LB play

[johnnyAU 3,630]

Maybe I need to go back and re-watch the game. I don't understand why Tre Williams isn't playing more and Kris Frost is playing less. Tre is faster and seems to read the play and react quicker than Kris. Frost has looked slow and unimpressive for 3+ years out there. He is good for about 2 decent plays/game and still gets up boasting. He is slow to react and get to the LOS, and then appears stuck in the mud when a RB makes a move. I thought he'd be a tremendous player for us by now. I was completely wrong about him. He makes Josh Bynes look like Ray Lewis.

So, maybe some of you insiders can clue me in to what has happened at LB over the last several years. (Fully realizing we are transitioning from a 4-2-5) Is it poor talent recognition or lack of development?

[cole256 17,043]

Imo I'd say poor development because I notice guys we miss out on are good at other schools, even the guys that weren't priorities. Like that linebacker that went to vandy I think his last name was Cunningham, I could be wrong with the name. And I think that's all positions. But that's just my opinion.

[War Knight 514]

Imo I'd say poor development because I notice guys we miss out on are good at other schools, even the guys that weren't priorities. Like that linebacker that went to vandy I think his last name was Cunningham, I could be wrong with the name. And I think that's all positions. But that's just my opinion.

I have to agree. This will change with Muschamp but poor habits are hard to change. Used to have a wrestling coach who said he'd rather have a kid who never competed before over someone who wrestled for years with poor fundamentals. Quite apt here as well. It used to be Frost couldn't understand the defense now it's that he just let's himself get blocked every play.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Question. Who's in charge of coaching the linebackers? is it Lance Thompson or Will Muschamp.

[War Knight 514]

Question. Who's in charge of coaching the linebackers? is it Lance Thompson or Will Muschamp.

both.

[BHDAU1 240]

I for one, cannot understand why Frost sees the field at all much less 9 out of 10 snaps it seems. Frost cant find the ball, cant get off blocks, and takes awful pursuit angles. Its unreal that he is a starter. People rag on Cass but at least he gives 100% effort and is decisive even if he makes the wrong choice. One example of what we get out of Frost is the last 2pt conversion: Frost lines up in his spot that happens to be on the side the QB rolls out to, and rather than cover his man/area like he is supposed to he just runs out to no-mans land neither pressuring the QB or covering a receiver. If he covers his man the game is over. The QB had pressure from the D-line and if Frost is covering his man and the QB runs past LOS, Frost could come up and tackle him short of goal line as the QB bootlegged out the same direction as the receiver is running. It is examples like that of blown assignments game after game after game that blow my mind. I am wondering if we are not identifying guys in high school that have both the talent AND the brains to play SEC football. We seem to get great athletes, but not sure we get the guys with the brains to be good. I would rather have a 3 or 4 star guy who is just fast enough, but with a lot of brains than a 5 star guy whose brain cant keep up with big boy football. For what it's worth I think we picked up a couple guys in that last class that were great students as well. Particularly the Hoover LB.

[IronMan70 3,277]

If a player wants to know how the position of linebacker is supposed to be played in real time, all they have to do is watch a replay of the Eagles v Panthers game last night and keep their eyes on Panther LBs Luke Keuchley and Thomas Davis. THAT is how you play linebacker.

[aucanucktiger 1,791]

This is NOT a knock on Will - a tremendous asset to our college level coaching staff - but I continue to scratch my head at posts assuming Muschamp is all about developing and/or maintaining fundamentals. He has many talents as a coach but that is NOT one of them historically. IMH but informed O. Thompson is another story, he's developed many almost textbook tackle/angle/postitioning LB's. I think he (should) fills that gap nicely - good foil hire by Will.

[nurbis 572]

We have seniors on this team who had there college football foundation built in 2012. In that year there was such a lack of discipline, no requirement for strength training, a head coach that didn't know what he was doing, infighting between coaches, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball who were just drawing a paycheck because they knew what was coming at the end of the year. I think, at least partially, we are seeing the after effects of that season this year. You would think those issues would have been removed by now but I think these payers still have some of those tendencies ingrained into them.

I also don't think it helps that two of the three coaches CGM learned to run a premiere college program from were Houston Nutt and Gene Chizik.

[augolf1716 21,103]

We have seniors on this team who had there college football foundation built in 2012. In that year there was such a lack of discipline, no requirement for strength training, a head coach that didn't know what he was doing, infighting between coaches, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball who were just drawing a paycheck because they knew what was coming at the end of the year. I think, at least partially, we are seeing the after effects of that season this year. You would think those issues would have been removed by now but I think these payers still have some of those tendencies ingrained into them.

I also don't think it helps that two of the three coaches CGM learned to run a premiere college program from were Houston Nutt and Gene Chizik.

Good post

[BHDAU1 240]

I hate that every other football game I watch feels like I am watching a team with a better defense than ours!! Maybe it is because I get so upset with them that I don't see any positives, but it seems like every team we play has a better defense than ours. I started this year with such high expectations for improvement and have been so let down. I have never seen a defensive line fail to get pressure on a QB so many times in one game in my life. That failure then leads to the LBs, and I watch them get swallowed up in the scrum in the middle play after play. Honestly guys if it weren't for our DB's coming up to make tackles opposing teams would get 1st down after 1st down. Like many have mentioned, lack of execution by the opponent has killed more drives this year than our defense. I know we are talking LBs here but the D-Line and LBs go hand in hand. If the line is bad it will make the LBs look bad and vice versa. BOTH need fresh blood and better coaching!

[AUinfusion 390]

Frost was never a five star LB, he was a five star athlete. I don't think he has ever learned to really read and react quickly, and he doesn't have the instincts of an LB. He doesn't make quick decisions, and he has absolutely no mean streak. This is more or less what he looked like in the... I can't remember if it was the Army AA game or the Under Armour AA game: A gifted physical specimen who just isn't physical enough at LB, and who doesn't see his reads quick enough. I *think* he was a WR coming out of high school.

[AUBwins 10,074]

If a player wants to know how the position of linebacker is supposed to be played in real time, all they have to do is watch a replay of the Eagles v Panthers game last night and keep their eyes on Panther LBs Luke Keuchley and Thomas Davis. THAT is how you play linebacker.

I was going to mention this as well. Teams game plan around crossing routes over the middle because of the hard hitting linebackers.

[AUBwins 10,074]

Thomas Davis about killed a few Eagles last night

[keesler 5,924]

We have seniors on this team who had there college football foundation built in 2012. In that year there was such a lack of discipline, no requirement for strength training, a head coach that didn't know what he was doing, infighting between coaches, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball who were just drawing a paycheck because they knew what was coming at the end of the year. I think, at least partially, we are seeing the after effects of that season this year. You would think those issues would have been removed by now but I think these payers still have some of those tendencies ingrained into them.

I also don't think it helps that two of the three coaches CGM learned to run a premiere college program from were Houston Nutt and Gene Chizik.

While this may be true, those players were young in 2012. Young folks adjust and adapt very quickly. If Gus brought in a solid training and development plan the past 2 1/2 years then their early time on the '12 AU team would be far in the rearview mirror and we would see better results.

[IronMan70 3,277]

If a player wants to know how the position of linebacker is supposed to be played in real time, all they have to do is watch a replay of the Eagles v Panthers game last night and keep their eyes on Panther LBs Luke Keuchley and Thomas Davis. THAT is how you play linebacker.

I was going to mention this as well. Teams game plan around crossing routes over the middle because of the hard hitting linebackers.

Yes and also in playing every fundamental of the LB position. From avoiding blockers, shedding blocks, getting thru traffic at the LOS, filling the running lane but still being under control, proper pursuit angles, sideline to sideline coverage and aggressive hard hitting tackling, those 2 were textbook examples last night other than 1 play.

After watching the replay with his players, a coach should tell them, " Do you see how those 2 players play the position of LB ? Do that ", then break down every single play for them. I'm serious.

[Mikey 16,575]

If someone would like a refresher course on linebacker discussion on this board, here's the link. Of course, I've been *itching about our LB's, both on field play and poor recruiting, since Josh Bynes & co. graduated. But what did I know? Here ya' go:

http://www.aufamily....ead/page__st__0

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

Maybe I need to go back and re-watch the game. I don't understand why Tre Williams isn't playing more and Kris Frost is playing less. Tre is faster and seems to read the play and react quicker than Kris. Frost has looked slow and unimpressive for 3+ years out there. He is good for about 2 decent plays/game and still gets up boasting. He is slow to react and get to the LOS, and then appears stuck in the mud when a RB makes a move. I thought he'd be a tremendous player for us by now. I was completely wrong about him. He makes Josh Bynes look like Ray Lewis.

So, maybe some of you insiders can clue me in to what has happened at LB over the last several years. (Fully realizing we are transitioning from a 4-2-5) Is it poor talent recognition or lack of development?

I've said this before, but I think frost gets a bit too much flak. From what I've seen, Frost plays well on most plays, but consistent blows 3-5 big plays a game. Not saying he is playing exceptionally well, because those big plays are usually costly.

[keesler 5,924]

If someone would like a refresher course on linebacker discussion on this board, here's the link. Of course, I've been *itching about our LB's, both on field play and poor recruiting, since Josh Bynes & co. graduated. But what did I know? Here ya' go:

http://www.aufamily....ead/page__st__0

Whoa! Blast from the past.

[Tiger 8,818]

We have seniors on this team who had there college football foundation built in 2012. In that year there was such a lack of discipline, no requirement for strength training, a head coach that didn't know what he was doing, infighting between coaches, and new coordinators on both sides of the ball who were just drawing a paycheck because they knew what was coming at the end of the year. I think, at least partially, we are seeing the after effects of that season this year. You would think those issues would have been removed by now but I think these payers still have some of those tendencies ingrained into them.

I also don't think it helps that two of the three coaches CGM learned to run a premiere college program from were Houston Nutt and Gene Chizik.

I actually find more sting to the last sentence of your post than the first paragraph. But I do think thaglt 2013 should've coached the 2012 out of the really young guys IMO.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Muschamp: "Very average LB play"

When Muschamp was asked if the issues were correctable at this point in the season, and this late in the seniors' careers, he wasn't optimistic.

“We’re trying to,” Muschamp said. “Doing all we can. Trying to.”

Read more here: http://www.ledger-en...l#storylink=cpy

I think it is pretty clear by now that Frost and Mckinzey are not going to learn how to fight off of a block, so It's time to start giving the young ones more experience. But it's not all their fault. Our DL isn't exactly eating up double teams.

[Tiger 8,818]

Chizik may have really screwed Kris Frost. I don't think he should've been a LB at all from the moment he stepped on campus (hindsight of course). Safety maybe?

I seem to remember him saying in an interview how he is a WR "at heart" or something similar

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

Muschamp: "Very average LB play"

When Muschamp was asked if the issues were correctable at this point in the season, and this late in the seniors' careers, he wasn't optimistic.

“We’re trying to,” Muschamp said. “Doing all we can. Trying to.”

Read more here: http://www.ledger-en...l#storylink=cpy

I think it is pretty clear by now that Frost and Mckinzey are not going to learn how to fight off of a block, so It's time to start giving the young ones more experience. But it's not all their fault. Our DL isn't exactly eating up double teams.

Since Casanova has been moved to Buck he has been one of our best Defensive players. He is the only one getting pressure on the QB. He still does not seal the edge as well as he should but he was not trained to be a Buck until after Lawson went out and nobody else stepped up. Frost is a different matter as a linebacker he just doesn't have the instincts he might have made a decent pass catching TE but we don't throw to the TE at Auburn so I am not sure where his Physical talents would work for us. As I remember Holland was a linebacker in HS I know we have been also playing him at Buck but I would give him a shot at LB also and see what happens.

[AURealist 2,185]

Chizik may have really screwed Kris Frost. I don't think he should've been a LB at all from the moment he stepped on campus (hindsight of course). Safety maybe?

I seem to remember him saying in an interview how he is a WR "at heart" or something similar

We know he can catch, so lets try him at WR.

[Tiger 8,818]

Chizik may have really screwed Kris Frost. I don't think he should've been a LB at all from the moment he stepped on campus (hindsight of course). Safety maybe?

I seem to remember him saying in an interview how he is a WR "at heart" or something similar

We know he can catch, so lets try him at WR.

But he doesn't seem to have the speed to play WR either though.

Well, he did run down Treadwell I guess