ESPN's ACC blog hates our defense

bigsands

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ESPN's ACC blog is ranking the league's position groups, post spring practice:

GT defensive front 7 ranked 13/14
GT secondary ranked 14/14

Yikes!

In an effort to undermine their own credibility, they put the GT offensive line at 9/14.
 

Techster

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People are going to forget how attrocious we were last year on the OL and DL (sans Gotsis) and get really offended by this.

Where's the little character eating popcorn gif....
 

AE 87

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I'm not bothered by it. Our defense wasn't good, and we lost 7 reg starters.

That being said, the writer id'd Law as a CB, so it's not like they were looking any deeper than roster, min, and performance last year. Any suggestion that it reflects reporting from spring camps is off target it seems.
 

takethepoints

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Doesn't look like they paid much attention to spring, but you can't blame them.

What they miss - and they aren't alone - is the interaction between O and D in our scheme of play. Why did the D have trouble last year? Because we weren't holding on to the ball and scoring dang near every drive like we did in 2014. When our O is rolling, the D isn't on the field much and when it is, especially late, the opposition is behind, knows it won't get too many more drives (and, hence, opportunities to score), and starts taking risks. And we have a year like 2014 where the turnover ration was strongly in our favor. And the D looks pretty good.

Well, I doubt that'll happen in 2016 - though I do expect good improvement - and ESPN has a positive aversion to any football analysis that is more complex then "This Team Stronger! Will Smash!" Still, I think we'll do better then this prediction.
 

iceeater1969

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ESPN's ACC blog is ranking the league's position groups, post spring practice:

GT defensive front 7 ranked 13/14
GT secondary ranked 14/14

Yikes!

In an effort to undermine their own credibility, they put the GT offensive line at 9/14.
Its not how good you are.
Its how fast you get better.

Coach has brought in larger recruits so of whom will PLAY.
 

AE 87

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Doesn't look like they paid much attention to spring, but you can't blame them.

What they miss - and they aren't alone - is the interaction between O and D in our scheme of play. Why did the D have trouble last year? Because we weren't holding on to the ball and scoring dang near every drive like we did in 2014. When our O is rolling, the D isn't on the field much and when it is, especially late, the opposition is behind, knows it won't get too many more drives (and, hence, opportunities to score), and starts taking risks. And we have a year like 2014 where the turnover ration was strongly in our favor. And the D looks pretty good.

Well, I doubt that'll happen in 2016 - though I do expect good improvement - and ESPN has a positive aversion to any football analysis that is more complex then "This Team Stronger! Will Smash!" Still, I think we'll do better then this prediction.

Nice theory, but our D was worse in 2014. It looked better to those who use per game or per season stats because they only had to defend 10 drives a game on ave vs pwr 5 opp. (for teams playing more than 2)

How much better was the best D, CU, that year? They defended 36 more drives than we and gave up 10 fewer TDs and 4 fewer FGs.
 

takethepoints

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Nice theory, but our D was worse in 2014. It looked better to those who use per game or per season stats because they only had to defend 10 drives a game on ave vs pwr 5 opp. (for teams playing more than 2)
Which pretty much admits my point, doesn't it? Hold on to the ball and things begin to look better for any D, including ours. Also, this post doesn't address the turnover ratio. I'll bow to you in terms of analysis, but that's what I always look to first in evaluating Ds.
 

AE 87

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Which pretty much admits my point, doesn't it? Hold on to the ball and things begin to look better for any D, including ours. Also, this post doesn't address the turnover ratio. I'll bow to you in terms of analysis, but that's what I always look to first in evaluating Ds.

I read your post as asking a question about our struggles on D in 2015 and responding that our O wasn't as strong as 2014.

I responded that our D struggled more in 2014 than 2015.

So, no, I don't think it admits your point.
 

GTNavyNuke

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We went 3-9 last year. We aren't going to get any love from any press for anything. Just get used to it. Maybe we start winning again his year and things change, but until then this is how it's going to be

+1. Couple that with a small fan base, dismal record last season and 65th ranked recruiting class (Scout for 2016).

The entertainment industry (Disney / ESPN / papers / blogs) is going to spend their time on other teams and give others their love.

IIWII.
 

iceeater1969

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Biggest difference I saw was (after first two pasties) 15 defense compared to 14 defense did not seem to have signature stops or interceptions. Nothing in 15 compared to the 14 Clemson where defense was the difference. In 14 there were pick 6 and key hustle tackles t goal line that WERE DEFINING MOMENTS

In 16 hope we see some flashes of things to come
 

AE 87

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What was the D points scored against per possession 2014 vs 2015?

LOL, now I don't know where the number I was remembering when typing my last couple posts came from. When I was typing them, I was sure that I had recently seen a 2014 ranking for our D much lower than 2015s.

Sorry everybody, especially @takethepoints

They were actually quite similar. 2014, 2.46 and 2015, 2.47.
 

Longestday

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Both years had the same points scored against with a lot less forced turn overs in 2015.

Although, you would think the defense number of minutes on the field would directly impact scored against numbers.
 

33jacket

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LOL, now I don't know where the number I was remembering when typing my last couple posts came from. When I was typing them, I was sure that I had recently seen a 2014 ranking for our D much lower than 2015s.

Sorry everybody, especially @takethepoints

They were actually quite similar. 2014, 2.46 and 2015, 2.47.

Just curious. Do we have lets say what a top 30 D would be or even top 40 in the same stat? It seems a field goal a posession is pretty bad right?
 

gtg936g

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I am just happy that we seemed to tackle better in the spring game. Getting in the correct position and good tackling would solve a lot of defensive woes IMO.
 
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