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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1853406, member: 289"] [I]Defensive Line[/I] People are abuzz about the new offense Babers and his men are putting in but he’s also putting in a new defense and that’s just as important. It will be a very different defensive concept than we’ve seen in recent years. For years before Scott Shafer got here, we were in “read and react” mode essentially letting the other team run plays like they were diagramed on the blackboard and then just trying to get in their way. I and other Syracuse fans got so sick of that. The best teams play “atomic football”- go right at ‘em on offense and defense. Get plays off fast and get the ball moving down the field fast, (which seems to be Baber’s plan) on offense. Invade the backfield and destroy plays before they get started on defense. When Shafer came in, we started playing atomic defense and it was wonderful. Sometimes you give up big plays but you make big plays and so intimidate the offense that they come apart as the game progresses. Baber’s crew prefers the “Tampa 2” look, which uses both linebackers and D-backs in coverage and relies almost entirely on the front four to pressure the other team. The concept is to force the other team to make incremental gains and progress downfield slow, (while we score quickly). Also, it’s difficult for mediocre college teams to run 10-12 plays in a row without making a big mistake. It’s been a very successful concept against Syracuse in recent years as we’ve had mediocre or worse offensive teams. But the good teams can do that very well. The power running teams, in particular, will be more than willing to take on the 4 defensive linemen, get 5 yards a play and keep our offense off the field. Our front four will not remind anyone of the Fearsome Foursome of the Rams or the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh. We are pretty good at tackle but have nearly a void at both end positons. I’ll state this: if are weak at both offensive tackle and both defensive end positons, you aren’t going to have much of a season. You won’t be able to pressure the other team’s backfield and you won’t keep them out of yours. One ongoing debate is whether a new coach who has inherited a roster of players he didn’t recruit should tailor their strategy to the players they have, win some games and then recruit the players they need to switch to what they really want to do or should they come out in the mode they intend to play in and use that the recruit the players they need to do it well. It’s a great thing that we essentially hired an entire staff of coaches who had worked as a unit to bring success to two other schools and who know and believe in what they are doing. But it seems logical to expect problems when they seem to be fitting a square peg into a round hole. And I think this defense, and this line in particular, is going to have some problems, especially against the better teams, (and we will be playing some good ones). Rob Thompson was the best player on our team last year. He’d been recruited as a tight end and was regarded as a big-time prospect there. But he was such a good athlete that he was regarded as a big-timer prospect as a defensive end as well. The two coordinators both wanted him and, perhaps because Scott Shafer had become the head coach, the defensive unit won the tug of war. If Doug Marrone, an offensive guy, had stayed, Thompson might have remained a tight end. Injuries held Thompson back at first but in 2015 he blossomed into a star, the best defensive end we’ve had since Dwight Freeney, (Chandler Jones has had a strong NFL career but he never reached that peak here). On some plays, he looked like Freeney, out-quicking multiple blockers to make huge plays. He had 7 sacks and four forced fumbles, (the latter a Freeney specialty). Teams started game-planning around him, which limited their options and opened things up for Thompson’s teammates. He’d have been the best player on this team, too, but he decided to declare for the NFL draft. He was struggling academically and was close to Shafer’s defensive line coach Tim Doast, who of course, lost his job when Shafer did. He decided it was time to go- and then didn’t get drafted. Ironically, he was signed as a free agent by Freeney’s old team- the Indianapolis Colts, who like players who have played in Domes, which is why many of the Colts players since they moved to Indy were Syracuse guys. Whether another year in college would have gotten him a spot in the draft, I don’t know. We all wish him well. But he could have made a HUGE difference for this Syracuse team. He left behind a void at defensive end, a position that might have been a strength with him. It’s not a void just because he left. We no longer have Donnie Simmons or Luke Arciniega, the second and third best defensive ends. Promising freshmen Quaddir Sheppard and Amir Ealey were dismissed from the team for violating the school’s drug policy, (a bad time to do that because we’d just been pinched by the NCAA for our inconsistent application of it). Babers and his staff searched the world of Junior College transfers and graduate transfers for defensive ends. The first name we heard was California JUCO Justin Stewart who made 40 tackles, including 12 sacks in 11 games last year. But he went to Iowa State. It’s been said that SU coaches weren’t sold on his grades. If you look at the pre-season magazines, they all write in Gabe Sherrod as one of our ends. He was a grad transfer from Delaware State who ranked second in FCS in tackles for a loss last year with 25 and 8 sacks. Lindy’s called him SU’s “top newcomer” and said he “likely has the highest upside of any pass rusher in (our) pre-season camp”. But he never made it to our preseason camp. He hesitated so long to make a decision that the coaching staff decided to move on. Then Sherrod announced he was going to Michigan State, a top program that likely isn’t anywhere near as desperate for defensive ends as we are. We settled for De’Jon Wilson, a graduate transfer from Colorado who had never started there but played in 22 games and recorded 2 tackles for a loss and ½ of a sack. He didn’t play last year at all. The story is the Buffs switched to a 3-4 defense and Wilson lacked the size for a DE in that set up or the mobility to be a linebacker. Now he’s back at his natural positon. Per the Post Standard: “The 6-3 250 pound Wilson brings size, strength and experience to a group of defensive ends that also didn’t play last season.” He’s supposed to have a good work ethic “Wilson won the iron Buffalo award for top defensive lineman in the weight room in the spring of 2015.” Jake Pickard, (see below) said "He brings extra strength, he brings an extra body and he brings extra competition.” I don’t think he’ll bring what Sherrod, Stewart or certainly Thompson would have brought us. The coaches moved senior walk-on linebacker Hernz Laguerre and tight end Trey Dunkelberger to defensive end. Dunkelberger apparently didn’t work out because he’s been moved back to tight end. These are the sort of desperation moves that coaches make late in an injury plagued season. If they are making them before the season starts, it shows how dangerously thin or even under-manned we are at that position. That leaves it to the freshman. The most touted one is Jake Pickard. Scott Shafer recruited him away from Wisconsin and Michigan and redshirted him last year. He was the #1 guy at one end positon in the spring. Last year Shafer said of Pickard: "I love his motor...There are times when his technique is absolutely horrendous. But his effort overcomes it. You can coach technique with a kid that has talent and has long arms like he does, but that effort, that high motor is something you can't." He’s now learning his role in the Tampa 2 scheme: “Learning whole new playbook is a lot. Learning the reads is a whole other step,” Pickard said. “Everyone has come into their own of learning reads and learning where the back is and determining what set you’re going to have.” He’ll need to figure it out fast. He’s been seen on the sidelines in fall practice in street clothes but is now back practicing with the team in a limited fashion. Hopefully, it’s a temporary problem. He’ll be one of the key players on the team this year. The other end positon in the spring had Kenneth Ruff as the #1 guy. He was a true freshman, early enrollee who had been shifted from linebacker. He’d been a highly rated middle linebacker- #35 in his class. He’s built himself up from 240 to 258 pounds, so I guess he’ll stay at end. The highest rated defensive end in the new class is Jacquwan Nelson, who is a bit small yet at 6-3 235. He’s a 3 star, (like Ruff), who wanted to go to Georgia but was told they had no room for him there. His high school coach, Richard Dunbar said of him: "Once he gets the weight to go with his speed and first three steps, he's going to be a deadly player at Syracuse and in the ACC." Another true freshman, Josh Black, does not have to get bigger at 6-3 257. He decommitted form Illinois and is also rated 3 stars. Nunes: “Black hasn't been playing football very long, but you can see that he's been a quick learner thus far…if Brian Ward and the defensive staff are able to put in the time with the physically talented Black and help him develop within the system, he could round into a high-quality defender for SU by the time his career wraps up.“ Kendall Coleman was seen practicing with the first team a couple of days ago. PS: “At 6-3 252, Coleman has shown good hips and footwork early in camp.” Good hips are important. Ask Kim Kardasian. McKinley Williams is listed as a defensive tackle but at 6-4 253, he could play end, as well. His teammates have nicknamed him “The Bear” and “raved about his motor and effort in pursuit”. (Post Standard) In a strong program the true freshmen would all likely be red-shirted. But they are being sent into the breach. And defensive end is a position where experience is really important. Inexperienced ends can over-pursue, leave lanes open or get over-powered. We will be facing a lot of mobile quarterbacks and these guys will have the primary responsibility to keep them in the pocket- or chase them down if they start to scramble. These seem like talented guys who will someday be part of a strong defensive line. But the total lack of any proven players at either defensive end position this year is a frightening situation. “If I said the lions rule the jungle, that’s not true,” Babers said during an interview on NBC Sports Radio with Newy Scruggs on July 19. “Hippos rule the water and elephants rule the land. Until you get that, you’re going to have a hard time winning football games.” Dino loves metaphors even more than I do. I think he was talking about defensive tackles. Hippos are important, too. We do have some of proven young talents at tackle. Last year that was the area where we were pressed into playing young players and now comes the pay-off. I remember our 2010 team was powered by veteran tackles who clogged up the middle and occupied blockers. They were all about 300 pounds and could take on the offensive linement who were as big or bigger than that. But they all graduated at once and in 2011 were replaced by freshmen and sophomores who were not only inexperienced but not as big as they had not been in our strength and conditioning program as long. They tended to weight about 275 and got pushed around by offensive linemen who out-weighed them by as much as 50 pounds. It was a big factor in our disappointing 5-7 record that year. But Shafer built them and his defense back up to where we had a bowl winning team in 2012 and 2013 and, despite the injuries that destroyed the offense, a defense in 2014 that was ranked 26th in the country in giving up yards. Then last year, like an etch-a-sketch, suddenly we were staring at a blank screen in the interior line. Our defensive numbers changed thusly between 2014 and 2015: Rushing Yards: 2014 139 yards per game 31st in the country 2015 163 yards 77th in the country Passing Yards: 2014 210 yards 38th 2015 257 yards 100th Total Yards: 2014 349 yards 26th 2015 438.5 yards 98th Scoring: 2014 24.3 points 37th 2015 31 points 90th So the rush defense, while it got worse, didn’t collapse as far as the passing or total defense. Freshman Kayton Samuels, Stephen Clark, Chris Slayton and Anthony Giudice had been thrust into the breach. They actually did pretty well at times but everything fell apart around them. But now they are veterans and must anchor the line. Samuels has “senior size” at 6-0 314. So does Slayton at 6-4 296. Clark is 6-2 287. Guidice is 6- 273. Tyler Cross, who red-shirted is 6-2 279. Per Nunes: “During spring practice, Dino Babers commented that the defensive lineman, especially because they are all so young and inexperienced, are going to need to get stronger in the offseason.” Samuels, Slayton and Clark, at least seem to have heard him. From the Daily Orange: “Samuels started all 12 games last season over Clark and was slotted ahead of him on the post-spring depth chart. Samuels finished his redshirt freshman year with 15 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. Clark had 21 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a pass defended and two fumble recoveries during his true freshman season.” Those are good numbers for tackles, who rarely get the glory. Nate Mink on Syracuse.com said: “Chris Slayton has an NFL body with measurables scouts salivate over. And on a defensive line with few proven commodities, the time has come for Slayton to anchor the unit. "I have to step up, as far as being a leader because I was always used to being in the shadows," Slayton said… Physically, Slayton is advanced. It's his attention to detail in the film room that could further elevate his development and deliver the tools to be among the best linemen in the ACC. He said he watches film of Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett to pick off some of their techniques. You have to be pleased with those guys. The whole problem is depth. Guidice and Cross are still under-sized for the wars in the trenches. And beyond them, it’s about moving the defensive end candidates over to fill in. They are all in the 250-260 range at best and would likely get pushed around. We are going to have a hard time dealing with any team with a power running game or getting pressure on the quarterback of a team with a quality passing game. And we aren’t going to be able to sustain anything beyond the normal injuries a team will suffer over a 12 game season and maybe not even that. Young players are going to have grow up fast and we are going to have be very lucky with injuries for this defensive line to meet the demands of the Tampa 2 system. [/QUOTE]

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