What I see is a FCS size defense trying to play FBS football especially the front three.

I'd given it more year to see improvement because its fair to wait until most of the defensive players are those he recruited.

But get tired of missed tackles, blown assignments, "lanes".

Seriously if we can get improvement maybe its time to change coordinators.

(09-20-2015 08:30 AM)emu79 Wrote:  What I see is a FCS size defense trying to play FBS football especially the front three.

I'd given it more year to see improvement because its fair to wait until most of the defensive players are those he recruited.

But get tired of missed tackles, blown assignments, "lanes".

Seriously if we can get improvement maybe its time to change coordinators.

Talent makes any coach/coordinator look a whole lot better. Let's see where we're at after next season. Tough to blame it on the DC at this point.

Get OC back, get a starting DT, LB & Corner from the Juco ranks, find/develop another pass rusher.

No real playmakers on this D without OC. Anthony Brown has shown flashes (gotta get that club off his hand), but no real speed or explosion in the front 7.

MAC has opened more eyes than ANY conference in the country so far this season.

Let's be honest, the OC and/or Chris Creighton had a worse game than McCaslin. Darius Jackson had 7 carries for 97 yards, a 13.9 avg, and 2 touchdowns. He was stopped cold...by EMU play calling. Ball State sure as hell couldn't stop him.

Yeah to offense seemed to be too 'cute' by half. The D actually played much better.

Agreed. Like the OC, but he seemed to lose his way with the play calling after we went up 17-0. Seems he needs to learn how to win, just like the kids.

Painful lesson, but hopefully one he learns well after watching the film.

Jackson & Vann are really good. Have to get the ball in the hands of your best players. Roback an average MAC qb, nothing more, nothing less.

Need to stick with more of a 4 man front with our front 7 personnel. Outside of the 60 yard run to open the game, and the ridiculous 50 yard QB TD, we gave up a lot less of the 8/10/15/20 yard runs. Unfortunately, without a pass rush, the QB sat back there all day and completed 24 of 28!

Third quarter, 20 play, 85 yard, 10 minute drive was painful to watch, and highlighted the lack of playmakers on D.

(09-20-2015 10:45 AM)EagleTough Wrote:  Agreed. Like the OC, but he seemed to lose his way with the play calling after we went up 17-0. Seems he needs to learn how to win, just like the kids.

Painful lesson, but hopefully one he learns well after watching the film.

Jackson & Vann are really good. Have to get the ball in the hands of your best players. Roback an average MAC qb, nothing more, nothing less.

Need to stick with more of a 4 man front with our front 7 personnel. Outside of the 60 yard run to open the game, and the ridiculous 50 yard QB TD, we gave up a lot less of the 8/10/15/20 yard runs. Unfortunately, without a pass rush, the QB sat back there all day and completed 24 of 28!

Third quarter, 20 play, 85 yard, 10 minute drive was painful to watch, and highlighted the lack of playmakers on D.

One thing that would help is to have a rotation of players on D in 2nd and 3rd quarters instead of all D players taking every single snap the whole game. This would help give the new recruits much needed reps, D stays fresh and help to create depth at the same time. This is also a "staple" of top tier programs. Many will say they have the depth to do it, but they did not always have depth and this is the way they started building it. Also, with this approach, you allow the best performers to get most reps come 4th quarter. This also creates better moral overall and that competitive edge that we are missing come 2nd half of the game.

(09-20-2015 03:02 PM)candela Wrote:  

(09-20-2015 10:45 AM)EagleTough Wrote:  Agreed. Like the OC, but he seemed to lose his way with the play calling after we went up 17-0. Seems he needs to learn how to win, just like the kids.

Painful lesson, but hopefully one he learns well after watching the film.

Jackson & Vann are really good. Have to get the ball in the hands of your best players. Roback an average MAC qb, nothing more, nothing less.

Need to stick with more of a 4 man front with our front 7 personnel. Outside of the 60 yard run to open the game, and the ridiculous 50 yard QB TD, we gave up a lot less of the 8/10/15/20 yard runs. Unfortunately, without a pass rush, the QB sat back there all day and completed 24 of 28!

Third quarter, 20 play, 85 yard, 10 minute drive was painful to watch, and highlighted the lack of playmakers on D.

One thing that would help is to have a rotation of players on D in 2nd and 3rd quarters instead of all D players taking every single snap the whole game. This would help give the new recruits much needed reps, D stays fresh and help to create depth at the same time. This is also a "staple" of top tier programs. Many will say they have the depth to do it, but they did not always have depth and this is the way they started building it. Also, with this approach, you allow the best performers to get most reps come 4th quarter. This also creates better moral overall and that competitive edge that we are missing come 2nd half of the game.

Hopefully we'll have that depth after another class or 2. Great analysis for top tier programs. Catch 22 for the EMU's of the world. A lot of our 2 star guys just aren't ready for the jump from high school to this level right away. Thus Creighton tries to redshirt as many as possible to build their bodies and coach em' up for years 2-5.

At a school like EMU the most realistic solution is the right mix of freshman and Juco's. This year's class would indicate that is exactly what the staff is trying to do.

Need to have our recruiting classes ranked in the top half of the MAC each and every year. Look no further than WMU for the blueprint.

We haven't had a decent defense since the late 80s. Even the top programs in the MAC are inconsistent on defense from year to year. The coordinator really isn't the issue. The issue is recruiting top talent on the defensive line -- easier said than done. There aren't many of those guys to go around.

(09-20-2015 10:00 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Let's be honest, the OC and/or Chris Creighton had a worse game than McCaslin. Darius Jackson had 7 carries for 97 yards, a 13.9 avg, and 2 touchdowns. He was stopped cold...by EMU play calling. Ball State sure as hell couldn't stop him.

Agreed. CC and the OC must have thought the advantage was to throw - really surprised they didn't run more. Roback came back down to earth - looked like a freshman at times.

I was hoping it was time to impose our strengths on others, rather than try to maneuver around the other team's strengths. Guess I was wrong.

Outside of the ridiculous run by their QB, I can't fault the defense that much - played ok. Just needed one more stop.

Frustration continues......

Dear candela,
I can't claim the entire defense wasn't rotated, but watching defensive line play, these players were rotated during the game; Luke MacLean, Arron Pipkins, Kwani Figueroa, Mike Brown, Derrick Dunlap, Deshai Powell, and Jeremiah Harris. They did not play equal minutes, but they were all used during the game.
We are playing better, but still need to work on tackling. Remember, Coach Creighton said Eastern missed 17 and 18 tackles in the first two games. I would think we missed that many against Ball State too.

(09-20-2015 06:19 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear candela,
I can't claim the entire defense wasn't rotated, but watching defensive line play, these players were rotated during the game; Luke MacLean, Arron Pipkins, Kwani Figueroa, Mike Brown, Derrick Dunlap, Deshai Powell, and Jeremiah Harris. They did not play equal minutes, but they were all used during the game.
We are playing better, but still need to work on tackling. Remember, Coach Creighton said Eastern missed 17 and 18 tackles in the first two games. I would think we missed that many against Ball State too.

Yea Ken. good points but I noticed for the 3 games back end stayed the same except for final 2 minutes of Wyoming game and dont recall much roation of LB core.

(09-20-2015 06:19 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear candela,
I can't claim the entire defense wasn't rotated, but watching defensive line play, these players were rotated during the game; Luke MacLean, Arron Pipkins, Kwani Figueroa, Mike Brown, Derrick Dunlap, Deshai Powell, and Jeremiah Harris. They did not play equal minutes, but they were all used during the game.
We are playing better, but still need to work on tackling. Remember, Coach Creighton said Eastern missed 17 and 18 tackles in the first two games. I would think we missed that many against Ball State too.

Hope they learn to tackle soon, Leonard Fournette may run for 400 yards in a couple weeks.

(09-20-2015 08:13 PM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  

(09-20-2015 06:19 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear candela,
I can't claim the entire defense wasn't rotated, but watching defensive line play, these players were rotated during the game; Luke MacLean, Arron Pipkins, Kwani Figueroa, Mike Brown, Derrick Dunlap, Deshai Powell, and Jeremiah Harris. They did not play equal minutes, but they were all used during the game.
We are playing better, but still need to work on tackling. Remember, Coach Creighton said Eastern missed 17 and 18 tackles in the first two games. I would think we missed that many against Ball State too.

Hope they learn to tackle soon, Leonard Fournette may run for 400 yards in a couple weeks.

Yea Bob, that is a basic fundamental aspect that needs tremendous improvement. While no one wants missed tackles, that number needs to be 5 or less and that will make a difference

(09-20-2015 03:02 PM)candela Wrote:  

(09-20-2015 10:45 AM)EagleTough Wrote:  Agreed. Like the OC, but he seemed to lose his way with the play calling after we went up 17-0. Seems he needs to learn how to win, just like the kids.

Painful lesson, but hopefully one he learns well after watching the film.

Jackson & Vann are really good. Have to get the ball in the hands of your best players. Roback an average MAC qb, nothing more, nothing less.

Need to stick with more of a 4 man front with our front 7 personnel. Outside of the 60 yard run to open the game, and the ridiculous 50 yard QB TD, we gave up a lot less of the 8/10/15/20 yard runs. Unfortunately, without a pass rush, the QB sat back there all day and completed 24 of 28!

Third quarter, 20 play, 85 yard, 10 minute drive was painful to watch, and highlighted the lack of playmakers on D.

One thing that would help is to have a rotation of players on D in 2nd and 3rd quarters instead of all D players taking every single snap the whole game. This would help give the new recruits much needed reps, D stays fresh and help to create depth at the same time. This is also a "staple" of top tier programs. Many will say they have the depth to do it, but they did not always have depth and this is the way they started building it. Also, with this approach, you allow the best performers to get most reps come 4th quarter. This also creates better moral overall and that competitive edge that we are missing come 2nd half of the game.

Yes so many third and fourth down conversions the D just didn't stop.

Honestly from the 3 games I've seen so far this year I would say the offense has improved more than the defense.

LSU outcome is irrelevant, but if we see zero defensive improvement, or adjustments against Akron or Toledo, you'd have to believe the DC will officially be on hot seat alert!

Just happen to have Jimmy Williams already on staff. Assistant Head Coach (UAB), AND Defensive Coordinator for Buffalo when they were competing for MAC championships, already on his resume. Hmmmmmmm

Yeah well Jimmy needs to tell his defensive linemen to stop lining up in the neutral zone so we get FIVE or SIX of these in a game.

(09-29-2015 11:39 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Yeah well Jimmy needs to tell his defensive linemen to stop lining up in the neutral zone so we don't get FIVE or SIX of these in a game like the Army game. Seems pretty fundamental to me.

Point being, if things don't improve at all with this defense over the next 3-5 games, we may see some changes, whoever that may be. I could care less whether it is Jimmy Williams or Santa Claus.

(09-29-2015 02:59 PM)EagleTough Wrote:  Point being, if things don't improve at all with this defense over the next 3-5 games, we may see some changes, whoever that may be. I could care less whether it is Jimmy Williams or Santa Claus.

Actually a better pick for defensive coordinator would be Jay Peterson who was the DC at EMU under Genyk and also at Northwestern plus being LB coach several stops along the way.