(09-24-2022 10:32 PM)The Grinch Wrote: A team gives up 31 points and all a few can talk about is the offense. That being said Rocky probably makes the 10 or so reads that Hampton missed. Additionally there were some personnel moves on defense that may be promising.
1. 29 the freshman looked very good at field corner. Still need to figure out if 2 can play. Don't know if he played better today or if he got moved to boundary corner and that helped some.
2. 6 and 7 is a much better safety combination than anything with 21.
3. I can see why like 9 but he misses a bunch of tackles. It's hard to take
him out because he still does some really nice things. Tough to do in season but maybe 9 and 3 should be the starting LBs
4. Two rough plays for him but 23 may be the Huskie
Really good observations.
Knighten (29) had a heck of a debut.
2 (Byrd) can play, he just needs to keep getting experience. He tends to let his eyes wander to things that aren't his responsibility, and as a DB your feet are tied to your eyes. It comes from a combo of him wanting to be in on every play instead of just doing his 1/11th, and getting confused about where his responsibilities are in combo coverages. He was better tonight, it only happened once. He was actually better with his eyes last year, but I think he wants so badly to "take the next step," but as CB you have no control over how much you are involved in the game. You just have to stay patient, play your role on every play and let the game come to you. I think he will get it figured out.
6 (Hansen) and 21 (Jammeh) are 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Hansen reads and recognizes well, but is an inferior athlete. Jammeh is a tremendous athlete but is lost mentally right now. Considering he is in his 5th game getting snaps at safety as a true soph, that isn't altogether surprising. He has way more upside, but Hansen is more ready now. Tough call to make, hence the constant rotating.
9 (Rayner) is so FAST, but sometimes he does a very poor job of throttling that speed down, breaking down, and making the tackle in space.
23 (White) I think is still playing catch up on learning the defense, but from what I saw of him at YSU, he will definitely be a player for NIU sooner or later.