Because of the last two weeks, I know there has been about a million threads about the defense but I decided to do some research and look more in depth on how Golden and D'no made this scheme work when they were at Temple and Virginia. While we all have seen the stats of their times at those schools, I went back and actually watched as much film as I could find on the Temple teams and also watched some back from Goldens Virginia days.
Heres a few videos of the 2010 Temple defense to go along with one from Virginia from 2004. Although the defense doesnt dominate in any of them, they were playing solid competition in everyone and the main purpose of these is to see the differences between our defense currently and Golden and D'nos defenses of the past, which I think these clearly do.
[video=youtube;3ch0GYbNHFI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch0GYbNHFI[/video]
[video=youtube;7R_a6RiMKsQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R_a6RiMKsQ[/video]
[video=youtube;hYEbgipN0g4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYEbgipN0g4[/video]
The first thing I noticed from watching the Temple film is that Golden had a similar transition into the 3-4 as he did here. In Goldens first season here we were a 4-3 base defense and we continued to use that for most of last year and finally made the transition to 3-4 this season. He did something similar at Temple but instead of transitioning in his 3rd year, he waited an extra two years. He ran a 4-3 there for the first 3 seasons then in his 4th he started trying some 3-4 and finally made the transition to a 3-4 in his 5th season. At Temple, he waited until he had a few extra years recruiting to get the right personnel in to use the 3-4.
Now this is just a thought of mine, but coming to Miami, Golden obviously would have a shorter leash than tat Temple, so maybe he wanted to transition faster to try to get results sooner. He always talks about how we are still rebuilding which makes me think that he knew we were going to take some bumps and bruises this year, but maybe that was the plan. At Temple, he recruited the players he wanted and once he got all of them in, he began teaching the new defense and even though it was the first year fully using it, the defense did great and most likely exceeded expectations. While at Miami, he changed the defense before he had the personnel he wanted, but because he changed it, players already have begun learning and understanding the system so by the time his 5th season is here, he'll have the personnel in place and all the players will already know the scheme so the defense is ready to dominate. Just a possible theory. Hopefully its true.
When focusing on the scheme of the past defenses, I am slightly confused as to what we are doing right now. The defenses have a lot of similarities, but they are not the same. Although the defense at Temple still wasn't a crazy aggressive defense, there is definitely much more variation in blitz schemes and they seem to be disguised much better than anything we have been doing this season. Although Temples D only had 24 sacks in 2010, they seemed to be getting much more consistent pressure than we ever have since Golden and D'no have been here. When looking back to Golden's D at Virginia, in the small amount of film i could find, his blitzing was a million times more creative than it is now and he also seemed to use the 4-3 set more than just on 3rd and long to vary the looks more.
One of the big questions that people have debating recently is whether or not its scheme or talent, and while I do believe our scheme has been pretty poor, from watching the film, ive gotten the sense that D'no could be holding back a lot because our talent just isnt there. If this is the case, I think D'no should have done a better job of utilizing what we have and not putting this poor defense out every week, but hopefully he does have more in the bag for future seasons when we get the right talent.
The big complaint is that we are too soft in coverage and that its too easy for opposing teams to complete short passes and then those plays lead to big gains, which is very evident in many games this year, but this doesn't seem to be the case as much in the Temple years. The Defense still allowed more easy completions than one would probably like, but the big difference is that on the short passes, there was normally a defender right by to make the stop right after the catch instead of letting them run wild. Also, many of the easy completions that were made against the Temple D are more down field and when watching, it seems like if a player had better recognition, they could have easily made a play on the ball. I believe the main reason for the poor coverage is what a lot of people already know, I our linebackers just are not good enough.
Watching the Temple film, the linebackers they have seem much more versatile, as well as most of defensive front. They use their front 7 much more effectively by bringing more pressure and doing a much better job in coverage which obviously lead to a better defense. The scheme isnt perfect, but getting rid of guys like Shayon and Cornelius will drastically help this defense. Shayon is fine against the run but doesnt get any pressure and can cover because he just isnt athletic enough. Cornelius just isnt above average at anything he does. I feel like having these players is not only hurting our defense because they arent talented enough, but I honestly think they are restricting what coach D is willing to do with the defense.
After watching the film, my hope is that as we get more talent and depth, Coach D and Golden will start doing some more things with the scheme as it seems they did at Temple and Virginia. This defense succeeded before and I dont see why it cant again once we get the right personnel. I know it sucks watching this team go out every week and get gashed by pedestrian offenses but i'm not giving up on this staff just yet. We got a great recruiting class coming in and with another year or two, I think this defense will see drastic improvements.
Go Canes
Heres a few videos of the 2010 Temple defense to go along with one from Virginia from 2004. Although the defense doesnt dominate in any of them, they were playing solid competition in everyone and the main purpose of these is to see the differences between our defense currently and Golden and D'nos defenses of the past, which I think these clearly do.
[video=youtube;3ch0GYbNHFI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ch0GYbNHFI[/video]
[video=youtube;7R_a6RiMKsQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R_a6RiMKsQ[/video]
[video=youtube;hYEbgipN0g4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYEbgipN0g4[/video]
The first thing I noticed from watching the Temple film is that Golden had a similar transition into the 3-4 as he did here. In Goldens first season here we were a 4-3 base defense and we continued to use that for most of last year and finally made the transition to 3-4 this season. He did something similar at Temple but instead of transitioning in his 3rd year, he waited an extra two years. He ran a 4-3 there for the first 3 seasons then in his 4th he started trying some 3-4 and finally made the transition to a 3-4 in his 5th season. At Temple, he waited until he had a few extra years recruiting to get the right personnel in to use the 3-4.
Now this is just a thought of mine, but coming to Miami, Golden obviously would have a shorter leash than tat Temple, so maybe he wanted to transition faster to try to get results sooner. He always talks about how we are still rebuilding which makes me think that he knew we were going to take some bumps and bruises this year, but maybe that was the plan. At Temple, he recruited the players he wanted and once he got all of them in, he began teaching the new defense and even though it was the first year fully using it, the defense did great and most likely exceeded expectations. While at Miami, he changed the defense before he had the personnel he wanted, but because he changed it, players already have begun learning and understanding the system so by the time his 5th season is here, he'll have the personnel in place and all the players will already know the scheme so the defense is ready to dominate. Just a possible theory. Hopefully its true.
When focusing on the scheme of the past defenses, I am slightly confused as to what we are doing right now. The defenses have a lot of similarities, but they are not the same. Although the defense at Temple still wasn't a crazy aggressive defense, there is definitely much more variation in blitz schemes and they seem to be disguised much better than anything we have been doing this season. Although Temples D only had 24 sacks in 2010, they seemed to be getting much more consistent pressure than we ever have since Golden and D'no have been here. When looking back to Golden's D at Virginia, in the small amount of film i could find, his blitzing was a million times more creative than it is now and he also seemed to use the 4-3 set more than just on 3rd and long to vary the looks more.
One of the big questions that people have debating recently is whether or not its scheme or talent, and while I do believe our scheme has been pretty poor, from watching the film, ive gotten the sense that D'no could be holding back a lot because our talent just isnt there. If this is the case, I think D'no should have done a better job of utilizing what we have and not putting this poor defense out every week, but hopefully he does have more in the bag for future seasons when we get the right talent.
The big complaint is that we are too soft in coverage and that its too easy for opposing teams to complete short passes and then those plays lead to big gains, which is very evident in many games this year, but this doesn't seem to be the case as much in the Temple years. The Defense still allowed more easy completions than one would probably like, but the big difference is that on the short passes, there was normally a defender right by to make the stop right after the catch instead of letting them run wild. Also, many of the easy completions that were made against the Temple D are more down field and when watching, it seems like if a player had better recognition, they could have easily made a play on the ball. I believe the main reason for the poor coverage is what a lot of people already know, I our linebackers just are not good enough.
Watching the Temple film, the linebackers they have seem much more versatile, as well as most of defensive front. They use their front 7 much more effectively by bringing more pressure and doing a much better job in coverage which obviously lead to a better defense. The scheme isnt perfect, but getting rid of guys like Shayon and Cornelius will drastically help this defense. Shayon is fine against the run but doesnt get any pressure and can cover because he just isnt athletic enough. Cornelius just isnt above average at anything he does. I feel like having these players is not only hurting our defense because they arent talented enough, but I honestly think they are restricting what coach D is willing to do with the defense.
After watching the film, my hope is that as we get more talent and depth, Coach D and Golden will start doing some more things with the scheme as it seems they did at Temple and Virginia. This defense succeeded before and I dont see why it cant again once we get the right personnel. I know it sucks watching this team go out every week and get gashed by pedestrian offenses but i'm not giving up on this staff just yet. We got a great recruiting class coming in and with another year or two, I think this defense will see drastic improvements.
Go Canes
