One posters opinion - Defense (1st in a series)

Overall I think the defense played well, given the youth, JC influx and injuries in the secondary. The defense improved through the course of the season. Unfortunately the lack of offense resulted in the wearing down of the defense as game went on. Schematically, Wilcox and the staff usually had a scheme to limit the abilities of the offense they were facing. The biggest shortfall was an overall lack of depth, especially at LB.

Defensive Line:
Malik Jackson was steady all year and when Maurice Couch developed he began to excel. He will be missed. Couch’s development was a key factor in the DL play and the last several games he demonstrated why he was recruited and should be a force for us next year. Hood was a steady player, nothing spectacular stands out but he provided quality minutes at DT for us. Corey Miller should be able to use the PT he got this year to help his development in the off season.

The DEs were a disappointment across the board. Jacques Smith needs to increase his discipline to play within the system. He had a lot of talent that he wastes trying to do things his way, not within the system. Bohannon passed him on the depth chart by the end of the season. Bohannon’s development will help us next year. The DL is an area that needs an influx of talent. We need 2-3 DEs and a couple of DTs

Line Backers:
The first three played well throughout the year. The two freshmen are good and have the potential to be great. We saw a lot of growing pains, especially for AJ, who was playing out of position due to Lathers’ injury. Austin Johnson played very well throughout the year and when we went more to the zone he excelled in pass defense. Sapp played well in spots. Vereen seemed to regress and essentially disappeared in the 2nd half of the season.

Maggitt can be a huge disrupter. AJ, when he moves to the middle next year can be the Mike we haven’t seen since Al Wilson left. We need Lathers to recover to play Will. Those three can be a great set of LBs for next year. Sapp needs to continue to develop as a backup and we need a couple more players to step up at Will and Mike as backups. Perhaps Mitchell-Thornton can be one of the backups. Can King stay healthy enough to play?

Secondary:
The loss off JJ before the start of the season hurt the team in many ways. It forced Wagner to play safety instead of corner is perhaps the biggest area it hurt. Despite having to play multiple positions Wagner was perhaps the best player in the secondary. His shoulder injury really limited him the last few games. Randolph was the biggest pleasant surprise. He had some issues early on with positioning but he really blossomed the second half of the season. He has the potential to be the best safety since Berry. Brewer was a disappointment. He missed a lot of tackles from the strong safety position. Perhaps he was trying to compensate for Randolph’s youth, don’t know but we need him to recover and play well next year. Speaking of disappointments, Moore was perhaps the biggest on defense. He came on late but needs to continue to develop. Lanier played very well at corner and, outside of Wagner, was our best corner. Coleman had a lot of hype that he never lived up to on the field. Teague was crispy but after injuries gave him another shot at playing was playing better at corner. Wilks improved to the point of being a capable backup. Gordon can make plays but to start at corner needs to play better within the system. He may end up primarily as a 5th back but if so he can help us there, a lot.

For next year we need Brewer to recover both physically and mentally to join Randolph at safety. Moore needs to continue to develop as a safety and perhaps Coleman at safety. At corner the two best are Lanier and Wagner with Teague, Gordon and Coleman behind them. It looks like we have some talent coming in to help. Once again I hope going into the season the secondary will be a strength, not a liability. One area of improvement across the board is to play better angles. The number of times we took good angles to attack the ball carrier is a much smaller list than the times we did not.

Defensive Staff:
I am warming to Wilcox as the DC. He schematically is very good and despite all the whining by myself and others showed an ability to adjust. The move of Thompson to DL and Sirmon to LB coaches paid off in a big way. Joseph gets a lot of flack but I saw true development in the secondary this year and it appears the recruiting, that he heads, is going well. I like this staff and hope we can keep it together going into next year. I feel that both Thompson and Sirmon will be in demand though.

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