What's keeping Auburn's Defense from being Elite?

[weagl1 1,784]

Horrible tackling and poor coverage skills in the secondary have been the main problems since we hired Chizik. We got better last year but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

[AU64 10,122]

Horrible tackling and poor coverage skills in the secondary have been the main problems since we hired Chizik. We got better last year but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

You must be referring to a different Chizik than the Chizik who was the DC during the 2004 season when our defense was still pretty solid ..right ? :-\

And JMO but the game has changed hugely in the last 10 years and the entire theory of offenses is to get a very athletic RB or WR in a one-on-one situation with a defensive back. Generally the RBs and WRs are bigger and often faster than the DB and thus have a pretty big advantage in those cases.

I think most of today's elite defensive teams are only dominant when they have superior talent...and when the opposing offenses stick to the pro-style offenses.

[Mikey 16,601]

Horrible tackling and poor coverage skills in the secondary have been the main problems since we hired Chizik. We got better last year but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

You must be referring to a different Chizik than the Chizik who was the DC during the 2004 season when our defense was still pretty solid ..right ? :-\

And JMO but the game has changed hugely in the last 10 years and the entire theory of offenses is to get a very athletic RB or WR in a one-on-one situation with a defensive back. Generally the RBs and WRs are bigger and often faster than the DB and thus have a pretty big advantage in those cases.

I think most of today's elite defensive teams are only dominant when they have superior talent...and when the opposing offenses stick to the pro-style offenses.

AU64, you are correct, of course. However, your logic does not allow for disrespecting the only coach that has brought us a national championship in the last 57 years. Don't you know all the cool kids are into Chizik bashing?

[WarTiger 3,901]

At one time, Auburn was known for defense. The Auburn LSU interception game comes to mind, in 1994. The defense was capable of scoring more than the offense. Dye was a great defense coach and the world knew it. Malzahn is a great offense coach, and the world knows it now , if they did not know it before last season. The little fella coaching across the state is known for defense. He's not much on offense. Especially, bad defensively against the HUNH. I wish Florida would fire Muschamp and Auburn could convince him to coach on defense again. Muschamp had a charisma about him that the Auburn defensive players responded to. Otherwise, the defense needs to keep on chopping wood, it will be a slow process to regain the Auburn defenses of lore.

I've got a newsflash for you. Muschamp wasn't why the defense was good while he was at Auburn. The defense was good because TUBERVILLE was at Auburn. Auburn had multiple defensive coordinators during Tuberville's time at Auburn and yet the defense was ALWAYS good. The one thing all those teams had in common was TUBERVILLE not the defensive coordinator. Muschamp is in way over his head as a head coach, but it he keeps turning Florida seasons of 4-8 like he did last year, I want Florida to keep him forever. I definitely would NEVER want Muschamp back in Auburn.

[AU64 10,122]

Horrible tackling and poor coverage skills in the secondary have been the main problems since we hired Chizik. We got better last year but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

You must be referring to a different Chizik than the Chizik who was the DC during the 2004 season when our defense was still pretty solid ..right ? :-\

And JMO but the game has changed hugely in the last 10 years and the entire theory of offenses is to get a very athletic RB or WR in a one-on-one situation with a defensive back. Generally the RBs and WRs are bigger and often faster than the DB and thus have a pretty big advantage in those cases.

I think most of today's elite defensive teams are only dominant when they have superior talent...and when the opposing offenses stick to the pro-style offenses.

AU64, you are correct, of course. However, your logic does not allow for disrespecting the only coach that has brought us a national championship in the last 57 years. Don't you know all the cool kids are into Chizik bashing?

Yeah....sorry.... I keep forgetting....

[cole256 17,080]

Say what you want but since chizik was a head coach our secondary was horrible. When he left the secondary improved.

And a db shouldn't hardly ever have a big mismatch with a hb. A linebacker maybe

[AU64 10,122]

Say what you want but since chizik was a head coach our secondary was horrible. When he left the secondary improved.

And a db shouldn't hardly ever have a big mismatch with a hb. A linebacker maybe

How many DBs did Nick M shake out of their jocks? ...and he was a QB...and watch some of Tre's runs and see what he did to DBs all over the SEC...and of course Sammy's famous mistreatment of the guy from Tex A&M.

DBs, IMO, have the hardest job on a football field and most people only remember their misses.

[IronMan70 3,277]

Horrible tackling and poor coverage skills in the secondary have been the main problems since we hired Chizik. We got better last year but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

You must be referring to a different Chizik than the Chizik who was the DC during the 2004 season when our defense was still pretty solid ..right ? :-\

And JMO but the game has changed hugely in the last 10 years and the entire theory of offenses is to get a very athletic RB or WR in a one-on-one situation with a defensive back. Generally the RBs and WRs are bigger and often faster than the DB and thus have a pretty big advantage in those cases.

I think most of today's elite defensive teams are only dominant when they have superior talent...and when the opposing offenses stick to the pro-style offenses.

AU64, you are correct, of course. However, your logic does not allow for disrespecting the only coach that has brought us a national championship in the last 57 years. Don't you know all the cool kids are into Chizik bashing?

Yeah....sorry.... I keep forgetting....

Some valid points by you two but that doesn't take into account one important thing. We saw very noticeable improvements in several key areas of the defense last year (tackling, scoring D, redzone D, 3rd down D, sacks, TFLs) and I expect that to continue this year. Those improvements don't happen by accident.

[AUEngineer2016 407]

Say what you want but since chizik was a head coach our secondary was horrible. When he left the secondary improved.

And a db shouldn't hardly ever have a big mismatch with a hb. A linebacker maybe

How many DBs did Nick M shake out of their jocks? ...and he was a QB...and watch some of Tre's runs and see what he did to DBs all over the SEC...and of course Sammy's famous mistreatment of the guy from Tex A&M.

DBs, IMO, have the hardest job on a football field and most people only remember their misses.

To be fair though, NM has one of the quickest cuts in all of CFB and he has legit 4.4 speed. He's not your average pocket-passer QB. And he was a DB at an SEC school, one that has competed for an SEC championship in recent years. As for Tre and Sammy, they are not what I would call "prototypical size" at their position. By the end of the year, Tre was huge. As for Sammy, well he landed at #1 on the list of CFB Freaks.

[AU64 10,122]

Say what you want but since chizik was a head coach our secondary was horrible. When he left the secondary improved.

And a db shouldn't hardly ever have a big mismatch with a hb. A linebacker maybe

How many DBs did Nick M shake out of their jocks? ...and he was a QB...and watch some of Tre's runs and see what he did to DBs all over the SEC...and of course Sammy's famous mistreatment of the guy from Tex A&M.

DBs, IMO, have the hardest job on a football field and most people only remember their misses.

To be fair though, NM has one of the quickest cuts in all of CFB and he has legit 4.4 speed. He's not your average pocket-passer QB. And he was a DB at an SEC school, one that has competed for an SEC championship in recent years. As for Tre and Sammy, they are not what I would call "prototypical size" at their position. By the end of the year, Tre was huge. As for Sammy, well he landed at #1 on the list of CFB Freaks.

Maybe...but check the size of the WRs at FSU, Tamu, LSU and many of the other teams AU played. ....and compare Tre with the LSU backs and most other SEC backs...he is short and muscular but not huge...say like the Henry kid from Bama for example...or the UGA backs.

AU was mostly undersized in the defensive backfield....and of course, mostly the DBs are one on one with shifty and speedy offensive players and it's pretty widely acknowledged that in a one on one situation the offensive player has the advantage.

Per the question about how to improve the defense, one step that is under way is to get bigger DBs to deal with the big WRs and DBs out there.

[weagl1 1,784]

We didn't win the NC in 2010 because of the superior Chizik defense. The defense was OK, but in a lot of the games we just simply out scored the other team. When we didnt have a great offense, aka 2012, we got our brains beat out by the likes of LSU, UGA , Bammer and virtually everyone else. Chizik did a great job with the defense in 2004, but I don't see how anyone watching our games could not see the significant decline in tackling, particularly in the secondary, in his four years. The was a good improvement in 2013, but they still have a ways to go to once again become a good tackling football team like expect Auburn to be.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Per the question about how to improve the defense, one step that is under way is to get bigger DBs to deal with the big WRs and DBs out there.

Just checked our 2014 signees and 2015 commitments against our current roster. AU64 speaks the truth.

http://www.aufamily.com/forums/forum-31/announcement-25-2014-signees/

http://www.aufamily.com/forums/forum-31/announcement-26-2015-commitments-updated-62414/

http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/aub-m-footbl-mtt.html

[cole256 17,080]

Yeah coach Ingram likes big db's and chizik liked smaller defenders, that's on him. And as far as matching up I was talking about covering. Of course a corner isn't going to make every tackle but nobody expects them to. But I'm just saying as far as db's being productive that went down as soon as coach chiz took over and seemed to have went up as soon as he left. 2010 we had a great d line there was no reason for the secondary to struggle.

[YaBoyMaxWeezy 0]

I think we will have one of the most elite front 7s in the league. Our secondary is the issue that is keeping the entire defense down.

[AUpreacherman22 3,885]

Those looking to our offense for answers on the defense are looking down a rabbit hole. The answer lies in upgrading the talent level as well as building more depth in the back 7 (it's being done) and playing solid fundamentals. When games are on the line and poor tackling yields a 99 yard pass play or a 5 yard hitch that turns into a 45 yard gain, you need look no further. That has nothing to do with how good our offense is or how much better opposing offenses are now compared to 10 years ago.

The good news is we made marked improvement last year (redzone D, 3rd down D, scoring D, sacks, TFLs, better fundamentals) but it's just a start. We need to continue with that but take another big step in improvement this year too. With the upgrade in back 7 talent/depth in process I think the D will be better this year. So with that, taking the scoring D down from 24 points closer to 20 points (or less) is a very realistic goal. I have said this before but it bares repeating. Just a 20% improvement in our defense (very doable) when coupled with Gus's offense is going to make this '14 team very hard to beat.

Well said. I agree with everything you just said!

[AUpreacherman22 3,885]

I think we will have one of the most elite front 7s in the league. Our secondary is the issue that is keeping the entire defense down.

I think the secondary will be much better this year with the addition of key players like Moncrief, needed moves like Holsey and Reed to CB, and added depth to keep guys fresh.

[caleb1633 1,418]

I assess that our defense should have better numbers this year, simply because we won't be facing as good of offenses. All the SEC teams we face except Arky and the Mississippi teams are breaking in new QBs. That will be a huge enabler for our defense.

[AU64 10,122]

I assess that our defense should have better numbers this year, simply because we won't be facing as good of offenses. All the SEC teams we face except Arky and the Mississippi teams are breaking in new QBs. That will be a huge enabler for our defense.

Good point...we saw a lot of QBs last year who specialized in making defenses look bad. Likely that defensive stats will be better all over the SEC this year.

[AUNavyNightmare 1]

Tackles.... lots and lots of tackles...

[war eagle6 0]

Linebacker play will be the key this year. I believe it is already better than the 2013 version, MUCH better!

[WFE12 9,191]

I assess that our defense should have better numbers this year, simply because we won't be facing as good of offenses. All the SEC teams we face except Arky and the Mississippi teams are breaking in new QBs. That will be a huge enabler for our defense.

yeah but...bout time we face the teams with new qb's, more than likely they would have gotten everything down like georgia and uat's qb's

[WarEagle84 0]

... Likely that defensive stats will be better all over the SEC this year.

Except, of course, for those defenses that have to play Auburn.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

The coaching on the D by the last staff, guys who were great, was not very good. All the way around.

[Rednilla 5,391]

I don't know why there's all the talk about wanting this defensive coordinator or that defensive coordinator when the guy we have is a pretty danged good one in his own right. I really like Johnson's philosophy (though it doesn't exactly incorporate a 'front 7', seeing as it is really closer to a hybrid between the nickel and the 4-4 stack than any form of 4-3/3-4), and I think his is the best way to stop the new wave of offenses. Let us not forget that Gus is the guy who hired him, so he must think there is merit to this defense's ability to perform.

[Threedog79 0]

Begs the question, what is elite? Seems every "elite" defense that AU played last year looked just okay. Defense is exactly that, "defense"...in other words, you are in more of a reactive roll as opposed to dictating what happens you merely defend. I believe that, not on the surface anyway, that we think we will just outscore the other team and that may play into it. Also, it seems easier to "scheme" on the offensive side of the ball as opposed to the defensive side.