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There is legitimate reason to be excited about the Husky defense
Sark and his merry band of yes-men makes me lament our offense, but year two under Wilcox, Sermon, Tosh and co. with a loaded LB corps, what should be a decent group of DBs, and Jake willing a healthy Shelton -- the defense should be pretty fun to watch.
Wait we probably won't have any modicum of a pass rush though, huh? Fuck. Nevermind.
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I expect a regression. Like Race said with UW just when you think you've fixed one problem and moved onto the next another problem pops up.
There are a lot of good pieces on the defense but the big issue will be finding the best 11 to play against the likes of Arizona, Oregon, and Arizona St. Against Stanford & OSU, you can sub more often and that benefits our D because we have enough personnel to fit the specific situation. However, against the others you can't do that. For example, it renders guys like Jamora and Shirley ineffective (good on passing downs but weak on rushing downs). Tutogi is good against Stanford but worthless against the other teams. Fuimaono has had a great camp but we'll have to see how they can fit him in.
The defense was good at home so I'm not too worried about Boise or Arizona. Oregon and Arizona St are going to be trouble for the D while UCLA, OSU & Stanford will tell us if we have a top 20 defense or simply an above average defense.
Hopefully Sark's shitty management of the offense doesn't tire out the defense. This is potentially a huge concern.
What does it say about our program in year five that we have a guy who was playing TE the last 3 years now starting on our DL along with a true frosh starting on our DL. Then another guy who hasn't played a snap in two years also starting on our DL.
Couple that with our lack of NFL prospects on the OL and that is why I'm not so excited about this year. Sark has neglected the beef on both sides of the ball and this year it is really going to show.
This reminds me of those 2002 and 2003 teams that were always so hyped up because they had great skill players but no line doomed them.
(Shelton is the only good/proven/healthy linemen. The LBs and DBs may be good units, but it won't mean much without linemen.)
Accurate QB but no OL depth to protect him.
Better defense but worse offense.
Playmakers and depth at the skill spots but questionable OL & play calling.
More than a handful of good players on the D but huge holes at safety and DT- the two most important D positions.
Improved recruiting overall but no success in recruiting OL.
1- Develop a fantastic offensive line.
The other number #1 - Develop a fantastic defensive line.
2- Get a good QB and develop him.
The rest is mostly icing on the cake, really. Toss in a decent tailback, a killer backer and a headhunter DB and you're Top 10 or close to it.
Simple formula, but tricky to execute. Our problem is Cream Puff is clueless about the formula. How can that be when he worked Carol?
QB is the most important single position on the field. For position groups it goes OL as number 1, and DL a close second. Everything else is a distant third.
I am a fucking idiot and I know this. How the fuck does a guy getting paid over 2 million per to do this for living still need to figure it out?
His fixation with wideouts is laughable. First of all, a team constructed as below doesn't need to field more that one than can catch the ball plus a couple of guys for depth. Bigger issue, he doesn't even recruit well at WR. We have a bakers dozen of these guys and one, maybe two or any good. That's as much about development as talent.
Kasen may not be fast, but this inability to create separation is a total failure in coaching. There have been plenty of good to great wideouts that weren't fast. They had good hands, ran perfect routes, created separation and were tough. Outside of the hands, the rest is practice and coaching.
The 1984 team would have one the championship in a BCS world. They didn't have anybody with Kasen's talent. The guys from 84 were coached to play to their absolute maximum potential and were better on the field at crunch time.
(Sorry about getting off the defensive topic.)
Well, Kasen has the weed smoking down...maybe with some coaching he could do the other shit...
Michael Irvin was good at blow but it didn't stop his thug personality from showing up on the field. Just make Kasen run plenty of gassers when he spaces out and he'll find the path to true enlightenment. Oh, but that would take some balls and toughness from the coaching staff.
I remember when doogman posters were making fun of this kid because he predicted he would start. I goes JoJo knew the roster (shocker) better than the doogman crew.