COACHES=SMART.PLAYERS & FANS=DUMB

[OStateMan]

According to quotes by Les Miles and Bill Clay this defensive scheme is just fine and it will work....it's because the players are not making the plays.

So, we don't have the talent we were lead to believe we had.

Despite the fact that it hasn't worked in 4 years, the scheme is not the problem. Clay has coached for 33 years and he knows what he's doing. It's our players that don't know what they're doing or can't remember their assignments.
So, we have recruited some dumb guys that don't know how to really play football.

We need to recruit smarter, bigger, faster people before we can have a defense. WELL, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO EARLIER?!
Hell, we thought we were getting some top talent. Now we know they were highly recruited because of.......what?!

I thought a good coach took what he had and molded a team around that talent. I know for a fact that we have recruited better talent than we ever have before. Yet, we've had better, national leading defenses before Bill Clay arrived.
HOW IN THE HELL DID WE DO IT?!
Smoke and mirrors, my friends. We had dumber players and dumber coaches, but we had some defenses. Some of those teams had some offensive talent as well and had some great records, but those guys were stupid, too.

Dexter Manley could not play for Coach Clay. We all know why. He can't even read, man.

I'm wondering how Gundy's years were so successful with such dumb players. I guess the overall dumbness of the Big 8 made it so.

Well, everyone is smarter now. Smarter, faster, bigger.....and going to schools with dumber coaches and dumber schemes so they can make dumb plays.....and win dumb games. I don't know if you realize how dumb our players actually are, but they missed their assignments for an entire half. That means if Texas averaged 10 plays per drive x 7 touchdowns, that was at least 70 plays that our players screwed up.

Now, don't go blaming the coach. He's done his part. That's all covered in practice. Les is good with that, too. Our coaches didn't make the players miss their assignments or blocks or tackles. It's dumb players. In fact, it's now obvious that we dumb fans know nothing about football and our opinion means nothing to our coaches. It's everyone's fault but their own.

So, I propose that we only recruit highschool players that come from schools that utilize the 4-2-5 defense so there won't be such an extreme learning curve.
They only get 4, possibly 5 years to learn their assignments in college.
No more dumb players. No more dumb fans either. This is my last post. I'm too dumb and know nothing about defense. I thought defenses were designed to STOP the opposition.
How dumb is that.
So, my new assignment it to stop posting these nonsensical posts. I don't know what I'm talking about anyway.

Gosh, I hope I don't forget my new assignment.
Don't count on it.

[PistolChad]

Well Said.

So if the smart coaches have only recruited dumb players, it sounds like to me they are just incompetent.

[naranjaynegro]

I don't know what to make of your post Ostateman except it's just a rant against the D's play. I think you're a bit short-sighted in your slamming of the D, after all the O had plenty of problems in the 2nd half against UT. Maybe you should include them also, albeit to a lesser degree.

I agree with Les....you stick good players in most any system and they are going to excel.....the problem was that UT has just as good if not better players than we do.

I think people's bashing of the 4-2-5 is kind of silly.......we're not the only team that has this as their base D.

You seem to forget that we've lost an AA candidate at Cornerback and a very key position, as well as our best defensive lineman (which in and of itself does not say alot about the strength of our DLINE). Those losses affect not only our depth but our ability to take a few more chances than we otherwise would.

My advice is to take a deep breath and remember where you thought the Pokes would be at the BEGINNING of the season, rather than trashing the season after a spectacular loss to UT.

[SLVRBK]

I think you're a bit short-sighted in your slamming of the D

NJN,

Look at these numbers that McKinneyPoke compiled, they show our Defensive Rankings since 1999. Now tell me what impact the 4-2-5 has had other than make us give up points, yards and make it harder to win games?

Rushing Defense National Ranking (1999-2004 so far)

23(99), 34(00), 43(01), 50(02), 66(03), 82(04, so far)


Pass Efficiency Defense

24(99), 84, 72, 60, 62, 77(04, so far)

Total Defense

10(99), 68, 64, 80, 78, 72(04, so far)

Scoring Defense

54(99), 77, 55, 69, 57, 55(04, so far)

Pass Defense

??(99), 105, 85, 100, 86, 62(04, so far)

[SLVRBK]

after all the O had plenty of problems in the 2nd half against UT

No doubt the O had their problems in the second half, but I still think the lead should have been enough. Let's look at what our Offensive Brain Trust of Miles and Gundy has accomplished in their time. I would say that these numbers show that they are doing their job and that if the Deffense was improved at ALL we would be playing for Division and Conference Championships the last 2 years.

Rushing Offense

47(99), 42, 110, 58, 11, 8(04, so far)

Passing Offense

93(99),70, 66, 25, 79, 107(04, so far)

Total Offense

92(99), 67, 104, 21, 32, 40(04, so far)

Scoring Offense

73(99), 95, 87, 13, 11, 13(04, so far)

[PistolChad]

I don't bash the system. I frankly don't care WHAT system the defense plays as long as it works well. Our leaking defense has major problems and regardless of what people THINK, the trend is that our defense has not improved since Miles/Clay arrived. We had better defenses under Pat Jones in the early 90's than we do now.

The coaches are responsible regardless if it is recruiting problems or players failing to execute (and aren't we all so sick of hearing about execution?). It is their job to ensure the job gets done - whether it is to change the system, the position coaches, or the players.

[naranjaynegro]

I think the 4-2-5 has always been a "bend but don't break" scheme and will not look pretty in the defensive categories of which the only one matters is the points given up column.

No doubt we've given up a ton of points in our last two games but they are both pretty good offensive machines and Vince had a career passing day against us. Let me also bring it up again.....and we seem to forget.....we've got problems on the DLINE AND we've lost an AA candidate at Cornerback. Severe issues both that don't help us any at all.....frankly, I severely underestimated the loss of GRICH and Scooby on the corners for our pass rush. We desperately need some athletic ends in order to put some pressure on the passer and I also believe that if E.Mowarin is getting significant playing time at DTackle......We've got big problems there too.