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Started By
Message
Position by Position Comparison: '09 vs '10 (Defense)
Posted on 1/26/10 at 9:51 am
Posted on 1/26/10 at 9:51 am
DE
Lose: Rahim Alem(34 tackles, 4.5 sacks).
Return: Pep Levingston (28, 0), Lavar Edwards (23, 2.5), Chancey Aghayere, Chase Clement, and some guys coming off redshirts such as Sam Montgomery, Michael Brockers (may make the move to the interior).
Alem was victimized very often in the running game and was not an effective enough pass rusher to make up for this. Not a huge loss imo. Pep needs to improve in several aspects of his game. He was really a non-factor this year and may see less playing time next year with some younger guys’ development. Lavar Edwards was the best end we had when he was on the field imo. He had great production in limited time this year. Big things are expecting from Montgomery and Aghayere played well at times and will benefit from his experience. We were limited this past year with only two guys older than FR. Development and growth makes us deeper as a whole next year and certainly we have some talented guys set to take on a bigger role.
Improvement
DT
Lose: Charles Alexander (29, 1), Al Woods (33, 1)
Return: Drake Nevis (50, 4), Josh Downs, Chris Davenport
We lose a lot in terms of depth. With only three guys returning, we are very shallow here and we could use some help from incoming guys if we manage to pull any (Marsh would be a great help if we can hang on to him). On the bright side, Nevis was far and away our best lineman this year and Downs showed some very good things while being undersized. He will greatly benefit from a full offseason of strengthening and getting bigger. Neither of these two are big run stuffers so Davenport will need to be ready to step on the field and perform right away. I would expect to see Brockers moved here which has already been rumored. Nevis might get double teamed quite a bit so these other guys will need to make an impact right away. I think we take a small step back due to depth.
Regression
LB
Lose: Harry Coleman (82), Perry Riley (97), Jacob Cutrera (81)
Return: Kelvin Sheppard (110), Ryan Baker, Steffoin Francois, Kevin Minter and a bunch of young guys
Lose 3 quality linebackers here but the good news is the best returns in Kelvin Sheppard. Ryan Baker is set to take over one of the open spots and the other spot seems to be up for grabs. I look for Baker to play a similar style to Coleman’s and get his named called on blitzes often. Too many question marks here and losing those three LBs will cause us to take a step back.
Regression
CB
Lose: Chris Hawkins
Return: Patrick Peterson, Jai Eugene, Morris Claiborne, Ron Brooks
Don’t lose much here. Jai was pretty much playing over Hawkins at the end of the year. Of course we return PP. Morris Claiborne impressed, earning his way into the 2 deep as a true FR. He will push Jai but I think Jai will hold down his spot and play well. Certainly this is a position of strength on the defense next year.
Push/Improvement
S
Lose: Chad Jones, Danny McCray
Return: Brandon Taylor, Karnell Hatcher, possibly Ron Brooks, Craig Loston
The secondary would have been something to watch had Chad Jones come back. He was playing at a high level at the end of the year and the improvement he showed during the year had me excited about him next year. However, we have several guys who have gotten playing time and are ready to take on a larger role. Hatcher and Taylor are polar opposites of each other. Hatcher better in tackling/run help and Taylor better in coverage. Brooks was supposedly the starting SS at some point in the offseason so he may compete for a spot. Craig Loston needs to be on the field however. Huge things are expected from Loston and had he not gotten in school a little late and had a hand injury I’m sure we would have seen some of him this year. Chad Jones will be hard to replace but we certainly have the talent to do so.
Push/Regression
Lose: Rahim Alem(34 tackles, 4.5 sacks).
Return: Pep Levingston (28, 0), Lavar Edwards (23, 2.5), Chancey Aghayere, Chase Clement, and some guys coming off redshirts such as Sam Montgomery, Michael Brockers (may make the move to the interior).
Alem was victimized very often in the running game and was not an effective enough pass rusher to make up for this. Not a huge loss imo. Pep needs to improve in several aspects of his game. He was really a non-factor this year and may see less playing time next year with some younger guys’ development. Lavar Edwards was the best end we had when he was on the field imo. He had great production in limited time this year. Big things are expecting from Montgomery and Aghayere played well at times and will benefit from his experience. We were limited this past year with only two guys older than FR. Development and growth makes us deeper as a whole next year and certainly we have some talented guys set to take on a bigger role.
Improvement
DT
Lose: Charles Alexander (29, 1), Al Woods (33, 1)
Return: Drake Nevis (50, 4), Josh Downs, Chris Davenport
We lose a lot in terms of depth. With only three guys returning, we are very shallow here and we could use some help from incoming guys if we manage to pull any (Marsh would be a great help if we can hang on to him). On the bright side, Nevis was far and away our best lineman this year and Downs showed some very good things while being undersized. He will greatly benefit from a full offseason of strengthening and getting bigger. Neither of these two are big run stuffers so Davenport will need to be ready to step on the field and perform right away. I would expect to see Brockers moved here which has already been rumored. Nevis might get double teamed quite a bit so these other guys will need to make an impact right away. I think we take a small step back due to depth.
Regression
LB
Lose: Harry Coleman (82), Perry Riley (97), Jacob Cutrera (81)
Return: Kelvin Sheppard (110), Ryan Baker, Steffoin Francois, Kevin Minter and a bunch of young guys
Lose 3 quality linebackers here but the good news is the best returns in Kelvin Sheppard. Ryan Baker is set to take over one of the open spots and the other spot seems to be up for grabs. I look for Baker to play a similar style to Coleman’s and get his named called on blitzes often. Too many question marks here and losing those three LBs will cause us to take a step back.
Regression
CB
Lose: Chris Hawkins
Return: Patrick Peterson, Jai Eugene, Morris Claiborne, Ron Brooks
Don’t lose much here. Jai was pretty much playing over Hawkins at the end of the year. Of course we return PP. Morris Claiborne impressed, earning his way into the 2 deep as a true FR. He will push Jai but I think Jai will hold down his spot and play well. Certainly this is a position of strength on the defense next year.
Push/Improvement
S
Lose: Chad Jones, Danny McCray
Return: Brandon Taylor, Karnell Hatcher, possibly Ron Brooks, Craig Loston
The secondary would have been something to watch had Chad Jones come back. He was playing at a high level at the end of the year and the improvement he showed during the year had me excited about him next year. However, we have several guys who have gotten playing time and are ready to take on a larger role. Hatcher and Taylor are polar opposites of each other. Hatcher better in tackling/run help and Taylor better in coverage. Brooks was supposedly the starting SS at some point in the offseason so he may compete for a spot. Craig Loston needs to be on the field however. Huge things are expected from Loston and had he not gotten in school a little late and had a hand injury I’m sure we would have seen some of him this year. Chad Jones will be hard to replace but we certainly have the talent to do so.
Push/Regression
5
Posted on 1/26/10 at 10:24 am to lsumma09
Interesting post.
I mostly agree with your assessments of DE and DT as separate units. I also agree you will see some of the DE talent move inside-- Brockers may be the largest guy there, so would be the natural choice. Brockers may be able to work like RJF a couple years ago and play inside when LSU wants to get more speed on the DL and move outside when we want to play bigger. Brockers, Nevis, Davenport, and whoever plays the other end would be a pretty large, talented D-line. Whle DE might be better and DT a little depleted, I expect the DL as an entire unit will be improved.
I think worst case is a push for linebackers. Linebacker play does seem to have improved under Chavis and there's a lot of young talent there. I wouldn't be surprised if this unit plays better than last year.
Cornerbacks-- we only lose Hawkins. With everyone else coming back and Claiborne getting more experience, I think this has to be improved. Safeties-- If Loston is as good as advertised, then I say the loss of Chad Jones won't be too bad. And everyone else is back and more experienced under Cooper's tutelage. On the whole I don't think the secondary will be any worse and may be better.
On the whole, I see the most improvement in the DL, and I think that was our weakest link last year-- they looked soft agaist the run at times. If the DL tightens up and the rest of the defense is at least as good as last year, then the defense should improve overall.
I mostly agree with your assessments of DE and DT as separate units. I also agree you will see some of the DE talent move inside-- Brockers may be the largest guy there, so would be the natural choice. Brockers may be able to work like RJF a couple years ago and play inside when LSU wants to get more speed on the DL and move outside when we want to play bigger. Brockers, Nevis, Davenport, and whoever plays the other end would be a pretty large, talented D-line. Whle DE might be better and DT a little depleted, I expect the DL as an entire unit will be improved.
I think worst case is a push for linebackers. Linebacker play does seem to have improved under Chavis and there's a lot of young talent there. I wouldn't be surprised if this unit plays better than last year.
Cornerbacks-- we only lose Hawkins. With everyone else coming back and Claiborne getting more experience, I think this has to be improved. Safeties-- If Loston is as good as advertised, then I say the loss of Chad Jones won't be too bad. And everyone else is back and more experienced under Cooper's tutelage. On the whole I don't think the secondary will be any worse and may be better.
On the whole, I see the most improvement in the DL, and I think that was our weakest link last year-- they looked soft agaist the run at times. If the DL tightens up and the rest of the defense is at least as good as last year, then the defense should improve overall.
Posted on 1/26/10 at 10:37 am to epbart
Charles Alexander, Rahem Alem, Al Woods are all mediocre. We will be improved at the interior which is our weak link.
Ryan Baker will be a great one.
Cutera was nothing special
Ryan Baker will be a great one.
Cutera was nothing special
Posted on 1/26/10 at 11:42 am to pmoney1245
quote:
We will be improved at the interior which is our weak link.
How will we be improved. We just have two guys who played last year. Lack of depth especially how we rotate guys in and out
Posted on 1/26/10 at 11:54 am to lsumma09
I think even with our lack of depth our DT's will improve
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:05 pm to nugget
Defense will be good enough. Not national championship worthy, but pretty good. The problem is the offense. They will have to have an amazing turnaround to give us any chance to be competitive with the best. The offenses ability to improve will be the defenses best ally. The last two years, the defenses biggest problem has been an anemic offense.
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:12 pm to lsumma09
quote:Why isn't this position a clear Improvement rather than a Push/Improvement. Don't you think PP, Jai, and Claiborne will be better because of their experience?
Don’t lose much here. Jai was pretty much playing over Hawkins at the end of the year. Of course we return PP. Morris Claiborne impressed, earning his way into the 2 deep as a true FR. He will push Jai but I think Jai will hold down his spot and play well. Certainly this is a position of strength on the defense next year.
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:15 pm to ShoNuff
quote:
The last two years, the defenses biggest problem has been an anemic offense.
Wrong. With the '08 offensive production less the int's the '09 team wins at least 11 games. A big detriment to the '09 defense was the poor offense. On that we can agree.
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:19 pm to RANDY44
The 08 defense wasn't great, but its stats weren't very far off the 09 units. You can spin it anyway you want. In 08, the defense suffered from pick-6's by the offense, short fields givin to opposing offneses, and being on the field entirely too long. The 08 season and 09 season played out very much the same. Pick 3 or 4 wins this year, throw in 1-2 pick-6's a game, and how many do we lose?
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:39 pm to just me
quote:
Why isn't this position a clear Improvement rather than a Push/Improvement. Don't you think PP, Jai, and Claiborne will be better because of their experience?
I put that bc I don't think Jai is going to improve a large amount and PP is about as good as good gets as it is
Posted on 1/26/10 at 12:45 pm to ShoNuff
If Chavis doesnt blitz that defense will get gashed all year...they are undersized...
Posted on 1/27/10 at 9:18 am to lsumma09
The inexperience at LB scares me
Posted on 1/27/10 at 9:25 am to lsumma09
Pep Livingston is moving inside.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 10:48 am to OBUDan
Good post.
My assessment:
D line- improves slightly with no wild man bull rush by Alem and Davenport improvement.
Linebackers- drop off but young hungry talent. May not be very good until 7 or 8 games into the season.
Secondary- improved with no Hawkins. Loston will hopefully step up. Do not see Eugene making a big impact.
My assessment:
D line- improves slightly with no wild man bull rush by Alem and Davenport improvement.
Linebackers- drop off but young hungry talent. May not be very good until 7 or 8 games into the season.
Secondary- improved with no Hawkins. Loston will hopefully step up. Do not see Eugene making a big impact.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 11:04 am to ShoNuff
If the 08 LBs played as well as they did in 09, it would have made a huge difference.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 11:20 am to Lsuismyfav
quote:
If the 08 LBs played as well as they did in 09, it would have made a huge difference.
Our LBers in '09 were all too often our d-line. Aside from Shepp, what we lacked in quality we made up for in quantity. Barring injuries, I think the overall quality in '09 will be better.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 11:27 am to TigerPanzer
we will be ok,remember the last 2 recruiting classes all those DEF. kids havent even played yet,there sitting back and developing and they are going to be great players
Posted on 1/27/10 at 11:41 am to lsumma09
You lost all credibility with me when you didn't include Mingo, the kid from WM who is moving to DE. That kid will be a very, very special player for LSU for years to come. He is a freak with unbelievable atheticism and speed for a guy his size. He needed to put on about 20-25 pounds during his RS year and he is apparently getting there. OUT DL will be better this year, our best LB is coming back with a lot of VERY GOOD talent stepping in for what was frankly some underperformers last season at LB so i don't see a slide there at all. Our secondary will only get better with the addition of Loston.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 11:50 am to PokiePeanut
quote:
The inexperience at LB scares me
With Sheppard, Baker, and possibly Loston or Minter at LB, I feel like we may improve at this position next year.
Posted on 1/27/10 at 12:29 pm to lsumma09
I don't see Jai starting next year. He seems to get abused in coverage. He is very solid against the run though.
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