Clarifying Linebackers

TromboneJacket

TromboneJacket

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This past season, I heard fairly often that our linebacker play wasn’t where it needed to be and that it was a major recruiting need. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I don’t know as much about what a linebacker does or what traits are desired in the different types of linebackers as I thought. Can someone help clarify the differences between different types of linebackers, ideal physical traits of each, responsibilities of each, which of our players would fit into which categories, and (possibly) how Coach Collins and Coach Thacker like to use them in our defensive scheme? Any insight y’all could give me would be much appreciated.
 
Ibeeballin

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This from my playbook with Tenuta but it is pretty universal. Good life manual as well

D7559D17-8B5E-4C2E-A541-5C72A8BC0594.jpeg
 

swarmer

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Our LB play wasn’t great, but our DL made them look much worse than they were. In today’s game most teams are only playing 2 LBs, and even those tend to have more versatility than the old days ...with skill sets closer to safeties than D ends.
 
tech_wreck47

tech_wreck47

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Ibeeballin said:
This from my playbook with Tenuta but it is pretty universal. Good life manual as well

View attachment 7628
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I’ll add that some of the best LB’s have crazy good instincts. I think reading a play/knowing from pre snap what’s going on can be something that ultimately makes a LB from good to great. Our LB play was less than stellar but as the season went on I believe guys played faster because they had a better understanding of reading plays which allowed them to flow better. This can largely be contributed to the hard work of the defensive staff imo.
 

White_Gold

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tech_wreck47 said:
I’ll add that some of the best LB’s have crazy good instincts. I think reading a play/knowing from pre snap what’s going on can be something that ultimately makes a LB from good to great. Our LB play was less than stellar but as the season went on I believe guys played faster because they had a better understanding of reading plays which allowed them to flow better. This can largely be contributed to the hard work of the defensive staff imo.
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This goes for a lot of positions. I think most importantly would be LB, QB, OL, in no order. Your comment reminds me of the play where Clay Matthews is screaming "Watch the wheel route, watch the wheel route" and Cam Newtown responds "Oh you been watch film too huh, that's cool, watch this."

A battle of the minds before the actual battle.

 

White_Gold

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TromboneJacket said:
This past season, I heard fairly often that our linebacker play wasn’t where it needed to be and that it was a major recruiting need. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I don’t know as much about what a linebacker does or what traits are desired in the different types of linebackers as I thought. Can someone help clarify the differences between different types of linebackers, ideal physical traits of each, responsibilities of each, which of our players would fit into which categories, and (possibly) how Coach Collins and Coach Thacker like to use them in our defensive scheme? Any insight y’all could give me would be much appreciated.
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You want badasses that understand football. Go watch film from the guys in 06/07. Flying around, filling holes, shedding blockers, making the tackle, hands up when the ball comes their way on a pass play. Making the blocker pay for deciding to block them.

The extra special guys can man up in coverage and win a fair amount of times. @Ibeeballin can correct me if I'm wrong, but a LB just can't cover a WR and expect to win every single time, nor does anyone expect them to. It's just not what they're built for. But, the special guys can mitigate that factor some, say if a DC gets caught with wrong personnel on the field or if say the offense has a few special guys of their own that create matchup problems.
 
smokey_wasp

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Seems like they have the hardest job on defense and have to be jacks of all trades in a lot of ways.

What I think the OP may be curious about is what measurables and skillsets you are looking for in an ILB vs OLB. Also, we had several recruits in this cycle who were listed as DE/LB coming out of high school. What skills will be the deciding factors in which position they play for us?

Good topic, OP.
 
Silk3

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Silk3 said:
Wright, Tyson, and Franks is the best group of linebackers physically/athleticaly weve brought in in years and i dont think its that close. Excited to think of what they can become. Hopefully back to the Wheeler, Wilkinson, Fox days
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On top of this thought...if we can get our lb play back to how it was long time ago...its one thing upgrading a position group from a negative to neutralish, but if we can go from negative to positive while upgrading dline and db it will be a night and day difference. Unfortunately the upgraded talent being brought in start out as freshman, so it will take 2ish years. You would think thats obvious, but the few loud vocal fans who dislike coach collins say that talent should show in the w-l record immediately.
 

684Bee

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33jacket said:
that was for one year, but it was actually guyton not hall. Hall was MLB, which wilkinson played for us.

The next year it was wheeler, hall, guyton, with hall at MLB

people forget about guyton....
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Guyton was fast. I remember him running down a Clemson running back.
 

gt6776c

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Didn’t Guyton have that insane special teams hit on a VT guy on a punt return? Seems like it was a Thursday night game. He brought the wood on that hit.
 
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Techster

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The physical traits of our current LBs are better suited to defend offenses a decade earlier. Curry would have been a good 4-3 LB in the day of 2 TEs and Fullbacks. LBs in this day have to have versatility and range because they have to cover TEs, slot WRs, RBs, and dual threat QBs. LBs these days are basically DBs playing in the box all the time. Teams are going with 3-5 WRs at all times, and you add the dimension of dual threat QB, and the entirety of your defense better be able to cover ground in a hurry or else there will be mismatches to exploit. Our LBs are getting exploited...A LOT.

The best defender I saw all season was Isaiah Simmons for Clemson. He played LB, rush end, DB, and sometimes CB for Clemson last season. You know where he started out for Clemson? Safety. What he did for Clemson last season was one of the most impressive seasons I've seen from a defender since I've been watching football. This includes the NFL. He is so versatile and impactful at each position. If you remember our game against Clemson, that guy was EVERYWHERE making plays against us.

I sound like a broken record, but I'd love for Tariq Carpenter and Juanyeh Thomas to move to LB and get utilized like Simmons. I don't think they have his pure speed, but I think they have ability to play be a very high level LB compared to DB. I think they are good DBs at this level, but they can be GREAT LBs. Unfortunately, we need some guys to prove they can play DB before we can move those two. Those two at LB would give an extremely fast OLB group.
 

danny daniel

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LBs that line up in the box should be your best athletes on D. In 25 years of setting up a D I always put my best player at WLB and next best at MLB.

Totally agree about Simmons.

. I suspect that thinking played a part into putting C Thomas at Wlb, even though he is really too small otherwise. I agree that Carpenter and J Thomas are better suited to be LBs, but that ship has likely sailed, especially for Tariq.
 
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