re: Kelly - I think the defensive tackle position will be the area we move aggressively

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I’d bet that’s not true. One of our LBers is the fastest in LSU history and Greg Penn has good speed. Our DEs have good speed and so do our DTs. The corners are probably a step slower than we are used to, but that’s nothing you are going to notice, and our safeties are probably faster than the average for LSU. This is not a slow defense, even though the rant is going to agree with you 3 to 1 at least.

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I disagree on Penn. He doesn’t have great lateral speed. Part of the problem with Speights is that he injured his hip. He may have come back, but he won’t be fully over that until after the season. He’s definitely slower than he could be fully healthy. Savion Jones is also on the slow side now that he’s bulked up.

That said, I do agree with your premise for the majority of the defensive players. It’s less that the players are slow and more that they are playing a read and react scheme that they don’t fully understand. Playing passive and reacting too slowly will make any player seem slower than he really is.

There are more things to fix than just this, but I think we will see a big difference in playing speed if the new DC switches us to an attacking, or at least a less reactive scheme.