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Poll: JT's Best DC

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Best D Coordinator of the Tressel era?

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NFBuck said:
Maybe "talent" wasn't the word I was looking for. Gamebreakers may be a better word. Smith, Wilhelm, Doss, Scott, Gamble were all really tremendous players, but guys like Hawk, Carp, Kudla have been really disruptive forces this year. It's hard to call, but I think Dantonio had that D playing better "all around" that year. My opinion...:ohwell:
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Oh I understand your opinion completely...

For me, in terms of personnel breakdown...

The DL is obviously 02

The LBs obviously goes to 05

Secondary:

FS: Salley vs. Nickey-- Nate is a major hitter and is improving in coverage, but he is still a liability back there at times. Nickey was under-appreciated due to a rocky start to his career. However, he became a very steady FS in his final years. In a close one, I go with Nickey.

SS: Doss vs. Whitner-- Again, Doss was a major hitter who was a coverage liabilty at times. His All-American status, however, shows his penchant for the big plays. Whitner is getting better and better every game. He hits like a truck and is also regarded as a big play guy. This one is too close to call, but when leadership and All-American awards are taken into consideration, give me Doss by a hair...but that one hurts.

Boundary CB: Fox vs. Everett/Jenkins-- Give me Fox all day over Everett. Malcolm has all the makings of a great one, but the argument is for right now, not for potential. Fox.

Field CB: Gamble vs. Youboty-- Chris Gamble is an unbelievable athlete, but was just learning the position in 02. He got by on pure athleticism which was more than enough. AY is as solid of a CB as I have seen at tOSU in a while. Using the same logic as used on the other side of the field, I would take AY in 05 over Gamble in 02. I think AY would have benefitted from the tenacious DL pressure if he was able to play at his current skill level on the 02 team. Another close one, but I would go with AY on a year-related judgment call.

Secondary goes to 02 -- 3-1...at least IMHO
 
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I do like Heacocks "attack" philosophy better, but we need better coverage for it to work to full effect, I think next year with Jenkins (who I also feel has the makings of a good one), Yabouty, Whitner plus JamO and BMitchell all improving, that facet could be vastly improved in '06. Hopefully MDA, Freeman, Hoobler et al can prevent TOO BIG a dropoff in the LB corp. The DL should be pretty solid too with Pitcock, Patterson, Abdallah, Penton and Worthington coming back. Next year is going to be fun too.:biggrin:
 
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I voted Heacock, because the only thing separating this defense from the 2002 squad, and a national championship is the turnover margin. Coaches don't create turn overs, players do. Schemes don't cause turnovers (for the most part) players do. If this defense (and team, because part if it is due to the sloppy offensive ball protection) had the same turnover margin as our 2002 team we would be undefeated and on our way to the rose bowl. The other thing I like about Heacock is that he makes GREAT second half adjustments. How many second half touchdowns do we have against us this year, 4 or 5? How many of those came in junk time with backups? Dantonio's 2003 team especially gave up a lot of 2and half points, and often allowed teams back into the game when they should have been out of it.
 
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osugrad21 said:
FS: Salley vs. Nickey-- Nate is a major hitter and is improving in coverage, but he is still a liability back there at times. Nickey was under-appreciated due to a rocky start to his career. However, he became a very steady FS in his final years. In a close one, I go with Nickey.
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This is the only place I disagree. Nickey appeared to be out of position in coverage as much as Salley. The biggest example I can recall is the play Gamble came from across the field to make the INT on the despiration heave near the end of the 2002 Purdue game...Nickey had gotten totally turned around because he had no idea where the ball was. Had Gamble not got there, it would've been a completion and Purdue would've had a first down fairly deep in our territory with around a minute or so left. I personally would give the nod to Salley because Nate hits a little harder and is a little bit surer tackler.

As for Fox over Jenkins, I completely agree with the "proven" versus "potential" approach. It'll be nice to compare the two again in a couple years...I think Malcolm will be getting the nod then.
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
This is the only place I disagree. Nickey appeared to be out of position in coverage as much as Salley.
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We'll have to agree to disagree on this one Kahuna. IMO, Nickey as a senior in 02 was a very steady ballplayer and made many of those unnoticed solid plays that makes a FS good. I remember the play you are talking about, but without seeing it again, I'm not sure what Nickey saw or if it was a blown assignment. To me, Nickey just read the field better and had that extra step on Nate. Tough call, but I see DN as the better of the two.
 
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Just to put my 2 cents in. I voted for Dantonio because of the NC.

I agree that it's an easy call for the 2002 DL and the 2005 LB's. But I think that Tim Anderson was another real difference maker on that 2002 line that hasn't been mentioned much in this thread.

And it's awful difficult to judge coordinators on one year. After seeing them adjust schemes to fit different groups of players, a fairer judgment can be made.

But I must admit to making some unfavorable judgments based on just 2 games in 2004 (Iowa and NW'ern).

I was not upset in the same way during the Minnesota game this year, I felt that the schemes weren't a big problem (Cupito was hot, and I believed that AY was playing hurt).

I'm happy with what Heacock has done overall so far, attacking more often. I would certainly like to see a few more forced turnovers, though.
 
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BB73 said:
But I must admit to making some unfavorable judgments based on just 2 games in 2004 (Iowa and NW'ern).

I was not upset in the same way during the Minnesota game this year,
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I think Heacock and Dantonio are pretty much even in the "second-half adjustments" category, clearly well-ahead of Snyder. Heacock proved something to me with the 2nd quarter adjustment to Vince Young and in the 2nd half adjustment to Minnesota.

BB73 said:
I felt that the schemes weren't a big problem (Cupito was hot, and I believed that AY was playing hurt).
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I don't know whether or not Youboty was hurt against Minnesota, but many of those passes weren't ones that a player can easily defend. Youboty's man had a good size advantage and Cupito was on fire hitting his spots on those bombs. You expect a QB to hit about 15-20% of those and you take your chances playing the percentages, there isn't much you can do when the QB goes 6-for-6 for 250 yards on those. What's the alternative to take those routes away? Give Maroney and Russell a 25-yard cushion by playing the safties deep? No thanks.

That's just what good offenses do and OSU had the misfortune of catching them on an especially good day.

Anyhow, I think where Dantonio wins this contest is on the strength of those late season 2002 games. The second half shutout of Michigan was a thing of beauty.
 
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Dryden said:
I think Heacock and Dantonio are pretty much even in the "second-half adjustments" category, clearly well-ahead of Snyder. Heacock proved something to me with the 2nd quarter adjustment to Vince Young and in the 2nd half adjustment to Minnesota.

I don't know whether or not Youboty was hurt against Minnesota, but many of those passes weren't ones that a player can easily defend. Youboty's man had a good size advantage and Cupito was on fire hitting his spots on those bombs. You expect a QB to hit about 15-20% of those and you take your chances playing the percentages, there isn't much you can do when the QB goes 6-for-6 for 250 yards on those. What's the alternative to take those routes away? Give Maroney and Russell a 25-yard cushion by playing the safties deep? No thanks.

That's just what good offenses do and OSU had the misfortune of catching them on an especially good day.
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I'm in agreement with you about the Minnesota game. My original statement meant to contrast the way I felt about the two 2004 games with the Minny game. I wasn't upset with what the defense was doing at the time, even though Minnesota was piling up offensive numbers. I think my thoughts were probably similar to yours - something like "well, shit happens, we've got to stop the run against this team".
 
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