OK, the board has been dead for awhile, so I see if I can get a football discussion going, talking about our D going forward.
We have a new coaching staff on D. A REAL one for a change. Given the improvement in our coaches experience, talent and smarts, we should expect our defense to be better next year. The question is how, and by how much?
Regardless of individual talent, Pitt's biggest weakness last year was missed assignments due to confusion. Narduzzi talks repeatedly about making players play smarter and faster by making sure they know exactly what their assignments are. Even if no players improve individually, our D should be more effective overall just by having players knowing what the hell they're supposed to be doing.
There are places where we have talent, and where we have talent gaps. How will the coaches deal with this? Will they run schemes designed to hide our talent weaknesses? If we have little talent at DE, will they go with what is essentially a 3-4 on a lot of plays to get more talented players on the field rather than going with the best 2 DEs when neither may be very good?
I think we have talent in several spots:
DBs: Adding Whitehead and Howard to the corner spots seriously upgrades the talent there. Maddox has talent too, and should be bigger, stronger, and better in year two. The other recruit from FL, Henderson, could surprise right away.
Getting Mitchell back at safety helps the position since that is where he belongs. I think Amara will be very good. Webb and Stocker round out the top 4, making it pretty solid.
If this staff is as talented as we expect, they should be able to turn the DBs into a very effective unit going forward.
Moving to the front seven, things drop off.
The LBs may be better with time than some might think. In addition to the two recruits, Mckee and Brightwell, the redshirt freshman are the type of players that Narduzzi likes at LB. Folston and Davis are both fast and athletic. Folston is bigger, but Davis is really fast. Watch their film and you'll see that they all explode to the ball carrier when making a tackle. None of them have any experience, but I think the staff has some talented young guys to work with that suit their needs, so in time, these guys could play really well. Grigsby has one year left, and he also has the speed at the outside that they look for.
Inside, there is experience, with Galambos and Bam, and Wirginis appears to have more talent than either. The three way competition will be good for the position, and they should be ok.
At DE, wow, here is where we all want to look away. If Blair puts on more weight, and with good coaching, he could be pretty good. And the JUCO better be able to come in and contribute right away. Can Price stay healthy and play up to his potential? I'm not holding my breath.
The tackles are experienced, and they should be adequate.
All starting positions should be wide open. It will really be interesting to watch what develops on D, who emerges, who gets shifted to new positions, what types of schemes they will deploy given the talent that they have to work with.
Thoughts?
We have a new coaching staff on D. A REAL one for a change. Given the improvement in our coaches experience, talent and smarts, we should expect our defense to be better next year. The question is how, and by how much?
Regardless of individual talent, Pitt's biggest weakness last year was missed assignments due to confusion. Narduzzi talks repeatedly about making players play smarter and faster by making sure they know exactly what their assignments are. Even if no players improve individually, our D should be more effective overall just by having players knowing what the hell they're supposed to be doing.
There are places where we have talent, and where we have talent gaps. How will the coaches deal with this? Will they run schemes designed to hide our talent weaknesses? If we have little talent at DE, will they go with what is essentially a 3-4 on a lot of plays to get more talented players on the field rather than going with the best 2 DEs when neither may be very good?
I think we have talent in several spots:
DBs: Adding Whitehead and Howard to the corner spots seriously upgrades the talent there. Maddox has talent too, and should be bigger, stronger, and better in year two. The other recruit from FL, Henderson, could surprise right away.
Getting Mitchell back at safety helps the position since that is where he belongs. I think Amara will be very good. Webb and Stocker round out the top 4, making it pretty solid.
If this staff is as talented as we expect, they should be able to turn the DBs into a very effective unit going forward.
Moving to the front seven, things drop off.
The LBs may be better with time than some might think. In addition to the two recruits, Mckee and Brightwell, the redshirt freshman are the type of players that Narduzzi likes at LB. Folston and Davis are both fast and athletic. Folston is bigger, but Davis is really fast. Watch their film and you'll see that they all explode to the ball carrier when making a tackle. None of them have any experience, but I think the staff has some talented young guys to work with that suit their needs, so in time, these guys could play really well. Grigsby has one year left, and he also has the speed at the outside that they look for.
Inside, there is experience, with Galambos and Bam, and Wirginis appears to have more talent than either. The three way competition will be good for the position, and they should be ok.
At DE, wow, here is where we all want to look away. If Blair puts on more weight, and with good coaching, he could be pretty good. And the JUCO better be able to come in and contribute right away. Can Price stay healthy and play up to his potential? I'm not holding my breath.
The tackles are experienced, and they should be adequate.
All starting positions should be wide open. It will really be interesting to watch what develops on D, who emerges, who gets shifted to new positions, what types of schemes they will deploy given the talent that they have to work with.
Thoughts?