why our defense sucks so bad

[ki285]

the reason our defense is bad is simple.  other than butu and harrison, we have nobody who wants to tackle.  nutt and his staff worry to much about speed and not enough about goin out and finding football players.  nutt and his staff go out and find guys who run the 4.3 40s and recruit them as athletes, they really have no idea what to do with these guys when the get on campus.  now think about our defense.  we have plenty of speed.  but thats all we have.  we have a bunch of guys that can run but couldnt make a tackle to save their lives.  the only way vaughn can make a tackle is if u run right at him.  i know you have to have speed at certain positions, but go out and find you some guys who got a mean streak.  we need some physical players, not 180lb atletes who run 4.3s or 4.4s that they think they can beef up.  find some people that wanna hit.  i know 2 years ago james turner of augusta was no doubt onw of the states best players and he didnt get an offer from arkansas.  he was 6ft. 225lb cominin out of high school and im pretty sure he was a 3 time all state selection.  i played him all three years of my high school carrer, and he was the real deal.  he would knock your head off.  now he is a sophomore linebacker at tennennse.he didnt run a 4.4 or 4.5 but tennennse thought he had plenty of talent.

[Buff]

is there any possibility that high-school coaches nowdays just dont teach their players to tackle?  havent payed much attention to games this year to check out that idea, though.  somebody help me.  our D seems completely clueless as to the concept of wrapping up a guy.  they just seem to run into a guy really fast and hope he falls down, or they miss tehy guy altogether.  somewhere, it seems that they never were taught the right way to tackle.

[rricha]

tackling is 5% techinque and 95% heart

[RebelHawg]

Heart and intelligence

[OtherWhiteMeat]

tackling is 5% techinque and 95% heart

Unfortunately our defense is comprised of 100% mongoloids.

[Gman]

tackling is 5% techinque and 95% heart

Unfortunately our defense is comprised of 100% mongoloids.

I think the problem with our team as a whole is they just don't seem to be very smart.  I don't know if they are just not prepared, not allowed to think or what, but we just don't play smart football. 

[rricha]

how smart do you have to be to tackle someone.    I knew some guys who were dirt dumb but they could tackle.  The coaches had to tape left and right to his shoes so he could line up.

[Flatline]

The problem with today's recruiting is that they go after kids that look like athletes and are fast.  They don't really research those guys that have game speed.  That see the field and want to knock peoples heads off.  Tony Bua was not highly recruited.  We need more of those type of players.  Big, mean, physical and smart.  I could give a crap if they are 3 star or 5 star, I just would like to see some smash mouth players.

[Hog1751]

Auburn 36:50 Arkansas 23:10. Thats the time of possesion for each team, thats alot of why the defense sucks, when thier on the field for almost 3/4's of the game due to the ineptitude of the offense thier gonna kinda be sucking wind towards the end.

[ki285]

that is exactly what i said flatline

[bigt54]

The problem with today's recruiting is that they go after kids that look like athletes and are fast. They don't really research those guys that have game speed. That see the field and want to knock peoples heads off. Tony Bua was not highly recruited. We need more of those type of players. Big, mean, physical and smart. I could give a crap if they are 3 star or 5 star, I just would like to see some smash mouth players.

Do you not remember that Bua had a bad problem of not wraping up and just trying to hit people hard.  Which worked against smaller guys but when we played teams with big backs he would just bounce off and everyone would be complaining about his tackling.  Hamlin had the same tendancy.
The one thing the D has improved on is tackling this year, at least they use thier hands now, except Vaughn.  The big problem is the scheme and players not able to get off blocks.  It doesn't help that they show their blitz on every play and are not able to anticipate the snap count so that the backs and line have time to make adjustments. 

[ki285]

you dont tackle with your hands, you tackle with your legs.  You run through people when you tackle them.  at least thats what your supposed to do

[counsellorhog]

Because someone had the ingenious idea that our defensive line should lose weight and their getting pushed around all over the field by heavier offensive linemen.

[brooks74]

I think it is a matter of emphasis on tackling in practice.  I think Herring works on it, but it's hard to erase 3 years of not working on it in 2/3 of a year.  I still think Herring is a good d-coordinater even if he runs his mouth a little too much.  He just doesn't have the athletes on D to compete. 

[Jean-Luc PIGard]

I think it is a matter of emphasis on tackling in practice. I think Herring works on it, but it's hard to erase 3 years of not working on it in 2/3 of a year. I still think Herring is a good d-coordinater even if he runs his mouth a little too much. He just doesn't have the athletes on D to compete.

Keith Burns coordinated probably the best defense in the Nutt era, and he ran his mouth, too.  He even beat on the opposing team's locker room door and yelled code red!  I don't think Herrings outspoken manner is the problem...he has attitude, and our players need some of that, too.  They also need talent...recruiting will have to take care of that.  I have no confidence that Nutt will take care of recruiting, however.

[OtherWhiteMeat]

I think Herring should make the players who miss tackles wear the pink jerseys during games. How sweet that would be. Then during halftime the student body gets to hurl rotten vegetables at them.

[Jean-Luc PIGard]

I think Herring should make the players who miss tackles wear the pink jerseys during games. How sweet that would be. Then during halftime the student body gets to hurl rotten vegetables at them.

I think the DC should wear his pink mumu during the game along with some of those late '70s checkered pants...no-iron polyester.

[brooks74]

I think Herring is definitely the bright spot on our coaching staff.  I think he can recruit, but we need Fitz Hill back to coordinate all the recruiting

[Jean-Luc PIGard]

I think Herring is definitely the bright spot on our coaching staff. I think he can recruit, but we need Fitz Hill back to coordinate all the recruiting

If the head coach lets Herring pick his players to recruit, I think Reggie probably knows what a football player looks like.  I just hope we have a real HC when signing day comes.

[brooks74]

I assume you are talking about the remarks about Auburns schedule.  I think he was saying what everyone else in the nation was thinking.  The problem wasn't the comment, the problem is that the Hogs were part of that Christmas schedule.  All his preseason talk was that it would take a while for his D to get up to speed, and I think we are seeing that now.  Our talented guys are thriving ,but our less talented guys are making us look horrible.  I think all of our talent are freshman, and when you have talented freshman, they get beat up in the SEC

[junkyardhog]

I heard someone say once, "The best defense is a good offense". I wonder how true that is. We may never know with the Nuttster floating this boat......

dude, I think you got that backwards.

[brooks74]

The sad thing is that we are included in that christmas schedule.  I agree it wasn't the smartest thing for him to say