I guess you must want our defense to remain around 116th in the country. Having some depth at LB is nice and all, but it won't mean a thing unless we get a pass rushing DL or 2 (preferably one from Juco). Unless Skai Moore can play with one hand on the ground and beat his man repeatedly.....PASS.
Yes, what brilliant logic. I have 362 posts under the name CaneLB (hint: LB is for linebacker) and I want the Canes defense to suck. Glad someone made that connection.
Depth at LB is a pretty big deal. Almost every one of our LBs has been injured at some point this year, and almost every week has been a different starting lineup. Looking ahead to a 3-4 we'll have 4 LB spots to fill so we'll need at least 6 quality guys that can get significant minutes. This is our situation:
OLB - Thomas, McCord
ILB - Kirby, Blue
ILB - Perryman (2 years), Johnson?
OLB - Johnson, Grace, Terry Armbrister
So looking ahead to 3 years from now we'll be 1 injury away from starting an Armbrister, Terry or Blue. Is that a situation we want to be in? Moore (and Grace) can be brought in and redshirted, providing depth for a couple years before the starting role is theirs. This is how top college programs restock talent and stay a regular contender. If we pass up on great local talent to get a short-term fix of middle-range JUCO DL (we're not in good shape with any studs) well be mortgaging the future to try to win right away with a team that isn't there yet.
I think you're badly overrating the importance of JUCOs. The top guys like JPP or Bruce Irvin come in and fix a pass rush immediately, but most of them are your run-of-the-mill average starters/bodies like Darius Smith. We will fix the pass rush by recruiting elite talent like Matthew Thomas and developing that talent. The scheme will also open up more as more guys get experience. Here's the harsh reality check though: unless McCord has a monster Soph season we will not have any one consistent pass rusher. JUCOs won't change that one bit, unless we shock the world and steal a Toby Johnson or something. I like that Bond kid, for example, and think he'd be a solid contributor, but you recruit guys like that to fill a gap in depth that was created by poor recruiting/attrition from years prior. Sacrificing the future to load up on JUCOs will create more of those gaps, because the JUCOs graduate and you're left with no one.
I guess you must want us to be like Kansas and remain at the bottom of the country, constantly changing coaches and recruiting JUCOs to add bodies and fill needs.
