| 13 June 2009
BOBBY HAINES wrote:
<<<I have appreciated your insightful explains of SSE & WSE and the different
Hybrids and how JT has been recruiting the last 5 years. And if you have been
paying attention to my postings, I have disagrragreed with you in the fact that
i think JT has the flexibility to adjust on the field to just about any look he
wants to for Big10, SEC, Big12. Speed, Power, Spread, whatever. 3-3-5, 3-4, 4-3,
de to dt, dt to de to lb, ss to olb.
He has so many different hybrid athletes on this defense, that if any idiot doesn't think we dont have speed...Watch the spring game, and watch Moeller track down the run away RB at the end of that game. Beautiful! We are more flexible than we have ever been!<<<
I do believe that the staff wants flexibility. We were at our best with an elite Leo player on the roster. When Bobby Carpenter was here he was the key to the defense Heacock wanted to run. It was as flexible a defense as you will ever see. Being able to move between the 4-3 and the 3-4 without changing personnel is the ultimate in flexibility. The one downside to packages is they are a "tell". Who is coming on the field and who is going off is a tip-off to the opposition. With Carpenter being able to put his hand in the dirt and play both the run and the pass as a defensive end, as well as play in space as we well as cover as a linebacker was the difference. Finding another has been a long fruitless search. You may remember that Gibson first stepped on the field as a linebacker. They knew he could rush the passer. The experiment did not go well. Gibson is a go go go type of player. You need to put him at end and cut him lose. If you want a player like that again I think you have to go with a big linebacker and teach him what he needs to play defensive end. I think we may have seen at attempt at that with Mark Johnson. I know that was the plan with Walter Dublin. There are a couple of guys I find very intriguing as possibles. Etienne Sabino is a unique talent that is not adjusting to the scheme really well. He played linebacker in high school but played with the same go go go that Gibson played but Gibson was a high school defensive end. Sabino has the size. Unlike Gibson, he has the experience at linebacker that will allow him to handle the linebacker responsibilities better. The other I like in this role is David Durham. He might be an even better candidate as he played a much more disciplined linebacker than Sabino in high school. I saw linebacker film of him and wondered why anyone would project him as a defensive end, then I saw film of him a few weeks later as a defensive end and saw why.
I think we continue to recruit for the flexibility. John Newsome is not looking like a defensive end. Neither is Wells and Durham is not looking like an every down hand in the dirt 4-3 end. On the other hand Steve Miller is a prototype 4-3 weakside defensive end. When you think about it flexibility is the way to go. We are not going to have a heckuva time winning the Big Ten if winter comes early to the region and we end having to slug it out in games that see 10 passes per side, but we are not going to win bowl games against SEC and Big 12 opponents 6 weeks later with a defense that wins games against 45 running plays.
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