Thought this deserved its own thread to talk about the changes in the defense this year. New staff, new scheme, new priorities in recruiting. I'll start off with this:
The video posted in the Fall Camp thread with Bruno featured him saying repeatedly "aggressive" and "attack" as far as the new defensive mindset goes. Looking forward to seeing if it pays off.
The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
Moderators: UAdevil, JMarkJohns
Re: The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
Just what the Dr ordered. No more slowly just letting them roll down the field while sitting back and never attacking. I see blitzes, stunts, rolls, line movement and all types of deception.
Not sure we stop anyone consistently but I see a gambling, aggressive defense that turns the offense over a lot more than last year
Not sure we stop anyone consistently but I see a gambling, aggressive defense that turns the offense over a lot more than last year
Waiting at the Rose Bowl patiently for the cats to arrive
"I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more wildcat sports"
2019 BDW Survivor Pool Champion
"I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more wildcat sports"
2019 BDW Survivor Pool Champion
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scumdevils86
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Re: The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
Can't be any worse than last year. Might as well just be as aggressive as possible.
Re: The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
I get your point, but we shouldn't go that route. Remember all the moaning from the ASU fans in recent years when their blitz packages get torched for long touchdowns on every other series? 'Unpredictably aggressive' is the way you want to be.scumdevils86 wrote:Can't be any worse than last year. Might as well just be as aggressive as possible.
'A parent is the one person who is supposed to make their kid think they can do anything. Says they're beautiful even when they're ugly. Thinks they're smart even when they go to Arizona State.' -- Jack Donaghy
Re: The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
I went and watched some Boise State from last year to see how Yates ran his defense there. If Arizona's is anything like that, "aggressive" and "attack" is putting it mildly.
Almost all of the time they'll have (at least) four guys lined up in front. About a third to a quarter of the time it's four down linemen. The rest of the time it's three down and one standing, similar to what we saw a lot of the time under Casteel. When it's the latter, the blitzing is more along the lines of what the 3-3-5 used to be before the playcalling got conservative. Most of the time a fourth pass rusher will be coming. The key is, you don't know from where. There may be 3 or 4 guys lined up looking like they're ready to blitz but you don't know which one - or ones - are coming. The Stud might be the blitzer, or he may drop off into coverage. Or one of the linebackers. Or a safety. It might be two of them. The three linemen are not so much occupying blockers as they are trying to get to the QB. When it's four down linemen, he'll send a fifth guy on a blitz about half the time. On rare occasions they'll send a sixth guy. So these guys are definitely going after the QB big time.
Results? They had 32 sacks on the year and 22 interceptions. A lot of the interceptions were forced by the QB having to throw under pressure. By contrast, Arizona had 27 sacks on the year and 11 interceptions. Those numbers get a lot worse if you take the NAU game out of the numbers; take that out and the Cats had 22 sacks and 8 interceptions in 12 games. (To compare, if you take Boise St.'s FCS opponent out, you only lose one sack and one pick so they then have 31 sacks and 21 picks in 12 games.)
We don't know exactly what Yates is going to do with the defense but I would strongly suspect it's going to have a lot of similarities to what he did at Boise. The cornerbacks are going to have to be on point because they're often going to be on an island. Arizona's secondary is going to see a lot better QBs than Boise's (to be fair, they did play BYU and Mangum has a scary arm.) The guys are going to have a learning curve on the scheme. But I think they'll be able to get off the field on third and long a lot more than they did last year, and if they can do that it will be a huge difference, possibly 2-3 wins worth.
Almost all of the time they'll have (at least) four guys lined up in front. About a third to a quarter of the time it's four down linemen. The rest of the time it's three down and one standing, similar to what we saw a lot of the time under Casteel. When it's the latter, the blitzing is more along the lines of what the 3-3-5 used to be before the playcalling got conservative. Most of the time a fourth pass rusher will be coming. The key is, you don't know from where. There may be 3 or 4 guys lined up looking like they're ready to blitz but you don't know which one - or ones - are coming. The Stud might be the blitzer, or he may drop off into coverage. Or one of the linebackers. Or a safety. It might be two of them. The three linemen are not so much occupying blockers as they are trying to get to the QB. When it's four down linemen, he'll send a fifth guy on a blitz about half the time. On rare occasions they'll send a sixth guy. So these guys are definitely going after the QB big time.
Results? They had 32 sacks on the year and 22 interceptions. A lot of the interceptions were forced by the QB having to throw under pressure. By contrast, Arizona had 27 sacks on the year and 11 interceptions. Those numbers get a lot worse if you take the NAU game out of the numbers; take that out and the Cats had 22 sacks and 8 interceptions in 12 games. (To compare, if you take Boise St.'s FCS opponent out, you only lose one sack and one pick so they then have 31 sacks and 21 picks in 12 games.)
We don't know exactly what Yates is going to do with the defense but I would strongly suspect it's going to have a lot of similarities to what he did at Boise. The cornerbacks are going to have to be on point because they're often going to be on an island. Arizona's secondary is going to see a lot better QBs than Boise's (to be fair, they did play BYU and Mangum has a scary arm.) The guys are going to have a learning curve on the scheme. But I think they'll be able to get off the field on third and long a lot more than they did last year, and if they can do that it will be a huge difference, possibly 2-3 wins worth.
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threenumberones
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Re: The 2016 Defensive Rebuild
I've got modest expectations early. 'Rebuild' is the right word - it won't happen overnight. All I want to see is good play calling, solid fundamentals (wrap the F up for the love of god), and passion/energy. Not getting out the measuring stick until next year. Yates deserves that with what he has to work with.