Do we have the best D in the ACC?

[money3189]

I'm saying Dino teaches and allows tackling. You can see it in the clips from the Summer sessions during 11 on 11. I'm also saying that I recall reading one of the issues that came out of the Frost firings was his position on no tackling during Summer sessions. At least that's what I recall, but I'm getting old and tend to forget things. However, there certainly are coaches out there that don't have their players tackle during the year. Didn't a Columbia professor years ago exclaim that tackling during practice was not needed? The media jumped on it and I'm sure some coaches did to.

Ivy leagues dont tackle at all. They cant afford to lose players in practice. Most FBS schools tackle for scrimmages. Not sure how often they tackle in practice. Its not much if any. Lots of thud during the season along with tackling stations with or without a player. They are not bringing the player down to the ground though. Im sure Dino uses the same approach.

 

[texascpa]

Ivy leagues dont tackle at all. They cant afford to lose players in practice. Most FBS schools tackle for scrimmages. Not sure how often they tackle in practice. Its not much if any. Lots of thud during the season along with tackling stations with or without a player. They are not bringing the player down to the ground though. Im sure Dino uses the same approach.

I'm not sure he does. Either way, there certainly are differences on the approach to tackling and it's evident in games.

 

[BrooklynCuse]

According to NCAA stats we have the best overall defense in the ACC, as of this week AT THIS MOMENT. I don’t think they were predicting who will be best by the end of the year

Clemson looks like they have some soft spots in the backend but will probably still be Clemson

NC State beat East Carolina, Charleston Southern, UConn and a 3-2 Texas Tech and they’re still behind us in most categories. I think we smoke them

 

[orange79]

I had the under at halfway through the first page of this thread for when someone would make this joke.

 

[money3189]

According to NCAA stats we have the best overall defense in the ACC, as of this week AT THIS MOMENT. I don’t think they were predicting who will be best by the end of the year

Clemson looks like they have some soft spots in the backend but will probably still be Clemson

NC State beat East Carolina, Charleston Southern, UConn and a 3-2 Texas Tech and they’re still behind us in most categories. I think we smoke them

I get it but its still a Texas Tech team that scores a lot of points and beat two ranked teams.

 

[djorange1989]

I get it but its still a Texas Tech team that scores a lot points and beat two ranked teams.

yeah and lots of folks thought we would smoke UVA. yeah, we turned it over 4 times, but that is part of the game. NC State is absolutely a game we can win, but won't be easy at all.

 

[BrooklynCuse]

I get it but its still a Texas Tech team that scores a lot points and beat two ranked teams.

And tbf NC State held them to only 14 points

 

[money3189]

yeah and lots of folks thought we would smoke UVA. yeah, we turned it over 4 times, but that is part of the game. NC State is absolutely a game we can win, but won't be easy at all.

Agree.

 

[TheCusian]

Not a knock on your post or the one above that lists how highly we rank nationally on defense, but the Wagner game has to heavily influence both data sets.

Not suggesting that other teams don't have tomato can stats factored into their rankings.

If you use cfbstats.com and go to our conference - you can sort out FCS games. It does take us from top half to middle in both rush and pass D stats. This is not as detailed as PFF which I think does a great job. But it's a quick and dirty way to see.

Yards per play, with just FBS games with our next 2 opponents (link):

Team	YPP vs FBS	ACC Rank	National Rank
Syracuse	5.36	#7	#48
NC State	4.96	#3	#24
Clemson	4.81	#1	#19

If you go by total yards per game - we're #3, Clemson #2 and NC State #1.

Now - not all FBS teams are equal and we're only 5 weeks in. Purdue's 4th Q jacked our pass defense for example. Can another team do what that particular QB/WR combo did? Hartman can. But ND's QB - no.

There's enough data that I'm comfortable saying "no" we don't have the best defense in the conference. But we're very solid on both sides of the ball (and special teams) and that combination will prob make us a bowl team and a tough out the rest of the way.

 

[Orijinal]

If you use cfbstats.com and go to our conference - you can sort out FCS games. It does take us from top half to middle in both rush and pass D stats. This is not as detailed as PFF which I think does a great job. But it's a quick and dirty way to see.

Yards per play, with just FBS games with our next 2 opponents (link):

Team	YPP vs FBS	ACC Rank	National Rank
Syracuse	5.36	#7	#48
NC State	4.96	#3	#24
Clemson	4.81	#1	#19

If you go by total yards per game - we're #3, Clemson #2 and NC State #1.

Now - not all FBS teams are equal and we're only 5 weeks in. Purdue's 4th Q jacked our pass defense for example. Can another team do what that particular QB/WR combo did? Hartman can. But ND's QB - no.

There's enough data that I'm comfortable saying "no" we don't have the best defense in the conference. But we're very solid on both sides of the ball (and special teams) and that combination will prob make us a bowl team and a tough out the rest of the way.

Let's hope we win one more ...

I'm half joking

 

[IthacaBarrel]

If you use cfbstats.com and go to our conference - you can sort out FCS games. It does take us from top half to middle in both rush and pass D stats. This is not as detailed as PFF which I think does a great job. But it's a quick and dirty way to see.

Yards per play, with just FBS games with our next 2 opponents (link):

Team	YPP vs FBS	ACC Rank	National Rank
Syracuse	5.36	#7	#48
NC State	4.96	#3	#24
Clemson	4.81	#1	#19

If you go by total yards per game - we're #3, Clemson #2 and NC State #1.

Now - not all FBS teams are equal and we're only 5 weeks in. Purdue's 4th Q jacked our pass defense for example. Can another team do what that particular QB/WR combo did? Hartman can. But ND's QB - no.

There's enough data that I'm comfortable saying "no" we don't have the best defense in the conference. But we're very solid on both sides of the ball (and special teams) and that combination will prob make us a bowl team and a tough out the rest of the way.

Well said, agree 100%

 

[NineOneSeven]

According to my trustworthy PFF we are;

5th in total defense
7th in run defense
5th in tackling
13th in pass rushing
1st in pass coverage

Not surprising. I expect the pass coverage to drop a bit (obviously it can't go up) considering the quality of the competition and sheer talent improvement moving forward, but still clearly be top tier in the league. The pass rushing, as already mentioned, is going to be the bottleneck.

 

[All4SU]

Best stats? Or best scheme? No and maybe.

 

[David321]

 

[TheCusian]

View attachment 220797

Trying to wrap my head around why this is true AND we have a middling yards per play number on D.

Easy answer: the D is seeing less snaps. Only 244 snaps in total after 4 FBS games is #2 in the ACC.

But why? Well, our offense is better at going on drives - we're #5 in the ACC in snaps in 4 FBS games. Red Zone production has been really good, we're tied with Clemson at #1 in the ACC. Holding the ball and running and scoring is very helpful to the D.

What about TO margin? We're +1 which is good for 4th. But our 4 TOs lost all happened in one game, which means we took snaps away from our opposition via TO a fair amount vs Ville, UCONN, and Purdue.

Is that all sustainable? They will tell you TOs are not sustainable and tend to even out. The offense and red zone production won't stay perfect, but 4 games is enough to say maybe. If Tucker can be more productive - all of this seems way more sustainable - we won't need to have the best D in the ACC - just a D that is good enough.