forums

The Defensive Line

ball915

ball915

All-American
Joined
Dec 21, 2012
Messages
6,034
Many have raved how great Jess Simpson has been after losing Kool. The DL looked good most of the season against ACC and mid major schools but against LSU and Wisconsin whose OL's are at a different level and our DL looked average at best being neutralized with limited push and presence in the backfield. We had an absolute star in Willis who was our best DT in the last decade plus and without him last night we saw how dependent we were on existence to make the others look good. Premier DL's would not get owned by a 7-5 Wisconsin team (yes they have some talent on that OL but so do we on DL). Wisconsin ran for over 300 yards against us running simple off tackle plays for 6-8 yards with ease completely manhandling our front 7 all game long. Personally, am still high on the Simpson hire but by no means am ready to crown his performance this year.
 
Advertisement
Wisconsin ran it up the middle over and over and over. All night long. The best we could hope for was and occasional tackle for a loss.
 
Advertisement
ball915 said:
Many have raved how great Jess Simpson has been after losing Kool. The DL looked good most of the season against ACC and mid major schools but against LSU and Wisconsin whose OL's are at a different level and our DL looked average at best being neutralized with limited push and presence in the backfield. We had an absolute star in Willis who was our best DT in the last decade plus and without him last night we saw how dependent we were on existence to make the others look good. Premier DL's would not get owned by a 7-5 Wisconsin team (yes they have some talent on that OL but so do we on DL). Wisconsin ran for over 300 yards against us running simple off tackle plays for 6-8 yards with ease completely manhandling our front 7 all game long. Personally, am still high on the Simpson hire but by no means am ready to crown his performance this year.
Click to expand...
I think Simpson has done a fine job.

This season he should have had Willis, Norton and McIntosh rotating in at DT.

Instead he had Willis, a grad transfer (who improved as the season went on) and erm.....

We were always going to struggle stopping a big Wisconsin Oline without Willis.
 
Those guys appeared checked out, mentally. A 7-5 team who could've easily been 5-7 (or worse) had it not been for the defense, seemed very uninterested (no surprise there, ofc). The effort (and coaching) wasn't there to beat a peewee team.

On top of that we don't play worth a **** in the "cold" anyways. We're mentally weak (as a team) which is a direct correlation to the HC. Like the refs, they were just ready to get the game over with. A total embarrassment, yet only fitting for the season they had.
 
OldhamA said:
We were always going to struggle stopping a big Wisconsin Oline without Willis.
Click to expand...

That's a problem considering teams with worse defensive lines did a better job against that line than we did. Granted, the offense compounded the problem by not being able to sustain drives.
 
Wisky knew that with their best player opting out Miami would be weaker up the middle, which just so happens to be where Wisky has built the strength of their program and has been their identity forever. All they had to do was pound the rock and wear Miami out. Simple really. The first play from scrimmage told you all you needed to know. Miami was fortunate to be down only 14-3 at half, and mainly because the D hung in and Wisky wasn’t about to beat themselves by putting the game on the arm of a backup QB.
 
Advertisement
He is a high school coach. Mark likes him. Do we need another reason to realize he is not qualified for this job?
 
Back
Top