re: Any news on conditioning or speed of play?

Most of the replies to your post seem to be pointing to the speed / athleticism of the players. Yes, we do have a lot of fast players and will have a fast defense. But if I'm not mistaken, you're not so much asking about that as the style of the training and how that will be utilized on defense.

I remember going into the 2011 season there was talk-- I think stemming from comments by Chavis and maybe Miles (or players)-- that the defense did train differently than they did in previous years. The motivation was to make sure they were absolutely ready to deal with the speed of Oregon. As the season went on, the fans here on TD ran with the idea that these changes payed dividends throughout the season.

The defense certainly was spectacular in 2011, though it's hard to know how much to credit the way they prepared that summer (as opposed to the year before) vs the fact that they had so much talent: TM, Reid, Claiborne, Minter, Mingo, Brockers & Logan were all legit stars off the top of my head. I think the D would have been excellent regardless.

Still, I, too, have wondered if Chavis found long term benefit to how they supposedly trained that summer in preparation for Oregon and if he has continued to employ some of the same training strategies since then. And what were the changes? Was it just a greater emphasis on conditioning and making sure the defense had better cardio to match OU's tempo? Or were there different team defense concepts related to zone play to contain speed... like D Ends or LBs lining up wider? Is the defense Chavis runs noticeably different pre-2011 and post?