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Wiley & Smith and Toure & Pruitt

Play_Boi_Bobby

Play_Boi_Bobby

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Oct 29, 2025
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Look, the Toure in Smith tandem is not ideal and it’s going to hurt us sooner rather than later. Yes, they have experience, but they lack speed and athleticism compared to Wiley and Pruitt. Putting Wiley and Pruitt on the field at the same time at least this first half of the season would be a liability. Wouldn’t it be better to pair up one of the Young bucks with one of the veterans to try to get the best of both worlds at least for the first half of the season until Wiley and Pruitt get a little more adjusted? Than the second half of the season I really think Wylie and Pruitt would give us the best chance to dominate.
 
Very troubling. Not sure what can be done about it right now aside from gambling as you mentioned. We'll be getting the starters off the field asap these next couple of weeks.
 
Play_Boi_Bobby said:
Look, the Toure in Smith tandem is not ideal and it’s going to hurt us sooner rather than later. Yes, they have experience, but they lack speed and athleticism compared to Wiley and Pruitt. Putting Wiley and Pruitt on the field at the same time at least this first half of the season would be a liability. Wouldn’t it be better to pair up one of the Young bucks with one of the veterans to try to get the best of both worlds at least for the first half of the season until Wiley and Pruitt get a little more adjusted? Than the second half of the season I really think Wylie and Pruitt would give us the best chance to dominate.
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Looking at the tape, our LB played well. What looked like bust on TV was not their fault.
 
88 said:
For someone who came in as a safety I’m shocked at how Smith moves at times.
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Injuries can take away your athleticism in an instant, make you look like an stiff old man on field.. He has had devastating injury in past.. The time for feel good story has past, we NEED to develop some REAL LB play.. this is ridiculous
 
Play_Boi_Bobby said:
Look, the Toure in Smith tandem is not ideal and it’s going to hurt us sooner rather than later. Yes, they have experience, but they lack speed and athleticism compared to Wiley and Pruitt. Putting Wiley and Pruitt on the field at the same time at least this first half of the season would be a liability. Wouldn’t it be better to pair up one of the Young bucks with one of the veterans to try to get the best of both worlds at least for the first half of the season until Wiley and Pruitt get a little more adjusted? Than the second half of the season I really think Wylie and Pruitt would give us the best chance to dominate.
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Lmao some fans are insufferable! Smith and Toure looked great in run defense what game were y’all watching?! In the passing game yall scapegoating them. There’s 6-7 defenders out there in pass defense and the short zones are not always where the LBs are. Flats were wide open because we were playing soft zone. DBs played horribly but I liked how we ran to the ball after catches were made. We looked big and fast, but sitting in soft zone don’t help nobody. We dropped Lightfoot way too much into zones (he had 9 tackles because of it). We need to have him rushing. I didn’t think the starters lacked athleticism at all. They looked big and fast! SMITH WAS MOVING! Stanford had less than 75 yards rushing and most of it came after the subs came in. Second half of the season is the most important part. I would argue you tighten up the lineup and not play Pruit and Wiley together at that point. Smith had that play where he went inside when the defender went outside, but he had middle zone on the play and there was another defender coming in behind him. Should have rode him a bit and then let the curl defender get him.
 
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The LB development has been questionable at best. Smith is a shell and honestly isn't very good. Dude can't move. Toure isn't great in the pass game but he is a stud against the run and blitzing. Young guys need to step up and take that spot from Smith.
 
Some of you just can’t get past your PTSD. We have Heatherman. Not Shannon, not NoD, not Diaz. This guy is elite and he will get this defense performing better. He will make adjustments in scheme and in personnel. He’s not a coach that is stuck in his way. What stand out to my amateur eye is that our pass rush will not be at same level as last year. Thorton is not the playmaker that Scott was. Those two things made our defense hum last year. So now that is on game tape, what adjustments can be made. I would say less soft zone for one. And I am sure Coach H has many other adjustments he will make. I would say the floor for this defense is top 20 and the ceiling is top 15. If we can get closer to the ceiling and paired with this offense, we cook.
 
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