Hitting home how aggressive Woody's D must be right now

[ilovetheoption]

Thinking about the presumptive starters on Defense, you're really looking at the personnel for a 2-4-5, and even THEN it's undersized.

Surge is 300, but Branch is only 280.

ASA is OLB sized, and Curry is only 217, which is light for a linebacker, too. Campbell is 208.

The ONLY way this defense can work, to my mind, is if guys are just FLYING around playing with their hair on fire.

 

[augustabuzz]

Thinking about the presumptive starters on Defense, you're really looking at the personnel for a 2-4-5, and even THEN it's undersized.

Surge is 300, but Branch is only 280.

ASA is OLB sized, and Curry is only 217, which is light for a linebacker, too. Campbell is 208.

The ONLY way this defense can work, to my mind, is if guys are just FLYING around playing with their hair on fire.

Curry is closer to 230.

 

[Jacket in Dairyland]

Thinking about the presumptive starters on Defense, you're really looking at the personnel for a 2-4-5, and even THEN it's undersized.

Surge is 300, but Branch is only 280.

ASA is OLB sized, and Curry is only 217, which is light for a linebacker, too. Campbell is 208.

The ONLY way this defense can work, to my mind, is if guys are just FLYING around playing with their hair on fire.

I hope that is exactly what they will do, I will forgive errors due to aggression , much easier than playing timid , or cautious. Had my fill of that over the last few years without much exception.

 

[wesgt123]

Thinking about the presumptive starters on Defense, you're really looking at the personnel for a 2-4-5, and even THEN it's undersized.

Surge is 300, but Branch is only 280.

ASA is OLB sized, and Curry is only 217, which is light for a linebacker, too. Campbell is 208.

The ONLY way this defense can work, to my mind, is if guys are just FLYING around playing with their hair on fire.

Wait... are you griping about this defense scheme and our personnel? Need I remind you of our previous D coordinator?

 

[tech_wreck47]

Thinking about the presumptive starters on Defense, you're really looking at the personnel for a 2-4-5, and even THEN it's undersized.

Surge is 300, but Branch is only 280.

ASA is OLB sized, and Curry is only 217, which is light for a linebacker, too. Campbell is 208.

The ONLY way this defense can work, to my mind, is if guys are just FLYING around playing with their hair on fire.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Curry was bigger than 217 and ONlY for Branch? That’s good size at DE. The only real undersized guys are probably Campbell (but should be ok with how he gets used) and Amour. JMO.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Wait... are you griping about this defense scheme and our personnel? Need I remind you of our previous D coordinator?

No no. Not griping at all. Was just struck but how light the defense is.

 

[wesgt123]

No no. Not griping at all. Was just struck but how light the defense is.

Lol fair enough. Hopefully that changes within the next 2-3 years

 

[bobongo]

According to the website, "Next College Student Athlete", FBS averages over the last 5 years are as follows...

LB 223, DL 270, DB 189

We average as follows on the two-deep roster...

LB 220, DL 275, DB 199

According to these numbers, the only area we average light on defense is LB, and that by only 3 pounds. On DL we are 5 pounds heavier, and our DB's are 10 pounds heavier. But those are FBS averages, not power-5 averages. FWIW.

Also, do we run a 2-4-5? I thought it was a 3-4-4. According to the depth chart, don't we have three DL positions?

 

[ilovetheoption]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Curry was bigger than 217 and ONlY for Branch? That’s good size at DE. The only real undersized guys are probably Campbell (but should be ok with how he gets used) and Amour. JMO.

It's OK size for a 3 man front DE. When combined with ASA, it's downright small. This defense has exactly 1 dude who can anchor against the run.

A 3 man front tends to have bigger DL, and bigger linebackers to compensate for the fact that there are fewer DL's.

So, GT has fewer DL's, and and small DL's, and not particularly big linebackers, and essentially a safety playing one of the 4 linebacker slots.

It's a REALLY small front 7.

To wit, based on roster weights, the front seven averages 245 lbs.

UVA (another odd man front) averages 263. 20 lbs a man lighter!! That's a BIG difference.
Pitt (an even front team) averages 258.

I'd imagine GT has one of the lightest front sevens among P5 schools.

 

[ilovetheoption]

According to the website, "Next College Student Athlete", FBS averages over the last 5 years are as follows...

LB 223, DL 270, DB 189

We average as follows on the two-deep roster...

LB 220, DL 275, DB 199

According to these numbers, the only area we average light on defense is LB, and that by only 3 pounds. On DL we are 5 pounds heavier, and our DB's are 10 pounds heavier. But those are FBS averages, not power-5 averages. FWIW.

Also, do we run a 2-4-5? I thought it was a 3-4-4. According to the depth chart, don't we have three DL positions?

Also, most teams have 4 DL's and 3 LB's. So, they have 4 guys in the 270 range, and 3 in the 225 range, not vice versa (see my above post).

Again, I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but it's a thing.

 

[tech_wreck47]

I’ll say that I don’t always believe the weights listed. Curry is 230 according to someone that posted above. Also Branch can anchor down on the run and is average size for a 3-4 DE. I get we aren’t huge but I don’t think we are small by any means. I also think we will get bigger as the years go on. If need we can also but some bigger DE’s in the games like Glanton, Martin, and Owens.

 

[bobongo]

Also, most teams have 4 DL's and 3 LB's. So, they have 4 guys in the 270 range, and 3 in the 225 range, not vice versa (see my above post).

Again, I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but it's a thing.

I see what you are saying, but it's just a function of the 3-4-4. You wouldn't want 270 pound linebackers. Our DB's make up for it by averaging 199. That's a big set of DB's.

 

[boger2337]

We are going to be similar to the falcons set up with speed. Need s 280-310lb nose tackle and speedy edge rushers and speed coverage linebackers. The point is to beat the running back to the hole, and smack him. Then if we need to adjust on the fly, via a play action attempt our linebackers can recover and possibly disrupt the pass.

 

[ilovetheoption]

So, I'm just gonna go ahead and look at every team on the schedule, based upon waht depth chart I can find, and their official roster.
Average Front 7 Weight:
GT: 245
Alcorn State: couldn't find
South Florida: 252
Pitt:259
Clemson: 276
Bowling Green:240
Louisville:256
Duke: 259 (base nickel, so I counted one of the 3 safeties)
VT:261
UNC:257
Miami: Weirdly, their roster doesn't list weights, so I went with last years. 262
UVA:264
UGA: 263

That's an average of 257.
Among P5 teams, the average is 261.

More telling, the standard deviation among P5 (not including GT) teams is only 5.4 lbs. That means GT is approximately 3 standard deviations below the norm.

Now, I know it's a pretty small sample size, but being GT folks, you know what 3 standard deviations means. It means you're VERY small up front.

AGAIN, i'm not saying it's a disaster, because speed can kill, but I think we need to realize how the defense MUST play if it's to succeed.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

Woody's defense is going to be fun to watch

 

[sidewalkGTfan]

I just want to enjoy watching defense again instead of being filled with anxiety when they’re out there. I’m really looking forward to Saturday.

 

[Ibeeballin]

Every 3-4 is not equal or the same. We are not expecting our DLine to anchor and hold the point. It’s all about penetration and getting up field.

Look one of the better 3-4 teams (Stanford) front 3

DE | JR

Stanford
Ht: 6020 | Wt: 269

DT | JR

Stanford
Ht: 6020 | Wt: 276

DE | SR

Stanford
Ht: 6060 | Wt: 267

I would personally have ASA as the Jack but if we believe he can create havoc at end, let’s watch him work

 

[ATL1]

ASA is the only player truly undersized. Also with the exception of Malik the 2 Deep Safeties are fairly large.

I’m a bit surprised that Jaylen & Swilling beat out Kerr & Simmons is not on the 2 Deep.

Freshman & Sophmores all over the place. The talent upgrades of the last two classes is beginning to show.

 

[AE 87]

So, I'm just gonna go ahead and look at every team on the schedule, based upon waht depth chart I can find, and their official roster.
Average Front 7 Weight:
GT: 245
Alcorn State: couldn't find
South Florida: 252
Pitt:259
Clemson: 276
Bowling Green:240
Louisville:256
Duke: 259 (base nickel, so I counted one of the 3 safeties)
VT:261
UNC:257
Miami: Weirdly, their roster doesn't list weights, so I went with last years. 262
UVA:264
UGA: 263

That's an average of 257.
Among P5 teams, the average is 261.

More telling, the standard deviation among P5 (not including GT) teams is only 5.4 lbs. That means GT is approximately 3 standard deviations below the norm.

Now, I know it's a pretty small sample size, but being GT folks, you know what 3 standard deviations means. It means you're VERY small up front.

AGAIN, i'm not saying it's a disaster, because speed can kill, but I think we need to realize how the defense MUST play if it's to succeed.

Averaging front 7 when most teams run a 4-3 and we run a 3-4 is bogus from the jump.

Go back and watch Woody's intro interview. He says that his scheme values quickness and smarts over height and weight (not that we won't also take height and weight when we can).

The point is that even with your bogus math we may be a bit light, but as @Ibeeballin says, it's scheme related.

In reality, we're running a penetrating 3-3-5. We'll see how it plays out.

 

[ATL1]

Also get all aboard the Juanyeh hype train a 6’3 215lb’s FS. Woody & Company value speed & from what I recall Askew, Juanyeh, & Swilling were ball hawkers.

Should make for a really fast and fun defense.