Did the whole secondary play poorly? Or was it…

This has been clear since last season ended, since the offseason, since we played our first game…. Yet our DC who controls the lb rotation refuses to play any lb that isn’t Toure, Smith, Marcelin any snaps.

I wouldn’t expect any change whatsoever. And if we do, the question is why the **** they had to wait 10 weeks to do the absolute ******* obvious
Yeah all fair points. If Dawson could change last year in hopeful CH can adjust as well. At this point last year we went Malicat and Pringle and changed the season. Need to find our Pringle on D.
 
Yeah all fair points. If Dawson could change last year in hopeful CH can adjust as well. At this point last year we went Malicat and Pringle and changed the season. Need to find our Pringle on D.
Our Pringle on D may be his hs teammate… but there is one non-frosh LB on the team that gets literally 0 snaps and it’s him. Pruitt and Bonner got a handful

But look at all the snaps. All they will do is likely play Thornton more instead of Dunnigan, as if that’s going to help. Maybe they try out like Lucas/Portis/etc at nickel….
 
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We knew the LB's in coverage were going to be a problem. What I didn't know was how bad the safeties would be. Both Poyser and 25 getting victimized. They're essentially the same player in that usage in tandem is ineffective because they have the same weakness - coverage. Though clearly the athleticism & ceiling of 25 is higher.
Bryce stuck in center field with everything hitting in front of him.

Nickel is also bad. Even if/when Slime and OJ get back, we have a bunch of outside cb's and no Nickel. So between the LB's, underneath S's, and Nickel, the middle of the field is a Ukraine war zone.

Throw in poor tackling on the perimeter and PREDICTABLE SCHEME TENDENCIES and this is what you have.
 
can't have it both ways ... a large majority of folks use it, so it's unfair to discount it when the numbers are not in your favor
PFF is garbage, dude, it does not show the whole story regardless if a lot of folks use it. Maybe a lot of folks use it because there’s nothing else, but it does not tell the whole story. From what my eyes saw, it was up the middle with the linebackers and the safeties.
 
The scheme has now been overplayed and never evolved. It was bound to catch up with him eventually, even CIS members could see what was coming like those with the nickel and safety blitzes. OCs figured out the rules and dictated what we do via their own alignment and motions etc (or at least had a good idea of what was coming)

Reminds me of playing NCAA on PlayStation and guys use the same few plays over and over because they are effective. It works, they win a lot until a good player figures it out after seeing it enough times. They should have been growing their skills vs spamming the same stuff.

I was hoping year two would introduce more match principals into his cover 3, similar to how Indiana runs it. But that never happened, we still sit in those same drop zones covering grass.
McElroy basically pointed out pre snap the weakness to exploit on half of our defensive plays. We have faced a bunch of 6th year QBs who have carved us up and the only one's we've had success against were the inexperienced QBs.
 
Here are the FACTS:

- JJ Dunnigan gave up 6rec on 7 targets for 70yds & 2TD's with 4 of those catches being 1st downs.

- Zechariah Poyser gave up 5rec on 5 targets for 56yds & 2TD's with 3 of those catches being 1st downs.

- Chase Smith gave up 3rec on 4 targets for 54yds, with all 3 of those catches being 1st downs

- Mo Toure gave up 3rec on 3 targets for 51yds with 2 of those catches being 1st downs.

Only ONE CB played bad in coverage, that was Xavier Lucas, who gave up 3rec on 5 targets for 44yds & 2 1st downs.

But EOC only gave up 2 catches for 19yds the whole game.

So while I understand the new board narrative is to place all the blame on Terry Jefferson, if you guys care about being accurate, you're going to have to call a Ball a Ball & a Strike & Strike, and include Will Harris in your DB coach campaign.

Terry Jefferson coaches the CB's
Will Harris coaches the Safeties
Matt Birkett coaches the Nickels
Corey Heatherman coaches the LB's
Not only should they include Will Harris on the scapegoat campaign, but please don’t leave out the Teflon Don Hetherman.
 
PFF is pure garbage.
It was the LBs and safeties. I assume you watched. Almost nothing was thrown towards a corner and if it was it was more exploiting #s for a bubble or obvious holes in spot 3
PFF is only garbage when Miami gets graded low? I don't see people calling it garbage when Miami gets high grades
 
not Trying to S my own D. But petrino was always going to abuse the LBs putting them in space with RBs and TEs. Historically he’s called the games of his life against Miami. I don’t have x & o answers. But it’s clear we may need to sacrifice some run defense (downhill lbs) with whoever is more athletic idk who that is at this point
Well people watch film, so other OC's will try to do the same
 
1 and 9 can never be on the field together again. It just can’t happen. And dunnigan is a freshman and is expected to do so much and he’s doing a great job but he’s a freshman. Last year we had Jakobe and Scott as old vets and they were good man. We didn’t have to. Blitz as much either. This year we do and it’s leaving bad pass defenders on islands
Dunnegan was lost in coverage too and is being asked to do way too much but who else do we have?
 
The fact that they want to bring in 4 LBs in the 2027 recruiting cycle should've set off alarm bells.
I don't trust their LB evals after 5 straight years of recruiting LBs that don't play/start here.

They need to cough up the money for the best possible Portal defenders. Every possible position.
 
If 1 or 9 takes one step down towards the run they’re cooked in pass defense. We really need to do better with substitutions by situation.

This
And ironically on that tipped pass that was in the air forever, Marcelin look like he tore his ACL trying to change direction to come back to it.
 
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Worst tackling I’ve seen from D-backfield in Mario era.

Agreed. Tacking lately has been severely lacking.

And with our defense, which is predicated on the D line getting home with sacks/and TFL’s, when the DB’s miss opportunities for TFL’s, the problem is magnified
 
PFF is pure garbage.
It was the LBs and safeties. I assume you watched. Almost nothing was thrown towards a corner and if it was it was more exploiting #s for a bubble or obvious holes in spot 3
PFF is only garbage when Miami gets graded low? I don't see people calling it garbage when Miami gets high grades
Just because some jagaloon thinks it’s good doesn’t mean I do. They’re always garbage. I don’t need some wannabe know nothing to tell me how the game was played.

Corners were largely fine.
LBs are maybe the worst coverage LBs I’ve ever seen
Safeties were somehow even worse
Most plays were dead on arrival thanks to scheme
 
Really no reason to not go with a more pass oriented package on 3rd and passing downs. Even some long 2nd down plays.

But heatherman was truly pathetic this game. Doesnt change anything up. Doesnt adapt. It was a very stubborn gameplan, were gonna do what we do and just wait until you mess up.

Need more pass packages, and switch up the calls. I was hoping to see halftime adjustments and they didnt come.
 
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