re: Aranda defense

This is as honest as I can make it. I am not trying to trash Aranda and like him as a coach. The fact remains we have not had the over acheiving shut down defenses that many of us thought were coming with Dave. But have we had good strong defenses that won us games. For sure.

In the Texas game we had some problems. Tackling being the main one. More missed tackles in that game than I can remember for awhile. I think this is a trend we have seen coming on the last couple of years. Don't know who you blame it on. Individuals not working hard enough on their technique. Coaches not emphasizing it enough? In the old days it seemed we had athletes that were so much better and bigger that all we had to do was knock them down. Not anymore. Everyone has players that spend half the year in a weight room getting stronger.

Second thing was the coverage on some of those long throws by Texas. The coverge was almost but just not good enough. We were in position to make plays and just didn't make them. I am sure Aranda and Coach O will have them working to correct this stuff and we still may wind up with a great shut down defense.