I gotta be honest, I dont understand why we are using stunts to defend runs. Stunts are for pass rushing and that only. If you stunt to defend the run, you need linebackers to fill the open gaps, otherwise, they will be huge and teams will exploit it. And our linebackers arent doing the trick here.
Since you mentioned Diaz at Texas:
https://www.burntorangenation.com/2...xas-longhorns-todd-orland-defense-line-stunts
From this article: "He loves to blitz, and in his time at Texas, he had issues with players being out of position in run situations because of a blitz." This is exactly whats happening here.
Sam Brooks didnt put Etienne on his butt because Brooks shot the gap and came with everything he had. He read his keys, plugged the open gap and made a tackle for no gain. Added to that: Whats the problem with stopping someone for a gain of 1 or two yards? Why the **** does everything have to be boom or bust? We dont read stuff, we just run with the head towards the wall. It works against inferior competition but if you are up against Clemson, guess what: You are ****ed.
And the fact that we have to install gap integrity makes me cringe to no end. I will post some quotes from a 2016 CanesWarning article that demonstrated what Diaz is all about. My take is in
bold:
https://caneswarning.com/2016/01/08/breaking-miami-hurricanes-manny-diaz/
"The interior of the defense attacks very aggressively with very little regard for gap integrity. The linebackers have aggressive run reads and immediately shoot gaps."
Thats really bad. Its what got him fired at Texas.
"The zone coverage is fairly simplistic, with pattern matching not being used."
We ran Cover 2 on a 3rd and long in the second quarter and they had Clemson receivers on both sidelines butt naked. They dropped a TD. Simple zone coverages get exploited in todays football with spread and air raid concepts being specifically designed to exploit zone.
"Diaz goes to about the opposite end of that spectrum that you can. He wants negative plays even if that means giving up chunk plays to the offense."
This is the problem right here. Everything is just attack, attack, attack. Its like a matador vs a bull. The bull will run the matador over and kill him, if the matador doesnt do his job. But the bull gets humiliated if the matador plays with him.
"The aggressiveness of the front 7, while exciting, can create massive holes in the run game. Part of Diaz’s teaching is for players to attack where they best think they can make a stop. This can lead to 2 defenders being in one gap, leaving a wide open lane for the running back. Miami will see a significant jump in tackles for loss going forward, but there will be times a running back will bust a huge run on a play that realistically should have been stopped at the line of scrimmage."
This was predicted four years ago and this is whats happening.
