There were many that attacked Orlando’s defense at times that seemed like they expect Alabama type yards allowed to ever be happy. So I often pointed out to them that as far as G5 talent goes, our defensive efficiency was always in the top 5 in many categories compared to other G5s.
I can’t help but notice that we had 6 starters (Matthews 3 of the last 4 games) on the 2015 defense that are on NFL teams 53 man rosters. Even the next year, we lost Jackson but gained Ed. That tells me that Orlando was working with P5 talent on a mostly G5 schedule. So I retract all statements from 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Fooled UT though. So that’s a good thing. It’s a little harder to win with P5 talent on a mostly P5 schedule.
Levine might not have been great at putting together a staff that showed results at game time but they sure could spot under rated high school defensive players.
Well he is in town. Not sure how much of the recruiting was him though. Could have been specific coaches on the staff that were better at recruiting than coaching.
Tony is actually in town. He retired from Purdue after one year and said his family loves Houston and was moving back. If our special teams doesn’t improve dramatically, we might have an opening for him soon.
Orlando was so creative with his blitz packages. D’Ofonio doesn’t have a clue when it comes to blitzing. Lamar Jackson would have scored 30+ against his defenses the way he tips his hand to the offense allowing them to dictate the game.
When you have 5 NFL caliber defensive backs and linebackers, you get burned a lot less when you take chances. Also the better the coverage, the more sacks you can accumulate as well.
UT’s recruiting classes were ranked 16th in 2014, 9th in 2015 and 10th in 2016. Unless that was mostly offensive talent, Orlando’s creative blitz packages should have resulted in being ranked higher than 29th in sacks last year and having only 1 sack against Maryland.
Maybe Tony was a great talent evaluator but these so called “NFLworthy” players did not play close to that potential for Tony. Maybe we got lucky or maybe its a combination of factors that turned these guys into “NFL” players. I’m certain there are potential “NFL” guys aside from Ed Oliver or whoever you are thinking of in our locker room today and neither you, the coahes, scouts, media, teamates or themselves know what they are capable of. They may never know, somw will never reach thier potential and others will succeed far beyond thier physical capabilities. It all starts with self motivation and determination!
He was a P6 coach at Houston with a P6 schedule and a P6 coach at UT with a P6 schedule. He is a great DC. Don’t judge off of one game. UT had a scary good D last year. They just can’t seem to get the O going.
Chick fil A owners are required to be very active in their store, so yes, he is probably there more than eight hours a day. It is a requirement of ownership.
… and Orlando was a great DC. There is no second guessing it.
Will you forget, Tony was only the coach a few years. 3 of those “NFLworthy” players were freshman his final year. Of course UH was still 8th in the nation in INTs anyway. 10th in the nation in forced turnovers. 20th in yards allowed. 1th in points per game allowed.
Are you sure they weren’t playing close to their potential?
I probably should add, that from what we have seen the last few years, these guys aren’t necessarily being drafted based on what they did on a G5 team as much as they are because of their size and athleticism. Otherwise the 5 time AAC defensive player of the week that finished 4th in career tackles, 5th in career sacks and 5th in career force fumbles, would have been drafted in the first two rounds instead of going completely undrafted.
That’s exactly the point I was going to bring up…the 2015 defense wasn’t that much different in production from a Gibbs defense. However I thought Orlando was much better at stopping the run which I think is huge.
[quote=“H-Town, post:12, topic:13547”]
Chick fil A owners are required to be very active in their store, so yes, he is probably there more than eight hours a day. It is a requirement of ownership.
[/quote]Wednesday is our “drive to Houston” day. We usually eat at a Chick fil A store. Tomorrow, I’ll ask to speak to the owner . . . . .
The Chick-fil-A franchise opportunity requires that the individual be free of any other active business ventures and operate the restaurant on a full-time, hands-on basis.
As a reminder; the Chick-fil-A franchised opportunity is not an investment opportunity. The Chick-fil-A franchise opportunity requires that the individual selected as the franchisee work in the restaurant fulltime having no other business endeavors. This is a hands-on opportunity for the franchisee.
Big picture I think we (myself included) are too hard on Orlando and CMD defenses. This is non-SEC college football. We are going to give up big plays we are going to give up points. Our NFL corners and safeties got burned at some point most games, it happens. This is why turnovers and takeaways are so vital to the outcome of a game. It’s still early but the Briles offense leaves the defense on the field for a long time. If we still win by double digits but give up a fair amount of points we can’t get mad at the defense. This is the system we signed up for. Finally, if we run into a buzzsaw of a defense (probably not gonna happen) that shuts us down the score is going to be very ugly because our D will be out there forever. The offense and defense are not exclusive entities.
Rice this last week, ECU last year, if they rack up a bunch of yards through the air but we win by double digits, we can’t just say good game offense and blame the defense. In both those games our defense shut down the run contributing to the lead and those passing plays.
In 2015 we won the big games mainly on the strength of our offense being able to outscore our opponents. We beat Louisville 34-31, Cincy 33-30, and Memphis 35-34 (thanks to Postma leading a 2nd half comeback and in large part to a missed field goal in last seconds).
In 2016, we allowed Navy 46 points, SMU 38 points, and Memphis 48 points – with the same D that held OU to 23 (except Bowser was out of 2 of those games). There was no excuse for allowing SMU to put up 48 points.
