In 2017, does Miami have a top 10 Defense?

[Al Foil]

I think we finish 11th.

 

[deleted5896]

Best front 7 in the nation

Stretching it some here. LBer's are very good, but still young, might be best unit in ACC by the end of the year. Front 4 is definitely above average, but will be 3rd in ACC. Clemson will be 1up front, followed by FSU (was hoping Nnadi was leaving early but came back) and then us.

I say we are a top 20 defense as long as secondary plays decent. Which is very good. no complaints from me here.

Accidental down vote.

 

[brock]

Best front 7 in the nation

Stretching it some here. LBer's are very good, but still young, might be best unit in ACC by the end of the year. Front 4 is definitely above average, but will be 3rd in ACC. Clemson will be 1up front, followed by FSU (was hoping Nnadi was leaving early but came back) and then us.

I say we are a top 20 defense as long as secondary plays decent. Which is very good. no complaints from me here.

Uh no, fsu defense had more sacks than Miami but they are losing Demarcus walker who was their second best player on the team and had like 16 sacks 18 tfl or something like that they do add kaindoh. Meanwhile Miami adds dj Johnson, Jon Garvin and Jon ford to a front 7 that was top 5 in tfl(more than fsu) and top 20 in sacks. Overall with the linebacker play and talent on the dline it's definitely not out of the question to say Miami has the best front 7 in the acc

Don't agree at all the to looking through Rose colored glasses. Clemson, FSU then us for front 7 effectiveness.

Front 4 1) Clemson Wilkins, Lawrence, Farrel and Bryant just a few of the studs they have coming back probably best front 4 in college, either them or Bama 2) FSU, somewhere in the 3-7 range in all of college. top 5-10 front 4 in country lose Walker, but have Burns, Sweat, Nnadi, Christmas, Aime, Jones and 5 star Kaindoh joining them, hope they don't get Marvin Wilson to go with that. 3: Us, Norton and and Jackson are studs. Thomas looked a little better, need big effort from him next year. Top 10-15 unit in country

LBers 1) Miami by wide margin, absolute studs. best LBer class i have seen. Expect McCloud to be best of bunch. 2) Clemson lost Boulware, but have young talent to make up for that. 3) FSU Thomas who played much better in the last half of the season, Pugh and Jackson who saw alot of playing time last year in 2nd half of season as freshmen. Also signed a JC who was a big time Bama recruit out of HS.

Secondary 1) FSU by a long shot, which allows the front 7 to play better due to more time to get to QB. Once they got their line up down in 2nd half of season, they played very well, Also have James coming back who is probably best safety in college and Samuels will give them even a bigger advantage than they already had. .2) Clemson lost Tankersly and Johnson, but again have young talent who saw alot of PT last year.
3) us, with unproven talent, will make front 7 not as effective as last year. Not expecting much with what we have back their. Hope I am pleasantly surprised.

Clemson only had 10 more sacks and 20 more tfl than Miami but they played 2 more games... Miami still had the 5th most tfl and were top 20 in sacks. Miami had at least 4 dlineman have 9.5 or more tfl... do you even know how good that is? **** quarterman had 10 tfls. Those are elite stats. Gerald Willis would have had over 10 too but he finished with 5 because of injuries and wasn't really healthy the second part of the season

Joe Jackson
Chad thomas
Dj johnson
Jon garvin
Kenderick norton
Rj McIntosh
Gerald Willis
Anthony moten
Courtel Jenkins
Jonathan ford
Pat bethel

Is a great and talented defensive line

 

[da truth]

Yes or no?

I say yes.

Our front seven will be top 3 best front seven in college football.

Whether or not we are top ten depends on who we get for transfers at the db position, dean coming and if any true frosh can step up right away.

 

[DTP]

I'm not as concerned with the defensive backs as some because I saw what Diaz and Rumph were able to do with a bunch of question marks last season. Last year the returners were Corn Elder who had been solid if unspectacular as a nickel DB and a bunch of guys who had proven absolutely nothing. Despite having to use a limited Jamal Carter at safety, having to use Jaquan Johnson at CB and having to rely heavily on Malek Young, Sheldrick Redwine and Adrian Colbert, the DBs more than held their own. I expect similar results across the board in 2017.

 

[The U Code]

Yes or no?

I say yes.

Yes....In particular it should be one of the best run defenses in the country.

 

[Novacane32000]

Honestly.. Depending on our secondary.. we could be a top 5 defense. UNC, VT, Pitt, GT, and ND are losing their starting QB.. UNC loses 2 of their top 3 receivers, their QB, and their starting running back. VT loses all 4 of their best players on offense in Evans, Hodges, Rodgers, and Ford.. AND their run game at RB wasn't productive at all..(Evans lead VT in rushing) Pitt loses their top passer and rusher.. AND most people forget they lost their OC that took their offense from 73th in 2015 to 10th in 2016 to LSU. GT loses their best QB since '09 when Nesbitt was there. ND they loses their QB as well but they usually field really good offensive line so that could help them. Not to mention, FSU loses Dalvin Cook who was a guarantee 200+ all purpose yards for FSU against us.. I know they have a 5 star but i could care less.. He ain't cook.. Cook's vision, speed, and ability to break tackles was unfair at times. Cook singlehandly kept this win streak going for FSU idc what anyone says.

there are multiple boards right now saying that because we lose kaaya AND Njoky, we will struggle. and I'm afraid that some of that will be true.

you can NOT tell me that whoever replaces Kaaya will be better than him NEXT season.

His replacement will be hard pressed to limit turnovers like Kaaya did. Very few interceptions on his part which helped our D enormously. Few fumbles by the team overall also helped the D a lot.

With that said Kaaya's lack of mobility will not be missed and the O will look different. Maybe not better at first but definitely different.

 

[TheSwagger1]

Going to have to stay healthy in the secondary. I doubt there are 3 front sevens that I would trade our's for next year.

 

[rok]

It would be one thing if we were re-loading in the secondary but there's no established players back there except for Jaquan, Redwine, Young.

To expect guys like Dean, Bandy, Carter, Finley to step in and not make any mistakes is asking a bit much.

 

[drewm3i]

We were a top ten 10 D this year. Only difference between us and most teams ahead of us was competition.

 

[DTP]

This is a good question. Unfortunately, the NCAA uses statistics like total defense and scoring defense to determine their rankings. That would be fine if everyone played the same teams. Miami has to play in the ACC, home to some of the nation's top offenses. Meanwhile teams in the SEC or Big 10 don't see the number of high powered offenses on a week in week out basis. I think the true measure of a defense should be the amount of yards/points you hold an opponent to under it's average. If you hold a team that's averaging 35 ppg to 20, it's more impressive than holding a team that averages 17 ppg to 10. At least that's the way that makes the most sense to me. If you consider that Miami held high scoring offenses FSU, UNC, Pitt and WVU far under their averages, you could make a point that Miami had a top ten defense in 2016.

Just for $hits and grins, I ran through a few sets of stats and the numbers are favorable to Miami's defense.

The per game scoring average by Miami's 12 FBS opponents (I excluded FAMU) was 30.17
Against Miami the average was only 19.83. That's holding opponents to over ten points below their average.

Only one team scored more against Miami than their season scoring average and that was Virginia Tech who averaged 35 ppg but dropped 37 on an injury depleted Hurricanes defense.

Notable performances: FSU (avg 35.1 held to 20) UNC (avg 32.3 held to 20) Pitt (avg 40.9 held to 28) NCSU (avg 27.0 held to 13) WVU (avg 31.2 held to 14)

Edit: I'll throw in App State (avg 29.2 held to 10)

 

[cane since birth]

Best front 7 in the nation

Eh idk about that we should probably pump the brakes lol. You seen Bamas front 7 in recent years? You confident in saying Mcintosh and Norton are 1st rounders cuz im not. the fornt 7 is damng good but best in nation is a strecth

Scouts are already calling norton a first rounder

 

[Moro]

Since we have so many statisticians among us can you pull the data of all the top 10 defenses that did not have a good secondary? If you can find a few then tell us what years? If there is standard to measure top 10 defenses you don't change the standard to fit the team. **** everybody would be top 10 if we had a system to measure only the areas that we are good in.

 

[daddacane]

I mean I feel like we were this year, I honestly can't name 10 defenses that impressed me more than ours.

Alabama's defense scored at a pace I've never seen...

 

[daddacane]

Honestly.. Depending on our secondary.. we could be a top 5 defense. UNC, VT, Pitt, GT, and ND are losing their starting QB.. UNC loses 2 of their top 3 receivers, their QB, and their starting running back. VT loses all 4 of their best players on offense in Evans, Hodges, Rodgers, and Ford.. AND their run game at RB wasn't productive at all..(Evans lead VT in rushing) Pitt loses their top passer and rusher.. AND most people forget they lost their OC that took their offense from 73th in 2015 to 10th in 2016 to LSU. GT loses their best QB since '09 when Nesbitt was there. ND they loses their QB as well but they usually field really good offensive line so that could help them. Not to mention, FSU loses Dalvin Cook who was a guarantee 200+ all purpose yards for FSU against us.. I know they have a 5 star but i could care less.. He ain't cook.. Cook's vision, speed, and ability to break tackles was unfair at times. Cook singlehandly kept this win streak going for FSU idc what anyone says.

there are multiple boards right now saying that because we lose kaaya AND Njoky, we will struggle. and I'm afraid that some of that will be true.

you can NOT tell me that whoever replaces Kaaya will be better than him NEXT season.

His replacement will be hard pressed to limit turnovers like Kaaya did. Very few interceptions on his part which helped our D enormously. Few fumbles by the team overall also helped the D a lot.

With that said Kaaya's lack of mobility will not be missed and the O will look different. Maybe not better at first but definitely different.

Still can't believe Kaaya missed that extra point try against FSU, after putting us in position to take Nole's in overtime..

 

[tpres]

Best front 7 in the nation

Stretching it some here. LBer's are very good, but still young, might be best unit in ACC by the end of the year. Front 4 is definitely above average, but will be 3rd in ACC. Clemson will be 1up front, followed by FSU (was hoping Nnadi was leaving early but came back) and then us.

I say we are a top 20 defense as long as secondary plays decent. Which is very good. no complaints from me here.

Uh no, fsu defense had more sacks than Miami but they are losing Demarcus walker who was their second best player on the team and had like 16 sacks 18 tfl or something like that they do add kaindoh. Meanwhile Miami adds dj Johnson, Jon Garvin and Jon ford to a front 7 that was top 5 in tfl(more than fsu) and top 20 in sacks. Overall with the linebacker play and talent on the dline it's definitely not out of the question to say Miami has the best front 7 in the acc

Don't agree at all the to looking through Rose colored glasses. Clemson, FSU then us for front 7 effectiveness.

Front 4 1) Clemson Wilkins, Lawrence, Farrel and Bryant just a few of the studs they have coming back probably best front 4 in college, either them or Bama 2) FSU, somewhere in the 3-7 range in all of college. top 5-10 front 4 in country lose Walker, but have Burns, Sweat, Nnadi, Christmas, Aime, Jones and 5 star Kaindoh joining them, hope they don't get Marvin Wilson to go with that. 3: Us, Norton and and Jackson are studs. Thomas looked a little better, need big effort from him next year. Top 10-15 unit in country

LBers 1) Miami by wide margin, absolute studs. best LBer class i have seen. Expect McCloud to be best of bunch. 2) Clemson lost Boulware, but have young talent to make up for that. 3) FSU Thomas who played much better in the last half of the season, Pugh and Jackson who saw alot of playing time last year in 2nd half of season as freshmen. Also signed a JC who was a big time Bama recruit out of HS.

Secondary 1) FSU by a long shot, which allows the front 7 to play better due to more time to get to QB. Once they got their line up down in 2nd half of season, they played very well, Also have James coming back who is probably best safety in college and Samuels will give them even a bigger advantage than they already had. .2) Clemson lost Tankersly and Johnson, but again have young talent who saw alot of PT last year.
3) us, with unproven talent, will make front 7 not as effective as last year. Not expecting much with what we have back their. Hope I am pleasantly surprised.

Clemson only had 10 more sacks and 20 more tfl than Miami but they played 2 more games... Miami still had the 5th most tfl and were top 20 in sacks. Miami had at least 4 dlineman have 9.5 or more tfl... do you even know how good that is? **** quarterman had 10 tfls. Those are elite stats. Gerald Willis would have had over 10 too but he finished with 5 because of injuries and wasn't really healthy the second part of the season

Joe Jackson
Chad thomas
Dj johnson
Jon garvin
Kenderick norton
Rj McIntosh
Gerald Willis
Anthony moten
Courtel Jenkins
Jonathan ford
Pat bethel

Is a great and talented defensive line

It is a real good D-Line, not bashing ours at all, jut saying not as good as Clemson and FSU's.

Just as our LBer's are better than both of theirs. And our's are young kids.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

Scouts are already calling norton a first rounder

I haven't seen that. It's a deep defensive tackle crop next season, far superior to this year which is stacked at edge rusher and defensive backs. Next season there are 4 guys projected in the first round in most early mocks. I haven't seen Norton named, in the first or second round. He doesn't look like a first round talent to me, although no question he improved this season.

Anyway, we need to get the defensive YPA to 6.0 or below if we want to threaten a legitimate Top 10 defense. It was 6.3 this year.

The adjustments are meaningless...assertions that we played tougher offenses than other conferences and therefore we're better than it appeared.

That is flimsy rationalization. Offseason fluff. You are what you are.

 

[Hurracanes]

This is a good question. Unfortunately, the NCAA uses statistics like total defense and scoring defense to determine their rankings. That would be fine if everyone played the same teams. Miami has to play in the ACC, home to some of the nation's top offenses. Meanwhile teams in the SEC or Big 10 don't see the number of high powered offenses on a week in week out basis. I think the true measure of a defense should be the amount of yards/points you hold an opponent to under it's average. If you hold a team that's averaging 35 ppg to 20, it's more impressive than holding a team that averages 17 ppg to 10. At least that's the way that makes the most sense to me. If you consider that Miami held high scoring offenses FSU, UNC, Pitt and WVU far under their averages, you could make a point that Miami had a top ten defense in 2016.

Just for $hits and grins, I ran through a few sets of stats and the numbers are favorable to Miami's defense.

The per game scoring average by Miami's 12 FBS opponents (I excluded FAMU) was 30.17
Against Miami the average was only 19.83. That's holding opponents to over ten points below their average.

Only one team scored more against Miami than their season scoring average and that was Virginia Tech who averaged 35 ppg but dropped 37 on an injury depleted Hurricanes defense.

Notable performances: FSU (avg 35.1 held to 20) UNC (avg 32.3 held to 20) Pitt (avg 40.9 held to 28) NCSU (avg 27.0 held to 13) WVU (avg 31.2 held to 14)

Edit: I'll throw in App State (avg 29.2 held to 10)

Did you just one up yourself?!?

 

[Just-W2]

Yes, if we can get to the QB or stop the RB in the back field with our front 4 without blitzing like Bama. I think we have the depth on the D-line. A solid front 4 will help with youth in the secondary early in the season.

 

[arinand1]

Honestly.. Depending on our secondary.. we could be a top 5 defense. UNC, VT, Pitt, GT, and ND are losing their starting QB.. UNC loses 2 of their top 3 receivers, their QB, and their starting running back. VT loses all 4 of their best players on offense in Evans, Hodges, Rodgers, and Ford.. AND their run game at RB wasn't productive at all..(Evans lead VT in rushing) Pitt loses their top passer and rusher.. AND most people forget they lost their OC that took their offense from 73th in 2015 to 10th in 2016 to LSU. GT loses their best QB since '09 when Nesbitt was there. ND they loses their QB as well but they usually field really good offensive line so that could help them. Not to mention, FSU loses Dalvin Cook who was a guarantee 200+ all purpose yards for FSU against us.. I know they have a 5 star but i could care less.. He ain't cook.. Cook's vision, speed, and ability to break tackles was unfair at times. Cook singlehandly kept this win streak going for FSU idc what anyone says.

there are multiple boards right now saying that because we lose kaaya AND Njoky, we will struggle. and I'm afraid that some of that will be true.

you can NOT tell me that whoever replaces Kaaya will be better than him NEXT season.

I don't know, man. Truly, I have always liked Kaaya, so I'm no hater. With that being said, he was pretty disappointing this season. At his best, sure, I wouldn't dare bet that whoever starts will be better than Kaaya's best. However, Brad was pretty **** inconsistent this year, and when he was off.. He had some very ugly moments. People want to put all the blame on playcalling and the o-line for the four-game losing streak, but around that time he was missing a LOT of throws. I don't know the exact stats, but a large chunk of his completions were screens or short dumps because he was just way off-target a lot of times.

He was the same way for the first quarter and a half against WVU, missing several throws that are routine for him when he's on. Thankfully, Richards' TD snapped him (and everyone else on offense apparently) out of it and he got into a rhythm. If I'm being honest, if the new starter can just be more consistent than Kaaya was at a lot of times this season, I will be happy. Maybe you won't be able to say he's "better" necessarily, but Brad was just way too hot and cold throughout the year for my liking. Just get the ball to your playmakers (would make things easier if we land Thomas and/or Smith) and let things happen. Obviously a mobile QB would add another dynamic, but with the competition being so wide open I'll decline to speculate on that.

Sorry for getting a bit off-topic. Like others have said, I think it could definitely vary on what stats you use to determine top defense. Secondary will be very young for the most part, but an elite front 7 will surely help to mask that. I say top 10 regardless of which stat you're looking at, but we'll see.