Defensive Upgrade in 2017

[Teh Teh]

Someone mentioned that Zeise looked to be the best LB Pitt had in years (one of the coaches or players), he will be God next year. Wirginis, to me, looked excellent. Vuc has said Pine looks like a future star in practices. I think we will be just fine at LB. I like the DEs as well. Losing Jarrett will hurt the most I think, the guy was a run stopper, period! When he left the NW game that game wasn't the same.
Dbs will be better too. Hamlin was THE top recruit out of PA last year, he looked fluid and good to me and he was injured. Coleman and Miler both got praised by coaches, and whitehead will be healthy I hope.
Add that to this year's defense was awful, hurt, and we played big offenses, and next year will be better, no question

 

[Burgh15]

The run defense was solid for a good portion of the year even without Jarrett. He's a big loss, but they'll be able to get by. Pitt really needs linebackers who can get to the edge. Too many times the running backs were able to get the boundaries because we were too slow at the position. If these guys are athletic as I'm lead to believe, you have to be excited for the direction of the defense moving forward.

 

[sherepower]

Someone mentioned that Zeise looked to be the best LB Pitt had in years (one of the coaches or players), he will be God next year. Wirginis, to me, looked excellent. Vuc has said Pine looks like a future star in practices. I think we will be just fine at LB. I like the DEs as well. Losing Jarrett will hurt the most I think, the guy was a run stopper, period! When he left the NW game that game wasn't the same.
Dbs will be better too. Hamlin was THE top recruit out of PA last year, he looked fluid and good to me and he was injured. Coleman and Miler both got praised by coaches, and whitehead will be healthy I hope.
Add that to this year's defense was awful, hurt, and we played big offenses, and next year will be better, no question

Sure hope the coaching gets much better on that side of the ball. Saw a ton of players taking bad angles and not using the correct technique throughout the season.

Plus, didn't see a lot of the players who started last year ( 8 or 9 ) get bigger and stronger and faster after a year in the conditioning program. Hope Nards make some adjustments on that side of the ball.

 

[sherepower]

The run defense was solid for a good portion of the year even without Jarrett. He's a big loss, but they'll be able to get by. Pitt really needs linebackers who can get to the edge. Too many times the running backs were able to get the boundaries because we were too slow at the position. If these guys are athletic as I'm lead to believe, you have to be excited for the direction of the defense moving forward.

The reason why the run game put up good stats was simply a function of teams throwing the ball 50 times a game against us. Teams who wanted to run the ball did with success. See the Virginia, Northwestern, GT games as evidence

 

[Las Panteras]

I have always believed that 2017 will be the year narduzzis defense takes shape. I also thought that a new qb and loss of DJ and Biz results in another 8 win season....

But something tells me max Browne is going to show why he was the #1qb coming from HS.

I predict pitt breaks out in 2017.....

 

[thebadby2]

The run defense was solid for a good portion of the year even without Jarrett. He's a big loss, but they'll be able to get by. Pitt really needs linebackers who can get to the edge. Too many times the running backs were able to get the boundaries because we were too slow at the position. If these guys are athletic as I'm lead to believe, you have to be excited for the direction of the defense moving forward.

Agree. We were only giving up like 105 rushing per game before this one.. Add to your observations about the weak outside LBs and inability of the MLB to range from sideline to sideline that the corners couldn't get off blocks, Whitehead was out hurt and Webb can't tackle, and you get a defense that was very soft outside the ends in the boundaries. Northwestern shredded us with those stretch plays. You can be soft defensively in one or two spots as long as you're strong in the others, but when you have 3 weak LBs and 3 weak DBs, thts too many weaknesses to hide, and you get Pitt's 2016 D.

Next year will be a lot of growing pains for the D with all the young guys learning on the job, but I will take that over what we had this year.

 

[doubleAA's]

Sure hope the coaching gets much better on that side of the ball. Saw a ton of players taking bad angles and not using the correct technique throughout the season.

Plus, didn't see a lot of the players who started last year ( 8 or 9 ) get bigger and stronger and faster after a year in the conditioning program. Hope Nards make some adjustments on that side of the ball.

I saw the exact opposite actually. I thought the guys looked far larger and faster. The lack of execution on knowing where to be on pass coverage was the main issue. I didnt see many instances where bad angles were a cause of a big play. I cant think of one to be honest.

 

[sherepower]

I saw the exact opposite actually. I thought the guys looked far larger and faster. The lack of execution on knowing where to be on pass coverage was the main issue. I didnt see many instances where bad angles were a cause of a big play. I cant think of one to be honest.

Did you watch Webb play at all? Or the linebackers during the season. Taking bad angles was one of the biggest issues all year.

As far as the conditioning program is concerned. We had 8 or 9 starters back from last years defense. That finished in the middle of the pack in the entire NCAA. The same 8 or 9 starters a year later finished 125th out of 127 teams. Didn't seem to me these kids got bigger and stronger a year later. If they did. Our defense wouldn't of regressed as much as they did

 

[sherepower]

Agree. We were only giving up like 105 rushing per game before this one.. Add to your observations about the weak outside LBs and inability of the MLB to range from sideline to sideline that the corners couldn't get off blocks, Whitehead was out hurt and Webb can't tackle, and you get a defense that was very soft outside the ends in the boundaries. Northwestern shredded us with those stretch plays. You can be soft defensively in one or two spots as long as you're strong in the others, but when you have 3 weak LBs and 3 weak DBs, thts too many weaknesses to hide, and you get Pitt's 2016 D.

Next year will be a lot of growing pains for the D with all the young guys learning on the job, but I will take that over what we had this year.

The reason why we only gave up 105 yards a game was due to the fact teams didn't try to run the ball. Why would they when they can pass it for 500 yards a game.

Teams who decided to be committed to run the ball did well. Miami, Virginia, NW, GT all gauged us when they decided to run