question for the "scheme is the problem" camp..

[mydas77]

I hate these type of questions. OF COURSE I WANT RAY LEWIS, ED REED, WARREN SAPP AND SEAN TAYLOR OVER OUR GUYS. That's not the point. Should our defensive scheme be able to cover any of our deficiencies is the question I have. Does miami have the 114th best talent in football? Is our scheme helping our defense? If not, what the fvck is the purpose of the d coordinator? We can't cover. We can't rush the passer. We can't stop the run. We are completely incompetent on defense and have been so for 14 games regardless of the talent on the field (see OV, Fortson, Ojomo, Spence all on NFL rosters)

Accept that to this point he has been bad. I'm willing to give him time to get his players, but the job of the coordinator is to cover up and scheme to benefit of the players and talent he has.

i'm not saying he's been good, and the only reason for this question is for the "scheme" crowd to get a clue.. i don't care what scheme you run, if you don't have the horses you won't have success.. I did not give randy that same leeway because he had been here recruiting the D before he was head coach..

Having "the horses" can make any scheme look good. That does not make u a good coach. Larry coker anyone?

 

[CaneAlmighty]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

I get what you're trying to say but there is no way anyone can convince me we don't have the right mix of talent, depth, experience to be worse than a top 60 defense.
Hopefully the last two games were just a case of D'onofrio out thinking himself and being stubborn than him just being flat out inept. Which I don't think is the case.
He, and Golden for that matter, will quickly understand this is not a Temple turnaround type of job. The "U" brand is being made a mockery right now at the expense of what seems to be a non-chalant rebuilding mentality like they had at Temple. THIS IS NOT TEMPLE.
Game plan and Scheme not to get 53 get hung on you or beat it.

 

[DaU83]

I hate these type of questions. OF COURSE I WANT RAY LEWIS, ED REED, WARREN SAPP AND SEAN TAYLOR OVER OUR GUYS. That's not the point. Should our defensive scheme be able to cover any of our deficiencies is the question I have. Does miami have the 114th best talent in football? Is our scheme helping our defense? If not, what the fvck is the purpose of the d coordinator? We can't cover. We can't rush the passer. We can't stop the run. We are completely incompetent on defense and have been so for 14 games regardless of the talent on the field (see OV, Fortson, Ojomo, Spence all on NFL rosters)

Accept that to this point he has been bad. I'm willing to give him time to get his players, but the job of the coordinator is to cover up and scheme to benefit of the players and talent he has.

i'm not saying he's been good, and the only reason for this question is for the "scheme" crowd to get a clue.. i don't care what scheme you run, if you don't have the horses you won't have success.. I did not give randy that same leeway because he had been here recruiting the D before he was head coach..

Having "the horses" can make any scheme look good. That does not make u a good coach. Larry coker anyone?

Right.. so why not give the guy time to get his horses and see what we can do. History points to them being able to put together a solid D with temple talent. And yes, i do understand that it took them a few years.

 

[cane305]

would you rather have *** with Scarlett johansson or kate upton?

guess what, you ain't getting neither.

 

[FlipT]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Good point, but Saban also changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4 defense.He went from 22 ppg to 14ppg, which is a lot. Saban took over Dolphins and changed them to a 3-4 and that year they tied for league lead in sacks and Jason Taylor was DPOY.He coaches up his own cbs and is just the best.He went from rank 27th, 7th, to #2 in 3 years.

 

[DaU83]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

I get what you're trying to say but there is no way anyone can convince me we don't have the right mix of talent, depth, experience to be worse than a top 60 defense.
Hopefully the last two games were just a case of D'onofrio out thinking himself and being stubborn than him just being flat out inept. Which I don't think is the case.
He, and Golden for that matter, will quickly understand this is not a Temple turnaround type of job. The "U" brand is being made a mockery right now at the expense of what seems to be a non-chalant rebuilding mentality like they had at Temple. THIS IS NOT TEMPLE.
Game plan and Scheme not to get 53 get hung on you or beat it.

Our talent, depth and experience has been talked about ad nauseum. If you've read any of those threads you'd see that we don't have the right mix of talent depth and experience. We may have talent without experience, depth without talent.. and experience without talent, but what good is that?

That being said, I do agree that we should and could be better than our current ranking... but i don't think this staff is going to sacrifice the process and long term success defensively to end up with mediocre results in year 2.

 

[Canes_]

I hate these type of questions. OF COURSE I WANT RAY LEWIS, ED REED, WARREN SAPP AND SEAN TAYLOR OVER OUR GUYS. That's not the point. Should our defensive scheme be able to cover any of our deficiencies is the question I have. Does miami have the 114th best talent in football? Is our scheme helping our defense? If not, what the fvck is the purpose of the d coordinator? We can't cover. We can't rush the passer. We can't stop the run. We are completely incompetent on defense and have been so for 14 games regardless of the talent on the field (see OV, Fortson, Ojomo, Spence all on NFL rosters)

Accept that to this point he has been bad. I'm willing to give him time to get his players, but the job of the coordinator is to cover up and scheme to benefit of the players and talent he has.

I would argue that we have one of, if not the worse DL in any BCS conference. Probably worse then a lot of mid-majors as well. That is where it all starts. The rest is just youth that looks a lot worse with the pathetic DL we are putting on the field this year.

I know our recruiting has fallen off and we dont have the talent we used to have but we might have the worst defense (amongst BCS teams) and I dont think our talent is that bad.

Last year we had a veteran defense with a few NFL guys and we had trouble stopping Maryland (QB went on to get benched). Bethune Cookman almost put up 500 yards. Jo Jo Nicolas was the only veteran guy that didn't look worse, etc.

While the talent is down (and young), I think coaching is the biggest issue

 

[mydas77]

Look man....his defense is ranked 114. That is horrifying. Its not justifiable. It just isn't. Tell urself whatever u need to to sleep at night. I know enough to know that he is doing a bad job. At his current run rate he needs 1st rounders at virtually every position to field a strong defense. Guess what???? That ain't happening any time soon. He won't be around for that day at this rate. Don't kid urself.

He better get his head out of the sand and find a way to field a competent defense before we start playing the big boys.

 

[DaU83]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Good point, but Saban also changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4 defense.He went from 22 ppg to 14ppg, which is a lot. Saban took over Dolphins and changed them to a 3-4 and that year they tied for league lead in sacks and Jason Taylor was DPOY.He coaches up his own cbs and is just the best.He went from rank 27th, 7th, to #2 in 3 years.

he started with a decent product.. and he is probably the best defensive coach in the game and it took him time.. so It's probably safe to assume it will take D'Onof time.

 

[weownfsu]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Probably not. It's a lot easier to take a terrible defense that is ranked near the bottom of the FBS and make them better than it is to take a good defense and make them even better.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that, lrg.

while that may be true.. an "upgrade" in scheme made a decent D just a bit worse... but Saban did his thing and now his D runs ****e...

Yawn. They transitioned to a COMPLETELY different defensive scheme, and were dominant in year 2. Clearly not the same circumstances, but there's no reason for our defense to be this bad. There's a reason why Golden said the scheme would be re-evaluated. You're doing nothing but creating false dichotomies, ****, a large portion of this board is -- it doesn't have to be that our defense should be great, or that the scheme sucks, or that the players suck. What it seems to me is that while our players aren't very good, they aren't so bad that they should be giving up 500 yards to Boston College and Kansas State. They're basically sitting their getting their heads torn off and not doing anything to make it any better. Guys are WIDE OPEN. The DL is useless. So yes, these guys aren't good. But they also aren't some of the worst players in the FBS, which is how they are playing against teams that don't have good offenses.


Watching our DL is exactly like watching the 2006 DL before Palermo said he was taking over the DL, and then they were dominant the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the talent is not even close, but they do the same **** where they basically play pattycake with the DL. Our defense does NOTHING to try to put the offense in a bad position. Part of that is the players, but it's very concerning that that idea seems to be a defensive principle.

 

[DaU83]

Look man....his defense is ranked 114. That is horrifying. Its not justifiable. It just isn't. Tell urself whatever u need to to sleep at night. I know enough to know that he is doing a bad job. At his current run rate he needs 1st rounders at virtually every position to field a strong defense. Guess what???? That ain't happening any time soon. He won't be around for that day at this rate. Don't kid urself.

He better get his head out of the sand and find a way to field a competent defense before we start playing the big boys.

It all start up front.. if we can't get pressure our defense is going to continue to look terrible. Now one thing that he could and should change right now is the aggressiveness of the scheme. We can't continue to be ok with not getting pressure on the QB.

 

[DaU83]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Probably not. It's a lot easier to take a terrible defense that is ranked near the bottom of the FBS and make them better than it is to take a good defense and make them even better.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that, lrg.

while that may be true.. an "upgrade" in scheme made a decent D just a bit worse... but Saban did his thing and now his D runs ****e...

Yawn. They transitioned to a COMPLETELY different defensive scheme, and were dominant in year 2. Clearly not the same circumstances, but there's no reason for our defense to be this bad. There's a reason why Golden said the scheme would be re-evaluated. You're doing nothing but creating false dichotomies, ****, a large portion of this board is -- it doesn't have to be that our defense should be great, or that the scheme sucks, or that the players suck. What it seems to me is that while our players aren't very good, they aren't so bad that they should be giving up 500 yards to Boston College and Kansas State. They're basically sitting their getting their heads torn off and not doing anything to make it any better. Guys are WIDE OPEN. The DL is useless. So yes, these guys aren't good. But they also aren't some of the worst players in the FBS, which is how they are playing against teams that don't have good offenses.


Watching our DL is exactly like watching the 2006 DL before Palermo said he was taking over the DL, and then they were dominant the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the talent is not even close, but they do the same **** where they basically play pattycake with the DL. Our defense does NOTHING to try to put the offense in a bad position. Part of that is the players, but it's very concerning that that idea seems to be a defensive principle.

transitioned to a completely different scheme.. with reasonably talented guys..


And i'm in 100% agreement, our scheme's softness is a HUGE problem.. I understand their fear of giving up huge plays.. but that can't be any worse than giving up a ton of "big" plays that end up in the endzone either way.

 

[Cityboy4life82]

Which option would you take if it were possible to "trade" players or scheme...


Bama or LSU's players with D'Onof's scheme? Or Bama's or LSU's scheme with our players?

I trade scheme all day.

 

[mydas77]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Probably not. It's a lot easier to take a terrible defense that is ranked near the bottom of the FBS and make them better than it is to take a good defense and make them even better.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that, lrg.

while that may be true.. an "upgrade" in scheme made a decent D just a bit worse... but Saban did his thing and now his D runs ****e...

Yawn. They transitioned to a COMPLETELY different defensive scheme, and were dominant in year 2. Clearly not the same circumstances, but there's no reason for our defense to be this bad. There's a reason why Golden said the scheme would be re-evaluated. You're doing nothing but creating false dichotomies, ****, a large portion of this board is -- it doesn't have to be that our defense should be great, or that the scheme sucks, or that the players suck. What it seems to me is that while our players aren't very good, they aren't so bad that they should be giving up 500 yards to Boston College and Kansas State. They're basically sitting their getting their heads torn off and not doing anything to make it any better. Guys are WIDE OPEN. The DL is useless. So yes, these guys aren't good. But they also aren't some of the worst players in the FBS, which is how they are playing against teams that don't have good offenses.


Watching our DL is exactly like watching the 2006 DL before Palermo said he was taking over the DL, and then they were dominant the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the talent is not even close, but they do the same **** where they basically play pattycake with the DL. Our defense does NOTHING to try to put the offense in a bad position. Part of that is the players, but it's very concerning that that idea seems to be a defensive principle.

Look man....his defense is ranked 114. That is horrifying. Its not justifiable. It just isn't. Tell urself whatever u need to to sleep at night. I know enough to know that he is doing a bad job. At his current run rate he needs 1st rounders at virtually every position to field a strong defense. Guess what???? That ain't happening any time soon. He won't be around for that day at this rate. Don't kid urself.

He better get his head out of the sand and find a way to field a competent defense before we start playing the big boys.

It all start up front.. if we can't get pressure our defense is going to continue to look terrible. Now one thing that he could and should change right now is the aggressiveness of the scheme. We can't continue to be ok with not getting pressure on the QB.

Agreed at some level, but we don't do anything in the secondary either. No pressure on the qb and free releases for the te and wrs? Really?

 

[weownfsu]

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

Probably not. It's a lot easier to take a terrible defense that is ranked near the bottom of the FBS and make them better than it is to take a good defense and make them even better.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that, lrg.

while that may be true.. an "upgrade" in scheme made a decent D just a bit worse... but Saban did his thing and now his D runs ****e...

Yawn. They transitioned to a COMPLETELY different defensive scheme, and were dominant in year 2. Clearly not the same circumstances, but there's no reason for our defense to be this bad. There's a reason why Golden said the scheme would be re-evaluated. You're doing nothing but creating false dichotomies, ****, a large portion of this board is -- it doesn't have to be that our defense should be great, or that the scheme sucks, or that the players suck. What it seems to me is that while our players aren't very good, they aren't so bad that they should be giving up 500 yards to Boston College and Kansas State. They're basically sitting their getting their heads torn off and not doing anything to make it any better. Guys are WIDE OPEN. The DL is useless. So yes, these guys aren't good. But they also aren't some of the worst players in the FBS, which is how they are playing against teams that don't have good offenses.


Watching our DL is exactly like watching the 2006 DL before Palermo said he was taking over the DL, and then they were dominant the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the talent is not even close, but they do the same **** where they basically play pattycake with the DL. Our defense does NOTHING to try to put the offense in a bad position. Part of that is the players, but it's very concerning that that idea seems to be a defensive principle.

transitioned to a completely different scheme.. with reasonably talented guys..


And i'm in 100% agreement, our scheme's softness is a HUGE problem.. I understand their fear of giving up huge plays.. but that can't be any worse than giving up a ton of "big" plays that end up in the endzone either way.

And took those reasonably talented guys to a BCS bowl. We surely aren't asking Golden to do that, but the defense should not be the worst in modern UM history and one of the worst in the FBS because they're still 'transitioning.'

 

[DaU83]

Probably not. It's a lot easier to take a terrible defense that is ranked near the bottom of the FBS and make them better than it is to take a good defense and make them even better.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that, lrg.

while that may be true.. an "upgrade" in scheme made a decent D just a bit worse... but Saban did his thing and now his D runs ****e...

Yawn. They transitioned to a COMPLETELY different defensive scheme, and were dominant in year 2. Clearly not the same circumstances, but there's no reason for our defense to be this bad. There's a reason why Golden said the scheme would be re-evaluated. You're doing nothing but creating false dichotomies, ****, a large portion of this board is -- it doesn't have to be that our defense should be great, or that the scheme sucks, or that the players suck. What it seems to me is that while our players aren't very good, they aren't so bad that they should be giving up 500 yards to Boston College and Kansas State. They're basically sitting their getting their heads torn off and not doing anything to make it any better. Guys are WIDE OPEN. The DL is useless. So yes, these guys aren't good. But they also aren't some of the worst players in the FBS, which is how they are playing against teams that don't have good offenses.


Watching our DL is exactly like watching the 2006 DL before Palermo said he was taking over the DL, and then they were dominant the rest of the year. Unfortunately, the talent is not even close, but they do the same **** where they basically play pattycake with the DL. Our defense does NOTHING to try to put the offense in a bad position. Part of that is the players, but it's very concerning that that idea seems to be a defensive principle.

transitioned to a completely different scheme.. with reasonably talented guys..


And i'm in 100% agreement, our scheme's softness is a HUGE problem.. I understand their fear of giving up huge plays.. but that can't be any worse than giving up a ton of "big" plays that end up in the endzone either way.

And took those reasonably talented guys to a BCS bowl. We surely aren't asking Golden to do that, but the defense should not be the worst in modern UM history and one of the worst in the FBS because they're still 'transitioning.'

we were mediocre on D last year.. and by all accounts, this D is younger/less talented than last years. It's bound to be worse, but it's true that it shouldn't be as bad as it is. If we remain happy with rushing four and seeing our DL 5 yards away from the QB on EVERY pass play, then we're fuxxored.

 

[Dynasty]

The two best pass rushing DE's on the defense last year where Ojomo and Vernon. Although Vernon missed significant time due to suspension, he didn't bring anything to the table in terms of pass rushing ability once he returned. The same can be said for Ojomo before moving inside. Yet I watched Ojomo this preseason with the G-men get consistent pressure off the edge. Am I to believe he figured out how to rush the passer since joining the G-men? Ditto for OVernon. These guys are natural upfield DE's. The system they played in under coach D limited their athleticism and playmaking ability as edge rushers. For goodness sakes, Vernon even played some inside linebacker out of a 30 front against FSU last year. I mean, really? No one is going to deny that talent matters, but schemes play an important role in maximizing talent. It is my opinion that the current talent isn't being used to its maximal potential.

 

[CanesAreAble]

The only teams that Alabama gave up over 30 to Saban's first year were LSU (NC team) and Arkansas (the year they had McFadden and whats his name). Don't kid yourself, this D wouldn't be great but they would be a **** of a lot better than they currently are if Saban was running the show here.

Defensive ranks for Bama .... in 06.. 23 in total D 31 in Scoring D... Saban Arrives.. 31 in Total D 27th in scoring D ... so Saban wasn't good for any improvement over a decently good D he inherited.. his D gave up about 50 more yards per game and gave up 3 more points per game.. now imagine if he would have inherited a TERRIBLE Defense, results probably would be similar.

I get what you're trying to say but there is no way anyone can convince me we don't have the right mix of talent, depth, experience to be worse than a top 60 defense.
Hopefully the last two games were just a case of D'onofrio out thinking himself and being stubborn than him just being flat out inept. Which I don't think is the case.
He, and Golden for that matter, will quickly understand this is not a Temple turnaround type of job. The "U" brand is being made a mockery right now at the expense of what seems to be a non-chalant rebuilding mentality like they had at Temple. THIS IS NOT TEMPLE.
Game plan and Scheme not to get 53 get hung on you or beat it.

Last year we were ranked 45th in total defense, and 17th in scoring defense.

As bad as we are this year, I don't think we're going to finish the season giving up 42 ppg.

 

[moshated305]

The two best pass rushing DE's on the defense last year where Ojomo and Vernon. Although Vernon missed significant time due to suspension, he didn't bring anything to the table in terms of pass rushing ability once he returned. The same can be said for Ojomo before moving inside. Yet I watched Ojomo this preseason with the G-men get consistent pressure off the edge. Am I to believe he figured out how to rush the passer since joining the G-men? Ditto for OVernon. These guys are natural upfield DE's. The system they played in under coach D limited their athleticism and playmaking ability as edge rushers. For goodness sakes, Vernon even played some inside linebacker out of a 30 front against FSU last year. I mean, really? No one is going to deny that talent matters, but schemes play an important role in maximizing talent. It is my opinion that the current talent isn't being used to its maximal potential.

They weren't racking up sack totals under Shannon either who wanted his DEs getting up-field lol Maybe getting some NFL coaching and money on the line gave Ojomo more motivation. It has happened before Sam Shields, DVD and Bruce Johnson were laughed at on these boards when the NFL was brought up. They all actually made teams and played significant roles early.

 

[Dynasty]

The two best pass rushing DE's on the defense last year where Ojomo and Vernon. Although Vernon missed significant time due to suspension, he didn't bring anything to the table in terms of pass rushing ability once he returned. The same can be said for Ojomo before moving inside. Yet I watched Ojomo this preseason with the G-men get consistent pressure off the edge. Am I to believe he figured out how to rush the passer since joining the G-men? Ditto for OVernon. These guys are natural upfield DE's. The system they played in under coach D limited their athleticism and playmaking ability as edge rushers. For goodness sakes, Vernon even played some inside linebacker out of a 30 front against FSU last year. I mean, really? No one is going to deny that talent matters, but schemes play an important role in maximizing talent. It is my opinion that the current talent isn't being used to its maximal potential.

They weren't racking up sack totals under Shannon either who wanted his DEs getting up-field lol Maybe getting some NFL coaching and money on the line gave Ojomo more motivation. It has happened before Sam Shields, DVD and Bruce Johnson were laughed at on these boards when the NFL was brought up. They all actually made teams and played significant roles early.

No, they didn't rack up sacks, but they provided more pressure early in their careers under Shannon than they did last year with coach D as upper classmen.

DVD was a very good cover corner. The debate use to be who was best between he and RHill. My take was that if you wanted a cover corner DVD was your man. However, if you wanted a force, zone corner "cloud" RHill was more physical and better suited in that role. Shields' primary problem as a first year corner was locating the ball. Dude had the athletisim and speed needed to be a productive CB. Just on speed alone meant someone would give him an opportunity. BJohnson kind of reminded me of a poor man's DStarkes. That said, I understand your premise in that money is a great incentive,lol.