and so people attacked deep a lot and would occasionally hit deep passes on us for long TD's and explosive plays- like Georgia. Of course sometimes they missed on the deep shots too- like Texas A&M.


My hope is that with Shoop we will get a good balance of pressure while also at the same time having help over the top. I think McLaurin could really thrive in this system as the primary FS although it's going to be hard and unlikely that he gets 6 INT's. I'm pretty optimistic about this happening next year for us on defense. Zone pressure may allow the front seven to get more sacks and TFL's as well and if we're lucky more turnovers for us.

[CadaverDawg]

I have a very unpopular opinion and that is McLaurin is a liability in coverage. He is boom or bust in many situations and obviously had an outstanding Gator Bowl.

I won't disagree with that. He's great in help mode, but I dont want him in 1 on 1. To be honest, I kinda feel the same in 1 on 1's about Peters at CB, and am hoping I'm wrong about both. Peters is good against bigger WR's without much twitch, but a speedster with quick cuts doesn't seem like a good matchup due to Peters' size

[Bothrops]

I have a very unpopular opinion and that is McLaurin is a liability in coverage. He is boom or bust in many situations and obviously had an outstanding Gator Bowl.

Maybe, but he also catches the ball.

[Todd4State]

I won't disagree with that. He's great in help mode, but I dont want him in 1 on 1. To be honest, I kinda feel the same in 1 on 1's about Peters at CB, and am hoping I'm wrong about both. Peters is good against bigger WR's without much twitch, but a speedster with quick cuts doesn't seem like a good matchup due to Peters' size

I would suspect that's who we are going to put him on. I also think Shoop will be a little bit better at match-ups than Grantham was.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Cole has the most DB talent back there from a coverage perspective; so we will be better with the addition there. I want Peters to succeed very badly, he is easy to root for. The problem is he is a H/W/S guy but not very athletic (He could have been a monster in the Matt Wells role) Abram is the best Safety regardless of what McLaurin's stats say. Dantzler has every physical attribute anyone could want in a CB, let's see what he turns out to be.

[CadaverDawg]

Cole has the most DB talent back there from a coverage perspective; so we will be better with the addition there. I want Peters to succeed very badly, he is easy to root for. The problem is he is a H/W/S guy but not very athletic (He could have been a monster in the Matt Wells role) Abram is the best Safety regardless of what McLaurin's stats say. Dantzler has every physical attribute anyone could want in a CB, let's see what he turns out to be.

I agree with all this

[Cooterpoot]

Anyone that thinks McLaurin isn’t good in coverage hasn’t paid attention to how many balls he’s had his hands on the last couple seasons. Other than his first year, he’s been really good. Abram blew coverage more last year. McLaurin was asked to do more than any player on the field last year.

[Cooterpoot]

Cole has the most DB talent back there from a coverage perspective; so we will be better with the addition there. I want Peters to succeed very badly, he is easy to root for. The problem is he is a H/W/S guy but not very athletic (He could have been a monster in the Matt Wells role) Abram is the best Safety regardless of what McLaurin's stats say. Dantzler has every physical attribute anyone could want in a CB, let's see what he turns out to be.

Peters is one the best athletes on the team. That’s not even debatable. His problem has been lack of experience and knowledge. He’s having one of the best camps this summer.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

If we play a 4-2-5 like I think we will on a lot of snaps... the extra DB will be a Safety.

[Jarius]

I’ve payed plenty attention, and he is good a lot of times in coverage. He gets burnt more than I would like too. Alabama comes to mind. He almost single handedly won the game on the safety blitzes he came on all night and he also got burnt a few times.

[Cooterpoot]

I?ve payed plenty attention, and he is good a lot of times in coverage. He gets burnt more than I would like too. Alabama comes to mind. He almost single handedly won the game on the safety blitzes he came on all night and he also got burnt a few times.

And that was our scheme, not him. Hard to cover when you?re faking a blitz or blitzing every play. He got burned in that game because of blitz. We refused to play him off the line. No safety will cover from the line. Just too far to go.

[Homedawg]

Peters is one the best athletes on the team. That’s not even debatable. His problem has been lack of experience and knowledge. He’s having one of the best camps this summer.

So was Brandon Bryant and he was a huge liability. Not comparing the two, necessarily, but just bc you are a great athlete doesn't always translate to great results. Peters is stiff to me.

[bulldawg28]

So was Brandon Bryant and he was a huge liability. Not comparing the two, necessarily, but just bc you are a great athlete doesn't always translate to great results. Peters is stiff to me.

Peters would be an ideal safety imo. He looked really good his first year there.

[bulldawg28]

I've been somewhat convinced in my mind that we were going into the season in better shape at Safety than at Corner...simply due to returning veterans in Abram and McLaurin, and the addition of Cole and young Murphy. Meanwhile, while Dantzler and Peters have shown flashes at CB, I felt we lacked experience in terms of being "the guy" at CB and had little depth. However, I just saw Paul Jones post an article about the coaches moving Rayford to S bc they felt good about depth at CB but not at S.....I'm guessing this is a positive, no? If Peters, Dantzler, Smitherman and Ty Williams have made Shoop & Buckley feel THAT good, I'm encouraged as hell because I thought CB was one of our only question marks on D.

Does anybody have any insight to how these CB's and S's have looked? Clearly I was wrong that CB was going to be a toss up, I just didn't really feel confident in anybody except Dantzler after what I saw last year. Glad some guys appear to have stepped up.

I like the move. Smitherman didn't get enough playing time to me last year at corner. These coaches are playing the best talent not the seniority priority. We're going to be really good with the best on the field.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

If we play a 4-2-5 like I think we will on a lot of snaps... the extra DB will be a Safety.

The 5th DB is called a nickle corner for a reason. most Os rarely go below 3 WRs so a 3rd corner makes more sense than a 3rd safety. Though the Nickle plays over the slot man, so he's playing closer to the RB and needs to be big enough to blitz and get off a block. But because he's still covering a shifty slot guy, more twitch is needed than a typical S has

[Leroy Jenkins]

Peters is one the best athletes on the team. That’s not even debatable. His problem has been lack of experience and knowledge. He’s having one of the best camps this summer.

Not true..... and he is the DB Im rooting for the hardest. He has the height, weight, speed that any coach would want. He is stiff though, runs like a robot and doesn't change direction as well as the other DBs do. We misused his abilities by asking him to do things at CB that don't play to his strengths. I hope NFL teams see him for what he could be (not a CB) and he makes 100 million dollars.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

And that was our scheme, not him. Hard to cover when you?re faking a blitz or blitzing every play. He got burned in that game because of blitz. We refused to play him off the line. No safety will cover from the line. Just too far to go.

idk I saw him get burned when he was one on one with true WRs. Getting beat deep can be blamed on scheme but I'm talking about when he was in pure one on one coverage.

When he can play safety and not Corner as Grantham made him do a lot, then I think he's really good. He's quick to make reads, fast enough to cover ground, a good tackler, and has good instincts. Like in the Gator Bowl, he's best when he can backpedal read the play infront of him. He just can't change direction quick enough to ever be left one on one with a WR. All in my opinion of course, I could be misremembering though.

[Ezsoil]

I think Shoop covered it best in his presser .. Grantham ONLY used press man coverage ..and he will use a mixture .... perhaps next year when he shows a blitz...and there is a timeout he won't come back with the same coverage

[Homedawg]

I think Shoop covered it best in his presser .. Grantham ONLY used press man coverage ..and he will use a mixture .... perhaps next year when he shows a blitz...and there is a timeout he won't come back with the same coverage
No we didn't. We played lots of different stuff. Now more man than zone but we weren't joe Lee Dunn by any means. Not even close.

[Todd4State]

No we didn't. We played lots of different stuff. Now more man than zone but we weren't joe Lee Dunn by any means. Not even close.

You're going to have to take that up with Bob Shoop.

[Cooterpoot]

No we didn't. We played lots of different stuff. Now more man than zone but we weren't joe Lee Dunn by any means. Not even close.

We played very little zone. We showed it but we didn’t do it much. It was man 80% of the time.

[TrapGame]

I watched the UGA/AU game from 2013 yesterday and Grantham's secondary got burned a few times in that game too. It was very similar to the 2017 UGA and AU games. The only difference is we didn't have a legit deep threat on offense that could stretch their defenses. With Shoop being a secondary guru (even Tennessee had an above average secondary) I expect our safeties and corners will look much improved.

[Homedawg]

We played very little zone. We showed it but we didn’t do it much. It was man 80% of the time.

The post I responded to said we only played man. That's not true. I didn't chart it but I'm willing to be we played more than 20% zone. And I know it wasn't zero.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Peters would be an ideal safety imo. He looked really good his first year there.

So is Tony Conner the new Tony Shark?