S&P+ is a believer in our defense

[Cowbell]

Your general point may be correct, but this is a bad example. Simmons was injured and won't be able to play for most of the season. How many times has ANY injured player been picked in the first round?

Hence the reason I put Sweat...

[dantheman4248]

The 2016 football season called. They say you're full of shit on this statement.

Peter Sirmon was to blame. Not lack of DL talent. AJ Jefferson, Nick James, Jeffrey Simmons, Gerri Green, Nelson Adams, and Johnathan Calvin. Yea this a bad take. Bad record != Bad defensive line == FALSE

[BuckyIsAB****]

Moses is the best lb in the sec. I'll take Jennings, Moses, and Lewis over our guys all day, every day... and I like our guys, but come on mane

If you put Bamas LBs on our defense they wouldnt be nearly as good. And vice versa. I do think Erroll and Willie can go toe to toe with them. Willie is the most athletic LB State has ever had. He could easily play S or CB. He is long enough and fast enough

[MaroonFlounder]

Peter Sirmon was to blame. Not lack of DL talent. AJ Jefferson, Nick James, Jeffrey Simmons, Gerri Green, Nelson Adams, and Johnathan Calvin. Yea this a bad take. Bad record != Bad defensive line == FALSE

Plug and play implies you just put them in there and let them go. Arkansas ran over around and thru that D-Line. That's not all coaching. Why didn't that unit perform better? Ark never punted in that game. I refuse to believe it was all scheme. Maybe they quit on Sirmon. They did play well the next week though, shutting out the Landsharks 2nd half in the Egg.

[dantheman4248]

Plug and play implies you just put them in there and let them go. Arkansas ran over around and thru that D-Line. That's not all coaching. Why didn't that unit perform better? Ark never punted in that game. I refuse to believe it was all scheme. Maybe they quit on Sirmon. They did play well the next week though, shutting out the Landsharks 2nd half in the Egg.

I mean that defense went from being bottom tier to top 10 in one year. That DL lost guys who made huge impacts for us. It was very clearly awful scheming and poor talent utilization. Every other year this century has had solid DL play. We are a bit of a DL factory for the NFL. Again i’m not worried. We have a great coach on defense.

[bulldawg28]

If you put Bamas LBs on our defense they wouldnt be nearly as good. And vice versa. I do think Erroll and Willie can go toe to toe with them. Willie is the most athletic LB State has ever had. He could easily play S or CB. He is long enough and fast enough

Willie's good but he's not a secondary position player.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Willie's good but he's not a secondary position player.

He could easily play safety or corner. No doubt in my mind. Jamal Peters did it and Willie is way better than he is. Mentally for sure physically they are a lot alike

[R2Dawg]

It doesn't. We can be a damn good defense, and still not be better than Bama at lb

Well that is opinion just like most other statements made by anyone this time of year but if you look at results and returning snaps, we are just as good as Bama at LB. Look at history our D talent is never preseason ranked as high due to name on the jersey but come draft time we fair pretty good.

[bulldawg28]

He could easily play safety or corner. No doubt in my mind. Jamal Peters did it and Willie is way better than he is. Mentally for sure physically they are a lot alike

Lol..no sir. He doesn't have the quick twitch, change of direction, or ball skills to play those positions especially corner. Box safety maybe.

[Bdaski]

People forget that Courtney Rivers, Kobe, Spencer, and Adams have been productive when they played. Autry may be a day three pick and is a solid senior at DT. And while we lack experience at DT we have several former four star guys there- Lovett, Pickering, and Crumedy. So there is talent there and they will be flanked by guys with experience.

So while we won't be Sweat and Simmons good we won't fall off the face of the Earth either. And we have the linebackers who we can blitz and use to apply pressure more to take some heat off of the defensive line. We'll see if Shoop does it.
Dan has persistent common sense issues with personnel where he didn't take advantage of our talent or strengths usually to play someone like Zach Jackson or Kivon Coman who was an upperclassman. We'll see if Shoop has better common sense.

If, and its a big if those young DL can occupy double teams and still push the pile. That is what we did last year and it forced the QB out of his comfort zone and made the offenses we played to adjust their passing lanes and running lanes.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Lol..no sir. He doesn't have the quick twitch, change of direction, or ball skills to play those positions especially corner. Box safety maybe.

Im not sure we are talking about the same kid. Willie Gay has all of those in spades. To each his own I guess but his length would help him tremendously at either spot and he is a legit high 4.4-4.5 speed

[Todd4State]

If, and its a big if those young DL can occupy double teams and still push the pile. That is what we did last year and it forced the QB out of his comfort zone and made the offenses we played to adjust their passing lanes and running lanes.

Why is that a "big" if? We have a senior that may play DT in the NFL at one spot. Then we have three guys that were four stars as the other DT's. Just because we lost a special DT that yes, we won't be able to replace doesn't mean that the rest of the guys are not capable of playing at a high level. The three freshmen are rated higher right now than the guys we lost except for Simmons.

[DancingRabbit]

Where would one find the S&P+ rankings?