sushihorn

Titman Tom I wouldn't expect the jorts set to comprehend that brevity is the soul of wit.

If it was intended to remove her hysteria, the surgery failed.

Have to admit that the staff's strategy of shooting for the stars has made me very nervous on occasion. It has hurt us at the margin a couple of times. Now that they really have something substantive to sell to recruits I think this strategy is going to be pretty damn effective.

In honor of our Indian contingent, I declare today Bijwali - the Festival of Light(ning Quickness).

Wait. You mean pass rushing with 4 cubes and trying to cover with 4-5 safeties isn't a formula for success against the spread?

Of course he also truncated his paraphrase to remove the reference to QB Hurries. That's kinda dishonest.

When did you stop and why?

LSU's very large WR Stephen Sullivan has been moved to TE. This seems like mostly semantics since their OC is talking about flexing him out so Sullivan may still be a slot receiver functionally speaking. They have to replace a lot of production that Moreau gave them last year. Technically speaking this may help but doesn't create the same scheme issues.

I don't have access to PFF. Was there a large difference? If not I'm going with the 2 time All-SEC and Consensus All-American CB vs the guy who is pre-season 2nd Team All-SEC.

Devin White led LSU in QB hurries. He had more passes batted down than any non-DB so he was in the QBs face a lot. He also had 3 sacks on a team where no one had more than 5. The fact that he also led in TFLs tells me he was constantly creating havoc in the backfield.

Cause the guys that gave up 35 sacks and 90 TFLs last year are gone?

I was looking at the combined sacks and TFLs as an indicator of ability to create penetration and pressure. You'll note that's a major theme of this write up. Extra credit for QB hurries.

Rush Defense In run defense LSU presents a variety of 4 and 5 man fronts from their 3 DL base. It’s a 1-gap scheme with the partial exception of the NT when he’s playing a 0-technique. The DL are still trying to keep the LBs clean but they do so by attacking a gap to try and force a double team instead of trying to control the blockers at the LOS a la Georgia. They are clearly succeeding most of the time since their top 2 tacklers and 3 of the top 4 are LBs. The advantages are LSU is more likely to screw up the opponent’s blocking scheme and it’s easier to convert gap penetration against the run into a pass rush. The downside is that same penetration can create running lanes. Texas should not attempt to run into a loaded box against this defensive front. Even with improved OL play, the Horns are likely going to have to pass to set up the run in this game. With a 6 man box against 11 personnel Sam must be a threat from the first snap in order to get an extra blocker at the point of attack. If the passing game and RPO threat can pull a defender out of the box, then the inside zone, power / counter staples can be more effective. I expect Texas to have some success against this front. It will only be consistent success if the passing threat can pull an extra defender into coverage. Veer and Shoot type sets would really help to clarify the defense against the looks Aranda runs. How to Attack Them? There are 2 significant and interrelated weaknesses created by this aggressive defensive scheme. First is the tendency to over pursue the play, leaving them vulnerable to misdirection. Anybody who’s been watching Texas Football knows that Tom Herman loves to use a defense’s aggressive tendencies against them. The second weakness is that they have difficulty dealing with mobile QBs. MSU’s Fitzgerald (22 carries for 140 yards), Florida’s Franks (7-42) and UCF’s backup Mack (7-45) ran very effectively against LSU despite being very weak passers. Ta’amu from Ole Miss and aggy’s Mond were both good for 4 YPC. Tua didn’t run much against them but he did serious damage when he took off. You have to feel good about Sam’s prospects against that defense. The key weakness in coverage is one common to all man-based schemes. You can take the CBs out of the play by running the outside receivers either downfield with vertical routes or inside on dig or crossing routes. This creates a coverage void in the flats and intermediate sideline area. In zone the LBs have to cover everything outside the hash marks from behind the LOS up to safety depth. This allowed simple end around and screen plays to go for big yardage quite a few times last year. Beck and Herman can also mess with their matchup by lining up or motioning a TE or RB as the outside man. That will force LSU to leave a NB or LB defending the Z or X. Alternatively they can flip their CBs inside but that shows man coverage all the way. That is where the predictability of having the CBs locked on in man outside and LBs always covering the flats can hurt them. My main concern is that LSU creates turnovers in the passing game though a combination of aggressive pass rush and high quality coverage in a solid scheme. The 17 INT total is padded somewhat by 4 picks against the truly terrible passer Nick Fitzgerald; nevertheless having at least one in 11 of their 13 games is an impressive feat. Despite losing their best cover corner, players responsible for 12 of those 17 picks return. Sam has gotten really good at taking care of the football so I’m not concerned that he will give it away. But LSU’s secondary is good enough to take one away if Sam isn’t careful.

Broken into 2 parts to make it almost readable Overview LSU’s DC is Dave Aranda, one of the best in the SEC and compensated accordingly. He is literally from the same school as Todd Orlando – preceding Orlando as DC of Utah State and recommending him as successor. Aranda instills a similar aggression in his defense, causing many negative plays but they do also give up some big plays as a result of taking risks. His defenses are very sound against the run and cover well. Playing in the SEC he hasn’t developed the level of disguise and chaos looks that Orlando has at Texas but the defense is strong and it’s the calling card at LSU. The LSU defense is a base 3-4 which uses the safeties aggressively as robbers but I suspect they will be forced into 3-3 nickel against Texas. They even have a 2-4-5 nickel scheme which is basically a 4-2-5 with both OLBs functioning as standup DEs but that is a 3rd and long special. LSU is smaller than Georgia but both quicker and more disruptive on defense. In 2018 they recorded 34 sacks and 83 TFLs. They penetrate and take risks so they both give up more big plays while creating more negative plays for the offense. The result is an above average run defense (#41 at 3.9 YPC) but with the ability to terminate drives regularly with a negative play. The 2018 pass defense was excellent - #4 in pass efficiency defense is good even if that was against the SEC. 65 PBUs and 17 interceptions are good numbers against anyone. They lose their leading pass rusher and DB but return 7 so I expect them to still be good. Pass Defense Aranda runs 2 basic coverage schemes: a match quarters semi-zone called Tite 4 and man-free called Under 1. The interesting feature is that the CBs are nearly always in man coverage on the outside and are often pressing at the LOS. In match quarters, the safeties are back in cover 2, 2 LBs (an OLB on one side and an ILB on the other) cover the flats while the corners man up from 7-10 yards off the ball. UGa gave their LBs similar responsibility for coverage in the flats and they still can’t get the bad taste out of their mouths. It’s basically a 2-deep, 3 under zone inside with man coverage on the outside. There is going to be a lot of space between the underneath defenders if the CBs get run off deep. Man free drops one of the safeties down over the slot and the other plays center field while the LBs have man responsibility for the RB to their side of the field. That matchup outside isn’t going to be good for LSU but CBs near the LOS in press coverage will allow them to come up quicker in support against the run or quick swing / flare to the RBs. To me this scheme relies too much on the ability of the individual DBs to make a play but since they usually have a talent advantage it works for them most of the time. LSU’s pass rush generally brings 4, with a different LB providing the 4th man each time. They create a good amount of pressure In their base package. You will see a lot of simulated pressures with 6-7 defenders near the LOS but only 3-4 rushing, very similar to what Orlando does in that regard. Aranda doesn’t blitz that often but he has some effective ones when he brings it, particularly from DBs lined up with inside leverage over the slot. That’s where they tend to give up big plays but also create sacks and turnovers. We may see Aranda take more risks in Austin, especially if LSU’s offense continues to sputter and they need the defense to help them score. Those are very much the exception however. Their DC prefers disguised 4 man pressures like fire zone concepts from a heavy blitz pre-snap look. It won’t be as innovative as what we see from Orlando, Patterson and Campbell because Aranda hasn’t faced the Darwinian pressure to survive against multiple Air Raid and Spread offenses every year. Expect it to be effective creating pressure anyway – especially with athletes better than those available to any of those coaches other than Todd Orlando. Disguising the pass rush is where Aranda does the best job of creating uncertainty for the offense.

He could still lurk and be more powerful than you can imagine...

You seem to have "insane" misspelled.

I love that ISU is getting some respect. Campbell is doing one hell of a job in Ames.

Makes perfect sense. Sheepish is the right mode to attract males on that campus.

Thompsgiving?

And they liked it...

Fumble return TD. He strips and scores at the 3:25 mark.

He's right there with Milroe, protecting his QB's back just like a lineman is supposed to.