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Message: [QUOTE="TheCusian, post: 1912860, member: 2585"] I keep hearing you say that it's unproven at this level. It's been proven in HS, FCS, FBS, and the NFL. Our DC has coached at every level outside of the NFL and when he was an FCS coach he held teams in the P5 down (presumably a pretty large talent gap). Bailey had a great breakdown of it today at Syracuse.com, here's a relevant bit (it's all good though): "If the SU staff can achieve consistent play with suitable personnel, the hope is that this defense will be equipped to compete with the ACC's best. In Ward's fourth year at Western Illinois, the Leathernecks held then-No. 18 Wisconsin scoreless until the Badgers' final drive of the second quarter. Another FBS foe, Northwestern, managed only 24 points. And the most prominent example of this system thriving against better collegiate competition comes from North Dakota State, where Ward reunited with former Missouri Southern State coaches Scottie Hazelton and Todd Wash in 2010. Ward replaced Wash at MSSU in 2005 and continued running the Tampa 2 with Hazelton for one season. North Dakota State upset then-No. 13 Iowa 23-21 earlier this year, its sixth consecutive road win over an FBS school. The Bison have also won five consecutive FCS championships, including 20 straight playoff victories. It's that NDSU defense that caught Babers eye while at Eastern Illinois from 2012-13 and led him to hire Ward. "I was really enamored with breaking them down so if we ever got to them, we'd have a great opportunity to win," Babers said. "And they base everything off their Tampa-2 defense. So when I made a change on defense (at Bowling Green), I wanted to go with what had been successful before." --- I'm beginning to think some here have given up on this defense too soon. [/QUOTE]

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