So many of our players needing to put on so much weight to play is a problem. They are putting on 50 lbs in two season. There is no way they wont lose your quickness.
I think this was more a product of AG and MD trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and something that made things much worse. They wanted to move to this new scheme, and didnt have the personnel, so they forced the issue, having guys that werent really suited to put on so much weight have to do so in order to play positions they were not great at. Cornelius was an example of a guy who probably should have remained a safety. He got much bigger and ended up much slower. Chick is another one. Gaines was what he was, but honestly, if we dont lose EJ, Paul and Terry, Gaines would have been 2nd string TOPS. Porter was also always a huge guy, but I think they got him even bigger than he should have been in order to make him be our #1 NT, which he wasnt suited for either.
This is where I think the harsh criticism of AG and MD is very warranted and valid. They made a big blunder rushing to this new scheme. When they used primarily our old 4-3 in 2011, the defense wasnt that bad. They kept it simple and ran what our guys knew and were suited for. But since, they have been moving more and more to this new scheme, and its clear we dont have the personnel for it, and our guys are not picking it up. This was further exacerbated the last few years by losing guys who would have been starters or major contributors like Finnie, Paul, EJ, and Terry. For all the talk about the DL, IMO our biggest weakness was our LB corps this year. It was simply terrible. The DL was sub par, but the LB play was horrendous. DP is the only serviceable LB we have, and he's not suited for this defense either. He's much better going down hill and agains the run. He's not great in coverage. Cornelius, Armbrister and Gaines, though occasionally capable of making ONE play here or there, were on average simply bad. They cant shed blocks, blow assigments, take bad angles, hit the wrong gaps, it was a real sh*t show. And here again, its what you would expect from having to play your 3rd string LB corps.
Im hoping AG realizes that this isnt working. As many have said, this is a defense that is too complex at this level. This isnt the NFL where you can go out in FA and pick up the bodies you need for your scheme. Here you have to recruit, teach, and develop, and that takes time, and you only have these guys for a short period of time. If ANYTHING should be a huge warning flag for AG and MD, besides the OBVIOUS, it should be what happened to Al Groh at GT. Guy has always been considered a great defensive mind, and yet without the right players, the system was a disaster at GT and got him fired. I dont know what he's going to do, but I hope AG simplifies things and gets back to a scheme that utilizes the guys we have instead of the guys he WISHES we had. Either way, I think better talent is going to improve the product, but time is not on his side. He doesnt have another 3 years of struggles on D to "get it just right", if this D is a trainwreck again next year, the heat is going to become intense on him, and his career will be heading down the tubes.
