DC Brown talks UConn defense

[Palatine]

There's a lot of things to feel good about now," Brown said. "The general body of work in terms of pass defense, in total, there were just too many big plays. Part of that was settling in on some personnel, part of that was guys like [freshman defensive backs] Ty-Meer Brown and Byron Jones cutting their teeth. Now we have them in the right place.

"I think we'll be so much better at linebacker with [Maryland transfer] Ryan Donohue. We have Jefferson Ahiru and Marquise Vann, those two freshmen we were able to redshirt, now they can actually play, so I don't have to have a heart attack every time I see Sio [Moore], Jory [Johnson] or Yawin [Smallwood] laying on the ground.

"We have two huge holes inside [with the graduations of Kendall Reyes and Twyon Martin at defensive tackle], but I think with Shamar Stephen, Ryan Wirth, we can work that and now with the linebacker group we've grown in numbers. We can wheel and deal with our three-down stuff, four-down stuff, based on strength. I think that's the beauty of it. It comes down to flexibility in the package."


full article at link
http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-football/hc-uconn-football-0111-20120110,0,3237642.story

 

[huskysupporter]

We really need to see improvement from our linebackers. The only one who gives me confidence right now is Smallwood. A thumper in the middle of that D, and an extremely underrated blitzer.

 

[metsfan2323]

Third in run defense behind Bama and Florida State. Wow.
I wonder if Jesse Joseph can move inside to fill a tackle spot so Jennings can start.

 

[mets1090]

The depth at linebacker next year will be a big help. You can never overstate the value of keeping players fresh, especially when you play a fast, physical style on defense.

 

[CAPS]

Moore and Johnson are both beasts, gotta get Teddy Jennings in more boys got a great motor.

 

[huskysupporter]

Moore and Johnson are both beasts, gotta get Teddy Jennings in more boys got a great motor.

They did not play like beasts last year. Linebacking play was a real weak point for the defense.

Wonder if Brown would consider standing up Trevardo full time and making it a true 3-4?

Stephen at NT, Teddy Jennings, Jesse Joseph, and Ryan Wirth rotating at ends. Sio Moore, Smallwood at Middle Backer, Trevardo at one OLB, and put the other one up for grabs.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

My gut tlls me that Trevardo will play a role very similar to what Demarcus Ware does with the Cowboys. He did quite a bit of this down the stretch for us this year. We'll primarily play three true down lineman, three true LB's and TW, being a bit of each.

 

[noeynox]

Jory Johnson has great instincts, tackles well in space, but is simply to slow of foot. He got beat badly on wheel routes by rbs and drag routes by tight ends on several occasions this year. For a team that plays so much man to man because of the pressure we bring, those plays are back breakers. I would not be disappointed If he gets beaten out by a better athlete at the position. Because he is sp physical though, I wouldn't mind seeing him get a crack at fullback though.

 

[MilliniumPrince]

I hate the 3-4....but it is easier from a recruiting standpoint

 

[businesslawyer]

Trevardo is not moving to LB. He is not a natural football player -- he is a natural athlete. It took him 2.5 years to get the hang of DE, and now he's become a star. The last thing I want to do is see him experiment with another position.

3-4 or 4-3, I want Trevardo to stay at DE.

 

[bmayuc]

They did not play like beasts last year. Linebacking play was a real weak point for the defense.

Wonder if Brown would consider standing up Trevardo full time and making it a true 3-4?

Stephen at NT, Teddy Jennings, Jesse Joseph, and Ryan Wirth rotating at ends. Sio Moore, Smallwood at Middle Backer, Trevardo at one OLB, and put the other one up for grabs.

Man i gotta strongly disagree. Sio was our most important playmaker. He made some boneheaded plays too, but between him and Yawin, who do you think was making those tackles/sacks/turnovers that made this D top 3 run defense? Sio mann'ed up in my opinion and was facing slot recievers with some success most of the year in Nickel. I mean, that is a huge plus for a Defense to keep an extra linebacker on teh field.

Our real weakness was that we really only had 2 FBS cornerbacks. When Blidi went down we were SCREWED. this defense is predicated on press-man coverage. When we couldn't do tha effectively, the rest of the pieces sorta fell apart a bit. Now, I will bitch all day long about Taylor Mack never seeing the field because I think he is a PLAYER, but for some reason they stuck Wilburn out there to get roasted and toasted time after time. And with the young safeties, we really struggled most of the year.

But linebacker... not the problem

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Jory Johnson has great instincts, tackles well in space, but is simply to slow of foot. He got beat badly on wheel routes by rbs and drag routes by tight ends on several occasions this year. For a team that plays so much man to man because of the pressure we bring, those plays are back breakers. I would not be disappointed If he gets beaten out by a better athlete at the position. Because he is sp physical though, I wouldn't mind seeing him get a crack at fullback though.

Agree on Johnson. Jerome Williams was the MLB until injury put Johnson in the starting lineup. As a "back up" he played pretty well and was more productive than I thought he would be coming off the prior season. Considering Brown's comments on the true freshmen linebackers, where does Steg and Osiecki fit in?

 

[BNich]

Agree on Johnson. Jerome Williams was the MLB until injury put Johnson in the starting lineup. As a "back up" he played pretty well and was more productive than I thought he would be coming off the prior season. Considering Brown's comments on the true freshmen linebackers, where does Steg and Osiecki fit in?

I think Williams injury forced Smallwood into the lineup. He hadn't practiced at MLB before the injury but did a very admirable job this past season. Good size, good athlete and play pretty well as a RS freshman. Sio was definitely our top LB. He was all over the field, making picks, sacks, big tackles and bringing some thump with every tackle he made. I like Jory Johnson as well. Really good kid. Plays big, but as many have said he just doesn't have the ideal quickness. Maybe a 3-4 move would be best. Hides, the less than quick LB's inside yet still allowing the quicker LB's to get out in space and make plays. Hard to take Johnson's production off the field, but he did get beaten badly in pass coverage. We will see what this freshman class brings in. It appears they are big, fast and physical. Sylva played a number of positions in HS and possibly has the quickness Johnson lacks.
I think the CB position will be better next year and the Safeties will be one year older. B. Jones is a phenomenal athlete and Coach P will find the right spot for him whether it be at CB or S. And finally Tymeer Brown, I think played very well down the stretch, against Rutgers in particular. He will only be a RS Sophomore which is great. Judging by his comments on Twitter about the reported news of coach Browns departure for YALE, he was pretty bummed, which leads me to believe he really likes coach Brown and the system he runs. I look for big things from Tymeer next year and the defense as a whole. Maybe it is just too much excitement on my end, but I think this team can really be something special.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I think the point of what D. Brown is saying is that depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the offenses we're facing, we can start to move all the pieces on the chessboard around in that front 7.

Brown's defense is complicated, yet it's built on two very simply fundamental principles. #1 is speed, and #2 is knocking the QB's head off.

#1, pretty simple. Obviously, you need people that have flat out speed, but the the real key to speed, is fresh legs, and for fresh legs, you need bodies to rotate in and out, and that's not something we were able to do regularly last year. You got to be able to fly to the ball in this defense, whatever your role be, whether it be a down lineman in run defense and shedding blocks or rushing the passer, a linebacker in filling gaps on a run, or identifying a route runner and disrupting and running it, or a DB leveraging out there in space. You got to identify, and fly.

#2. Also pretty simple, confuse the hell out of a QB with different looks and constant pressure in the backfield, and get his jersey covered in dirt.

Multiple formations, multiple alignments, all kinds of stuff, but it all comes down to identifying the offense, and what you need to do, and then flying to the ball.

3 - 4, 4-3, none of that technically means much anymore, it's all about either filling gaps @ leveraging space to disrupt the offense and get to the ball, or going head to head and man up physically beating down your block or sticking your coverage and making the play to the ball.

 

[ktuck911]

Third in run defense behind Bama and Florida State. Wow.
I wonder if Jesse Joseph can move inside to fill a tackle spot so Jennings can start.

NOT a good idea... keep the rotation as is...

 

[ktuck911]

I think Williams injury forced Smallwood into the lineup. He hadn't practiced at MLB before the injury but did a very admirable job this past season. Good size, good athlete and play pretty well as a RS freshman. Sio was definitely our top LB. He was all over the field, making picks, sacks, big tackles and bringing some thump with every tackle he made. I like Jory Johnson as well. Really good kid. Plays big, but as many have said he just doesn't have the ideal quickness. Maybe a 3-4 move would be best. Hides, the less than quick LB's inside yet still allowing the quicker LB's to get out in space and make plays. Hard to take Johnson's production off the field, but he did get beaten badly in pass coverage. We will see what this freshman class brings in. It appears they are big, fast and physical. Sylva played a number of positions in HS and possibly has the quickness Johnson lacks.
I think the CB position will be better next year and the Safeties will be one year older. B. Jones is a phenomenal athlete and Coach P will find the right spot for him whether it be at CB or S. And finally Tymeer Brown, I think played very well down the stretch, against Rutgers in particular. He will only be a RS Sophomore which is great. Judging by his comments on Twitter about the reported news of coach Browns departure for YALE, he was pretty bummed, which leads me to believe he really likes coach Brown and the system he runs. I look for big things from Tymeer next year and the defense as a whole. Maybe it is just too much excitement on my end, but I think this team can really be something special.

Honestly, I think Smallwood's talent level forced Smallwood into the starting line up.. J. Williams is a two deep guy. No offense against him, but for D. Brown to speak up transfer Donahue ( and say nothing about J. Williams ) tells me that he's not the right fit in the scheme... or the other kids at LB are better fits...

 

[Excalibur]

Man i gotta strongly disagree. Sio was our most important playmaker. He made some boneheaded plays too, but between him and Yawin, who do you think was making those tackles/sacks/turnovers that made this D top 3 run defense? Sio mann'ed up in my opinion and was facing slot recievers with some success most of the year in Nickel. I mean, that is a huge plus for a Defense to keep an extra linebacker on teh field.

Our real weakness was that we really only had 2 FBS cornerbacks. When Blidi went down we were SCREWED. this defense is predicated on press-man coverage. When we couldn't do tha effectively, the rest of the pieces sorta fell apart a bit. Now, I will bitch all day long about Taylor Mack never seeing the field because I think he is a PLAYER, but for some reason they stuck Wilburn out there to get roasted and toasted time after time. And with the young safeties, we really struggled most of the year.

But linebacker... not the problem

Sio is a playmaker, but he was being used this year in a manner that didn't fit his skills particularly well. His strengths are run support and blitzing. Many times we saw him trying to cover a slot receiver one on one, which he struggled with despite making a couple of big plays in pass coverage.

 

[NutmegState]

Vann and Ashiru are the future. Ashiru is going to an animal rushing the passer

 

[ktuck911]

I thought Ashiru was an OLB that could cover?

 

[mattp]

Sio is a playmaker, but he was being used this year in a manner that didn't fit his skills particularly well. His strengths are run support and blitzing. Many times we saw him trying to cover a slot receiver one on one, which he struggled with despite making a couple of big plays in pass coverage.

if you look at his stats. Sio had a pretty good year. he only had around 85 tackles , but most of them were solo and he had something like 5-6 each of sacks and INTs

 

[NutmegState]

I thought Ashiru was an OLB that could cover?

He's long and extremely athletic, so I'm sure he can do that too...

 

[epark88]

Agree on Johnson. Jerome Williams was the MLB until injury put Johnson in the starting lineup. As a "back up" he played pretty well and was more productive than I thought he would be coming off the prior season. Considering Brown's comments on the true freshmen linebackers, where does Steg and Osiecki fit in?

I dunno about Steg, but Osiecki would be a dynamite FB IMO.

Ever since I saw him in person run over, abuse and literally knock half of a good (at the time) Crosby H.S. defense out of the game by himself, I've kinda been hoping he'd get a shot on the other side of the ball. In light of our apparent depth at LB, I'm now hoping harder than ever...

 

[Palatine]

Sio was our best LB by far. No LB should ever cover a slot receiver except in a zone. So, that's not knock against him. He got great downfield drops against TE's, he played the pass very well when the impossible was not asked of him.

For a guy that's usually all over the field, he had a tendency to disappear in a few games. That leads me to believe that Sio's only problem was Sio. Not sure if it was a effort or injury issue but he was inconsistent. He should be a 100 tackle player.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Honestly, I think Smallwood's talent level forced Smallwood into the starting line up.. J. Williams is a two deep guy. No offense against him, but for D. Brown to speak up transfer Donahue ( and say nothing about J. Williams ) tells me that he's not the right fit in the scheme... or the other kids at LB are better fits...

I don't think that's what he meant at all. Not at all. I think what he's clearly talking about is what I mentioned before - team speed, and versatility, and that comes from fresh legs, and that means the defensive line and linebackers. We've got depth on the DL, even though we're losing two huge contributors up front, but one of the strongest and deepest parts of this roster from 2011 to 2012 now is the DL, and a big part of the success we had against the run, and generating a push up front, is most definitely the ability to rotate players in and out on the Dl. Fresh legs.

But LB? You can't just run players in and out on defense, unless they know what the they are doing on the field, and they can play. We were thin on the roster at LB. We played with essentially 3 active linebackers for an entire season in 2011 and managed to save the kids red-shirts. We were thin. Imagine where we'd be now if P hadn't managed to bring in those recruits from 2011 after Edsall left. I expect to see some rotation of the entire front 7 this year, and our active group of LB's to pull out and insert is much better now with the Maryland transfer and the two redshirts that were practicing all last year.

As for Smallwood, Moore, and Johnson, those guys are clearly going to need somebody to step in and beat them to lose the #1 spot on the roster. I think Sio did a lot better in coverage than people give him credit for as did the others. The problems they had, I think, was not in ability to cover and run and play, but the difficulty in recognizing the assignments from the offensive formation, reading and reacting. Big difference between what looks like a blown assignment, and simply getting beat. A lot of blown assignments last year, and that's what I think Brown is talking about with the big plays we gave up.

I think we see a much improved defense this year. MUCH improved. Can't wait. What's more interesting, and I'm cautiosly optimistic about, is seeing an offense that can move the ball against this defense - OUR offense!!!!

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I think Brown thought Sio was Superman, he is terrific but, agree with Pal.