I was freshman at EMU in 1999 and remember watching Kenny Philpot and Scott Russell play linebacker and being a fan of that group... David Lusky put up some good numbers... Then Daniel Holtzclaw was a four year star. Beyond that, I don't remember too much coming from the EMU linebackers.
Howey and Fort may have produced more if they had a better team around them, but they were both really built up safeties who didn't have much help.

Although they aren't as deep as the DB's there certainly looks to be alot of competition amongst the Linebackers...

We've all heard alot of buzz about Kurtz, Poole and Cudworth.
You've got returners like Weingard, English, Boyd and Steve Brown.
There's the mystery of PaoPao, who we heard alot of great things about
a few years ago, but injuries have kept him off the field.
Then there are the Redshirts in Hester and Curry.
Finally, Herb Waits who's bio has multiple mentions of him being a valuable special teams player. (That's not a knock, just highlighting that special teams seems to be more of his thing.)

I think this group of guys will push each other. I think they will make each other better. What concerns me the most is that I don't know anything about the speed that they play the game at... Last year the big plays killed us and it seemed like the speed in the LB core just couldn't get people in position to catch up, close off or cause a loss.

So rather than speculate as to who the starters will be, my questions is...

How will you define success for this group in 2011?

Great job as always. I found it curious when they brought in 3 JUCO LBs. That told me they weren't happy with the existing talent level at the position and the redshirt freshmen were not going to be the answer either despite some of redshirt freshmen having good recruiting marks.
It was also interesting that they didn't bring any true frosh recruits in this years class.

The JUCO LBs have good speed and size. The difficulty is measuring the jump from California JUCO to Div I ball. In previous English classes many of the JUCOs had problems showing up or beating out the former coaches players for starting jobs.

We will have better depth. What I hope is we that have better tackling fundementals and stop the opponents running game.

I view our running game as being weaker this year whichl I believe will put some added pressure on our defense. Overall I see our offense being a bit weaker and our defense a bit stronger.

Bottom line:

Both the LBs and DBs need to be MUCH faster then last year.

Too many RBs outran the LBs and DBs last year turning medium sized runs into very long runs.

Too many LBs/DBs took BAD angles which were not at all consistent with their foot speed.

The LBs and DBs need to be able to recognize the speed they are playing against.

Mr. D. Robinson at UofM and Mr. Pryor, formerly at OSU, can move faster then the LB trying to catch them.

IF KPJ or '79 does a 'defining moment' for the '11 season, it might come in the 3rd game of the season if Dennard Robinson break contain behind the DL and is chased by the LBs and DBs.

If he takes it to the house, we still have problems.

If someone tackles him for a 10 yard gain, we're getting better.

(07-19-2011 11:14 AM)emu steve Wrote:  IF KPJ or '79 does a 'defining moment' for the '11 season, it might come in the 3rd game of the season if Dennard Robinson break contain behind the DL and is chased by the LBs and DBs.

If he takes it to the house, we still have problems.

If someone tackles him for a 10 yard gain, we're getting better.

EDIT: One clue might be Cotton.

If English and Snow move Cotton from S to LB that is clue that they want more speed at the weakside LB.

I believe someone indicated that Cudworth wasn't 100% during spring.

As we've been saying English wants a lot faster team speed on defense.

It could affect Cotton; it could affect Russell who could be a quick DE (IF Russell can be spared from the TE position this year).

(07-19-2011 11:14 AM)emu steve Wrote:  IF KPJ or '79 does a 'defining moment' for the '11 season, it might come in the 3rd game of the season if Dennard Robinson break contain behind the DL and is chased by the LBs and DBs.

If he takes it to the house, we still have problems.

If someone tackles him for a 10 yard gain, we're getting better.

I'd settle for holding a MAC team under 200 yards rushing.

I think Cotton and russell can move to outside LB. I am not sure if they can play this position but they are talented kids . If this is the case I would redshift them for a year to teach them the position.

English went out and brought in about 5 or 6 LB, this will buy him 2 years to reload.. From what I hear the LB position will be a battle for playing time. If you think about it. The JUCO will get the nod before the kids from last year. That is why English went out to get them.