Well, if we need the safeties to support against the run against USL then our defense will be in trouble this year. I'm thinking we won't. But we will see our safeties moving around a lot and blitzing I think, which did happen very often under Saban, much more than you may think. Landry does have the most tackles on the team over the past 3 years. We will see a lot of man coverage but it should not be because of the safeties having to come up in run support. And what do you mean about a bad early season habit that Pellini has? As far as most of us were concerned last year we didn't bring our safeties up early and played way too much soft zone. We got much more agressive after the start with blitzes from both the LB's and DB's and had much better success, of course we weren't playing ASU in those other games too, which helped with our success.
The main items I will be looking at against a team like USL will be: 1. Praying that we have a huge reduction in offensive penalties. 2. Have our backs getting past the line of scrimage before getting hit. 3. Pass protection cohession, especially on blitzes. 4. The special teams play, both on returns and coverage. No blocks in the back!!!!!!!! 5. How hard will Alley run, will he be ok mentally right from the get go? 6. Who steps up as the second RB, will JV rebound more and will he be ok coming back from his knee injury? 7. Will the DT's dominate the middle, freeing LB's and DE's to make plays?
Will LSU corners be playing a lot of man coverage in 2006? Sure. Are they good enough cover corners too do it well. Pretty damn likely, I think. Some of the times that they will be all alone out there will be because a blitzing safety is chasing the quarterback down in the backfield.
1. Ill be looking how the defense runs to the ball... esp at LB 2. Ill be looking how Alley B is running and the body language 3. Ill be praying that we have someone in the same ballpark as Skyler returning the ball for us 4. Praying we dont make stupid penalties and cause a couple TO's 5. Hoping the TE gets involved 6. Watching RP and see how much he is in the game on the sideline Last watching how the Coaches call the game and interact w/ the players So basically ill be watching with a purpose!
I want to see JR checking-off recievers, and finding the open man instead of never seeing him and trying to thread the needle.
1. 0-line 2. linebackers 3. consistency in our offense If our offensive line is rolling then pretty much anyone of our rb could be successful. Most of JV's success in 03' came from great o-line production. I am curious to see who will take care of the other 2 linebacker spots and if Highsmith can lead the younger guys. We already know AH was a great third linebacker last year that stepped up when we needed him, but can he take over the leadership role now? Also we need to establish some consistency in our offense the first game. We have great talent on O, but we just need to find a rythym that we never really found last year.