In preseason, the general consensus was that the secondary would be solid, but the front 4 was questionable.
Did I dream that?
Not so much that but more like hype covering for the loss of two starters transferring to LSU. A secondary can’t be solid if reports continually state the walk-on CB is projected week after week from Spring until as the strongest cover we have, Thank goodness he walked on!
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Thank goodness we have him. ….It sounds like you want to blame the problem on one 20 year old kid.
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Contrary,I am glad we have him but the hype pumped was about losing the south Louisiana kids and we were saying they were leaving but we have that covered. Clearly, a bird in the hand is better than two birds in the bush yet to be tested in a game. I notice Sam is saying he wants Chavis on the field now. To further clarify Clark is a Razorback through and through and proved it and continues to prove it. He is what the Burlsworth Award is about.
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Pittman thought this team would be good in coverage. He said at SEC Media Days that he thought there would be more coverage sacks this year.
The play of the defensive line has been unexpected and needed.
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Disappointing secondary play and still waiting on the teachings of Bowman to produce results
Well leading the nation in sacks can’t be bad.
Pretty foolish comments about Hudson Clark.
He was put on an island against USCe’s best WR and allowed the rest of the secondary to shut down Rattler’s preferred side of the field. Zip. nada.
Yes, we would like more speed. He hasn’t tackled as well as last year (a theme this season, so far, and I bet we tackle a LOT more in the spring and next summer, by the way).
Moving guys around is always a sign that there is a weakness. These were created by injuries. We are missing an All-American and a potential All-SEC DB. Nudie and Brini are relatively an even trade with Brooks and Foucha. Mo Brown is missing, fwiw.
I’m going to offer up 50% of our problem is bad tackling that leads to really bad YAC.
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No crystal ball that your AA safety would get hurt for the season in the first game and your all SEC nickelback would be lost for 3 games as well. I expect to see an improvement with Slush back.
Odom thought Catalon and Slusher would be their best two players on defense. I would think that having them would have changed the secondary in a big way. McGlothern has not been available all the time, either. Nor has LaDarrius Bishop. I recall during the Cincinnati game Jayden Johnson going out (briefly) and that put the third nickel back (Trent Gordon) on the field for a few plays. I expect the secondary improves as some get more experience and play in the system (McGlothern and Brini).
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It is a shame that we cannot have a conversation about the team’s number one problem without someone being called foolish. It is the number one problem on this board.
Football is a talking sport and questioning things just to discuss them and see what others are seeing is half the fun.
You can tell your defensive weakness by watching who is being targeted by the other team and who is chasing receivers down the field. Throw in an outrageous amount of missed tackles and you have yourself a bonified problem. CSP knows it and he and Barry are going to have to figure it out or the best teams are going to destroy us. Bowman will have to coach up his room’s play or he will be yet another fail for the role of cornerback coach.
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This board has many opinions and not always so much fact. I’m guilty of that myself. But foolish isn’t a word I would worry about.
Not that I haven’t seen FOOLISH comments on this board(made a few too 
), saw nothing here but opinions. Tackling is a big problem, as Sam mentioned this is on coaching.
Clay is right. Losing Sat and Slush was near catastrophic for the defense. Hate to lose Cat. That is devastating for the team and for the whole Catalon family.
At least we do get back Slusher. If Pitt is right isn surmising that his versatility will enable the staff to get our best 5 d-backs on the field together, we may see coverage improve. And, as Clay also said, Nudie and Brini need more experience in our system…whatever that turns out to be as you know the staff is deciding what they can and cannot run with Catalon gone. He made alot of things possible.
How else would you describe the nonstop beefing about Hudson Clark? He has only been our best cover corner 2 out of 3 seasons for Pittman (Mo Brown took over the role at some point last year). Comments about a 3-year starter who is a former walk-on are … foolish.
The posters wax philosophical about the great talents of Morgan and Henry for two years but fail to understand that Clark (and Simeon Blair) are beyond being walk-ons. They are at least as competent as Morgan and Henry, and probably beyond that given that the talent level across the roster is so much stronger now than 2 years ago.
Blair is a captain. You don’t get that honor because you are a marginal talent. You get that because you have enough talent to play and the players trust you to be a “coach on the field.”
I have already noted around here that I watched the MOST game with a highly successful HS defensive coordinator. He called the half-rollout, quasi-wheel route that worked well into the MOST boundary. He was screaming to watch for #19 on the 4th down TD pass. He noted 3-4 other moments where the average fan wouldn’t see things.
He is not a UA fan, necessarily, but is a fan of college football. We talked on the way to the game about our team and he confirmed quite a few things during the game.
One was that Clark was our best cover man. Blair and Chavis were solid DBs. Jayden Johnson and Bumper Pool were liabilities in pass coverage due to tackling issues. He feels they try to make hero plays instead of the best play to make. He said Pooh Paul should be shadowing the QB (first half) because Johnson and Pool were both guilty of whiffing on tackles in the open field.
I had shared last week that we schemed Clark vs USCe’s top WR and essentially funneled everything that way. He watched some of the game and noted that by doing so we eliminated Rattler scrambling arm-side where he had been effective in their opener. He said that our scheme shifted twice, once after the opening deluge of points and again the last couple of drives where we absolutely snuffed out all progress for MOST. His words - “your DC had to swallow some pride, and your DL coach had to make some adjustments to keep the pocket stable.” Pride = abandoning what they thought might work and go to plan B which was deep coverage, allowing dink and dunk passes underneath. If we could tackle that would have ended the game.
Being a fan is cool and all. Posting about the team is great. But the incessant beefing about something that is blatantly false is … foolish. Defending it is foolish as well. Blaming Clark because he is targeted when you didn’t notice we schemed that way is not foolish, but when pointed out that should end the false posting. CB room has not been outperformed by the safety room (another example of conventional wisdom - CB is the problem - not being fully accurate).
This is a spring ball and summer camp problem exacerbated by injuries: tackle more in practice, but it is too late for that, and there are already too many bodies hobbled to risk losing more due to an uptick in tackling. “Figuring it out” has already happened by the guys getting paid. Not realizing it is on us as fans. Once someone points it out maybe pay attention.
To think I still pay for this nonsense…
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Good post oklahawg
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Good points @oklahawg. I’ve watched practice video on Hogs+ and Blair (before he was captain) was very vocal leading whatever drills they were doing. I’m partial to Blair since we’re both PB Dollarway guys. My connections there rave about him and his family. But everyone has an opinion. Which is just fine.
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Pavlov, good point.
We have tiny bits of evidence that can be pieced together. Part of that is the problem - many were freaked when Drew Sanders was not a part of “fastball” starts, but likely to keep his exact usage off of film until a game was played - because we over-analyze the tidbits we do get.
Sam is pretty unruffled when he talks about all of this. He gives props to players, drops names, etc. Put the pieces together and you get at least a good conspiracy theory - they know what the problem is and it is unfixable: injuries cannot be undone (at best, you wait them out) and the decision to not tackle to the ground so much may not have been a good one. Risk-managed decision that didn’t work out.
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All of this.
The constant Clark bashing is pretty embarrassing. It shows low football IQ from our fan base and slavish devotion to stereotypes.
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That’s exactly right Clay. We tend to forget that they are learning a new scheme and that just takes time. We have played three very good quarterbacks with very good receivers and they will expose you if you don’t have the talent in the secondary or they are inexperienced in the scheme they’re running.
I expect us to play much better this week against Texas A&M because getting Slusher back will help stabilize the secondary. There has been some moving around to try to get the right people in the right spots and that’s okay as long as they learn it and get better week by week.