Although he is not the only one that needs to be served his walking papers(SEE Chow, Norm), he is the larger part of the overall issue. You can't just look at the score of the $C game [28 pts allowed, 2nd lowest point total scored by the "trogans" (SEE Ambles, Markeith for spelling) in a Pac-10 game this season, but allowed 212 yards to Bradford] and say that CB has done a decent job overall.
I will say this, we are young on defense, no one can deny that. Any time you have 3 true freshman starting in your front seven, there are going to be problems. As highly recruited as they are, they are still only 18 years old with 18 year old muscles and an 18 year old understanding of the game. With that being said, you need to coach accordingly.
We all know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to win a game, let alone be competitive if you don't get pressure on the QB (the reason why Mario Williams was drafted ahead of Bu$h, when, at the time, Bu$h was more accomplished). So if you have 3 frosh in your front seven, you need to bring pressure in creative ways (our only effort was to line up Ayers at DE). But we didn't...all season. Too many times, we tried to get pressure with just our front 4, which I will remind you includes 2 freshmen. To add to that, our corners are playing 10-15 yards off the ball (I'm assuming CB knows there will be no pressure and is protecting against getting beat deep). That is a bad combo. With no pressure at the line of scrimmage, and WRs running free in the secondary, the opponent is essentially running against a skeleton defense. It might as well be practice for the opposition. To add insult to injury, we can't tackle!
Why is this a coaching problem? Simple. The scheme just isn't working. Period. 8 losses, 6 coming in the last 7 games, countless blowouts (giving up 31, 35, 35, 60, 29, 24, 55, 28 in 8 losses and 28 in a victory to the doormat of the conference). Don't be delusional and think that $C scoring 28 points had anything to do with CB. It was a rivalry game. That's what happens in rivalry games. That had everything to do with the players reaching down trying to make something happen, in spite of having CB as a coordinator.
Plus, Barkley was a shell of himself hobbling around on one leg and running a fever last night. Not to mention, they had a SR walk-on as their kicker (just earned a scholarship this season because they had no one else) who has only made one FG over 40 yards his whole career (only 4 other kicks over 30 yards). If they had a serviceable kicker at their disposal who could kick field goals and not snatch away their offense's momentum after each failed attempt of a 4th down conversion, it would have been a lot uglier. I give our coaching staff very little credit for Saturday night.
So next year will be better because our team will be more experienced and CB will loosen the reigns a little, right? Wrong! The product that we are seeing on the field is who CB is. It's what he does. It's his MO. Bend but don't break, umbrella-using, keep everything in front of you, we'll let them catch it, but lets hope they don't run too far defense.
Compare his calls with this year's "young" team to last year's veteran-laden team. Siewierski & Price at DT (Sr & Jr respectively), Bosworth & Stokes/Jones at DE (Sr & Jr/So). Akeem Ayers, Reggie Carter, & Kyle Bosworth at Linebacker (So, Sr, Sr.). ATV, Price, Dye, & Moore (Sr, Fr, So, So). Lots of vets, SOS. Send 4 (which actually worked when Price was in the game because he was such a force), 10 yard cushion, and don't get beat deep. You can really only point to one weak link in that entire unit (Fr CB Sheldon Price). Everywhere else, we were either solid or All-American. Sure, the Bosworth bros might have been a little short on talent, but someone tell that to the two NFL teams that they are a part of right now (practice squad or not).
We had the makings of being a dynamic defense last year, and still nothing. Statswise, we were decent. I believe finished near the top of the Pac 10 (only because there weren't many dominant defenses) and in the top 40 in the nation. But we were better than that, way better. So if CB can have ATV playing 10 yards off the ball (he doesn't even do that in the NFL!), and be using a vanilla, protective scheme with those horses in the fold, what makes us think he will change. He won't, and that's why he needs to go. End of story.
Rick, You're next...
You couldn't be anymore right... as an SC alum, I should be subjective with your comment, but you're right on the money. The defensive (specifically the front 7) are VERY young and inexperienced. In addition, yes, they gave up a horrendous average of points to the top teams...
ReplyDeleteHowever, you've gotta keep in mind, they DON'T have DeWayne Walker who clearly was not only the best recruiter in the game, but responsible for leading the defense to the top-10 in all categories during his tenure there. Of course the talent is there, but like you mentioned, it's all about the coaching at this point.
(BTW, the offense being inept is not Norm's fault... it's not his fault Rick doesn't know to stay with a pro-style system or the 'Pistol')
The offensive blame falls on both Rick & Norm. First off, Norm has autonomy in that offense. It was this assurance that allowed Norm to sign with UCLA in the first place. He has final decision on scheme and personnel. So, there would be no pistol if Norm didn't want it as well. They went to the pistol because of our subpar O-line. We haven't been able to run the ball the last two years (ranked 117th out of 120 last year) because of our weakness up front (Dorrell went several years without recruiting O-linemen). They chose to go with the pistol to incorporate zone blocking (good for less talented linemen) which greatly improved our rushing attack(finished 34th in rushing), but adversely affected our passing game (116th).
ReplyDeletePersonnel-wise, Norm's golden boy is Kevin Prince (5 games, 384 yds, 44%, 3tds, 5ints), who couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag with scissors in his hand! Neu always wanted Brehaut (7 games, 1296 yds, 6tds, 7int), and the stats support that he is the better of the two (which still isn't saying much). In addition, Norm seemed to favor seniority over effort. Marvray and Carroll were better than both Rosario & Embree at WR, but he stuck with the veterans.
In addition, his playcalling was suspect. This isn't the same Chow that coached you guys earlier in the millinium. His playcalling to date has been ridiculously conservative. Not only conservative, but stupid. YOu look at Nevada's passing game out of the pistol and you see slants (which work vs. man or zone), screens (loosens up the D when their pass rush is effective), and passes to the flats. WIth Chow, you saw none of that. Ever. He really seemed to be there to collect a paycheck. I don't know what the problem was, but something needs to change before next year.
Lastly, the recruiting under Neu has not suffered with the absence of Walker (his only 2 recruiting years were '07 & '08). The most recent rankings according to rivals are as follows: 2010 #8, 2009 #14, 2008 #13, 2007 #40, 2006 #17, 2005 #26, 2004 #34, 2003 #36. Just numbers wise, the two most recent classes (#8 & #14) are better than the two Walker classes (#13 & #40). This is the one area in which Neu seems to excell.