A lot of posts on Tiger Boards worrying about our D because of losing Saban and bringing in Pelini. I think we the talent we have now that our D will be very good. Bo will be a very good DC I think as he has proven with that with good players at Nebraska he can coach em up. As good of a coach as Saban is it was the great players he brought in as much as his scheme IMO. We were a pedestrian defense in 2000, ranking 46th in total defense at 351 ypg. We ranked 41st in rushing D and 60th in passing D. We ranked 32nd in scoring D that year. In 2001 we ranked 75th in total D and gave up 396 ypg. In rushing D we ranked 21st and in passing D we were horrible, ranking 108th at 279 ypg. In scoring D we ranked much higher than the other stats would lead me to believe at #39, giving up 22.3 points per game. In 2002 as more of Saban's recruits began to play we saw a dramatic improvement as we ranked 8th in total D at 287 ypg. We ranked 40th in rushing D at 134 ypg. In passing D we ranked 2nd at 153 per game. In scoring D we ranked 15th at 18.3 ppg.
I think with the talent that Saban brought in Bo & our defense will continue to do very well over the course of the season. I believe players are at least as important as the scheme's run, probably even moreso. Especially if you are going to put DB's out on an island one on one.
You cant say players or scheme... you have to have the players, but its up to the coach to get them into the right places... saban had both.
If I am not mistaken, Josh Bullocks had 11 interceptions the year Pellini was at Nebraska. They didn't have nowhere near the talent that LSU has right now on defense and they were more than adequate. I see no reason to panic at all. Saban was a blitz mastermind, but his defense did have drawbacks. I have heard from a few people that said that were always thinking and worried about screwing up a read. Pellini's scheme supposedly will be more simple and rely on aggresiveness and pursuit to the ball. I am ready to see what these guys do.
shemes are deffinitly very important look at what lou temper did we had some very good deffensive players durring his era but because they were put into bad possitions we had some pretty bad deffensive years. I dont think that we have to worry though because Pellini will not make many big differences except running more zone and with two new corners that is probably the smart thing to do. It probably wouldnt have hurt to see a little more zone last year.
Saban's defense relied almost completely on strong man 2 man on the outside.. this frees up a safety to help with the run, which allows you to drop off a linebacker or an end on a switch... this defense takes alot of skill and brains to play in.. i think it will be more effective in the nfl, however, the new coverage rules may screw it up.
I always thought Saban always got to much credit for being a defensives mastermind. LSU fans are saying that we had gotten used to his dominate defenses, but as you posted - his defenses weren't that spectacular until he started getting spectacular players in there. Saban certainly could design some very good schemes, but their complexities allowed for mistakes. I think we can expect to see a very good defense under Pelini. It will interesting to see how well we recruit defensive players with him, as he wasn't named until after the recruiting period this year.
Its what they called Lou Tepper when he got mad ! Just think if Gerry Dinardo had fired Lou, GD might still be out coach !
the biggest thing that I am looking for from this years defense is better tackling. I love the fact that they are hitting at full speed in practice. As far as the coaching, I think the talent of the team will save us this year and allow Pelini time to install his defense.
