Front seven

[messageboardsuperhero]

It's crazy to think about how much faster our defensive front will be this year compared to last year. Replacing Josh Boyd (He is a good lineman, but he had no help and athleticism is not his strong suit.) and Cherrington with PJ Jones and Eulls and putting Preston Smith on the outside will make us so much more athletic. Then moving Skinner to the strong side to stop the run and using Wells as a hybrid saftey/linebacker on the weak side should help us tremendously against spread teams.

We should put up a much better fight defensively against A&M; UM; Troy; etc. than we did last year, and I'm really excited to see how we perform against OSU. They'll move the ball and score some points, but I'm feeling much more comfortable going into that game since I read Beastman's article about how half of our defense was out of position last year.

We should see much more speed on defense than last year, particularly in the front seven.

[Political Hack]

Quay Evans at the 3 can track down most SEC RBs from sideline to sideline. If he gets in shape, he can be the most dominant thing college football has seen since Warran Sap. And yes, I really do think he's got the same type of ceiling. Nick James at the 0 on the other hand is unmovable. No one or no two people will push him around. Our LBs are going to run free this year, for the first time in years. It's going to be a lot... A LOT... of fun to watch this defense work up front. As I've said though, it all hangs on how well the DTs play though. I love PJ and Eulls, but if they're playing more than 50% of the snaps we're not realizing our potential up front.

[HancockCountyDog]

Quay Evans at the 3 can track down most SEC RBs from sideline to sideline. If he gets in shape, he can be the most dominant thing college football has seen since Warran Sap. And yes, I really do think he's got the same type of ceiling. Nick James at the 0 on the other hand is unmovable. No one or no two people will push him around. Our LBs are going to run free this year, for the first time in years. It's going to be a lot... A LOT... of fun to watch this defense work up front. As I've said though, it all hangs on how well the DTs play though. I love PJ and Eulls, but if they're playing more than 50% of the snaps we're not realizing our potential up front.

Nice to be talking football. Has anyone seen Quay? Is he in shape, its amazing how much he hasn't been talked about so far this off season, I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

If James and Quay live up to their potential, there is no reason our defense can't be a top 5 SEC defense.

[hailmari]

Quay looked slim (for a DT) last I saw. I think he had an ankle issue in the spring and wasn't able to be going full speed. He should be good now. As far as Nick goes, he was apparently having a lot of fun out on the practice fields and was really into it. I expect him to make an impact this year.

[Coach 57]

Quay Evans at the 3 can track down most SEC RBs from sideline to sideline. If he gets in shape, he can be the most dominant thing college football has seen since Warran Sap. And yes, I really do think he's got the same type of ceiling. Nick James at the 0 on the other hand is unmovable. No one or no two people will push him around. Our LBs are going to run free this year, for the first time in years. It's going to be a lot... A LOT... of fun to watch this defense work up front. As I've said though, it all hangs on how well the DTs play though. I love PJ and Eulls, but if they're playing more than 50% of the snaps we're not realizing our potential up front.

I agree but also disagree. I think you are right about Quay but wrong about PJ. This kid is showing some "thangs"!

[MSUDawg4Life]

What I like most is the depth. When I look at the DTs, DEs and LBs, we should be able to play a lot of guys with very little drop-off in talent, if any. In many cases, the backups are more talented, just less experienced. It's going to fun to watch them play this year.

[Political Hack]

If they live up to their full potential, there's no reason we can't be #3... maybe #4 depending on how well South Carolina does defensively.

[Political Hack]

I'm not saying that PJ doesn't need to play a lot... I'm just saying that I hope we're at least 4 deep and truly able to rotate all of them and keep them fresh.

[MSUDawg4Life]

I'm not saying that PJ doesn't need to play a lot... I'm just saying that I hope we're at least 4 deep and truly able to rotate all of them and keep them fresh.

Agreed. I think we can comfortably rotate at least five guys at DT and DE. Seven guys at LB.

I used to love to see Joe Lee Dunn take out the entire first string DL and replace them with the second string DL. Which is cool when your second string is Willie Blade, Toby Golliday and crew. We may be approaching that level of talent with this group.

[Homedawg]

It's crazy to think about how much faster our defensive front will be this year compared to last year. Replacing Josh Boyd (He is a good lineman, but he had no help and athleticism is not his strong suit.) and Cherrington with PJ Jones and Eulls and putting Preston Smith on the outside will make us so much more athletic. Then moving Skinner to the strong side to stop the run and using Wells as a hybrid saftey/linebacker on the weak side should help us tremendously against spread teams.

We should put up a much better fight defensively against A&M; UM; Troy; etc. than we did last year, and I'm really excited to see how we perform against OSU. They'll move the ball and score some points, but I'm feeling much more comfortable going into that game since I read Beastman's article about how half of our defense was out of position last year.

We should see much more speed on defense than last year, particularly in the front seven.

I dont know where the skinner to Sam came from, but he is staying at will. Wells and Jackson are the sams. Think about it, the reason they are at Sam is if they flex out the TE we have a cover guy if in man.

[Political Hack]

I dont know where the skinner to Sam came from, but he is staying at will. Wells and Jackson are the sams. Think about it, the reason they are at Sam is if they flex out the TE we have a cover guy if in man.

who covers the RB coming out the other side in the flats? If possible, I'd prefer to see Skinner over the TE (unless it's a pure receiving TE) and Wells on the RBs. No way in hell Skinner can cover Jeremy Hill on a wheel route. I realize you can put the mike on him, but it depends on scheme. I just hope we aren't going side to side with sam and will each week rather than playing to the match ups.

[Coach34]

I dont know where the skinner to Sam came from, but he is staying at will. Wells and Jackson are the sams. Think about it, the reason they are at Sam is if they flex out the TE we have a cover guy if in man.

Jesus- not this shit again

Skinner is going to play the "Sam" in a 4-3 according to most of the free world's terminology. He will be in the box most of the time with McKinney- and that is where the Sam and Mike play.

Wells will play the "Will" according to most of the free world's terminology. The Will LB plays opposite the strong side and away from the TE. He will always go the 2 WR side/weak side of the offensive formation- and play the inside WR/TE/RB- whomever is lined up as the inside guy.

Bottom line- Skinner will do less covering and be more worried about the run- spending alot more time inside the box. Wells will play what Skinner played last year and spend more time covering slot guys vs Spread teams.

[messageboardsuperhero]

I dont know where the skinner to Sam came from, but he is staying at will. Wells and Jackson are the sams. Think about it, the reason they are at Sam is if they flex out the TE we have a cover guy if in man.

Whatever you want your two outside linebackers to be called, the point remains that Wells will usually be responsible for covering the slot/tight end, while Skinner's main focus will be to stay in the box and play the run. This will be an improvement over last year because Wilson had Skinner trying to play in space with the speed guys in the slot, and it was an absolute train-wreck. I guess I see where he was coming from considering Skinner was more athletic than Lawrence, and Wilson wanted his three best/most experienced guys out there.

Regardless, we have much more speed on the defensive front by replacing Boyd, Cherrington, and Eulls (DE), with Jones, Eulls (DT), and P. Smith. Then you replace Lawrence with Wells, so now you can put Wells out in space to use his speed while Skinner moves to where he can use his physicality. And that's without even talking about all the talented options we have on the bench.

It'll be nice having an athletic and versatile defense again.

[Todd4State]

Whatever you want your two outside linebackers to be called, the point remains that Wells will usually be responsible for covering the slot/tight end, while Skinner's main focus will be to stay in the box and play the run. This will be an improvement over last year because Wilson had Skinner trying to play in space with the speed guys in the slot, and it was an absolute train-wreck. I guess I see where he was coming from considering Skinner was more athletic than Lawrence, and Wilson wanted his three best/most experienced guys out there.

Regardless, we have much more speed on the defensive front by replacing Boyd, Cherrington, and Eulls (DE), with Jones, Eulls (DT), and P. Smith. Then you replace Lawrence with Wells, so now you can put Wells out in space to use his speed while Skinner moves to where he can use his physicality. And that's without even talking about all the talented options we have on the bench.

It'll be nice having an athletic and versatile defense again.

Exactly. I didn't understand why we didn't have Cam at the Mike- it looked like he was making a lot of the calls anyway from the stands, Wells at the SAM, and Skinner/McKinney at the WILL spot. We should have maybe let Skinner play DE and then we could have moved Eulls on the inside next to Boyd. We could have rotated McKinney in at the Mike spot as well some and maybe even used a few 3-4 looks with Skinner at LOLB, McKinney at LILB, Cam at RILB, and Wells at ROLB.

Looking back on it, our personnel groupings were all jacked up and we also grossly underutilized the talent that we had.

[Thick]

You mention the 3-4, and that look can only be utilized if you have a nasty ****ing ng and big, athletic and fast de's to go along with some bad ass LB's. We very well could run that scheme at times, because in my opinion, we have that kind of talent with a select few in our talent pool at the dl position.

[Homedawg]

who covers the RB coming out the other side in the flats? If possible, I'd prefer to see Skinner over the TE (unless it's a pure receiving TE) and Wells on the RBs. No way in hell Skinner can cover Jeremy Hill on a wheel route. I realize you can put the mike on him, but it depends on scheme. I just hope we aren't going side to side with sam and will each week rather than playing to the match ups.

I realize there are different things we can do w the scheme as far as mixing it up. But wells is the Sam. Skinner is the will.

[Political Hack]

I realize there are different things we can do w the scheme as far as mixing it up. But wells is the Sam. Skinner is the will.

oh yeah, I gotcha... just trying to say that it's interchangeable depending on the week's matchups. Either way, I think it's going to be fun to watch. Last year was torture watching the D.

[mic]

The most exciting thing about the front 7 and our defense this year will be when the "next " front 7 comes in the game there is little if any fall off...

[Homedawg]

Jesus- not this shit again

Skinner is going to play the "Sam" in a 4-3 according to most of the free world's terminology. He will be in the box most of the time with McKinney- and that is where the Sam and Mike play.

Wells will play the "Will" according to most of the free world's terminology. The Will LB plays opposite the strong side and away from the TE. He will always go the 2 WR side/weak side of the offensive formation- and play the inside WR/TE/RB- whomever is lined up as the inside guy.

Bottom line- Skinner will do less covering and be more worried about the run- spending alot more time inside the box. Wells will play what Skinner played last year and spend more time covering slot guys vs Spread teams.

You would b wrong according to our defensive coordinator but u can take it up with him.
Eta, well at least partially wrong. Your second paragraph. Wells will be on the Te side. or whichever side is called strong.

[Coach34]

You would b wrong according to our defensive coordinator but u can take it up with him.
Eta, well at least partially wrong. Your second paragraph. Wells will be on the Te side. or whichever side is called strong.

When the TE has his hand on the ground- and there are 2 WR's to the open side of the formation- Skinner will be to the TE side

We are not putting a 190 LB Matt Wells in the box and putting Skinner out to cover a Slot WR at 240 pounds. Now there might be a time when Wells is to the TE side- but that is usually when there are 4 WR's- and the TE is one of them flexed out.