[NU Sports] Where do we go from here?

[Evans Schoeman]

Admittedly, it's difficult to boil down defensive performance into a single
statistic, but assuming that Total Defense is a reasonable indicator, here's
where we've ranked in Division I-A since 2001, when Colby assumed the DC
position:

2001 - 107 out of 115
2002 - 116 out of 117
2003 - 88 out of 117
2004 - 68 out of 117
2005 (to date) - 114 out of 117.

So, our "best" year, in 2004, we were still in the bottom half of all teams.
In three out of five years, we've been in the bottom 10%.  I think that can
reasonably be called a trend.

Clearly, Walker's background and interest are on the offensive side of the
ball, and we've been more than solid at RB every one of his years...Sutton
may turn out to be the best yet.  But after another awful defensive
performance, his quote on Sunday ("we have to run the ball better from in
close"), while indisputable, makes me wonder how much he focuses on the
defense.  Turning the car keys over to Colby hasn't exactly worked.

I have no idea whether Fitz is ready to be our next DC, but I don't see a
lot of downside if a change were to be made.



-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Tom Maycock
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 12:48 PM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Where do we go from here?

 
> > > You can say Cole made some mistakes during the PSU game - he 
> > > was burned pretty badly, but I'm not sure it wasn't more 
> > > trying to cover two or three guys and guessing wrong, than 
> > > "bad coaching." 
> 

After seeing the game in person, I zipped through the tape later on
Saturday (yes, that is sort of pathetic on my part). In particular I
was wondering why Cole got burned so badly a couple of times. 

Here's what my inexpert eyes saw:

On one play, Cole made the mistake of looking for the ball too early
and too long. Perhaps misjuding the flight of the ball, he slowed down
a
bit, allowing the receiver to separate a bit, and ultimately pull in
the TD catch in the back of the end zone.
 
On another play--the long bomb on 2nd and 1 if I recall
correctly--Cole tried to jam the receiver at the line. The receiver
made a move and eluded the jam and got a running start down the
sidelines. Cole pretty much matched him step for step, but was never
able to make up the step he lost right off the bat. A perfect pass
resulted in a TD. 
 
So, both cases looked like minor, but critical, technique breakdowns.
Coach's fault? Player's fault? I dunno. The line between success and
failure for DB's is razor-thin. 
 
I'm very skeptical about our ability to stop any good passing team at
this point. However, I'm not sure we'll see a pack of receivers that
can fly like the PSU guys--they have at least 4 very fast wideouts.
 
Finally, I don't recall NU ever going into a true prevent defense.
But we do employ that 3-3-5 formation fairly regularly though
(including, I believe, on the 4th and 15 play). I've seen this defense
work well on a number of occassions, but I'm skeptical about using it
in that kind of situation. Seems like I would want to favor more
pressure on the QB.

Maybe coach Roy can fill us in on the NU coaches thinking on this
one. Is the 3-3-5 designed to help cover up limitations in our D
backfield?
 
Tom
 


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