Roster Assessment - Defense (cont.)

Roster Assessment - Defense (cont.)
by Jvan (2022-11-28 19:34:03)

Let's look at linebackers.

LB - The good news is starters JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau will return in 2023. The bad news is....you can see where I'm going with this. Rover Jack Kiser may be back as well but that is not yet certain. A number of promising younger players return to compete for playing time. Among them are Prince Kollie, Will Schweitzer, Jaylen Sneed, Nolan Ziegler and Junior Tuihalamaka. Incoming freshmen are Jaiden Ausberry and Preston Zinter.

Discussion - Bertrand and Liufau were fine against teams that lacked speed and had a stationary quarterback. Otherwise, they were not impactful and sometimes even a liability. The question is whether the competition will truly be open this spring and if the coaches are willing to play the best athletes regardless of age. Sneed will be hard to keep off the field, either on the weak side or at rover. Ziegler and Tuihalamaka were more highly rated as recruits than Liufau and Bertrand. They may have more upside. How long will they have to wait?

When the 2022 team fell to 0-2 in September, the season could have gone one of two ways: Either declare it a rebuilding year, play the kids and accept their mistakes as an investment in a better future; or stay exclusively with the older guys and try to squeeze out more wins to keep the alumni happy and new recruits interested. ND chose the latter. Time will tell if this was a good decision but I would have played the kids more.

One other oddity is that Bertrand and Liufau are current seniors while Kollie and Schweitzer are sophomores. The others named above are freshmen. There are no linebackers in the junior class due to recruiting failures. One junior, Jordan Botelho, was given a look at linebacker but has settled in at Vyper. He is one of a very few players on the roster with above-average pass rushing skills.

Outlook - As is the case with other current starters that may return in 2023 (Pyne, Lenzy, Correll) another year of Bertrand and Liufau as starters in 2023 may produce the same 8-4 result that most folks are loathe to tolerate. If this pair is truly the best ND has, then so be it. I don't believe this will be the case provided the younger players are coached competently in the spring and early fall and given sufficient snaps in live action to prove their mettle.

As for Kiser at rover, I'm ambivalent. If Kiser returns but Sneed is a better fit at rover than at Will, Sneed should start. He could be an even better version of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.

Drayek Bowen ('23) likely to be a factor at LB as well

We can hope he helps push the upperclassmen.

I hope so but I thought the same about Prince Kollie

Kollie won the high school version of the Butkus Award. He will be entering his third year in the program and probably still won't be a starter.

At what point do we determine that Kollie's lack of playing

time is either a result of him "not getting the defense" or a bad decision by the coaches to no play him?

It’s obviously coaching.

I think a case could have been made a few games ago. But you cannot convince me that Kollie (or Sneed) was incapable of a few snaps where our LB was making a relatively undisguised blitz into an OL.

Or CB was perfectly willing to let Mickey get roasted on man coverage throughout the season. Presumably in hopes that he’d turn a corner. I’m not sure why Kollie (or any other young LB for that matter) was not given the same opportunity.

I am inclined to agree

If all you are going to do is Blitz Bertrand and Liufau into the OL, and essentially play with 9, why not play Kollie, perhaps he could get through, and then put Sneed in as a spy on Williams. He was faster than any of the guys out there in the front 7 and had the size to bring Williams down.

just thinking out loud here

I'm wondering if some scheme changes might be in order. If you move one of the 2 returning seniors to more of a walk up/outside backer role and fit one of the younger kids in the middle, that might help. But you would need to switch to more of a 3-3-5 or a 3-4 look to do that. I'm on record as despising the 3-3-5, and if we did the 3-4 it would have to be more of an over or under look as we only have one (as of now) big bodied nose guard.

Based on the personnel available, I favor a 3-4 *

FWIW, Golden's Temple teams were largely 3-4 teams

But he went with 4-3 defenses when he got to Miami.

And, of course, his UVA defenses under Groh. *

Good stuff, again. 5th yr LBs (3) is troubling

Thanks BK!

Could Liufau move to Vyper? *

Does Vyper run directly into the Guards

If yes, he would be perfect for it.