re: should we consider changing to a 3-4 defense?

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valentine is literally the only person who even comes close to being able to play nose guard. IF we switched to a 3-4 (which we're not going to do) we would have to flip a backup O-lineman to play NG.

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i agree that valentine is the only natural fit for a nose tackle, but lacouture, m johnson, gilmore, and q thomas are all north of 300 lbs., which is what you first need from someone to be an NT. we would recruit differently, but i don't think we'd be completely without if we were to transition into a 3-4 with the personnel that we already have (whether or not they'd be ideal in that system, i do think that we could run the system with who we've got).

to everyone else: the point of my post is not "should we change the whole defense overnight because we lost 2 games?" no, i'm raising the broader subject of defensive scheme because times are changing but our defense isn't and that shows on the field more and more each year.

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The line and the backers suck. -Broham

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yes, they've underperformed. my point, though, is that having more players who aren't locked horns with the OL at the start of every snap would allow us to use more of our speed, since chavis doesn't lean on the blitz.

furthermore, i know that the switch would be "brutal." but what we're seeing is already brutal, so that isn't a legit counter.

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What he did to Oregon in their prime when Chip Kelly was there, could not have been done by anyone else including Saban. -offshoretrash

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mingo was not a normal 4-3 DE. that dude ran down lamichael james, who runs a 4.45, from behind in the backfield. mingo was better than a prototypical 4-3 DE or a 3-4 DE/LB. it's hard to compare a defense apples to apples when we had him on our DL and we were fielding an all-time great secondary. so, while the scheme was the same, i don't think that game necessarily accurately represents the potency of chavis' 4-3 against a spread offense.

what irks me most is that, while we may not currently have the personnel to run a 3-4, it seems that we also don't have the personnel to run the 4-3.