What's Wrong With the 2013 Defense?

[OHSportsFan]

It's cool, guys, let's NOT learn about how to defend a TE Throwback play.

I mean, is that not a slap in the face to the defensive staff? To have a team KILL you one week (Michigan) with that play and then allow another team to KILL you with it the following week? Led by Bollman?!

 

[Mike80]

I'm giving you Curtis Grant, Joshua Perry, Pitt Brown, C.J. Barnett, and Tyvis Powell. As a bonus, you can have Armani Reeves, Camren Williams, Joe Burger, Ron Tanner, Devan Bogard, and a bunch of true freshmen who aren't ready to play at this level. Can you come up with a defensive scheme that will work with those guys?

There has to be something they do well. Find it and put them in position to stop it.

I've got some issues with the defensive philosophy - why is Noah Spence dropping into coverage, why isn't Ryan Shazier blitzing more - and I think that Luke could use a change of scenery, but at certain positions the talent level really is THIS bad.

And we have the right guy for the job to fix that.

 

[strohs]

I'm giving you Curtis Grant, Joshua Perry, Pitt Brown, C.J. Barnett, and Tyvis Powell. As a bonus, you can have Armani Reeves, Camren Williams, Joe Burger, Ron Tanner, Devan Bogard, and a bunch of true freshmen who aren't ready to play at this level. Can you come up with a defensive scheme that will work with those guys?

Obviously recruiting ratings are not the end all be all, but here is the scout rating of the guys you mentioned:
Grant 5*
Perry 4*
Pitt Brown 4*
Barnett 4*
Powell 3*
Reeves 4*
Williams 4*
Tanner 4*
Bogard 4*
The bunch of true freshman are also all highly rated 4* and 5* guys.
How can the coaches NOT come up with a scheme that will work with those guys?

 

[Taosman]

It's still a talent and youth issue in the secondary and at linebacker. Curtis Grant is not a linebacker, move him to DE.
Perry is young but getting better. Need the young guys to step up, get coached up. Need Urban to step in and ask Fickel to make changes at linebacker and at safety. Secondary is a horror show right now. Even when we had Bryant they were not great.(Remember Cal?)

 

[SEREbuckeye]

Obviously recruiting ratings are not the end all be all, but here is the scout rating of the guys you mentioned:
Grant 5*
Perry 4*
Pitt Brown 4*
Barnett 4*
Powell 3*
Reeves 4*
Williams 4*
Tanner 4*
Bogard 4*
The bunch of true freshman are also all highly rated 4* and 5* guys.
How can the coaches NOT come up with a scheme that will work with those guys?

Coombs is coaching in one of the biggest conferences against some of the best players with a resume held up by High School and an AAC team. Inexperience shows here, and its glaring that the DBs are having the issues on the defense.

Withers is in charge of the safeties and is also the Co-DC. Im sure he believes in his coaching style and players, but they are clearly not up to snuff. Balance his opinion with a guy, Fickell, that spends his time working the LBs; the two have to come up with schemes they mutually think will work. Fickell has to punt to Withers in terms of Safety/backfield opinions as those are his bread and butter.

In the end were taking Inexperience + TWO defensive coordinators and still expecting something other than muddy waters. Its really no surprise they can't get their schemes together.

 

[SEREbuckeye]

It's still a talent and youth issue in the secondary and at linebacker. Curtis Grant is not a linebacker, move him to DE.
Perry is young but getting better. Need the young guys to step up, get coached up. Need Urban to step in and ask Fickel to make changes at linebacker and at safety. Secondary is a horror show right now. Even when we had Bryant they were not great.(Remember Cal?)

Why would Urban ask Fickell to make the changes at safety? Thats Co-DC Everett Withers position.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

Obviously recruiting ratings are not the end all be all, but here is the scout rating of the guys you mentioned:
Grant 5*
Perry 4*
Pitt Brown 4*
Barnett 4*
Powell 3*
Reeves 4*
Williams 4*
Tanner 4*
Bogard 4*
The bunch of true freshman are also all highly rated 4* and 5* guys.

Recruiting ratings are fun on the first Wednesday of February, but that's about all that they are good for. Every recruit enters Ohio State as a 0* college football player. A third of those guys leave Ohio State as 0* players (injuries, transfers, dismissals). Another third develop into mediocre college players (2* and 3*), guys who can make minor contributions. The final third become your starters and major contributors (4*), the core of the team. A third of that final third become star players (5*). So in any given recruiting class, seven or eight guys will become solid college players, with two or three of them becoming stars. The players listed above fall into that middle third (2* and 3*), or at least they should be there, but too many of them have been thrust into starting roles due to injuries and poor recruiting.

How can the coaches NOT come up with a scheme that will work with those guys?

Using your logic, the coaching staff should be able to come up with a successful scheme for Melvin Fellows (5*), Dorian Bell (5*), Dominic Clarke (4*), Jamie Wood (4*), Scott McVey (4*), Jamel Turner (4*), DerJuan Gambrell (4*), Kenny Hayes (4*), David Perkins (4*), Se'von Pittman (4*), Najee Murray (4*), and Jeremy Cash (3*).

 

[Taosman]

Why would Urban ask Fickell to make the changes at safety? Thats Co-DC Everett Withers position.

The point is Urban taking more of an "interest" in the "issues" there and pushing for improvement. Like his teling the defensive coaches last year to get "aggressive".

 

[sparcboxbuck]

Ok - running back through the DVR:

1. The d-line was Jekyll and Hyde all game long. A lot of that had to do with MSU's offensive line, but there were times when the d-line was getting no push whatsoever.

2. Shazier is a beast, but other than one or two, that was the quietest 12 tackle game I can remember from him.

3. 3 man rush was employed again, and the holes in the zone showed up again.

4. Not one blitz got home. Bosa was the pass rush most of the time.

5. The defensive staff has some serious issues on the back 7 - namely, I think they are giving the players too many keys to read instead of just letting them play. I think a lot of the issues are 'brain cramp' type things instead of instinctual. Looking at the TD they gave up in the 4th quarter to the TE - it's clear Barnett is seeing something that wasn't there and it burned them.

I think a simplified scheme would do this defensive backfield wonders. If that means new coaches, then that's what it has to be.

Also, there were too many times when the defense would blitz where the MSU offense knew exactly where it was coming from and where to go with the ball. This isn't the first time - scUM did it as well and to a certain extent, so did Iowa. Those tendencies and how they are not being broken is putting the players in a bad spot.

Totally see what you're saying about things being too complicated. There's been times that I've had to just tell players to stick to their man like glue. Don't come off him and if you get beat be calling for help. Granted, it's lacrosse so not all the concepts are the same, but sometimes you have to just simplify and let 'em play.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

I'm giving you Curtis Grant, Joshua Perry, Pitt Brown, C.J. Barnett, and Tyvis Powell. As a bonus, you can have Armani Reeves, Camren Williams, Joe Burger, Ron Tanner, Devan Bogard, and a bunch of true freshmen who aren't ready to play at this level. Can you come up with a defensive scheme that will work with those guys?
.

No. Isn't that the problem though? The difference between our secondary and a construction zone is that the cones in a work zone are usually in the right place. I hate to use the phrase "We're just throwing money at the problem" but that's what it feels like every time a D lineman goes out and is replaced by an additional secondary player. Nickel and Dime? Sometimes I think that's an opponent's offensive play call and not our defensive formation.

Only two defensive formations that could possibly play to our strengths at this point are......

Obviously these aren't the most viable of solutions...but if guys are going to be wide open anyway.................can we at least make sure we hit the QB?

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Tony Gerdeman ‏@GerdOzone2h
While Braxton Miller completed 46.3% of his passes in the last four games, opposing QBs completed 63.7% of theirs against the OSU defense.

 

[Mike80]

Interesting....

 

[TampaBuckeyes]

EVERYTHING, we got beat by Bollman

 

[WaitingforKickoff]

Honestly I can't see how we can be worse with Burrows or Bell at safety. In hindsight, redshirting Mitchell/Conley/Apple were probably really bad decisions, as those guys could've at least competed and provided some depth.

Either way, next year is going to be the year for this defense. I'm going to project Mitchell-Perry-Johnson with Grant first off the bench at LBer, and D. Grant-Bell-Powell-Burrows with Worley at star to round off the DBs. DL is also pretty stacked.

 

[TampaBuckeyes]

Honestly I can't see how we can be worse with Burrows or Bell at safety. In hindsight, redshirting Mitchell/Conley/Apple were probably really bad decisions, as those guys could've at least competed and provided some depth.

Either way, next year is going to be the year for this defense. I'm going to project Mitchell-Perry-Johnson with Grant first off the bench at LBer, and D. Grant-Bell-Powell-Burrows with Worley at star to round off the DBs. DL is also pretty stacked.

Not necessarily depth, but they could have put more pressure on the starters. Hyde said his suspension was a wake up call when he saw that 2+ guys behind him were ready to start and he needed to work to keep it. I would guess Miller had a similar thought when he saw Guiton out there shredding defenses. Getting guys like Apple, Mitchell and Conley some playing time might have turned on the same light bulb in the rest of the defense. Particularly in the secondary, there wasn't anyone who looked like they were going 100% all the time. The only guy I saw on D go all out every minute he was on the field was Bosa, and he had Washington breathing down the back of his neck for playing time. Well, and Shazier, that guy is an animal.