If we had such a player, he would be starting. If Welter was "inferior", he wouldn't have been the second-leading tackler last year.
Welter just have a difficult time getting off blocks. IMO he is really a true Sam or Will backer. By the way, doesn't Ronald Martin appear to be too big and too slow for the safety position.
When he made the INt, he was back peddling very well. Covering the field, made a good catch and an 8 yard return.
http://espn.go.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=400548000 Read the box score where is shows Wisconsin's rushing stats. That team had 1 goal in mind. Run right at Welter. Again and again and again. Is Welter going to get in the box score? Surely if they are running right at you time and time again. And then he's getting "dragged" for extra yardage on some of his tackles, which is utterly embarrassing. He's a liability. As others have stated he is in there only because he has the smarts of knowing where to position people. Unfortunately we must have some fairly unintelligent people behind him on the depth chart. We are "stuck" with him (as opposed to your version of "contributor"). That's the best way I can put it.
red, my entire point is we do NOT have such a player so the heady Welter starts and is average at best at his job. Again, that's fine, but he's not up to LSU of today's standards in his overall game. Not sure why you're unwilling to acknowledge this point..? He's inferior to what we need at the MLB spot.. as is Kendall Beckwith and everyone else who hasn't been able to supplant DJ in the lineup. Like I said before, if he had Dorsey and Booger in front of him DJ would likely be garnering James Lauranaitis tOSU hype. If you watched those games you saw James was a bit more athletic version of Welter.. he "made plays" almost by default. Tackle stats are hardly an indicator of talent and level of play. Heck, bad defenses often have the safety as their leading tackler.. does that more likely mean A) he's an amazing safety or B) that their front seven isn't getting it done and the safety is having to stop the run because of it. I don't see anyone attacking Welter as a person or as a representative of LSU just his level of play. Are you seriously content or even pleased with his performances? Again, the DL shares in the blame as does some of his fellow linebackers. That still doesn't make his play any better, tnough..
As thin as we are along the DL especially in terms of experience and strength/conditioning we're actually deeper in talent in the defensive backfield.. This secondary is frightening. Reminds me of the talented group we had when freshmen Eric Reid, Tharold Simon, and Tyrann Mathieu all had interceptions of Ryan Tannehill (who kept Manziel that year on the bench) in the Cotton Bowl..
The big runs were not on Welter. Those were on Kwon and Hunter. Again you try to put the entire blame on one guy. One that was not caught out of position on a big play. How can this be? How can he get all of those tackles if he is "not contributing"? And wait! Kevin Minter was the leader in tackles his last season, one of the best tackle totals in LSU history. So everybody was running right at him, eh? Or is the MLB naturally in the middle of the action? Perhaps Wisconsin was running right at a couple of green defensive tackles that Welter had to support. Most people recognize that this was their game plan. Ahem, which plays were those? The video shows a half dozen defenders on both sides being dragged for extra yardage on some play or another. Why is it OK for other LSU players to get dragged on a tackle, like on almost every other play? Have you never before seen this in the game of football? Only that, eh? So why bash him relentlessly, why are his tackles and stats "misleading", why does his competitive selection by a very good offensive coordinator not commend him? What is your obsession, Dr. Evil?
I have never maintained that Welter was perfect, only that he was getting the job done for Chief. No one has been able to take the job away from him. What I'm adamant about is the relentless criticism by a few singling out a single LSU player for un-called-for abuse, game after game. We all know how they feel by now. But they can't let it go. A point I have been trying to make. There are eleven guys out there and Welter is not the single underperformer. Where were you last season? Nothing justifies the bashing that Welter got here last season. There were a number of athletes that underperformed, but Welter was held up to particularly nasty and unnecessary vilification. Once Ishtish actually said that Welter went out of his way to intentionally give up yardage. Remarks like "Welter has to go"; "Welter is the worst recruiting mistake"; and "LSU is essentially playing with 9 1/2 players on defense" isn't discussing his level of play. Not after about 200 posts. It is senseless bashing worthy of the Tigerpoop site.
I put the entire blame on one guy? You mentioned the long runs being due to others.. I never mentioned long runs. I have on multiple occasions pointed out LB and DL problems compounding our run defense issues.. do you even read what I post? Seriously. Read what I write dude..
