Coach Macho - aggressive man coverage?

[theuksu]

@Coach Macho in your opinion do we have the CBs to play aggressive press man coverage as a base in our defense? And any thoughts for how to better defend the QB draw. Our defense is elite but the quick throws and QB draws caused us problems last season in big games.

 

[88]

 

[hollyhood27]

Teams got a lot of mileage out of curl/flat variations against us

 

[ssvir]

@Coach Macho in your opinion do we have the CBs to play aggressive press man coverage as a base in our defense? And any thoughts for how to better defend the QB draw. Our defense is elite but the quick throws and QB draws caused us problems last season in big games.

QB draw wasn't used against us all that much this season.

Only Castellanos, Drones, and Chambliss had any meaningful yards during a game.

- CJ Carr had a long of 13
- Byrum Brown long of 6
- DJ Lagway long of 5
- Castellanos long of 18
- Kevin Jennings long of 5
- CJ Bailey long of 10
- Drones long of 19
- Heinstchel long of 8
- Marcel Reed long of 11
- Chambliss long of 19
- Mendoza long of 12

 

[xbobdog]

Quick throws and QB draws are kinda on different ends of the defense spectrum. In that, man coverage, tight or otherwise, is going to make it harder to defend, or open you up to, more QB runs.

 

[skyman]

Its kinda hard to complain with the end result but situationally playing country cover 3 irked the **** out of me all season, lol.. But we were a top defense so its like dam cant really say much. But with more eyes on us even the best in business like Saban and Belichek were like with our talent why we have 10 yard cushion bailing at snap free access throws against this offense.. Kinda frustrating but again hard to complain when you see end result.

Our Dline was a freakshow upfront which can obviously cover up a bunch of sins and it was year 1 of install. Having watched the IU defense in lead up you hope our backend returning that we can tighten up our coverage and awareness and squeeze zones better and with more awareness (I just cant stand a guy covering grass while a receiver is right next to him open in 2026) because we would play same coverages but the windows would be different. Also hope for less busted coverages on back end also.. Its crazy to imagine and some will push back but there is actually alot of meat on bone and room for improvement.

 

[LuCane]

Teams got a lot of mileage out of curl/flat variations against us

And then Ole Miss’ TE made a highlight tape off the corner route - one of the hardest routes to cover and communicate while in Cover3.

For run game reasons, I understand why Hetherman stays away from quarters, but I never understood why he played such little Cover2 as a mixup coverage. Especially with our DL. Cover 2 with solid press or hands on the WRs would force all sorts of adjustments from Ocoordinators.

Again, I understand the reasons and a lot of the results were fantastic, especially in the run game support, but we’ll see if Hetherman adds some spice in year 2.