At minimum what do we need to sign to compete on defense?

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no traction on Defensive Backs

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They’ve signed 14 dbs in the last two classes


Come out from under that rock my guy

This ESD portion of this class is 90-95% done. Anyone who follows recruiting, which you evidently don’t, knows this. Other than a couple of Aggies who might flip (and one of them has pushed out to the late signing day) and a JUCO DL, there’s no one else.

Turn your attention to the portal, because you are wasting your time thinking anything significant is going to change between now and 12/20. Staff changes might help with the LSD, but are really about the 24 season and 25 class.

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They’ve signed 14 dbs in the last two classes

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Not counting the portal, in '22 we signed:
Jordan Allen - RS in '22; ltd action in '23
Latrrance Welch in the portal
Jaelyn Davis-Robinson - left after '22

From '23 we signed:
Jeremiah Hughes - some action in all '12 games in '23
Javien Toviano - shows promise
Kylin Jackson - ltd action in 4 games in '23
Ryan Yates - played in all 12 games in '23
Ashton Stamps - played a good bit in '23
Michael Daugherty - in portal in Spring '23.

On paper, we signed some solid talent. Why our secondary was soooo bad IDK.

A DC!! Lol

We might need 4-6 defensive kids from the portal. A lot of it depends on who is turning pro or hitting the portal themselves.....

1 DL
1 DE / Edge Rusher
1 LB
1 S
1-2 CB

I'm hoping JK Johnson returns in 2024 to CB and is healthy. Toviano moves back to S. Perkins stays. I think with a better DC the players we had on our '23 roster could have played better.

We need 10 new starters that look and play like the guys Georgia and Bama has. Perk is the only guy who sees the field on either of those defenses.

Where’s Perk going?

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Yes we signed some talent in those two classes, however expecting that talent to be competitive and ready to play at a high level immediately is absurd and unrealistic. Mostly physically and mentally not prepared to compete against players who are two, three and four years into college careers and development.

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I agree that depending on true Fr is a risky proposition but it is by no means unprecedented including in the secondary. In fact here, it has a pretty rich legacy - off the top of my head, LaRon, PP7, Tre White, Eric Reid, Stingley, Ricks, Tyrann, Travis Daniels all played significantly as true Fr.

Yes, there are growing pains but by now, we're 25 games into the CBK era. That's a lot of time to get experience and yet going into '24 we're not much better off than we were coming into '23 at DB.

No inside info but I think the very thing about House that appealed to CBK is the very thing that's making life difficult. House convinced CBK that he was adept at defending DT QBs using his zone schemes. But because Os are more complex than ever, mastering his zone schemes takes time. Not as straightforward as plugging a true Fr in man. Hence, all the confusion and blown coverages.

And to be fair to House, he may be right. I just don't know if this approach is feasible in the NIL/portal era.

IOW, the root cause is not inexperience, but a scheme that's gonna take longer to master than players have patience for.

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IOW, the root cause is not inexperience, but a scheme that's gonna take longer to master than players have patience for.

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And isn’t that great to begin with.

Being so stuck on one scheme and not adjusting scheme to players is a giant red flag to me.