Anyone still nervous about the coaching on the defense side? I’m still reserved about D’Onofrio coaching skills I’m really hoping the excuse I read about not having the right players last year was a big reason for not playing more aggressive. But I love the incoming talent!
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Always concerned about Dorito.
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the defense last season was better than i expected it to be. hopefully it improves this season. d’onofrio has more talent to work with now he cant possibly screw this up. i wish the defense blitzed and attacked more like when Orlando was dc.
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I’m ready for the defense to get back to leading the country in forcing turnovers. That plus CKB offense would be some mighty entertaining football.
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We didn’t have the horses to blitz more last year. Remember all those LB’s and DB’s that went to the NFL after 2015 and 2016? That’s the reason we didn’t blitz more.
I think this year we have reloaded and will blitz more. What would even be better would be to have the same results without having to blitz.
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Not sure I agree. While some drop off may have occurred (I do not think it was as much as you), I believe we let Ed Oliver down by not attempting a more variety of blitzes. IMHO, without the threat of a blitz, they could double team Oliver.
This year, we might have a better D Line, but unless we apply pressure from varying positions; i.e., any LB or corner or safety (especially in the nickel), the D Line will not be as effective.
To me, what made Orlando’s defense better (yes, talented Levine recruits) was that the pressure was unpredictable as to where it was going to come from. He seemed to be good at calling the right combo. Sometimes he got burned, but that is the nature of the blitz. More often than not, it was successful.
Just my thoughts !!
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To me, Orlando’s success was two-fold. Like you said, he was ultra-aggressive and offenses never knew where the pressure was coming from. But second, he had great speed at LB/nickel who could get in the backfield and track down anyone, even Lamar Jackson. Additionally, he had one of (if not the) best secondary units I’ve ever seen at UH. Our CBs and safeties were all ball hawks and great open field tacklers. D’Onofrio just didn’t have that last year–at all. Not that he shouldn’t be able to coach them up, but we were severely lacking in speed at LB last year and were extremely inexperienced in the secondary. I think both of those issues have been resolved for this year so we should get a much better idea of what a D’Onofrio defense can do.
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You pretty much covered it. In Orlando’s first year he had 3 seniors and a junior who would be drafted pretty high. Two of those seniors were already ball hawks learning under Gibbs. Your nickel was another junior who was drafted. His 2nd year, the secondary stepped way back from the turnovers because of lack in experience and Adams was not Roberts in the inside. Last year, we still had not replaced Roberts and lost the talent of Taylor and Bowser at the linebacker position. This year, much better talent in the secondary, at linebacker I really like how Godfrey improved over the season, Aneih has great potential, I think Mutin could be great, and we added Owens from Miami. If Egube cannot learn how to disengage from a blocker on the rush, I hope we see more of Godfrey and Aneih. I thought they both played better.
New secondary coaches, I am expecting and will be disappointed if this defense is not really good this year.
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@pray10 I know we have different coaches but isn’t this team as talented as the peach bowl champs in '15. The '16 team was probably as talented as well, it just had the fight suspensions and Herman having one foot out of the bulding. Last year’s team '17 definitely took a step and half back as far as talent but this year it looks like we’re nice all around again.
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3rd. Ward. D.
I think this team may be more talented than the one we had in '15, but it’s close. Very similar situations. Our success will depend on if the coaches can get the most out of these kids and how well our OL plays…same as 2015, really. Defense may be stronger than what we had mainly due to the DL and Big Ed. Just eerily similar teams:
- Change in offense after watching it struggle the previous year
- Junior QB that is a converted WR that took over starter midway through the previous season and showed flashes of his true ability
- Lack of experience at WR, but promising young guys and a solid transfer
- Potential 2 headed monster at RB
- OL that has question marks, but also returns some talent
- LB corp that is/was mostly untested
- Return most of the secondary and added some pieces
I’d say the biggest difference right now is this year’s DLine is stronger than what we had in 2015 and we don’t have Todd Orlando running the defense.
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Hopefully Briles running the offense counters this. Orlando had his troubles but his halftime adjustments were usually game changers in '15.
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Agree with a lot of what people have said in this thread regarding CMD lack of aggressiveness last year.
First, I hope he will be more aggressive…specifically playing more man coverage and tighter coverage. I think he will and I’ll explain why.
Let’s look at how last season started.
UH barely beats Arizona and the offense is bad . CMD not overly aggressive from what I remember but D held them to 16 Pts. ****Note: Isaiah Johnson was beaten deep and WR dropped in EZ
Rice…weak opponent…D plays as should and only allows 3 pts. O scores all 38 pts in 1st half.
TT game…D plays very aggressively. The offense is terrible again. I will skip all details. D gives up 2 big plays on missed assignment by Davis(blown coverage on Coutee) and long run on bad run fit on blitz by Stuard (true frosh in game cause it’s 110 degrees).
****Isaiah Johnson got beat deep in 1st half and wide open WR dropped TD in EZ again.
So UH goes to Temple and is up 20-0 with 12 mins left in 3rd qtr despite losing Big Ed in 1st quarter. UH wins 20-13 as O punts on last 4 possessions. *****Isaiah Johnson has a pass interference call which negates an interception by Davis in EZ. Johnson had help over top and no reason to hold.
So if your CMD, what are your thoughts going into SMU game?
- The offense is bad. I can’t give up a lot of points.
- My 2 inexperienced CBs (Myers) being other are struggling. And most experienced CB Winchester is Jekyll and Hyde.
So why would CMD get crazy aggressive if he is worried about blown assignments and coverages and an offense that can’t score and keeps turning it over?
So what does CMD do against SMU?
He plays softer coverage…which eventually frustrates SMU QB and results in forced throws down middle and ints.
Now Memphis…same thing. CMD mixes coverages (note Davis int late 1st half close to los). It’s 17-0 at half and Memphis took the underneath stuff UH gave them.
So what changed 2nd half? Few things but most importantly Memphis decided that they couldn’t afford to have long drives with short gains that were time consuming. And as 3rd quarter went on and UH matched scores it became more apparent .
So Memphis took shots downfield. I watched whole game at least 3 times. CMD didn’t change in 2nd half.
Ferguson eluded blitz several times and converted throws on near sacks. UH had few blown coverages. Had 2 pass interference calls. Dropped int by Winchester and subsequent personal foul by Davis which gave them 1st down. On go ahead TD LB Robinson gets beat by TE, he’s starting first game at LB for injured Adams. And the KO Return of course.
Aggressive defense is risk and reward. And if your offense can’t score, your afraid to take risks on D.
So if the Briles offense can score, I believe we will see more aggressive D. The 2 inexperienced CBs should be better and Watkins addition should be upgrade over Winchester. Davis and Anderson over top should make CMD more confident too I assume. So we should see more risk or tighter coverage imo
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Good thoughts, Manster. On paper, this looks like it could be a really special year. I think this defense can be as good as, if not better than the 2015 defense. Our LBs probably aren’t as good as 2015, but our DL is better and we have some ball hawks in the secondary again. And it’s hard to imagine a Briles offense not scoring a ton of points. In 2015, we scored 40.4 points per game (14 games) with a scoring differential of +276, or +19.7/game. Admittedly the 2015 schedule was a bit easier than our schedule this year (I don’t think we’ll beat either Tech or Zona by a score of 34-0 like we did Vandy in 2015), but I can see this team being dominant again with a combination of a very good defense and an explosive offense. Can it just be Sept. 1 already?!?!?
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The Navy win toward the end of the season gave me hope for CMD. We were down by 7 at halftime, made defensive adjustments, and shut them out in the 2nd half. Big Ed complimented in-game coaching adjustments several times in his post-game presser.
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Yeah but the 2015 team ended the 2014 bowl game with the biggest 4th qtr comeback in ncaaf history. I like DK but greg was special
Agree on all accounts, but DK is just getting started. We don’t have enough time of him playing QB to really compare him with Greg.
All are great additions. “Basic” football, fundamentals win games not four or five stars. Great Teams are made of players that “form” a group. That is always the biggest challenge for any Coach in any Team sport. That is why predictions mean nothing, absolutely nothing. Football iq is undervalued at this level. How much time are our guys studying plays? The field alone will give us the asnwers.
I certainly don’t disagree. Ward was a very special QB. But I do think King can be just as good. He has the football IQ, speed and arm strength. My concern with him is his injury history. But if you watched the clip of him from media day yesterday, looks like that dude has been living in the weigh room this off season. Time will tell, but I have been an advocate for King since he arrived on campus. This is his year to shine.