re: IMHO M. Kiffen will be a flop....

quote:

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A Super Bowl winning Defensive Coordinator

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people sure do hold onto that super bowl win. the win that came a year after dungy left and his defense was still in place and gruden ramped up the offense.

what have they done since?
let me answer it for you.
7-9
5-11
11-5 (lost in wild card game in a weak NFC year)
4-12
9-7 (lost wild card game)
9-7

There is so much more to a Tampa 2 than a modified cover 2 or a "bent don't break." Those are general terms.

Many pressure formations can be run from the Tampa 2. A Tampa 2 can be aggressive or passive..complicated or simple. It is all relative to your talent's ability, skill, and brains.

People, focus on personality and philosophy more than scheme.

M. Kiffen can coach. Now, how much will age and wanting to coach semi-pro players (kids really) along with recruiting and playing a "father figure" will factor into this.

No one really knows how this will turn out, but Monty Kiffin does get a lot of praise for the defense that Tony Dungy built. One major thing that people are forgetting is that its easier in the NFL to fit players to your system than in college. There are no free agents and you are limited in recruiting. Sure, they could get some recruits to fit the system, but its different then getting seasoned players that fit the system.

We don't know if Kiffin can coach his players up from such a raw state. Also, Lane Kiffin really didn't even have that long a stint as OC and actually had Sarkisian as a Co-OC, so no one knows who was the problem after Chow left. In the end, only time will tell, but I have to admit that Tennessee is taking a pretty big risk.

quote:

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what have they done since?
let me answer it for you.
7-9
5-11
11-5 (lost in wild card game in a weak NFC year)
4-12
9-7 (lost wild card game)
9-7

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Most of those bad seasons were because their offenses blew. It was certainly not because of defense. I don't know how well he'll do, but I doubt anyone who coached against the Saints, Panthers, and Falcons 2 times every year is going to lose a lot of sleep being scared of South Carolina and Georgia.

One of my friends is a Tampa fan so I've heard a lot of discussion over what the Tampa 2 is and isn't and what players you need to run it over the last, oooh, 5 years.

If you want one simple rule of thumb to know whether the Tampa 2 will work or not it's this: You must bring pressure all day with just the front 4 for this D to work, or you might as well not turn up.

Yes there are zone blitzes, yes Ronde Barber has like 20+ career sacks, but if you do not bring pressure from the front 4, any decent QB is gonna pick out the holes in the zones all day long.

After that, the 7 players behind them need to be fast, sure tacklers (just like any other D so far) who can all drop in to coverage, particularly the mike. The corners have to be able to play the run and be physical enough to get into the backfield on occasions, they'll be playing close to the LOS much of the time. When tackling, because these players, even the LBs, are gonna be smaller than the players they're trying to bring down a fair amount of the time, proper tackling is vital, get the arms wrapped around, and if the first man doesn't take the player down, the second will.

It's a lot more intricate than that in reality, one gap two gap undertackle blah blah blah.

People here act like the Tampa 2 is brain surgery. Great D line play helps the defense out but that applies to any scheme you run. The Vols will have coach O running that part of the D next year. I'd take Coach Kiffin and O on my staff any day.