. . . the potential number of play makers and the upside of our starting defense this year. For the first stretch last year, our D was very solid averaging giving up 8 ppg during the non-conference season. That was before Winfield was injured for the year, and Celestin hurts his wing, which substantially altered his play. We continued to take hits at DB after the Maryland game with Shenault and Thomas injuries, along with Craighton being lost for the year and our defense went downhill fast.
Fast forward to this year, and I believe we will have a number of havoc creating play makers depending about how injuries shake out as the year goes on. Winfield is the glue and simply is a difference maker on the field. A healthy Cashman creates issues for the offense when he is on the field. His teammates have been raving about his potential as an impact player. I think Coughlin takes another step forward and his TFL and sack numbers will surprise some teams. Devers has added weight and experience, and could come back and remind of us the optimism he created (sans Twinstalker) as a freshman. Our linebacker's as a whole, might equal or be the best group of top 4 players (between experience and ability) that we have had in 20 years. Barber was good and will be improved as a junior and Kamal is very athletic. As Fleck indicated last year, Jacob Huff simply makes plays. I'm not sure we've had the collective total of athleticism we will see with our primary starters on D, in a long time.
We may make some mistakes at times with a couple inexperienced players out there, but I predict we will see a lot of big plays (negative yardage, sacks, turnovers) that will keep us in games this year. Extent of injuries will still be a question mark as well as how we hold up to power run teams, but I'm fairly bullish on the upside potential of the D as compared to the pessimism of many in predicting low win totals. I am hoping the our d coordinator has the confidence level to open it up and be more aggressive this year.
Fast forward to this year, and I believe we will have a number of havoc creating play makers depending about how injuries shake out as the year goes on. Winfield is the glue and simply is a difference maker on the field. A healthy Cashman creates issues for the offense when he is on the field. His teammates have been raving about his potential as an impact player. I think Coughlin takes another step forward and his TFL and sack numbers will surprise some teams. Devers has added weight and experience, and could come back and remind of us the optimism he created (sans Twinstalker) as a freshman. Our linebacker's as a whole, might equal or be the best group of top 4 players (between experience and ability) that we have had in 20 years. Barber was good and will be improved as a junior and Kamal is very athletic. As Fleck indicated last year, Jacob Huff simply makes plays. I'm not sure we've had the collective total of athleticism we will see with our primary starters on D, in a long time.
We may make some mistakes at times with a couple inexperienced players out there, but I predict we will see a lot of big plays (negative yardage, sacks, turnovers) that will keep us in games this year. Extent of injuries will still be a question mark as well as how we hold up to power run teams, but I'm fairly bullish on the upside potential of the D as compared to the pessimism of many in predicting low win totals. I am hoping the our d coordinator has the confidence level to open it up and be more aggressive this year.
