Akheem Mesidor: "I love this defense, it's simple"

Sebastian Font

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Sixth-year redshirt senior Akheem Mesidor created major problems for the offensive line at Thursday's practice, consistently blowing up plays in the backfield. After his successful practice, he spoke to the media:

On new DC Corey Hetherman’s system:

“Well, we're communicating a lot better. I think guys are starting to build a lot more chemistry. So yeah, the biggest thing is communication and guys are starting to play together a little bit more. “

“The defense is pretty simple, I...

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Lol at “waking up to your mom making French toast.” Never heard a defense described like that before, but I’ll take it. Sounds like the dude got laid right before this interview.
 
Like Bain, Mesi has dropped a few lbs. I know we're all hoping this DL plays at the level we thought last years squad would. It's the key. Get everyone healthy for Fall Camp and help these LB's out. Develop!
 
Like Bain, Mesi has dropped a few lbs. I know we're all hoping this DL plays at the level we thought last years squad would. It's the key. Get everyone healthy for Fall Camp and help these LB's out. Develop!
What are Bain's and Mesidor's current weights. I've seen references that both have lost weight. But also someone said Bain had gotten even heavier.

Anyone have actual numbers?
 
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What are Bain's and Mesidor's current weights. I've seen references that both have lost weight. But also someone said Bain had gotten even heavier.

Anyone have actual numbers?
Tom Cruise Hide GIF
 
Appears DL and secondary are getting better and should be solid. Ok, Mario, it's obvious to EVERYONE that LB is the weak link on defense so get that **** fixed in the portal. Don't let LB this year be like the secondary last year and cost us an ACCCG and CFP berth. This is year 4, so no reason LB should be this bad
 
What are Bain's and Mesidor's current weights. I've seen references that both have lost weight. But also someone said Bain had gotten even heavier.

Anyone have actual numbers?

Believe Mesi said he's at 272lbs but his body fat % went from 22% down to 16%
 
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Sixth-year redshirt senior Akheem Mesidor created major problems for the offensive line at Thursday's practice, consistently blowing up plays in the backfield. After his successful practice, he spoke to the media:

On new DC Corey Hetherman’s system:

“Well, we're communicating a lot better. I think guys are starting to build a lot more chemistry. So yeah, the biggest thing is communication and guys are starting to play together a little bit more. “

“The defense is pretty simple, I think everybody's doing a pretty good job, it's really just everything changes based off formations, shifts, stuff like that. It's really just communication. That's the biggest thing.”

On his fit in the system and his role:

“I love this defense, it's simple. I get to go inside and out, I'm so happy. It's like waking up in the morning to your mom making french toast or something, you get freedom. Just allows me to run the quarterback, allows me to just do what I'm good at.”

“I want to lead by example, but I also need to talk to the young guys. My biggest role is just obviously on the field, but after that is just being there for all the younger guys and making sure they can get the most out of it, and not make some of the mistakes I made or I can help them on different things.”

On freshman Hayden Lowe:

“He's violent, he has a high motor and he's physical. You look at Hayden, he's a huge specimen: strong, built, ripped. But his effort and his motor is what makes him stand out.”

On Armondo Blount and Justin Scott:

“Armando Blount’s a savage, he's gonna do a lot for us. [Justin Scott] got bigger, stronger. He's the biggest one in the line. He's also getting smarter. He’s really getting into his playbook and understanding football.”

On Rueben Bain:

“He's changing his body and puts a bunch of work in before and after practice. You can tell he's really trying to work towards that form that he used to have, how he used to feel and where he is trying to get to. And just knowing Rueben, I know he'll be able to do it easily. He worked hard.”


This isn’t rocket science. I screamed this from the rooftops all of last season, and also during Manolo’s failed experiment with Blake Baker as DC. The more complicated the system, the more the players have to think, instead of just reacting.

I’ve said it on here a few times before, but Shaw and Pinckney looked their best during their FR season. There is video of Manolo saying that he had simplified his defense for his FR linebackers so they wouldn’t have to think so much, and that way they wouldn’t be freer to read and react. Shaq and Pinckney never looked quite as good in their subsequent seasons. It’s not a coincidence.

Having said that, I can’t wait to see what our defense really looks like when the season starts. Going up against Emory is not exactly what I’d call a true barometer for our D.
 
Communication and players not knowing what to do were the biggest issues with the defense last year. I understand we didn’t have great talent in the secondary but there’s plenty of mediocre teams out there who didn’t get bludgeoned like our defense did in the second half of the season. It was so bad, we couldn’t play zone. At all. In the bowl game, Iowa State would just motion the same guy over and over on every play and our defenders couldn’t figure out how to adjust their coverage to a change in formation. This is something every terrible high school program can do. Motioning a man from one side of the formation to the other should not put a defense into complete shambles but it happened to us last year over and over. The disappointing thing was Guidry did nothing to correct it. His in game answer was just to play man to man with a poor secondary and slow footed middle linebacker. It was so bad towards the end of the year that I think they would have been better off just trying the onside kick every time because the defense was just going to give up a score no matter where the field position was.
 
Communication and players not knowing what to do were the biggest issues with the defense last year. I understand we didn’t have great talent in the secondary but there’s plenty of mediocre teams out there who didn’t get bludgeoned like our defense did in the second half of the season. It was so bad, we couldn’t play zone. At all. In the bowl game, Iowa State would just motion the same guy over and over on every play and our defenders couldn’t figure out how to adjust their coverage to a change in formation. This is something every terrible high school program can do. Motioning a man from one side of the formation to the other should not put a defense into complete shambles but it happened to us last year over and over. The disappointing thing was Guidry did nothing to correct it. His in game answer was just to play man to man with a poor secondary and slow footed middle linebacker. It was so bad towards the end of the year that I think they would have been better off just trying the onside kick every time because the defense was just going to give up a score no matter where the field position was.
Guidry tried different things but the players just stunk. He played zone, man, **** he played a base defense and we still got cooked

It was just a snowball of everything going wrong, not getting more dbs from the portal, guidry getting out coached, players being trash and at the wrong positions
 
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