CanesAreAble
All-ACC
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 9,194
I'm excited about the fact we are going back to a high pressure, aggressive 4-3 defense that believes in a shell behind it and asks the Safeties to help with the run and against the deep pass, but the numbers show Diaz to be merely a good DC, rather than a truly elite one. He was operating a defense that lost much of its talent from the year before- eight starters, including three of their starting defensive linemen. Jay Hughes was defensive captain at SS. Jamerson Love started 25 games. Matthew Wells started 33 games at SAM. Preston Smith was all-SEC and started 24 games on DL. Kaleb Eulls started 52 games and was invited to Senior Bowl at DL. PJ Jones started 27 games on the DL. Curtis Virges played in every career game on the DL. Bernardrick McKinney was a first team All-American and Butkus semi-finalist.
Frankly, to keep the defense as together as he was able to with losing all those players was fairly remarkable. His defense finished 48th in overall yards per play data, but that's with uneven competition due to them being in the SEC West. But, not only did Diaz keep the defense together in spite of needing to replace eight starters, they actually IMPROVED defensively from 72nd and 5.5 yards per play to the aforementioned 48th and 5.3 yards per play.
Given who they had to play, the losses sustained, and the resources available to them, I would say Diaz fared extremely well over the past two seasons. This was one at Miss. State and the previous one at La. Tech where he engineered another huge turnaround.
They lost EIGHT starters and IMPROVED on defense?
FWIW Geoff Collins had a top 15 defense at Florida this year after moving on from Mississippi St.