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(01-12-2022 11:45 AM)RealDeal Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 09:47 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  Yes, I think that's the way to go...the bigger issue to me is the fact that we ran a 4-4 against Navy the last time we played them and basically ground them to a halt, but thought we could get away with a 3-3 this year and almost got nipped for it. I don't care if we're 3-3 stack, 4-3, 4-2-5, etc...my biggest issue is that we ran base so damn much and just relied on the talent gap that there was almost nothing new to scheme against for most teams in the later half of the year. We need to be more multiple now in order to keep teams off balance, seeing as how our talent gap on defense vs. most of our opponents' offenses is no longer anywhere near as large.

I think it's more of an implementation issue than an alignment. Everyone's base defense is some sort of nickel yet even when we were getting plowed in the run game vs Tulsa and Bama we didn't bring safety's up into the box. How the front 6 breaks down doesn't really matter to me; if you're not willing to bring 7 and 8 into the box occasionally. You could go 5-1-5 and it doesn't really matter if the back 5 are all staying back. I listened to Joel Klatt on Ryen Rusillo's podcast and he was very critical of Fickell being willing to sit back and die a slow death without making them testing the corners.

Yes, yes and yes on all of this. That right there is my lone critical concern from this past year's season. (other than kicking of course) There was very little adjustment defensively and it felt like the coaching staff just assumed our talent would eventually win out.