Per NCAA.com. Thought I would check out stats to see if the eyeballs and the numbers match up so far. Not for the faint of heart.

As of this morning, UC is ranked

#122 out of 125 FBS teams in total defense.
#115 out of 125 FBS teams in passing yards allowed.
#117 out of 125 FBS teams in rushing defense.
#106 out of 125 FBS teams in scoring defense.
#121 out of 125 FBS teams in team passing efficiency defense.
#125 out of 125 FBS teams in third down conversion defense.





I think I am going back to bed....

Other than that, the defense has been great!

How did this happen so fast?

(09-28-2014 10:01 AM)bearcatfan Wrote:  How did this happen so fast?

Hank Hughes.............schemes suck.

Ive defended tuberville alot....but this Hank Hughes thing is not sitting well with me

Yesterday they showed a graphic that Luc had the most tackles in all of FBS.... but that's because he's tackling for the whole team

Luc has been everywhere. the rest of the defense has been terrible? how many tackles did he have yesterday? I was thinking 15-20 at the game.

Our DTs are terrible and we don't have the secondary to bring the LBs up to the line of scrimmage to help out. So we're sitting back and getting picked apart 7 yards at a time. I'd rather throw guys at the line of scrimmage. If the QB burns us deep, so be it. Our offense gets back out there and answers. It's better than this.

(09-28-2014 10:12 AM)Cataclysmo Wrote:  Ive defended tuberville alot....but this Hank Hughes thing is not sitting well with me

Nor should it sit well with anyone IMO.

Some hoped the Hughes hire was somehow a step in the right direction for a UC defense that actually finished in the top 25 nationally in total D and passing D in 2013 (albeit against an admittedly bad schedule).

I joked around when his name was first floated around because there was no friggin' way that guy made any sense. It still doesn't with where the program is and where it purports to go.

Sadly, Hughes might just be another in a continuing revolving door at DC under TT.

Hank Hughes just came on board in early 2014 and he's had some success at UConn (checking his bio), so I'm not sure if what the defense is going through is due to the new system, lack of talent, bad coaching or a combination of the three. I lean towards a combination.

He's probably trying to play "square peg" players in a "round hole" system and it's not working. While he gets the right players for his system though, I expect him to make adjustments to do the best with what he has, although I have yet to see it.

I'm sure some tough questions are being asked behind closed doors and Tubbs does not look happy about the defensive situation, based on his last press conference. He (and everyone) knows the problem. Let's see if they can solve it.

This early season loss to O$U will not hurt us, especially if they win the B1G and go to the playoffs. I still think we have a very good chance at an AAC championship and Access Bowl bid, but the coaching staff has to fix the defense.

He got demoted twice from DC. I propose a hat trick. Prunty can't be worse than this guy.

Wait...we're bad at defense...I had no idea...

His defenses at UCONN were not good at all. It was a baffling hire to me at the time. UC has talent on defense and experience. Guys like Mouhon, Beard, Temple, Luc, Edwards, Payne, among others have looked much better in previous years than they do now. They didn't suddenly become bad players IMO.

(09-28-2014 11:25 AM)mac6115cd Wrote:  Hank Hughes just came on board in early 2014 and he's had some success at UConn (checking his bio), so I'm not sure if what the defense is going through is due to the new system, lack of talent, bad coaching or a combination of the three. I lean towards a combination.

He's probably trying to play "square peg" players in a "round hole" system and it's not working. While he gets the right players for his system though, I expect him to make adjustments to do the best with what he has, although I have yet to see it.

I'm sure some tough questions are being asked behind closed doors and Tubbs does not look happy about the defensive situation, based on his last press conference. He (and everyone) knows the problem. Let's see if they can solve it.

This early season loss to O$U will not hurt us, especially if they win the B1G and go to the playoffs. I still think we have a very good chance at an AAC championship and Access Bowl bid, but the coaching staff has to fix the defense.

I'm not really looking to argue, but... I don't see how, after close wins to Toledo and Miami, and a bad loss at OSU, you can think ANY game from this point out is really safe. Just judging on what I have seen so far:
Challenging Games (We can win, but I have major doubts about)
-ECU, Miami

Games that are even-money, could go either way...
-Memphis, Houston, Temple

Games that we ***should win*** but if we aren't careful...
-Tulane, UConn, USF, SMU

Even SMU, which is the WORST team in FBS ***can*** beat us, and I don't mean that in the abstract. As it stands, we could finish anywhere between 11-1 (unlikely) and 2-10 (unlikely). These are obvious extremes and I'm not predicting either glory or doom, but this season is truly up for grabs at this point. Each and every game looks to be a toss-up.

I said this at the outset, but I am more confirmed than ever at this moment: I will be happy WITH A BOWL...any bowl. All it takes is an injury or even a bad game on the part of our QB and the whole damn picture changes.

Frightening, but you make a point. These conference games could look like track meets with the scheme we have been throwing at opposing QBs.

Aw man, if we end up just being happy with any bowl, especially with the cruddy bowl slate we are currently locked into, this season went New Coke, Olean, XFL, Waterworld and Steve Kraagthorpe kind of off the tracks.

(09-28-2014 12:28 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(09-28-2014 11:25 AM)mac6115cd Wrote:  Hank Hughes just came on board in early 2014 and he's had some success at UConn (checking his bio), so I'm not sure if what the defense is going through is due to the new system, lack of talent, bad coaching or a combination of the three. I lean towards a combination.

He's probably trying to play "square peg" players in a "round hole" system and it's not working. While he gets the right players for his system though, I expect him to make adjustments to do the best with what he has, although I have yet to see it.

I'm sure some tough questions are being asked behind closed doors and Tubbs does not look happy about the defensive situation, based on his last press conference. He (and everyone) knows the problem. Let's see if they can solve it.

This early season loss to O$U will not hurt us, especially if they win the B1G and go to the playoffs. I still think we have a very good chance at an AAC championship and Access Bowl bid, but the coaching staff has to fix the defense.

I'm not really looking to argue, but... I don't see how, after close wins to Toledo and Miami, and a bad loss at OSU, you can think ANY game from this point out is really safe. Just judging on what I have seen so far:
Challenging Games (We can win, but I have major doubts about)
-ECU, Miami

Games that are even-money, could go either way...
-Memphis, Houston, Temple

Games that we ***should win*** but if we aren't careful...
-Tulane, UConn, USF, SMU

Even SMU, which is the WORST team in FBS ***can*** beat us, and I don't mean that in the abstract. As it stands, we could finish anywhere between 11-1 (unlikely) and 2-10 (unlikely). These are obvious extremes and I'm not predicting either glory or doom, but this season is truly up for grabs at this point. Each and every game looks to be a toss-up.

I said this at the outset, but I am more confirmed than ever at this moment: I will be happy WITH A BOWL...any bowl. All it takes is an injury or even a bad game on the part of our QB and the whole damn picture changes.

Way too negative. No way in hell do we lose against Tulane, UConn, SMU. Yea our defense sucks but our offense is awesome. We may put 70 on these three teams. Notice I left off USF. USF will be a player on talent alone, when their coach figures a few things out. Memphis Temple Houston USF. Maybe one loss here. Temple is the most likely since we play at Temple and they have a gamer at QB. We will at least split with ECU and Miami. That puts us at 9-3 just like last year.

So far, on the field and off the field, Hughes is very unimpressive. The worry began after I saw the interview with Tommy G. Not very articulate, and not very inspiring. What is so difficulty with putting together a scheme that matches your players talents. Head scratcher.

The second half was better for the cats on the defensive side of the ball. We got a few more stops, and the tackling was much more solid. I bet we see more of Clemente Cassius and Eric Wilson this week.

(09-28-2014 12:28 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(09-28-2014 11:25 AM)mac6115cd Wrote:  Hank Hughes just came on board in early 2014 and he's had some success at UConn (checking his bio), so I'm not sure if what the defense is going through is due to the new system, lack of talent, bad coaching or a combination of the three. I lean towards a combination.

He's probably trying to play "square peg" players in a "round hole" system and it's not working. While he gets the right players for his system though, I expect him to make adjustments to do the best with what he has, although I have yet to see it.

I'm sure some tough questions are being asked behind closed doors and Tubbs does not look happy about the defensive situation, based on his last press conference. He (and everyone) knows the problem. Let's see if they can solve it.

This early season loss to O$U will not hurt us, especially if they win the B1G and go to the playoffs. I still think we have a very good chance at an AAC championship and Access Bowl bid, but the coaching staff has to fix the defense.

I'm not really looking to argue, but... I don't see how, after close wins to Toledo and Miami, and a bad loss at OSU, you can think ANY game from this point out is really safe. Just judging on what I have seen so far:
Challenging Games (We can win, but I have major doubts about)
-ECU, Miami

Games that are even-money, could go either way...
-Memphis, Houston, Temple

Games that we ***should win*** but if we aren't careful...
-Tulane, UConn, USF, SMU

Even SMU, which is the WORST team in FBS ***can*** beat us, and I don't mean that in the abstract. As it stands, we could finish anywhere between 11-1 (unlikely) and 2-10 (unlikely). These are obvious extremes and I'm not predicting either glory or doom, but this season is truly up for grabs at this point. Each and every game looks to be a toss-up.

I said this at the outset, but I am more confirmed than ever at this moment: I will be happy WITH A BOWL...any bowl. All it takes is an injury or even a bad game on the part of our QB and the whole damn picture changes.

Hitting on a few topics here:
- I'm closer to mac on this. Not that I'm happy with the defense, but I don't get all the doom and gloom. I guess I should be used to it around here by now.
- I agree with Jerry's groupings but I'd name them differently from top to bottom: toss-ups (2), should win but will be a challenge (3), should clearly win (4). 9-3 still sounds very realistic to me, I'm targeting 10-2, and I don't rule out 11-1. Of course, anything can happen.
- I'm not equipped to give an intelligent analysis of the schemes beyond "they ain't working", but I agree with someone else above that the weakest link by far to me seems to be DT. Given that, I'm not sure a midseason promotion to Prunty is the answer - as much as I like about him. I'd think there should be a way to scheme to compensate better for that - maybe CTT has to do it himself.

(09-28-2014 01:53 PM)rosewater Wrote:  

(09-28-2014 12:28 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(09-28-2014 11:25 AM)mac6115cd Wrote:  Hank Hughes just came on board in early 2014 and he's had some success at UConn (checking his bio), so I'm not sure if what the defense is going through is due to the new system, lack of talent, bad coaching or a combination of the three. I lean towards a combination.

He's probably trying to play "square peg" players in a "round hole" system and it's not working. While he gets the right players for his system though, I expect him to make adjustments to do the best with what he has, although I have yet to see it.

I'm sure some tough questions are being asked behind closed doors and Tubbs does not look happy about the defensive situation, based on his last press conference. He (and everyone) knows the problem. Let's see if they can solve it.

This early season loss to O$U will not hurt us, especially if they win the B1G and go to the playoffs. I still think we have a very good chance at an AAC championship and Access Bowl bid, but the coaching staff has to fix the defense.

I'm not really looking to argue, but... I don't see how, after close wins to Toledo and Miami, and a bad loss at OSU, you can think ANY game from this point out is really safe. Just judging on what I have seen so far:
Challenging Games (We can win, but I have major doubts about)
-ECU, Miami

Games that are even-money, could go either way...
-Memphis, Houston, Temple

Games that we ***should win*** but if we aren't careful...
-Tulane, UConn, USF, SMU

Even SMU, which is the WORST team in FBS ***can*** beat us, and I don't mean that in the abstract. As it stands, we could finish anywhere between 11-1 (unlikely) and 2-10 (unlikely). These are obvious extremes and I'm not predicting either glory or doom, but this season is truly up for grabs at this point. Each and every game looks to be a toss-up.

I said this at the outset, but I am more confirmed than ever at this moment: I will be happy WITH A BOWL...any bowl. All it takes is an injury or even a bad game on the part of our QB and the whole damn picture changes.

Way too negative. No way in hell do we lose against Tulane, UConn, SMU. Yea our defense sucks but our offense is awesome. We may put 70 on these three teams. Notice I left off USF. USF will be a player on talent alone, when their coach figures a few things out. Memphis Temple Houston USF. Maybe one loss here. Temple is the most likely since we play at Temple and they have a gamer at QB. We will at least split with ECU and Miami. That puts us at 9-3 just like last year.

So far, on the field and off the field, Hughes is very unimpressive. The worry began after I saw the interview with Tommy G. Not very articulate, and not very inspiring. What is so difficulty with putting together a scheme that matches your players talents. Head scratcher.

The second half was better for the cats on the defensive side of the ball. We got a few more stops, and the tackling was much more solid. I bet we see more of Clemente Cassius and Eric Wilson this week.

We (as UC fans) have been here before. The trouble with relying on your offense to purely outscore the other guy's offense is that it is way too streaky. What happens if your QB and/or receivers go into a slump? Or the weather is bad and forces you into a slower-motion grind-it-out pace game?

Please note... I did not predict "gloom and doom," I said that ANYTHING...from 11-1 to 2-10 is possible in my opinion. 9-3 is certainly a more likely outcome than either extreme. But looking at the results...FROM 3 GAMES... I don't see this team as somehow so elevated that we can say "Yeah, we should be in the lead for the Access Bowl..." or even "Yeah, we're the odds-on-favorite to win the Conference." right now.

(09-28-2014 12:17 PM)Marcus Wrote:  UC has talent on defense and experience. Guys like Mouhon, Beard, Temple, Luc, Edwards, Payne, among others have looked much better in previous years than they do now. They didn't suddenly become bad players IMO.

I agree and in my mind there are only two explanations. 1- poor coaching getting much less out of these players. 2- these guys all quit working at the same time, in which case we would have a serious culture problem.

Perhaps it's just the roster but that is not my personal opinion. I continually see dreadful fundamentals from guys who got a bunch or frontline reps and who were pretty fundamentally sound last year. The tackling is really atrocious so far this year.

By my count we lost the following to graduation:

Stepp and walk-on Dempsy were starters at DT. There were no Wolfs or Hughes' playing last year. Greg Blair, Devon Drane, Chennault, and mix in Aiken, and Cassius some on the 2 deep and we have about 14 of the 2 deep rotation back from last year's D. Guys like Mitch Meador were farther down in the line rotation most of the season as I recall.

It's still early and it can obviously change, but for some reason the performance on the field is going the wrong direction in year 2 with this defensive roster.