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The emergence of Gibson and Williams assures that we are gonna have a pair of "get after it" DEs... not to mention if Wilson can stay healthy, that's a fantastic trio of defensive ends. Rose and Heyward also can play the position.

If we move Cam down to DT with Worthington, with Larimore/Denlinger/Goebel in the rotation, the group really looks strong up front.

I know everyone during the offseason talked about the improved Dline, but im not sure we saw enough on field evidence that they were gonna make the jump this season..

Going into this offseason, we've seen this group vs Penn St. and Texas (two very good offenses) play tremendous games..

Im very excited about this Dline and it's probably the best and deepest position group going into next yr
 
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Bestbuck36;1376382; said:
Please for the love of God, return to the silver bullets. I'm tired of the zone defense. I understand we need to go zone for confusion and safety sometimes but for the most part we have some extremely gifted guys on defense and they need to be turned loose. I'd prefer to give up the occasional big play for more turnovers and disruptive defense. You cant give guys like Colt McCoy, Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez or any spread offense QB worth his salt, time to throw and find an open spot consistently. Put that dude on his back all game long and wreak havoc in the backfield.
Did you watch the bowl game? We blitzed a ton and manned up for the majority of the game.

The GW TD happened because the blitz didn't get there and we were in man... takes one missed tackle and TD.
 
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I'm going to take a crack at the starting line up:

QB: TP
RB: Boom
LT: Mike Adams
LG: Boren
C: Brewster
RG: Cordle
RT: Shugarts
TE: Ballard
WR: Posey
WR: Sanzenbacher
WR: Small

I'll preface the above by saying, I think Lamaar Thomas has a real chance of cracking the starting line-up depending on who the OC is. If it is an innovative and attacking OC, I think Lamaar cracks the line-up as a player that puts the pressure on the defense. If we stay conservative I'd imagine our receivers are the above. I'll also say I think a lot of spread teams would have already used Ray Small in a scat-back type role. I could see an innovative OC motioning Ray Small or Lamaar Thomas into the backfield.

Defense:

DE: Williams/Wilson
DT: Worthington
DT: Heyward
DE: Gibson
OLB: Homan
MLB: Spitler
OLB: Sabino
CB: Washington
SS: Kurt Coleman
FS: Anderson Russell
CB: Chimdi Chekwa

Linebacker is tough because I think Spitler brings maturity to the position and he's proven he's a hard hitter. I think Sabino has a lot of talent, but I'm not sure he overtakes a Senior in Austin Spitler. If not my initial line-up at LB, I'd say Sabino starts at MLB and Dorian Bell comes in and takes an OLB position. I hate putting a true freshman in over a guy like Brian Rolle but I think Brian provides depth and continues to be a special teams warrior (our LB version of Shaun Lane....a side-note, but did anyone ever have back-to-back bang up Spring games at DB like Shaun Lane?)

DE will be interesting as well. Assuming Lawrence Wilson is 100% I don't see how he doesn't get the nod opposite Thaddeus Gibson. It sucks to say, but I also think Lawrence's character and dependabilty come into play as well. But a solid rotation at DE when Nathan can sub in. My wild-card in all of this is Rob Rose. If the guy could ever get into camp in good health, stay healthy, and be the force we thought he would be, where does he play??? The guy was Army All-American Defensive MVP for a reason. Is it too late for him to really make a stamp on this defense? I hope not.

I'd say of all positions I'm most concerned about are WR and Linebacker. I see the potential in players like Posey, Thomas, and Sanzenbacher. I think my hesitancy comes in how they're used and the offense we run. Was the lack of seperation this year due to speed, scheme, or both?? Bad QB play?? Bad offensive line protection?? I really like Robiskie as a Wideout. I think he is a steal in the draft. Not having a #1 like Teddy or Santonio really hurt his production b/c he is a great #2 in any system.

It will be interesting to see how Jake Stoneburner is used. TE hasn't been a position of pressure in the past, but putting a guy like Stoneburner out there would force defenses to take notice. Stoneburner would look great lined up off the line, just outside of the tackle. I think Stoneburner could become an Aaron Hernandez type player. Just an absolute mismatch that exploits LB's trying to key on the QB. If you haven't seen Hernandez much this year, watch for him tomorrow night against OU. He is slick...

I'm interested in seeing what happens to this offense. A new OC with experience in the spread could make this offense deadly with Terrelle at his disposal. I'd like to see the offense force defenses to play in space, and defend Terrelle on the perimeter. Play action, and read option is nice, but for Terrelle to really exploit a defense it'd be nice to see him get some run/thorw reads. It'd be great to see him run some fake option - throws. There are a lot of plays/schemes that would better utilize Terrelle's talents better than what we saw this year.

I'd just love to see the production out of an attacking offense. It was either Jax or NF that made a great statement: "Having a great defense doesn't mean you need a bad offense." How nice would it be to see an offense that averages around 40 a game and a defense that is stout as usual.
 
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One person that everyone forgets about at DE is Keith Wells (Who had good reviews this year) that gives us two True DEs (Williams and Wilson) and Two Speed Rushers (Gibson and Wells) and Two Run Stopper DEs (Rose and Cam) also one yet to be figured (Mobley)... I can see some good things out of this front... Then You got your run stopper DEs, Denlinger, Worthington, Goebel, Johnny Simon Coming in who can all play DT... I'm sad we lost Nader after this season, but This DL could be scary if they get mean.
 
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I'm worried about Chekwa.

I'm sure it was mentioned 10000 times over in the Texas thread (but I'm sure as hell not going through that).

If DWash leaves, then we're looking at a Chekwa-Amos tandem... with possibly Devon Torrance getting involved.

Chekwa was absolutely targeted in the Fiesta bowl. Colt 90% of the time was throwing right at Chekwa, knowing that Chimdi doesn't have the ball skills necessary to stop the passes over the top, nor the agility to stop the slant.

It was very surprising - I really thought Chekwa would be a great, standout corner by himself. He has good tackling skills, and he had a great interception at USC. But he was really exposed in the Fiesta bowl in a way a corner like Malcolm had never been.

I've only seen a corner get picked on that much one time - Syd'Quan Thompson of Cal two years ago at Tennessee. But Syd made a ridiculous improvement and is now an all pac-10 level performer, so who know how much one summer can help Chimdi.
 
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Regarding Checkwa-

I posted this in his thread...

OHSportsFan9;1376301; said:
They went after him A LOT.

He was about a step behind on most cases, which is easily compounded when facing a Heisman quarterback that is going to hit the mark 80% of the time. Very tough night for him, but he's shown he's got plenty of skill. Just a bad combination- step off most of the night and facing a great QB/WR tandem.

He won't face that kind of abuse again.

He'll be fine, IMO.
 
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Sportsbuck28;1376404; said:
Did you watch the bowl game? We blitzed a ton and manned up for the majority of the game.

The GW TD happened because the blitz didn't get there and we were in man... takes one missed tackle and TD.

True, we did play much more aggressively this game than we did all season, and the effect was obvious.

But we need to keep the mentality that every play, the qb is going to be hurried,pushed,knocked down or sacked. Reference Tsun vs. Florida, Tebow hates being hit, just like any qb. If you bring the wood enough times, whilst maintaining a solid coverage shell, everything becomes easier.

I'm most excited to see an improved o line, and I think Boren will really be a leader there. A close second in excitement would be someone other than Coach calling the plays.
 
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Oneshot;1377843; said:
If DWash leaves, then we're looking at a Chekwa-Amos tandem... with possibly Devon Torrance getting involved.

It would be nice to see a breakout offseason by a guy like Travis Howard, and/or if a DB recruit like Corey Brown comes in ready to contribute.
 
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