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Message: [QUOTE="HRE Otto IV, post: 1873787, member: 5685"] Shafer's D was hit or miss. There were a lot of stinkers. It usually overwhelmed bad teams and looked lost vs good teams. I will say that IMO a version of Shafer's Okie look is the way to go in college football. I always wanted him to embrace it every down but he never did. Using players we have had from the Shafer era I would go with: DEs on 1st down and run downs: I would want guys who can get penetration and play the run well. So I think I would pick Goggins and Welsh. DEs on passing downs: These are guys who can get to the QB and drop into coverage when needed. Arciniega and Sharpe would be my picks. NT on 1st and passing downs: Ideally I would want an undersized guy who is quick and disruptive. At the same time they could drop into coverage. Someone like Nikita Whitlock would be the prototype. We didn't have a guy like that so I will go with the best player, Bromley. NT on running downs: Here I would want a guy the size of a house, so Raymon is the pick. ILBs on all downs: Do it all guys are needed here. They need to be able to stop the run, blitz, and cover. I think this is an easy choice in Smith and Hogue. SSs on all downs: These are guys who can cover the slot 1 on 1, blitz, and support the run. Another easy choice in Shamarko and Suter. CBs on all downs: They would need to be big physical guys who can play the run well and occasionally blitz. That would best describe Anderson and Merkerson. FS on all downs: Guys who can cover in man or play in a zone. I would go with Holmes and Phil Thomas. These weren't highly recruited kids so I think this D is realistic to the type of talent that we can get here. Heck just about every one of the guys was on the 2010 squad, so we know we can have a roster like this. I think going this route would be highly effective. Oh and I left Chandler off just to show you don't need a guy that good. Against the pass this D would be a major PIA (see what Shafer did to WV). They could play man coverage and still have 2 FSs over the top. They can bring pressure from any and all angles. An O would have no clue if the D was going to play man, play zone, or blitz. Plus since no one else runs this D it would be hard to prepare for. Against the run this D can be highly disruptive. It is an undersized D but is physical and fast. It would be vulnerable to power running teams but very few schools run that anymore. Most teams try to beat you with speed in the running game, which this D is built to combat. Against the power running teams you would need to load the box and run blitz a lot. Hope that you can get penetration and be disruptive. Looking at this year's schedule only one team would provide problems, Pitt. The rest of the schedule we would be better off scheme wise. [/QUOTE]

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