Losing the big 3, what does our defense look like next year?

[hall6769]

One person alot of people are forgetting about at the LB position is a walk-on scout team member named Josh Harris.  Coached referenced numerous times and won several Scout team MVP's I think he will def add depth to the corp.

[DeltaBoy]

I expect Rob to plug a new guy in and play D at a higher level.

[havok]

Losing them is a big void to fill.. (Especially Philon leaving early).

But lots of Good news to numb any worries:

1:  Spring ball is coming and lots of time to see who looks ready...especially with the nice additions who came in early to start preparing.
2.  Lots of Great Players with skill and Experience..plus more on the way.
3.  Fall practice leading into first game to see who took to heart the off season and added to what they shown in Spring. (got a A+ top flight Strength and Conditioning coach)
4.  First game is a Non-conference game that should be a win game at home to get added game experience and a "Trial by fire" to see who steps up under the lights.
5.  Most of all.. Robb Smith is the def coord.  The moves he has made in one season, have shown he sees and feels the game of football.....knowing how to get the right players in the right positions.

[justmaybe]

Defense will take a step back without those three.  Philon would have wrecked havoc next year.  We are talking about replacing him with a redshirt freshman who hopefully will be serviceable but will be a big drop off.  Really stinks for us. 

I think a big reason he left is he knows he would have been the target of the offenses double teams and may not get the accolades he has right now. But the nfl doesn't draft of accolades. If he came back and showed he was productive without the other two his draft status would improve. To offset those three being gone we may be better across the board. I just hope we don't have to blitz a lot to put pressure on the qb. The good news is there are a lot of new qbs next year.
It'll be interesting to see who the playmakers are

[EastexHawg]

Anyone who didn't know going into the season that Philon was a playmaking stud wasn't paying attention.

[31to6]

Anyone who didn't know going into the season that Philon was a playmaking stud wasn't paying attention.

Yah. That one was easy to call.

And, we all knew that Spaight could hit. What changed was the game slowed down for him a bit this year and he was in a scheme that got him in a position to make more plays.

But the biggest difference this year was the massive improvement in fundamentals. Tackling. Effort. And as long as those are there the defense will go up and down as talent comes and goes, but it won't go down very far.

[cardinalandwhite]

Haven't seen Anthony Browns name mentioned. This guy got on the field as a true freshman early this year with all those good players in front of him. He's big and fast and will definately be in the two deep rotation if not starting. I could see him and Mitchell loewen sp? starting. Excited about the ends next year

And, if memory serves, that was Brown's third year of organized football.

[bennyl08]

Brown definitely needs to be mentioned, as does Tevin Beanum. At DT, I remember Marks getting some praise, and he fits the mold of the explosive DT. Coming out of HS, he and Beanum were both projects to be sure. However, both have been mentioned by coaches a good amount so there is promise that they are panning out.

[redeye]

The defense will regress, after losing Flowers, Spaight, and Philon. By mid-October, there will be a thread on this board asking why we gave Robb Smith such a hefty raise. Book it.

Also, losing our OC (and possibly other Offensive Asst's)? The offense will regress, as well. I've seen a lot of cheering about Chaney leaving, and I have to shake my head. We're year 2 of a rebuild, and we're about to ask a Senior QB to adopt his now 3rd OC's gameplan, and the WR's we were counting on next year...  they just wasted a year learning routes that won't ever be used.

We were still in the rebuilding stage, not the reloading stage. And losing Chaney & Shannon hurts. I think Philon knew it, and that's why he made the jump to the NFL too early.

Just WOW!

Coming into this year, many on hogville thought our defense would be our biggest problem.  You don't lose players like Philon, Flowers and Spaight without some dropoff, but we're not hurting for good players hungry to take their places.  How you can think that Robb Smith had nothing to do with our first top-10 defense since we joined the SEC is beyond me?  It's beyond reason.

I don't entirely disagree with you on Chaney, but still find it interesting that you would defend the guy behind our biggest problem, while throwing the guy behind our biggest success under the bus.  Perhaps if Chaney had stayed, we would have seen our offense make a turnaround as big as our defense did this year, but that's no less speculative then believing a new OC can do the same thing.

Personally, I think Robb Smith played the main role in turning our defense around.  After all, great talent doesn't make a top-10 defense alone and it's not like we're the only SEC team with great defensive talent.  If talent were all that mattered, then Alabama should never finish behind Arkansas, which they've probably never done under Saban until this year.

[jgphillips3]

It will be year two in Coach Smith's system.  The defense as a whole will be better.  People forget that, before he got injured, Brooks Ellis was the LB everyone was talking about equally as much as Spaight if not more.  He was our signal caller on D and you could tell he was missing in that Georgia performance.  I expect our D to start the year looking better than they did to start last year due to talent and second year in the scheme.  Whether we end the year looking as good as we did at the end of 2014 will depend on young guys stepping up.  Flipping the coin, if our offense can be better in the second half this year, the defense will look really good by default most likely thanks to rest.

[Pork Twain]

It will be year two in Coach Smith's system.  The defense as a whole will be better.  People forget that, before he got injured, Brooks Ellis was the LB everyone was talking about equally as much as Spaight if not more.  He was our signal caller on D and you could tell he was missing in that Georgia performance.  I expect our D to start the year looking better than they did to start last year due to talent and second year in the scheme.  Whether we end the year looking as good as we did at the end of 2014 will depend on young guys stepping up.  Flipping the coin, if our offense can be better in the second half this year, the defense will look really good by default most likely thanks to rest.

People that do not see this, are choosing not to.