2014/15 Defense

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MinnesotaNice

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From everything that's been said, we should be fine replacing Shabazz, Vereen, Manuel, and Hill. Hopefully BBC will come back healthy, Derrick Wells will move to CB full-time, and Deletavious McGhee is the stud he's been made out to be in practices. DeVondre Campbell gets an off-season in the weight room and time spent working on technique, De'Niro Laster steps up as a RS freshman, and some depth is added with a JC LB or two.

The biggest question mark is who is going to replace the beef in the middle? Hageman, and to a lesser extent Roland Johnson have been solid this year. When they came out of the game on Saturday, Wisconsin was able to eat up yards on the ground. We really need the Ekpe brothers to have a big off-season. In my opinion, they will be the difference between a good team and a great team next year.

Are we in on any DT recruits that could play right away? Is there someone else on the roster I'm forgetting?
 

Dont forget about myrick. Kid has been a stud on special teams as a true freshman. Fully expect him to compete for a starting CB job next year. I believe he backed up Murray for a play against wisconsin
 

I'm a little worried about the defense for next year as Hageman, Johnson, Vereen, Manuel, and Hill have all had pretty good seasons. Agree that if Campbell gets bigger, he could be a playmaker. We'll be younger, but hopefully guys will develop during the non-conference schedule. I still think we need to get more athletic in the defensive backfield. Having Boddy-Calhoun back will certainly help. I see Wells better suited to play safety, but if he's the best we've got, he'll have to be out on the corner. I wonder if they will try to recruit a JUCO DB or two.

RS freshman Yoshoub Timms and true freshman Demaric Peppers are inside guys who will likely be asked to step up next year.

EDIT: Thanks for pointing out Myrick t-docious. He's the kind of athletic kid we need on the corner.
 

Hinojosa, Legania and Peppers are DTs on the roster. Steve Richardson is a DT recruit.
 



I think you are under selling Hill a bit. He is third on the team in tackles and has two TD's. He is also the leader of the defense if not the team. Defense has some big shoes to fill.

I agree DT is the biggest question mark.
 

Wells

Was Wells move to cb a good one? It seems like he was making a ton more plays at safety? Murray is a great cover corner. Johnson is a good safety. Agred on the dt situation, DE looks deep. Manuel and Hill will be missed some.

MinnesotaNice said:
From everything that's been said, we should be fine replacing Shabazz, Vereen, Manuel, and Hill. Hopefully BBC will come back healthy, Derrick Wells will move to CB full-time, and Deletavious McGhee is the stud he's been made out to be in practices. DeVondre Campbell gets an off-season in the weight room and time spent working on technique, De'Niro Laster steps up as a RS freshman, and some depth is added with a JC LB or two.

The biggest question mark is who is going to replace the beef in the middle? Hageman, and to a lesser extent Roland Johnson have been solid this year. When they came out of the game on Saturday, Wisconsin was able to eat up yards on the ground. We really need the Ekpe brothers to have a big off-season. In my opinion, they will be the difference between a good team and a great team next year.

Are we in on any DT recruits that could play right away? Is there someone else on the roster I'm forgetting?
Click to expand...
 

march madness said:
Was Wells move to cb a good one? It seems like he was making a ton more plays at safety? Murray is a great cover corner. Johnson is a good safety. Agred on the dt situation, DE looks deep. Manuel and Hill will be missed some.
Click to expand...

You have to remember that Wells is a guy that Kill brought in on short notice to fill out his first class. He was athletic enough to play right away and has now been injured a lot. I would not be surprised if he sees less and less playing time from a combination of injuries and being beat out by others.
 

MinnesotaNice said:
From everything that's been said, we should be fine replacing Shabazz, Vereen, Manuel, and Hill. Hopefully BBC will come back healthy, Derrick Wells will move to CB full-time, and Deletavious McGhee is the stud he's been made out to be in practices. DeVondre Campbell gets an off-season in the weight room and time spent working on technique, De'Niro Laster steps up as a RS freshman, and some depth is added with a JC LB or two.

The biggest question mark is who is going to replace the beef in the middle? Hageman, and to a lesser extent Roland Johnson have been solid this year. When they came out of the game on Saturday, Wisconsin was able to eat up yards on the ground. We really need the Ekpe brothers to have a big off-season. In my opinion, they will be the difference between a good team and a great team next year.

Are we in on any DT recruits that could play right away? Is there someone else on the roster I'm forgetting?
Click to expand...

What is going on with Jordan Hinojosa? Has he played at all this year?

Edit: I see I was real late on this post. Haha.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
You have to remember that Wells is a guy that Kill brought in on short notice to fill out his first class. He was athletic enough to play right away and has now been injured a lot. I would not be surprised if he sees less and less playing time from a combination of injuries and being beat out by others.
Click to expand...
Wells is not going to get beat out, but he has to stay healthy. They moved him from safety partially because the pounding there wore him down. The shoulder injury is something that may take rest to fix.
If he is healthy he starts, they did not want to have to move Vereen to CB.
 

Hinojosa is red-shirting, so he'll still have 3 years to play. Ekpe and Botticelli should start at DT, with Timms, Peppers, Legania and others backing them up. So the good news is the starters will have played a lot, but the back-ups will be raw.

Martavius Mims is a JUCO corner that we're recruiting who will be here in December for an OV. I'd also like to see us add two prep corners, one of who is Craig James.
 

The defense next season will give us the first true taste of what to expect from a defense made up of Kill recruits. There are going to be some big shoes to fill as outside of Murray the majority of the best players consistently this year on defense have been the seniors.

The majority of the offense is already Kill guys, next year the defense will follow suit.
 

march madness said:
Was Wells move to cb a good one? It seems like he was making a ton more plays at safety? Murray is a great cover corner. Johnson is a good safety. Agred on the dt situation, DE looks deep. Manuel and Hill will be missed some.
Click to expand...

There are some guys who just become much, much better when the play is in front of them. I think we saw that with Vereen with his move to safety and I agree with you on Wells. Both he and Vereen don't seem to be able to run with WRs well enough to get position and it appears Claeys' system really requires guys to be able to do that. They just seem better suited to play safety in this system.
 



march madness said:
Was Wells move to cb a good one? It seems like he was making a ton more plays at safety? Murray is a great cover corner. Johnson is a good safety. Agred on the dt situation, DE looks deep. Manuel and Hill will be missed some.
Click to expand...

imo, Wells is our best CB & the QB of our Secondary. What many are missing is that Claeys frequently uses 3 CB's & instead of the traditional nickleback who's undersized to cover the smaller slot receivers, he instead uses a shorter/thicker CB who can tackle, almost like an extra Safety/LB creeping up on the line of scrimmage. This spot makes a lot of tackles & has to blitz quite often so the guy is playing undersized & has to be very physical. It's the position that Ryan Collado excelled at his Sr year under Claeys & one that Wells is perfectly suited to.

What we'll have next year is Murray & BBC playing the traditional "boundary" & "field" CB spots, with Wells covering the "under" spot. Myrick has looked good playing Special Teams & spot duty at CB. Myrick should be able to step right in as the 4th CB or serve as the 3rd CB for BBC until B1G season when he's 100%. I expect we'll bring in a Juco CB, a big/tall Freshman along the lines of Eric Murray & I expect Dimonic McKnizy to move to CB as well.

Also, we have depth at Safety & if Wells were to get hurt again I could see Cedric Thompson moving into that "under" CB position in a pinch since we have Damarius Travis & Antonio Johnson to start with Levine rotating in & Delatavious McGhee getting his feet wet.

I think we'll be in good shape at LB, with Wilson in the middle, Jack Lynn backing him up, De'Vondre Campbell back again & I fully expect Christian Russell to be starting at Hill's spot & maybe even upgrading the position. De'Niro Laster is a stud & he'll be in the rotation. Ray Dixon should get his feet wet & I wouldn't be surprised to see us sign Cody Poock as well.

The DE's are easy enough as we return everyone so it's another year of Amafeula, Chochran, Keith & Hendrick Ekpe, with Ben Perry in the mix somewhere.

The position that scares me is DT. Botticelli & Scott Ekpe become our #1 combo. Can Hal Legania give us something as a Sr? The coaches had kind words for Shoob Timms last year but I haven't heard much since then, will he be the guy to step up? Hinojosa? Peppers?
 


I'm really excited about the future of our safeties. Thompson, Travis, and Johnson have played very well in my opinion, and Travis and Johnson are only sophomores. Could we possibly see Jack Lynn move to the outside for one year if we don't land Christian Russell? Hopefully Campbell can put on some weight during the off-season.
 


Relying on BBC and Wells next year is worrisome for me. BBC's injury is very serious and not everyone comes back from a torn ACL and MCL as the same player. Wells has ability but he has been injury prone his entire career here. Hopefully Myrick will be ready to contribute on defense because we might need him.
 



I'm very worried about the defensive line next year. But I was also worried about the LB unit this year and they turned out just fine. I'm sure we'll see a new face step up on the line to fill in.
 

i was thinking Rallis would start at OLB with Wilson and Devondre, he has probably the best diagnosing skills of any of our LBs, he is a very smart player and watches a lot of film

do you guys think Theiren and Murray could be preseason first team all big ten next year?
 


GophersInIowa said:
I'm really excited about the future of our safeties. Thompson, Travis, and Johnson have played very well in my opinion, and Travis and Johnson are only sophomores. Could we possibly see Jack Lynn move to the outside for one year if we don't land Christian Russell? Hopefully Campbell can put on some weight during the off-season.
Click to expand...

I don't think they'd move Lynn outside (but you never know), rather I think De'Niro Laster wopuld get thrown into the fire if we didn't land Russell, but Cody Poock has an offer now. He said the coaches want him to move outside & compete for Hill's old spot, so he could be in the mix as well.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
imo, Wells is our best CB & the QB of our Secondary. What many are missing is that Claeys frequently uses 3 CB's & instead of the traditional nickleback who's undersized to cover the smaller slot receivers, he instead uses a shorter/thicker CB who can tackle, almost like an extra Safety/LB creeping up on the line of scrimmage. This spot makes a lot of tackles & has to blitz quite often so the guy is playing undersized & has to be very physical. It's the position that Ryan Collado excelled at his Sr year under Claeys & one that Wells is perfectly suited to.

What we'll have next year is Murray & BBC playing the traditional "boundary" & "field" CB spots, with Wells covering the "under" spot. Myrick has looked good playing Special Teams & spot duty at CB. Myrick should be able to step right in as the 4th CB or serve as the 3rd CB for BBC until B1G season when he's 100%. I expect we'll bring in a Juco CB, a big/tall Freshman along the lines of Eric Murray & I expect Dimonic McKnizy to move to CB as well.

Also, we have depth at Safety & if Wells were to get hurt again I could see Cedric Thompson moving into that "under" CB position in a pinch since we have Damarius Travis & Antonio Johnson to start with Levine rotating in & Delatavious McGhee getting his feet wet.

I think we'll be in good shape at LB, with Wilson in the middle, Jack Lynn backing him up, De'Vondre Campbell back again & I fully expect Christian Russell to be starting at Hill's spot & maybe even upgrading the position. De'Niro Laster is a stud & he'll be in the rotation. Ray Dixon should get his feet wet & I wouldn't be surprised to see us sign Cody Poock as well.

The DE's are easy enough as we return everyone so it's another year of Amafeula, Chochran, Keith & Hendrick Ekpe, with Ben Perry in the mix somewhere.

The position that scares me is DT. Botticelli & Scott Ekpe become our #1 combo. Can Hal Legania give us something as a Sr? The coaches had kind words for Shoob Timms last year but I haven't heard much since then, will he be the guy to step up? Hinojosa? Peppers?
Click to expand...

Interesting breakdown of the guys that are likely to be the mainstays next season. The one slightly concerning thing is the general lack of experience in that group as many of those guys will be seeing their first real playing time and it is always a crap shoot on new guys as to whether or not they can cut it at this level.

The secondary would seem to have the most returning experience at the same time as others have pointed out it is not wise to bank on BBC being a starter coming off his injury and Wells has shown an inability to stay healthy so far in his Gopher career.

I am a little worried about the DE position as well, plenty of experience coming back but without a major threat on the inside to help them out they might have a tough time getting to the QB. They have not been dominant this year and that is with Shede in the middle drawing a ton of attention. D-Line will be interesting to watch take shape next season.

All in all I would not be shocked to see the defense take a step back next season, hopefully the offense with all the returning players it will have can take enough of a step forward to off set it.
 

I don't get the McKinzy to CB talk at all. As discussed in another thread, he's not fast enough to play a skill position, and in terms of size, he's already borderline big for a CB and hasn't even hit campus yet. If he did move (he won't), it would have to be to S.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I don't get the McKinzy to CB talk at all. As discussed in another thread, he's not fast enough to play a skill position, and in terms of size, he's already borderline big for a CB and hasn't even hit campus yet. If he did move (he won't), it would have to be to S.
Click to expand...

I just hope he is not too tall to play QB;)
 

One of the big benefits of picking up two juco linebackers in Damien Wilson and DeVondre Campbell is that the Gophers were able to red-shirt De' Niro Laster, Ray Dixon, and Chris Wipson.

On the other hand, there is no substitute for playing real games.

Therefore, linebacker will be a big area of concern again next year. I bet they do play Jack Lynn at outside linebacker. With Manual and Hill gone, it just doesn't make sense to have him sit around another year.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I don't get the McKinzy to CB talk at all. As discussed in another thread, he's not fast enough to play a skill position, and in terms of size, he's already borderline big for a CB and hasn't even hit campus yet. If he did move (he won't), it would have to be to S.
Click to expand...

Interesting point on his moving to Safety, I could see that as well. I think he'd fit nice at the under CB position that Wells plays though. He's about the same height/weight as Wells.

What I don't see is him sticking at QB. I see him as a "You'll have every opportunity to win the QB position in camp" kind of guy & then to another spot when he doesn't. He's not very tall for a QB at 6'0", doesn't have a great arm & isn't a good enough runner to make up for it, imo.

Watching his film, the thing that impressed me most was how hard he hits for a CB (his defensive position in HS). He's nasty.
 

Costa Rican Gopher said:
Interesting point on his moving to Safety, I could see that as well. I think he'd fit nice at the under CB position that Wells plays though. He's about the same height/weight as Wells.

What I don't see is him sticking at QB. I see him as a "You'll have every opportunity to win the QB position in camp" kind of guy & then to another spot when he doesn't. He's not very tall for a QB at 6'0", doesn't have a great arm & isn't a good enough runner to make up for it, imo.

Watching his film, the thing that impressed me most was how hard he hits for a CB (his defensive position in HS). He's nasty.
Click to expand...

The reason I think he sticks at QB is this staff wants a QB recruit every class and after McKinzy committed last spring they essentially stopped recruiting QB's besides offering a guy like Perra a PWO spot. As for his arm, I think it's comparable to Nelson's after watching Dimonic's highlight tape. Seems to be a shiftier runner as well.
 

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