Does anyone else think that our defense will not improve until we improve the quality of the safety position? Coleman and Taylor can not cover SEC receivers. ST
Re: Safey I don't really think the players are the problem here. Coleman and McCray will be the starters next year. They are both great athletes. We just need a coach to put them in a decent scheme and we will be fine.
Players can change drastically from year to year...especially if the coaching staff is upgraded. Eugene was burned everytime he saw the field last year, and this year he's been a positive force for the Tigers. Loston MAY be ready, but I doubt it. PP is doing GREAT at CB, but safety is a WAY more cerebral position, and it usually takes time in the playbook to truly know your role as a safety.
Laron Landry was a freshman All-American @ safety. If Loston is all he's supposed to be, he could come in and be good right away.
With Chad Jones, Coleman and McCray coming back, I don't think safety is our biggest concern. Far from it actually. Coleman was our leading tackler this year, which you never want out of your defense. LBs are more of a concern to me going into next year. We need to find some LBs who can fill gaps in run support and play sideline to sideline. Shep and Riley have the potential so hopefully they'll be improved with another spring and summer of seasoning...We still need to find one more impact LB out of the group of Baker, Theriot, hopefully one of the freshman and maybe even Clemons or Coleman/Jones. I'm much more concerned about the front 7 next season than I am the secondary. With a year of seasoning Hawkins, Peterson, Coleman and Jones/McCray should be serviceable in the secondary. What we'll get from the new starters at DL and LB is what will determine whether we improve or not on the defensive side of the ball.
Re: Safey I will have to disagree with this point. Something like 7 or 8 of the 11 starters on defense were 3 star recruits, which is the definition of average.
Re: Safey We are only talking about two of those players right now. I'm not sure what their star ratings were, but like I said both are good athletes with crappy coaches.
