STrib: Gophers secondary back at full strength for Maryland game

BleedGopher

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per Joe:

The Gophers have had several missing pieces from their secondary this season but should be closer to full strength for Saturday's game at Maryland.

KiAnte Hardin showed what a difference he makes last week, when he returned from a three-game suspension against Iowa, delivering seven tackles and interception.

"KiAnte’s a really good player, so yeah, it makes a huge difference just because he’s played for one thing," defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel said. "He played last year a lot, and he’s extremely talented, so getting him back was a huge deal."

http://www.startribune.com/gophers-secondary-back-at-full-strength-for-maryland-game/396817101/

Go Gophers!!
 

Just wondering will we continue to play 10 yards off the wide outs? If so, really doesn't make much difference. Sad
 



Just wondering will we continue to play 10 yards off the wide outs? If so, really doesn't make much difference. Sad

Because our secondary (and defense in general) played such a poor game? I'm sure that Jack jones knows better than Jay Sawvel who has one of his DB's drafted every single season.

Solid hot take, bro.
 


actually I was coaching football before Jay Sawvel wore his first helmet. Yea, I do know a thing or two about defense. Back your corners off 9/10 and you are playing 9 against11. Offense has 11, you have 9. Who do you think will win - assuming talent level is nearly the same?
 

actually I was coaching football before Jay Sawvel wore his first helmet. Yea, I do know a thing or two about defense. Back your corners off 9/10 and you are playing 9 against11. Offense has 11, you have 9. Who do you think will win - assuming talent level is nearly the same?

If you are such an elite football mind, why aren't you a D coordinator at a Power 5 school?
 

actually I was coaching football before Jay Sawvel wore his first helmet.

A. I highly doubt it. B. What does this have to do with anything?

Yea, I do know a thing or two about defense.

I have seen zero evidence on this board that you know anything about football above an elementary level.

Back your corners off 9/10 and you are playing 9 against11. Offense has 11, you have 9. Who do you think will win - assuming talent level is nearly the same?

If it's as simple as that, why doesn't everyone just play press coverage all the time?
 

Your an idiot. Watch the good teams this weekend and watch and see how many teams play their corners off 9/10. Then watch and see how many are at 4/5. The good ones will be at 4/5 without question.
 



Your an idiot. Watch the good teams this weekend and watch and see how many teams play their corners off 9/10. Then watch and see how many are at 4/5. The good ones will be at 4/5 without question.

I'm not arguing with you, because a) everyone is entitled to their opinion and b) it's definitely frustrating when offenses complete easy passes in front of soft coverage. That said, here's my take:

1) Good teams play tons of multiple coverage. Watch the good teams this weekend and you'll see them sometimes playing an aggressive C1 in press, an aggressive C2 in press, a soft Cover 2 at 3-4 yards, a soft C3 at 5-7 yards, a downhill Cover 3 at 7-10 yards, C4 at 10 yards, sometimes pressing on one side and playing C3 on the other...you get it. So just because you remember a few times when MN gave up passes because CB's were at 10 yards doesn't mean they did that all the time...or even primarily.

2) The D gave up 14 points last week and forced 3 turnovers. And the DB's were outstanding IMO. Why are we having this discussion?

3) Everyone knows the Claeys philosophy on D (which I'm assuming is shared by Sawvel) is to avoid giving up big plays -- bend, don't break, force field goals and hope for turnovers. In the first 4 games, MN gave up WAY too many big plays. I'm guessing that had a lot to do with shaping the game plan against Iowa. They're not exactly a team who will march it down on you this year. Keep the ball in front of you, don't allow a homerun in play action, tackle soundly, hope for the best. D did this pretty darn well last week, I'd say. 1 missed tackle away from holding them to 6 or 9 points.
 

When Kiante played off it was when he was on the field side and with the field side safety walked way into the box. So it had way more to do with how they decided to play the run and really didn't hurt us. Two or three short completions is all I recall in that sitaution and I don't know any defenses that propose to allow no completions.
 

I'm not arguing with you, because a) everyone is entitled to their opinion and b) it's definitely frustrating when offenses complete easy passes in front of soft coverage. That said, here's my take:

1) Good teams play tons of multiple coverage. Watch the good teams this weekend and you'll see them sometimes playing an aggressive C1 in press, an aggressive C2 in press, a soft Cover 2 at 3-4 yards, a soft C3 at 5-7 yards, a downhill Cover 3 at 7-10 yards, C4 at 10 yards, sometimes pressing on one side and playing C3 on the other...you get it. So just because you remember a few times when MN gave up passes because CB's were at 10 yards doesn't mean they did that all the time...or even primarily.

2) The D gave up 14 points last week and forced 3 turnovers. And the DB's were outstanding IMO. Why are we having this discussion?

3) Everyone knows the Claeys philosophy on D (which I'm assuming is shared by Sawvel) is to avoid giving up big plays -- bend, don't break, force field goals and hope for turnovers. In the first 4 games, MN gave up WAY too many big plays. I'm guessing that had a lot to do with shaping the game plan against Iowa. They're not exactly a team who will march it down on you this year. Keep the ball in front of you, don't allow a homerun in play action, tackle soundly, hope for the best. D did this pretty darn well last week, I'd say. 1 missed tackle away from holding them to 6 or 9 points.

Yep. Jack is confused.
 

I'm not arguing with you, because a) everyone is entitled to their opinion and b) it's definitely frustrating when offenses complete easy passes in front of soft coverage. That said, here's my take:

3) Everyone knows the Claeys philosophy on D (which I'm assuming is shared by Sawvel) is to avoid giving up big plays -- bend, don't break, force field goals and hope for turnovers.

Bend but don't break? Claeys? WTF? Minnesota, generally under Claeys is the absolute opposite of that conservative bend but do not break, prevent defensive philosophy. Claeys is grousing about big plays now, because his defense gave up a lot this year against inferior competition, but historically his defenses play very risky, very high reward, aggressive defenses.

Against Ohio State in the 2014 snowstorm, he ABC commentators were amazed the Minnesota was playing man to man press, "zero" coverage, since it was risky and there was no room for error as there were was no one left deep to back anyone up. Ohio State had a couple of huge plays, but we still played a very risky, aggressive defense.

Claeys has always played with wide splits, crashing DE ends, and tight man to man coverage, leading to occasional ugly plays with huge gains against us, while expecting huge, disruptive plays by the D to more than balancing it out.

. The loss of the suspended players and the youth of some of the current players has changed things a bit, but "bend but don't breaK"? no
 






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