And this might be the biggest benefit of so many of these juniors returning (particularly Foster and Allen).We are losing some very strong leaders, so a lot will depend on the next wave of leaders.
As numerous people said when he took the UGA job, it's CNS' defense no matter who the DC is. Nick Saban is the most important person on defense.Let's not forget that we are losing the most important person on defense - Kirby Smart. With CKS, 2016's defense would have been pretty good, assuming that the senior leadership develops. Without him, things are much less clear.
As numerous people said when he took the UGA job, it's CNS' defense no matter who the DC is. Nick Saban is the most important person on defense.
Glad I'm not the only one to see it.And this might be the biggest benefit of so many of these juniors returning (particularly Foster and Allen).
I'm one that believes the potential is there for the 2016 defense to be 2011 good.
Agreed. You just don't see DL every year like Ashawn and Jarran that can not be moved and totally destroy the inside run.Not sure if better or not as good, but it will certainly be different. I can't imagine the DL being as tough against the run without Reed and ARob. The pash rush will also have to be different as those guys got doubled a LOT, which left some of the other guys in 1-1 matchups which they were able to exploit pretty well.
The LBs could certainly be on par with this year - roughly even at ILB, and a bit better at OLB.
At CB we should be good to go - good options here with players who've gotten good time and some real talent around them. Same at S really with package players likely taking bigger roles going forward.
All these guys have great potential, but at this time last year, we knew we likely had three guys in ARob, Allen and Reed that were day 1 picks who had played a ton as starters. Now we have one + these guys. Payne could get there, but would be about like ARob coming into his soph year (although ARob contributed more as a TF and I think Payne will also have to put in the extra conditioning work like ARob did), Tomlinson I think has a ton of potential now that he appears to have worked back from his knee issues and I don't think we'll see a huge drop off with him due to his wrestling background and knowing how to use leverage and technique), Frazier we haven't seen much of so that's more of a toss upThere are a few guys on the DL that can replace Reed and A'Shawn...
I don't recall anyone predicting the sort of dominance we saw from the three starters this season. We knew the run D would be good, but I don't know that we were in better shape, so to speak, entering 2015. We knew we had lots of potential coming off the 2014 season, just like we know this now.All these guys have great potential, but at this time last year, we knew we likely had three guys in ARob, Allen and Reed that were day 1 picks who had played a ton as starters.
And the pass rush shouldn't be a problem in 2016....
I think we'll be OK:Not worried at all about pass rush next year. We will have some elite guys going after the QB. What is a concern is instead of having 3rd and 6-10+ yards that we had many times this year due to our run D, the 3rd downs could be more in the 2-5 yard range which slows down a pass rush big time. I know we have talent at DT and DE but Ashawn and Jarran are both top 15 picks and not sure our inside guys have that potential right now.
I think we'll be OK: