Unleashing CTR's Defense

[slugboy]

Moral of the story?

Moral? (1) Same as Longestday said--we shouldn't be #123 with the talent we have. (2) LB hasn't been a strength, and I'm not sure why it can't be.

I guess I 'm going down the rathole, but I just compared us to Virginia Tech, who is in the top 50 in about all of the defensive stats (and #8 in havoc rate). Some of it is recruiting. A lot is aggressive scheme. While we're in Virginia, here's UVA, who also came out a lot stronger than us at #57 in havoc rate, with about the same recruiting level (actually, worse for the last few years, and just changed coaches recently).
I'm impressed with the recruiting that Ted Roof has been in on. As a player, he was all over the field throwing a monkey wrench into everything the opposing offense was trying to do. Defensively, I don't see why we shouldn't field units at least as good as Pitt, BC, Duke, NC State, and UVa.
If you look here (FEI) and here (S&P+) you'll keep seeing Wake and Duke and Troy and Georgia State and Georgia Southern ahead of us. With dumb luck, we ought to have a top 30 defensive year occasionally, but it's just not happening.

 

[gt365]

Moral? (1) Same as Longestday said--we shouldn't be #123 with the talent we have. (2) LB hasn't been a strength, and I'm not sure why it can't be.

I guess I 'm going down the rathole, but I just compared us to Virginia Tech, who is in the top 50 in about all of the defensive stats (and #8 in havoc rate). Some of it is recruiting. A lot is aggressive scheme. While we're in Virginia, here's UVA, who also came out a lot stronger than us at #57 in havoc rate, with about the same recruiting level (actually, worse for the last few years, and just changed coaches recently).
I'm impressed with the recruiting that Ted Roof has been in on. As a player, he was all over the field throwing a monkey wrench into everything the opposing offense was trying to do. Defensively, I don't see why we shouldn't field units at least as good as Pitt, BC, Duke, NC State, and UVa.
If you look here (FEI) and here (S&P+) you'll keep seeing Wake and Duke and Troy and Georgia State and Georgia Southern ahead of us. With dumb luck, we ought to have a top 30 defensive year occasionally, but it's just not happening.

We got the talent it just getting the right group of guys on the field imo!

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[strong90]

true but everyone also calls it Saban's D. not Smart's or Pruitts, or Muschamps.

...and it was called Kiffin's O.

Yes, CPJ has overall responsibility for the entire team's success, but CTR owns our defense and I'm sure that he would say so himself. CTR's experience as a former player, DC and HC suggest that he wasn't hired to be an up-and-coming protege' or a no-named surrogate.

Interestingly, there are some similarities with the assumed roles of both CPJ and Saban. CPJ is an offensive guru who runs the O and Saban is a defense-first coach who calls the shots (Kirby Smart just implemented the playbook). They both hire coordinators to own the other side of the ball and both limit their influence to giving overall guidance and direction. For example, CPJ was applauded when he publicly called on CTR for a more aggressive D, and Saban was heralded for his on-air admonition "Run the damned ball, Lane!"

As to the thread title, nothing tells me that CTR's scheme is designed to be "unleashed." What needs to be unleashed is CPJ's influence on CTR's defense.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

FEI says it all... 96th in defense... we have better players than 96.

I'm not trying to indict any players here. A part of our problem the last dozen years on D is lack of depth on the Dline. That was true again last year.

Lack of depth not only factors in big time when injuries occur and for on field stamina as games progress 4 qtrs. It also affects our talent level on field.

Let me try and clarify. We might, in any given prior year, have 2-3 studs on the Dline those given years. But they aren't current studs together. One might be a stud his junior n senior year but our next most talented DL has often been a frosh or soph that hasn't come into his own yet. In effect giving us maybe one "stud" per year.

Last year's front 7? How would they rank in talent nationally? I'm not sure it would be unrealistic to put them anywhere between top 50 to top 100. I honestly can't say I can peg it. I can say I think they all played with heart and with 100% effort.

How many of those guys last year will mature into "studs"? I honestly don't know for certain but I do think our depth has been increased significantly. I think that will prove itself in games this year and next. How much? If I could answer that accurately I'd probably be willing to lay some money down in Vegas.

 

[Longestday]

I can't say exactly where GT DL talent is rateted. Are you willing to project them last in the ACC and less than D1 talent? The FEI rating projects very low if scheme is not apart of the issue.

I am not better than Roof. I would hire Roof over myself. Perhaps the reality of the situation causes the need for a very conservative keep everything in front and hope they make a mistake.

I would like to see a 60 or better FEI rank. This would at least meet our recruiting rankings. I am not saying top 25... just top 60.

Now the to those who dislike CPJ... if we did not have CPJ getting more than our recruiting rankings to have top 20 offenses, we would be riding the UVa train considering our offense performing at a 96th FEI ranking.

 

[GTJoeBrew]

I can't say exactly where GT DL talent is rateted. Are you willing to project them last in the ACC and less than D1 talent? The FEI rating projects very low if scheme is not apart of the issue.

I am not better than Roof. I would hire Roof over myself. Perhaps the reality of the situation causes the need for a very conservative keep everything in front and hope they make a mistake.

I would like to see a 60 or better FEI rank. This would at least meet our recruiting rankings. I am not saying top 25... just top 60.

Now the to those who dislike CPJ... if we did not have CPJ getting more than our recruiting rankings to have top 20 offenses, we would be riding the UVa train considering our offense performing at a 96th FEI ranking.

Do you realize what a top 20 offense and a top 60 defense would get us? It will be a fun year if that happens.

In 2014 we were 5th in OFEI and 70th in DFEI. In addition we were 1st in DTO(defensive turnover rate). Turnover rate is a huge stat for us and seems to make or break our seasons. I hope this year we can take the burden off of that requirement with better line play.

Believe it or not, we were 62nd in DFEI in 2015... 91st in DTO though.

 

[redmule]

From 2002-2008 under Gailey, we mostly had a make no mistakes offense and an attacking defense. You almost wanted the O to hurry up and punt so you could see the D assault the other team. I know we had exciting players on offense, but my recollection without looking it up was that our scoring offense was 50ish+ while the defense was typically top 20. We now have the mirror image. The mirror image has given us 3 wins over uga, an OB win, numerous trips to the ACCCG and a championship, our highest national ranking in 20 years, and some other goodies that the other image did not deliver.

I'm not saying that we should be satisfied (and I don't think CPJ would either). I view it as the foundation of the offense is strong, and seems to be secure with the talent already in the barn. Even slight improvement in the defense will leverage that offense to new heights.

I come down on the side that defensive coaching turnover in CPJ's first 5 years led to poor recruiting on defense. I really can't fault CPJ's hiring of Groh given his resume. Didn't work out; it happens. Roof comes in and the summer after his first year, for whatever reasons, quite a few defensive players were shown the door. The talent on defense, already thin, got even thinner. Now it seems that is behind us and the defensive talent is on the upswing. I'm still giddy over hearing one of the Clemson recruiting analyst say our DB class this year was the best in the nation. Is Roof the best defensive mind in the country? No. Is Roof the best defensive recruiting asset Georgia Tech has had in a long time? For sure. If I'm CPJ, I encourage Roof to put that new talent to work with some new wrinkles, but I want him on the Tech sideline for a while longer. Because for some mysterious unfathomable reason, when Ted Roof is on that sideline as a player or coach, we make uga fight for their lives and beat them as often as not. I know correlation is not causation, but are you willing to run the experiment to find out?

 

[MidtownJacket]

I'm not. The other piece of this (and I know I am getting off-topic) is that I believe CTR is building quality traits and encouraging the good to be better in our SAs. Given the broader context of the mission of The Institute, I am all about him staying as long as we see improvement in scheme / execution and he keeps bringing in classes that have us in the mix with kids.

 

[MWBATL]

My friend and I argue all the time about GT's defense. I absolutely *hate* our "bend but finally break" style of defense that we play under CTR. My friend argues that (1) that's what CPJ wants and (2) we don't have the athletes to play aggressively on D. I'm not sure what the truth is, but I surely do miss the days when Tenuta ran that aggressive D scheme. And I am not sure I am convinced that our athleticism is that much worse in recent years. Now, as to whether the scheme is CPJ's choice, or CTR's......I don't know who to yell at.

 

[Longestday]

I agree that I don't know... the answer can be found by asking the question...did CPJ run bend don't break in the past and the same for Roof. I also don't know the ability of our players. But, I would say we should be better than 60 ranking for FEI ... broken record.

 

[PBR549]

Some of y'all believe CTR wants to run the " bend but don't break" style. That's not exactly true. CTR wants to do what he believes is the best way to keep people from scoring using the personnel we have. Go back and look at the bowl game vs LSU when TED was the DC the first time here. There is no resemblance to what he's had to do this time. There's no resemblance in the players either so far! It's getting better. We should see improvement this year I believe due to better recruiting and player development.