What type of defensive scheme will Santucci run @ GT?

King2b

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
147
A little concerned about his short time as a dc. Geoff had a longer and better record as DC. Did he have much responsibility for game planning and adjustments? Or did Elko still do that. I'm pretty sure that was discussed during the interview. Hope he turns out like CBF.
 

BCJacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
752
A little concerned about his short time as a dc. Geoff had a longer and better record as DC. Did he have much responsibility for game planning and adjustments? Or did Elko still do that. I'm pretty sure that was discussed during the interview. Hope he turns out like CBF.

Don't forget, Jess Simpson was his co-DC at Duke and has a ton of experience. Santucci should have some good assistants to help with those parts, if he needs it.
 

Randy Carson

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,279
Location
Apex, NC
I have heard from reliable sources that we will run 8-2-8. It will be stout

Due to the fact we will 2 coaches for the LB's and no coach for the DB;s I'm thinking we go with an 8-6-4
Every fall, it's best to use either 12-4-14 or 12-0-12 depending upon your overseeding and climate zone.

I'm not sure about what's best at BDS.
 

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
18,141
A little concerned about his short time as a dc. Geoff had a longer and better record as DC. Did he have much responsibility for game planning and adjustments? Or did Elko still do that. I'm pretty sure that was discussed during the interview. Hope he turns out like CBF.

Santucci made the calls on gameday at Duke even though the foundation of the system was Elko's . He was also with Elko at A&M, and when Elko left A&M for Duke, Santucci was promoted to Co-DC.

What you like about Santucci is GT is getting him on the way up. He's young, at 35, but he has experience at good programs with great coaches (Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Tx A&M, Duke). It's also going to help us with recruiting in Texas and Louisiana as Santucci recruited those talent rich areas. He's excelled everywhere he's been. This is a BIG move for him in terms of getting out from underneath Elko's shadow, so he'll be extra motivated to make it work. He's coming in with great X's and O's experience, and he's seen the gamut of offenses in the SEC and ACC to defend against.

The battles in practice between Santucci and Faulkner should be epic.
 

Techster

Helluva Engineer
Messages
18,141
Good interview here. Some of the takeaways:

1. His defensive packages are based off of the opponent that week. He's not going to ram a blitz package onto an opponent because it worked the previous week. He believes in varying the looks an offense will see.
2. He LOVES guys that can do multiple things on defense, or have the skillset to do multiple things. Guys like Charlie Thomas, Juanyeh Thomas, Tariq Carpenter would have been MONSTERS in this defense.
3. He believes in rotating guys. Should see guys on the two deep get heavy playing time...as long as they can execute what he wants.
4. This dude is the epitome of team first. The way he talks about making the HC's job easier means he understands sacrificing glory for what's best for the team. You don't get that sometimes with good coaches who want it to be known it's "their" defense or offense.
5. The defense you saw at Duke this year was Santucci's. What you saw at Duke is what Santucci wanted. He talks about it some in the interview.

Santucci will fit in with this staff and school. Very unassuming and humble guy who just wants to coach ball. He loves to talk about the positives of his players so the guys on the team will love to play for him. You can see why Key wanted to hire him.

 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,279
Having an interior DL coach, an interior linebacker coach, and an edge+olb coach still says we are gonna be 4-2-5 sometimes, 3-3-5 sometimes, and maybe 2-4-5 sometimes.
Could be weird coaching assignments, but I guess our defense is getting more complex
 

tmhunter52

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,400
I don’t know about schemes, I just hope it is one that generates all-out, full speed, fundamentally-sound, hard-nosed, bust-their-***-effort on every play for 60 minutes.
 

Bogey

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,512
I like a 3-3-5 with personnel to also play a 4-2-5.
But the best thing I like about bringing in Santucci is we will finally be rid of Thacker come Jan 31 and have no leftovers from Scooter's original hires after 5 long years.
 

TechPhi97

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
727
Location
Davidson, NC
I like a 3-3-5 with personnel to also play a 4-2-5.
But the best thing I like about bringing in Santucci is we will finally be rid of Thacker come Jan 31 and have no leftovers from Scooter's original hires after 5 long years.
Per the interesting article posted by @slugboy , my guess is we will be more of a 3-3-5 with our personnel. One thing I took from that article is that the 4-2-5 requires you to have strong stand-up rushers, and I’m not sure we will have that next year. I also think the new breed of DC can and will fit the scheme around personnel, if they want to succeed. Forcing a rigid scheme no matter what probably has gotten more coaches fired than anything.
 

gville_jacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
761
When does spring practice start? Think we’ll get a chance to see what kind of formations we’re practicing then. Also, end of spring will open another transfer portal wave to hopefully bring in some scheme fit guys. Plus then the coaches will have a better idea of what they’re working with.
 
Top