Position battle - LB

[Dwinstitles]

From Mario's presser sounds like the LB room is getting their *** kicked in practice

Needed that spring portal cause of it, was always good to have that portal to see what you need when you actually saw it in practice

 

[CaneThang2020]

Snitty will win the job and don’t be surprised if he’s the best backer we’ve had since Shaq. Resilience is a powerful tool for those trained by it

 

[Sabetta]

Yall are ******* trippin if you think Toure and Smth aren’t going to get torched in coverage. Sure they have straight line speed. But imo they’re not very good rushing the passer either. Pure downhill Run D players.

We need the young guys to play and develop. Period.

Can you point to a single time in the playoffs where those two got "torched" in the passing game?
What are you even talking about?
And Toure is a very good blitzer, especially in the A gap.
Our defense was great last year so I must've missed all this torching that Mo and Smith were on the field for. Was Wes Fred Warner or did I miss something.
I'm not saying Mo and Smith are great in the passing game but the overwhelming majority of college LBs aren't.
CJ Allen, Hill, Trotter are consensus top 5 MLB in the draft and that's the first thing you'll hear about them. They're not good in the passing game.
Tell me where and when they got torched?

 

[skeeter]

Can you point to a single time in the playoffs where those two got "torched" in the passing game?
What are you even talking about?
And Toure is a very good blitzer, especially in the A gap.
Our defense was great last year so I must've missed all this torching that Mo and Smith were on the field for. Was Wes Fred Warner or did I miss something.
I'm not saying Mo and Smith are great in the passing game but the overwhelming majority of college LBs aren't.
CJ Allen, Hill, Trotter are consensus top 5 MLB in the draft and that's the first thing you'll hear about them. They're not good in the passing game.
Tell me where and when they got torched?

Agree…I don't think we are in an ideal spot at LB, and again I think it's just a low ceiling with Smith, I may be wrong. Yes coverage thing was an issue during the regular season but it really got better as the year went on. In November and the entire playoffs the LBs really held up in coverage against some good offense.

 

[Sabetta]

Agree…I don't think we are in an ideal spot at LB, and again I think it's just a low ceiling with Smith, I may be wrong. Yes coverage thing was an issue during the regular season but it really got better as the year went on. In November and the entire playoffs the LBs really held up in coverage against some good offense.

It also was a new defense. Thomas struggled a ton, especially tackling in space. He blew 2 huge plays in the ND game. Lucas, Poyser and Thomas blew coverage a couple times in the playoffs too. It happens. My reaction is to getting "torched".
On top of learning a new D both were coming off injury.

 

[skyman]

Needed that spring portal cause of it, was always good to have that portal to see what you need when you actually saw it in practice

Mario even said today he was fan of spring portal lol.. We used to kill it in spring portal, I remember after last spring we said nah this defense aint it and basically went and got some heavy pieces.. Scott, Thomas, Mo, gave us a hard hitting identity the team lacked.. Keelan Marion, Martinez the year before.. sheesh..

We completely whiffed on TE and everyone is starting to see it now.. and LB could have used Ulave or Biles for sure..

 

[Dwinstitles]

Mario even said today he was fan of spring portal lol.. We used to kill it in spring portal, I remember after last spring we said nah this defense aint it and basically went and got some heavy pieces.. Scott, Thomas, Mo, gave us a hard hitting identity the team lacked.. Keelan Marion, Martinez the year before.. sheesh..

We completely whiffed on TE and everyone is starting to see it now.. and LB could have used Ulave or Biles for sure..

Yea he said it was cause of injury but its because of evals, if they miss they can fill the misses.

 

[Caneau]

Haven't recruited a LB out of highschool who can start since 2022 (Bissainthe). And this year's starting highschool recruit is from 2021 (Smith).

We did - we just didn’t get him and apparently he has done very well at Auburn. Elijah Melendez

 

[Calinative]

Can you point to a single time in the playoffs where those two got "torched" in the passing game?
What are you even talking about?
And Toure is a very good blitzer, especially in the A gap.
Our defense was great last year so I must've missed all this torching that Mo and Smith were on the field for. Was Wes Fred Warner or did I miss something.
I'm not saying Mo and Smith are great in the passing game but the overwhelming majority of college LBs aren't.
CJ Allen, Hill, Trotter are consensus top 5 MLB in the draft and that's the first thing you'll hear about them. They're not good in the passing game.
Tell me where and when they got torched?

Do you accept stats?
Toure had the most yards allowed on the defense in the playoffs. 9 receptions allowed on 11 targets (82%rec%) for 124 yards. Had 2 Forced Incompletions (1 being hte A&M big one at the end)

Our 4 LBs in the playoffs - Wes, Toure, Smith, then Popo allowed 4 of the 5 highest passer ratings against in the playoff run. 113-118 for each.

The lowest Coverage Grade during the playoffs of ANYONE on the defense by pff was Chase Smith with a 28.2 coverage grade.

And on the ENTIRE SEASON the two lowest graded coverage grades on the team (>10 cov snaps) were Toure and Smith...

 

[Sabetta]

Do you accept stats?
Toure had the most yards allowed on the defense in the playoffs. 9 receptions allowed on 11 targets (82%rec%) for 124 yards. Had 2 Forced Incompletions (1 being hte A&M big one at the end)

Our 4 LBs in the playoffs - Wes, Toure, Smith, then Popo allowed 4 of the 5 highest passer ratings against in the playoff run. 113-118 for each.

The lowest Coverage Grade during the playoffs of ANYONE on the defense by pff was Chase Smith with a 28.2 coverage grade.

And on the ENTIRE SEASON the two lowest graded coverage grades on the team (>10 cov snaps) were Toure and Smith...

I gladly accept stats. Those metrics don't account for how aggressive we are with nickel and safety pressure which puts far more strain on LBs in coverage and space. We basically played 5 man fronts. 50% of the time we were in under fronts with Scott walking up to join Bain. Who's left to cover underneath and TEs? So obviously our DC knows this but because Scott's play making ability off the edge was prioritized, Heatherman felt comfortable enough giving up some yards underneath.

Also, I gotta see it with my eyes. If im an opposing OC and I know they're that bad I am targeting them all day long right?
Didn't happen. Mo played the most snaps of any LB or at least as many snaps. 4 games against top 10 opponents who totaled 4 combined losses. You think giving up 9 total completions in 4 games is bad?

Our pass rush didn't give QBs much time in the pocket and our corners were really good in the playoffs so of course there's gonna be more underneath stuff. Then there's the aTm game were the wind was ridiculous and made anything downfield a crapshoot.
Then consider in all 4 playing games the opponent had 2 minute drills in the 2nd qtr.

2 of the 4 QBs we played in the playoffs have elite mobility which is going to put our LBs in confict every single play.

I could go on and on but metrics only tell once side of the story.
I don't think Mo and Smith are great coverage LBs are, but who is? This defense brought a ton of 5 man pressures which is going to puts ton of pressure in our LBs. I can't think of a single bust.
In fact two plays stick out to me in the aTm game. Mo selling out to break up that pass on the goal one and Chase being perfectly fit in the passing lane on the final play that ended up as an INT.