[NU Sports] Defense

[Roy Lamberton]

Ara P had a reasonably good defense, they beat dOSU 3 times out of 6.

The D suffered a lot when Vanderlinden moved on, they never seemed to be as
effective first under Okruh and Brown, then Brown alone.

Walker seemed to concentrate on getting Athletes who could play either way. I
think I counted 12 or 13 former QBs playing for the Cats in different positions
- some of them on Defense.

What I've noticed during the time I've been following recruiting is that NU
never seems to be able to finish the circle up front. We can get 3 decent
D-Linemen, but that final wide body with speed never seems to pick NU. 

Castillo and Cofield are good examples of guys who developed into NFL caliber
players, but they both needed one more guy to keep the opponent's offensive line
honest and we just couldn't find him.

I know Greg Colby has been trying to put in a 3-4 defense for at least 4 years,
but Walker was a 4-3 guy and didn't want to change. Last year its apparent that
they finally had convinced RW to let them move to a 3-4 and you saw them working
towards that in both recruiting and play during the 4 non-conference games.

IMHO, what is holding back the switch right now is the injury to David Ngene
which limits the speed from the DE positions. Corey Wootton is the kind of guy
you need in a 3-4, and Ngene and Mims [and Koehn too] are the anvil that you use
with Wootton's hammer.

Roach's injury also hurt the move towards the 3-4 since Dinard was supposed to
get a lot of reps as the other MLB, and Simpson was backing up Roach. Now
Simpson is starting on the weak side, and Dinard is backing him up. The 3-4 is a
linebacker defense, something that will get Fitz' and Randy Bates' fired up.

Anyway, Vandy is ranked 62nd in overall defense, 9th in the SEC, 73rd in
passing, 10th in the SEC. Like NU, they do a better job against the rush but
still yeild 320 yards of total defense. Opponents convert 41.5% of their 3rd
downs, that's 10 in the SEC also - their 89th overall.

Just from a quick glance at their numbers, I'd guess they also could use a
couple of big fast D-Linemen too.

What is so encouraging is the number of commits we have with sub 4.9 40 times
and the number of prospective d-backs with sub 4.5 times. I don't know how we're
finding kids who value an education AND are fast, but we're doing it and you
just might see a couple of frosh out there on defense next year if they pick up
the nuances of the Div I game fast enough.

But I'd really watch the spring and see how many defenders step up this year.
You know Howard and Wootton would have been a pretty good combo but Howard is
3rd on the ASU depth chart behind a RS Frosh and a Soph even though he was
arguably our best defensive linemen before he was injured.

Does that put our ability to recruit D-Linemen in the past into perspective?

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
======== Go Cats -  Beat 'em All ===========
"You have a Republic Madam --
     If you can keep it" - Benjamin Franklin
============================================
> 
> Except when Vanderlinden was DC, when have the CATS had a 
> good defense? What other DC has done really well at NU?
> 
> Also, wasn't the D so-so under Barnett after Vanderlinden 
> left for Maryland?
> 
> I contend that outside of the Vanderlinden years we've never 
> had a great defense. Is that the athletes? Is it that Barnett 
> and Walker were previous OCs? Combination. Somehow our D just 
> doesn't look like the Tennessee D (another team I follow to a 
> lesser degree) and I can't wait for a stiffer D to develop 
> and be consistently good at NU. Vanderbilt University 
> supposedly has a consistently sound defense, so I would think 
> we should be able also.