BTN: Big Ten LB rankings (Minnesota #12)

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Dienhart:

12. Minnesota. This unit has something to prove. The staff needs De’Vondre Campbell and Damien Wilson to play well. Campbell is an angular, athletic freak. It hurt that JC transfer Cody Poock injured a knee in the spring. That means Jack Lynn figures to start. Depth is young and largely unproven.

http://btn.com/2014/07/07/nebraska-paces-linebacker-unit-rankings/

Go Gophers!!
 

IU and Illinois ahead of us? Now that is a slap on the face. Iowa loses 3 All Big Ten/NFL draft pick LBs as well but they seemed to have gotten the benefit of the doubt for some reason.
 

die hard gopher said:
IU and Illinois ahead of us? Now that is a slap on the face. Iowa loses 3 All Big Ten/NFL draft pick LBs as well but they seemed to have gotten the benefit of the doubt for some reason.
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Because they lost 3 linebackers to the NFL draft. Sounds like you answered your own question.
 

Two unproven starters and zero proven depth puts us probably where we should start the season. Wilson could take a leap to threaten for some sort of all conference nod and I like Lynn and think he'll surprise. What Campbell will do is an interesting item he could be lights out or could be deer in the headlights again against the run like last year. Hopefully, when they rank our LB play at the end of the season we've leapfrogged more than a handful of teams.
 

I would suggest we take a page from Dan Devine. He was notorious for taking this opinion and spinning it to his advantage. He would have said, 12th that's generous on their part. We will be lucky to have one of the three ready for the season. And you just can't start a player with out a years experience. We are in a really tough spot. The staff is looking at different alignments to possibly use 6 down lineman and 5 defensive backs. We have quite a problem that this rating pointed out.
 


afurry91 said:
Because they lost 3 linebackers to the NFL draft. Sounds like you answered your own question.
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It's just kinda ironic that he says part of the reason the Gophers are rated so low is because the "Depth is young and largely unproven" when Iowa has virtually no experience coming back.

It's kinda like those who argue Eric Decker isn't that good because he only puts up big numbers with Peyton as QB. Yet Demaryius Thomas' numbers weren't that impressive either without Manning.
 

I would not call De'Vondre Campbell unproven with his 40+ tackles last year and he even started a game. I expect him to be better than Wilson and have a Theiren Cockran type year with 6 or 7 sacks and 10 or 11 TFLs. Kill has said he could be a first rounder and he is up to 238 and will probably be more by the season opener.

As for Iowa it's not like they perennially put LBs in the league year after year like say Penn State and they don't really have any 5 stars coming in like OSU. I could see them getting the benefit of the doubt for O-line, a position group where they have had much more long term success but LB? I view that more as a one time thing with them.
 

it's fine, all we have to do is prove them wrong.
 

Somebody had to be twelth. And honesty, would we feel that much better at 9? And if we were 9th, then how could we whine like we do about the lack of respect.
 



So, we finished what like fourth in the conference last year in points and yards allowed? We lose one starter off the DL and two starting LBs Both position groups are ranked 12th this year. We lost one starting DB. Any guesses on where that group ends up? Total D?

Claeys seems pretty confident that the overall defense will be improved this year. Anyone think BTN will have us in the upper half of the conference in defense?
 

This is garbage, we should be ranked either 9th or 10th, but to put as at 12th is just plain disrespectful.
 

die hard gopher said:
I would not call De'Vondre Campbell unproven with his 40+ tackles last year and he even started a game. I expect him to be better than Wilson and have a Theiren Cockran type year with 6 or 7 sacks and 10 or 11 TFLs. Kill has said he could be a first rounder and he is up to 238 and will probably be more by the season opener.

As for Iowa it's not like they perennially put LBs in the league year after year like say Penn State and they don't really have any 5 stars coming in like OSU. I could see them getting the benefit of the doubt for O-line, a position group where they have had much more long term success but LB? I view that more as a one time thing with them.
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You get an 'A' for optimism.
 

Much depends on Ekpe, Botticelli, Timms, Legania.

Claeys doesn't strike me as the type to blow a lot of smoke. He sees something in this defense that makes him think they're going to perform.

I will take Claeys opinion ten out of ten times over someone like dienhart, dinardo, mason, or any of the other chuckleheads at BTN.
 



kellyleeks said:
This is garbage, we should be ranked either 9th or 10th, but to put as at 12th is just plain disrespectful.
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It's only two places, in your opinion. Disrespectful is kind of a reach. Can we all calm down?
 


Stats can be deceiving.

harrys ghost said:
So, we finished what like fourth in the conference last year in points and yards allowed? We lose one starter off the DL and two starting LBs Both position groups are ranked 12th this year. We lost one starting DB. Any guesses on where that group ends up? Total D?

Claeys seems pretty confident that the overall defense will be improved this year. Anyone think BTN will have us in the upper half of the conference in defense?
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Even though the team was 4th in points and yards, they also played a very slowed paced game and played a weaker schedule than other teams. Stats that attempt adjust for pace and strength of schedule rank last years defense 9th only ahead of IU, Purdue and Illinois

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadef
 

Damien Wilson is our best LB and I expect him to have a very good to great senior season. Campbell was very green last year and I hope he can be a little more consistent this year and have a good to great senior year next. The rest of the guys are fairly young, but I don't recall having a very high opinion of Hill last year and he put in a decent season and certainly gave us needed senior leadership on defense. I'm much more worried about our defensive line than the linebacker corps.
 

the only stat that counts is what is posted on the scoreboard. 2011 we allowed an average of 31.2 points per game. 2012 it was 26.1 points per game. Last year 23.1 per game. Coach Claeys has made it known that this year's team will be better. If the trend continues we should see 21 points allowed or better. The defense is improving. Claeys mentioned for the first time they can defend 2 back sets and the spread teams. The key for success this year is consistent scoring from the offense. Where we failed last year was on offense. We did nothing in three big games. Absolutely, nothing. If you can only score 7 points in a game, not even the best defense in the nation can help you
 

The LB position has changed so much in the last decade.

For one, there are almost no pure MLBs anymore. Everybody has to be able to run and play in space.

Remember when some teams used to have four LBs on the field? Now it's not usual to be playing only 2 for most of the game.
 

Studwell55 said:
The LB position has changed so much in the last decade.

For one, there are almost no pure MLBs anymore. Everybody has to be able to run and play in space.

Remember when some teams used to have four LBs on the field? Now it's not usual to be playing only 2 for most of the game.
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Hasn't there been a bit of a shift to MORE LBs in the recent history? It's just that these LBs are more often hybrid either DE/LB or LB with speed that can cover speedy TE. For sure on the NFL level, and usually the NCAA follows that trend.
 

I'll admit, when I read these rankings at first I was still thinking there were 12 teams in the B1G and we were dead last....

12 seems about right for a pre-season ranking. Out of the 2-deeps, Wilson is the only one who played and had a good season last year. Campbell was inconsistent and struggled against the run, we need him to be a full-time starter this year and play better. The next 4 would probably be Lynn, Laster, Dixon, and Rallis, all of whom have little-to-no game experience. Hopefully these guys perform and our ranking is higher than #12 at the end of the year...
 

While I have an appreciation for statistics they are limited by GI/GO selectivity. There are far too many variables in a football game to accurately account for.

When we beat many of the teams ranked ahead of us (with a worse offense) what does that tell you about the utility and accuracy of this sort of analysis?
 

Pompous Elitist said:
While I have an appreciation for statistics they are limited by GI/GO selectivity. There are far too many variables in a football game to accurately account for.

When we beat many of the teams ranked ahead of us (with a worse offense) what does that tell you about the utility and accuracy of this sort of analysis?
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This is why it's stupid to get so worked up over them. They're not anything more than offseason entertainment and people on here (and elsewhere) seem to take it so much more deeply than that. Not to mention the obsurdity of contrast when the OL rankings came out (Dinehart's the man, it's good that we're getting back to what makes us great) compared to when the DL rankings came out (BTN is trash, yada yada). Our interpretations of them often serve to simply reinforce our bias.
 

Not that any of this stuff really matters, but it seems a bit low. I was way more worried about LBers last season than this year, and they were a pleasant surprise.

Wilson will be one of our better players this year.
Campbell played well in certain situations.
Lynn has experience and I have very little doubt that he'll be a quality Big 10 LBer.

We will be running so many nickel and dime packages that depth shouldn't be as big of a concern with this unit. The Poock injury really hurt, but this unit doesn't concern much as past seasons.
 

pb1345 said:
Even though the team was 4th in points and yards, they also played a very slowed paced game and played a weaker schedule than other teams. Stats that attempt adjust for pace and strength of schedule rank last years defense 9th only ahead of IU, Purdue and Illinois

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadef
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Stats can be deceiving, but points allowed is not deceiving. Look what MN's D did against Penn ST, Nebraska, Michigan St., Wisconsin, and Nortwestern. If anything, you should factor in how bad our offense was against Michigan St and Wisconsin.
 

No respect

Opponent red zone conversion percentage, 1st in Big 10. http://www.cfbstats.com/2013/leader/827/team/defense/split01/category27/sort01.html

Scoring defense, 4th in Big 10 http://www.cfbstats.com/2013/leader/827/team/defense/split01/category09/sort01.html

Opponent first downs, 4th in Big 10 http://www.cfbstats.com/2013/leader/827/team/defense/split01/category13/sort01.html

Total defense, 6th in Big 10 http://www.cfbstats.com/2013/leader/827/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Iwu-6GxBHN4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

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