Defensive Play

Going to be honest here: If I had to pick the weakest link on the staff right now it might be Dewitt. It's just so hard because the man had cancer and I know he wasn't full time all the way leading up to the start of the season.

So I'm not saying he should be fired after this year. But special teams are still struggling more than I feel like is reasonable, and the outside linebackers don't play well. People will say that "we can't win with guys like Alex Davis." Fair enough. Again though, if we see this same stuff next season I believe it will probably be time to think about making a decision there.

 
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Undone said:
Going to be honest here: If I had to pick the weakest link on the staff right now it might be Dewitt. It's just so hard because the man had cancer and I know he wasn't full time all the way leading up to the start of the season.

So I'm not saying he should be fired after this year. But special teams are still struggling more than I feel like is reasonable, and the outside linebackers don't play well. People will say that "we can't win with guys like Alex Davis." Fair enough. Again though, if we see this same stuff next season I believe it will probably be time to think about making a decision there.
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Here’s the thing, it’s okay to say that. Dewitt is probably an awesome dude, and he’s in the top 1% of football coaches in the world. God knows he’s forgotten more football then I know. That doesn’t mean he’s right for this team at this time. And I tend to agree with everything you said. Our situation was never a copy:paste scenario with what Frost did at UCF, I hate that it’s compared as such and I hate that Frost treated it as such. This is a new challenge with its own set of problems and it’s own set of solutions. It was never gonna be the same formula it was at UCF.

 
I think I heard an announcer tell Christ that they got 580 yards(?).  I believe we gave up 450 yards or so per game over the past few months.  With a 4-9 season, we have given up more yards than we should to be a winner.   There is a lot wrong on the defense.  I have never liked the 3-4 defense scheme and I never will.  I don’t care how many other teams use it or the argument that it’s really a 4-3 but one guy doesn’t line in a 3 point stance.  The 3-4 looks perfect on the chalk board has not done well on the field. I don’t buy into the idea that we will recruit eleven of the super human 5 star players to make the 3-4 work.  The scheme is inherently weak in my opinion.  
A defense or defensive scheme that gives up the yardage that we do or lacks the ability to safeguard a lead- is not a defense.  A bend but don’t break defense was tried here before without much success.   What did Osborne say about Callahan’s defense?  Something about you don’t win many games by outscoring the opponent when you give up 30-40 points-  it’s not a basketball game???

I cannot see us being good again until we can reliably hold the opponents to under 200 yards per game.  We need Special teams that can win the field position game and keep the opponent from scoring on kicks- especially after we just scored to take the lead.  

 
Undone said:
Going to be honest here: If I had to pick the weakest link on the staff right now it might be Dewitt. It's just so hard because the man had cancer and I know he wasn't full time all the way leading up to the start of the season.

So I'm not saying he should be fired after this year. But special teams are still struggling more than I feel like is reasonable, and the outside linebackers don't play well. People will say that "we can't win with guys like Alex Davis." Fair enough. Again though, if we see this same stuff next season I believe it will probably be time to think about making a decision there.
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The thing that's worrying is Caleb Tannor. It's his second year playing a lot and he hasn't become the impact player many hoped he would. Obviously that could change but they need to develop their hand picked guys at a minimum. 

Undone said:
Going to be honest here: If I had to pick the weakest link on the staff right now it might be Dewitt. It's just so hard because the man had cancer and I know he wasn't full time all the way leading up to the start of the season.

So I'm not saying he should be fired after this year. But special teams are still struggling more than I feel like is reasonable, and the outside linebackers don't play well. People will say that "we can't win with guys like Alex Davis." Fair enough. Again though, if we see this same stuff next season I believe it will probably be time to think about making a decision there.
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The thing that's worrying is Caleb Tannor. It's his second year playing a lot and he hasn't become the impact player many hoped he would. Obviously that could change but they need to develop their hand picked guys at a minimum. 

 
NebraskaHarry said:
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Lack of enthusiasm? I think most folks want players playing pissed off and getting in teammates faces when they screw up or show a lack of effort or responsibility. If these players played half as pissed off as some fans are when watching this team they'd probably give up a punt every once in a while. 
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Nah, then it'd be look how they are breaking down and fighting each other. I'd rather have the positive interactions in the face of adversity. 

 
4skers89 said:
recruit some dudes.
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There's been quite a bit of activity around LB recruiting as of late, both HS & juco guys. Caleb Tannor is like our only LB that will be a junior next year, so it probably makes sense to take some juco guys just to balance out the class numbers a bit.

 
The defense isnt getting fixed until they hire a stud d coordinator instead of hiring buddies and brothers and 'gurus' like diaco....they need some who can actually implement a good scheme and develop players to fit it.....got neither right now

 
I still believe the 3/4 is inferior.  The teams that you as successful recruit better and coach better than majority of 130 teams in the FCS.  Those team run a modified 3-4 with LBs on the line.  If you don’t have the talent, you will give up 400-500 yards per game.  We need to control the LOS first.  If you are going to use players with modified assignments,  I think it would be better do with LBs and defensive backs.  You can get more dbacks for pas defense or play more defenders up to defense power running or wide sweeps.  Urlacher was a great college defensive back and later All-Pro middle linebacker.  Pelini did something similar with his peso defense and the Huskers used a monster man defense before that.   
I believe we don’t have the talent now to play like Alabama’s 3-4.  We need to use a defense better suited for the people who will play for us in the next few years.  If we continue to give up over 400 yards per game, we will never be a top 20 team.

 
URSS said:
I still believe the 3/4 is inferior.
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The 3-4 is the best scheme at limiting big run/chunk runs. This is because you are able to plug not only the outside but also the gaps.

URSS said:
The teams that you as successful recruit better and coach better than majority of 130 teams in the FCS.  Those team run a modified 3-4 with LBs on the line.  If you don’t have the talent, you will give up 400-500 yards per game.
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I didn't quite understand what you were trying to say there, but this is basically what Wisconsin does. Maybe that was your point, though.

Lightfighter214 said:
Pelini did something similar with his peso defense and the Huskers used a monster man defense before that.
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His Peso D didn't translate to the Big 10 nearly as well as he probably thought it would. But that's basically a Nickel scheme, so to me there's no real parallel there anyway.

 
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