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LB Play

Get Nasty

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Jul 26, 2006
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Long off season but LB play has to improve immensely.

First play of the game here. Look at the fit by Marist. Botelho clearly has outside, and we're run blitzing Morrison from outside as well. So that's 2 players. The play looked to have botelho seal the edge funneling rb inside if it's a run, morrison coming free outside if it's a pass, with marist filling the B gap, marist for some reason goes outside running into botelho and morrison, so there's 3 ND people outside leaving a gaping hole. This is the first play of the game, i have no clue how you can have a run fit this bad. This looks to be all on marist to me.

On the TD play at the one minute mark, you can't play it worse than Bracy did on simple screen, we corrected it later on, but man. To just run into the back of morrison when you are unblocked at that point, allowing TE to then seal you. Bad. I bring this up because Bracy is as nickel despite South Carolina playing a pretty much 2 TE look. ND just exposes themselves at times in this new scheme.

At the 2:34 mark, Snead completely forgets he has the TE

4:40 mark betrand just isn't athletic enough to turn around, an athletic lb at minimum bats that down or picks it. He's also trying to push him 8 yards downfield which is a penalty if he was succesful. Instead of playing his area he got himself off balance and out of his area for an easy throw for big gain.

7:05 mark. Bracy in again at nickel despite power look again. Bracy covering TE and seems confused.

Just a few plays that seemed confusing to me on scheme and obviously poor lb/nickel play when South Carolina with all their injuries/opt outs didn't have personnel to spread us out. They had DL players as wide outs at times. Yet we were in nickel a ton.

 
Liafau played awful all year.
for as much as he blitzed, to finish with .5 sacks is pretty brutal. I had high hopes for him because he has some unique traits, he just doesn't know how to play. It shows how good lea was because he had a simple scheme for for marist in 2020 and marist played darn well down the stretch in it. That's why i had such high hopes.
 
One of your better post, but I'll cut Snead some slack. He is a true freshman who barely played. He played run first and looked to take on the block and the TE just snuck past him. Too bad it took this long for him to get substantial PT.
 
for as much as he blitzed, to finish with .5 sacks is pretty brutal. I had high hopes for him because he has some unique traits, he just doesn't know how to play. It shows how good lea was because he had a simple scheme for for marist in 2020 and marist played darn well down the stretch in it. That's why i had such high hopes.
I read that Marist had the most snaps of any linebacker last season, and I thought he was our weakest link. His athleticism and energy are enticing, but I’ve never seen a ND linebacker with poorer instincts; and I don’t recall a ND player so ineffective in blitzing. Easy to cherry-pick a couple of plays of any player to spin poor play, but you didn’t have to cherry pick Marist’s film. Hope he is limited to some specialist role next year because some other linebacker has earned his snaps. My criticism is probably influenced by my level of disappointment as I also had high hopes for him.
 
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One of your better post, but I'll cut Snead some slack. He is a true freshman who barely played. He played run first and looked to take on the block and the TE just snuck past him. Too bad it took this long for him to get substantial PT.
Agreed. I was anxious to see Snead play more, but the Gator Bowl showed why he hasn’t seen the field a lot. Valuable experience for sure. I knew he was expected to put on weight, but I was still taken back by how lean he looked and how ineffective he was as a rusher. Just too lean and not strong enough and easily stood up. You have to believe that he’ll be bigger and stronger and ready to compete for snaps next season. He excelled in high school based on athleticism and speed and I think mostly lined up as a rush end, and never had to learn the linebacker position. Spring ball will be especially important for him.
 
I read that Marist had the most snaps of any linebacker last season, and I thought he was our weakest link. His athleticism and energy are enticing, but I’ve never seen a ND linebacker with poorer instincts; and I don’t recall a ND player so ineffective in blitzing. Easy to cherry-pick a couple of plays of any player to spin poor play, but you didn’t have to cherry pick Marist’s film. Hope he is limited to some specialist role next year because some other linebacker has earned his snaps. My criticism is probably influenced by my level of disappointment as I also had high hopes for him.
I actually think he was still somewhat effective as a blitzer because he would push the oline or rb into the qbs space at times. This caused more disruption than JD completely whiffing many times. Or a safety blitz from a mile away.

I think Marist could carve a role in passing situations if we need help rushing. But his run fits and getting off blocks was terrible.
 
Agreed. I was anxious to see Snead play more, but the Gator Bowl showed why he hasn’t seen the field a lot. Valuable experience for sure. I knew he was expected to put on weight, but I was still taken back by how lean he looked and how ineffective he was as a rusher. Just too lean and not strong enough and easily stood up. You have to believe that he’ll be bigger and stronger and ready to compete for snaps next season. He excelled in high school based on athleticism and speed and I think mostly lined up as a rush end, and never had to learn the linebacker position. Spring ball will be especially important for him.
We need him to be ready next year so we can have a LB that can play the run and play in space.. We were far too vulnerable when in 3 lbs or in nickel. When in 3 lbs just throw it, when in nickel just run it.

I still can't get over being in nickel in the red zone so much, even short yardage. Throwing windows are tighter and teams want to run the ball more. We gave up like 16 rushing TDs this year which isn't terrible until you look at the number of opportunities. Our D actually did a good job of keeping teams out of the red zone, but once they got in it was chopped liver.
 
I actually think he was still somewhat effective as a blitzer because he would push the oline or rb into the qbs space at times. This caused more disruption than JD completely whiffing many times. Or a safety blitz from a mile away.

I think Marist could carve a role in passing situations if we need help rushing. But his run fits and getting off blocks was terrible.
Maybe, and perhaps that’s the specialist role. I do question coaching when our blitz packages produce such meager results. I don’t watch a lot of football beyond ND and the post season games, but I haven’t seen another team miss so many damn QB tackles when blitzing successfully; nor have I seen so many ineffective safety blitzes.
 
We need him to be ready next year so we can have a LB that can play the run and play in space.. We were far too vulnerable when in 3 lbs or in nickel. When in 3 lbs just throw it, when in nickel just run it.

I still can't get over being in nickel in the red zone so much, even short yardage. Throwing windows are tighter and teams want to run the ball more. We gave up like 16 rushing TDs this year which isn't terrible until you look at the number of opportunities. Our D actually did a good job of keeping teams out of the red zone, but once they got in it was chopped liver.
I don’t have empirical data, but thought we played nickel around 75% of the time, which surprised the hell out of me. Kind of felt like we wanted to play a 3-3-5 but didn’t have the right DL for this.
 
I don’t have empirical data, but thought we played nickel around 75% of the time, which surprised the hell out of me. Kind of felt like we wanted to play a 3-3-5 but didn’t have the right DL for this.
yeah I get desire to stop the pass, but like you said, we don't have DL for that scheme yet right now
 
Maybe, and perhaps that’s the specialist role. I do question coaching when our blitz packages produce such meager results. I don’t watch a lot of football beyond ND and the post season games, but I haven’t seen another team miss so many damn QB tackles when blitzing successfully; nor have I seen so many ineffective safety blitzes.
I hate to say this because he's not perfect and their D was terrible vs UM. But Penn State's D with Diaz is what I expected ours to look like and the path we're going. Speed everywhere, but they just don't have the horses on the dline to match up with Um run game as well but their lbs are so athletic they can make up for it vs almost everyone else.
 
I've sait it all year long...

Marist is showing exactly how you don't play inside LB.

He's a coward and his only positive to the table he brings is he can blitz. The only thing he does "ok"
He's also in no mans land
He's not thick enough for inside backer...
Personally I'd like to see him drop weight and move to a saftey spot.
Kam Chancellor?
Ken Swilling?
It can be done alright...

but Marist at inside backer....
He'satrocious

#44 ...junior...(tough name to spell)


Should've played over Marist all year.
 
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I've sait it all year long...

Marist is showing exactly how you don't play inside LB.

He's a coward and his only positive to the table he brings is he can blitz. The only thing he does "ok"
He's also in no mans land
He's not thick enough for inside backer...
Personally I'd like to see him drop weight and move to a saftey spot.
Kam Chancellor?
Ken Swilling?
It can be done alright...

but Marist at inside backer....
He'satrocious

#44 ...junior...(tough name to spell)


Should've played over Marist all year.
The little we saw of Junior, he looks like the real deal. Just a natural. I know they are looking at him at Vyper, but I hope Burnham shows he’s ready to play Vyper along with Botelho, as I’d really like to see Junior at inside linebacker.
 
The little we saw of Junior, he looks like the real deal. Just a natural. I know they are looking at him at Vyper, but I hope Burnham shows he’s ready to play Vyper along with Botelho, as I’d really like to see Junior at inside linebacker.
Absolutely...
Junior NEEDS the MIDDLE

He's a cement head....

He absolutely positively needs the middle.

If they play him elsewhere fire everyone immediately
 
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I've sait it all year long...

Marist is showing exactly how you don't play inside LB.

He's a coward and his only positive to the table he brings is he can blitz. The only thing he does "ok"
He's also in no mans land
He's not thick enough for inside backer...
Personally I'd like to see him drop weight and move to a saftey spot.
Kam Chancellor?
Ken Swilling?
It can be done alright...

but Marist at inside backer....
He'satrocious

#44 ...junior...(tough name to spell)


Should've played over Marist all year.
Not sure of the coward comment

Marist is actually pretty big of a lb and plenty thick, he’s pushing 240lbs. Size and strength are not an issue with him. Knowing how to play and instincts are.

I’m good with him loosing weight if it helps at lb but he’s not a safety, not even close
 
Not sure of the coward comment

Marist is actually pretty big of a lb and plenty thick, he’s pushing 240lbs. Size and strength are not an issue with him. Knowing how to play and instincts are.

I’m good with him loosing weight if it helps at lb but he’s not a safety, not even close
No...he's not...

But he's not a LB either...

He's not 240# though...

Please tell me you're aware how program listed measurables are always fudged
 
Long off season but LB play has to improve immensely.

First play of the game here. Look at the fit by Marist. Botelho clearly has outside, and we're run blitzing Morrison from outside as well. So that's 2 players. The play looked to have botelho seal the edge funneling rb inside if it's a run, morrison coming free outside if it's a pass, with marist filling the B gap, marist for some reason goes outside running into botelho and morrison, so there's 3 ND people outside leaving a gaping hole. This is the first play of the game, i have no clue how you can have a run fit this bad. This looks to be all on marist to me.

On the TD play at the one minute mark, you can't play it worse than Bracy did on simple screen, we corrected it later on, but man. To just run into the back of morrison when you are unblocked at that point, allowing TE to then seal you. Bad. I bring this up because Bracy is as nickel despite South Carolina playing a pretty much 2 TE look. ND just exposes themselves at times in this new scheme.

At the 2:34 mark, Snead completely forgets he has the TE

4:40 mark betrand just isn't athletic enough to turn around, an athletic lb at minimum bats that down or picks it. He's also trying to push him 8 yards downfield which is a penalty if he was succesful. Instead of playing his area he got himself off balance and out of his area for an easy throw for big gain.

7:05 mark. Bracy in again at nickel despite power look again. Bracy covering TE and seems confused.

Just a few plays that seemed confusing to me on scheme and obviously poor lb/nickel play when South Carolina with all their injuries/opt outs didn't have personnel to spread us out. They had DL players as wide outs at times. Yet we were in nickel a ton.

Still can't believe you haven't received that NFL coaching post.
 
No...he's not...

But he's not a LB either...

He's not 240# though...

Please tell me you're aware how program listed measurables are always fudged
What a coward you are

How did the SEC do west of the Mason Dixon? It had a huge impact on that game. It stopped them from getting to 80
 
What a coward you are

How did the SEC do west of the Mason Dixon? It had a huge impact on that game. It stopped them from getting to 80
North of the mason dixon line?

Oh yeah..still won't play above there post Halloween
 
Not sure of the coward comment

Marist is actually pretty big of a lb and plenty thick, he’s pushing 240lbs. Size and strength are not an issue with him. Knowing how to play and instincts are.

I’m good with him loosing weight if it helps at lb but he’s not a safety, not even close
Marist inside

Lead blocker comes out...

Marist literally waits to be engaged.

He absolutely positively will NOT engage the lead blocker.

Sssooo....
At this point in his life....
How many years playing football?
13? 14? 15?

Either he's never ever been taught to properly play inside backer.....or....

Why won't he take the lead blocker on at the point of attack?

It's not once in a while. He never engages. He allows to be engaged.

Blitzing he does OK.

Notice Golden figured this out after a few weeks and blitzed him 75 percent of the time because he's terrible playing the position honest
 
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What an impact location made in that game
WTF you talking about

#1 This is a thread about linebacker play at ND. Nothing to do with your favorite team Bama and your favorite conference the SEC.

#2 Did I miss the SEC announcing a bunch of top games north the Mason Dixon line post Halloween?
Didn't think so.
 
WTF you talking about

#1 This is a thread about linebacker play at ND. Nothing to do with your favorite team Bama and your favorite conference the SEC.

#2 Did I miss the SEC announcing a bunch of top games north the Mason Dixon line post Halloween?
Didn't think so.
But you did miss the National Championship game didnt you?

You did miss the SEC winning another NC didn't you?

All you do is talk shit and they keep winning and winning
 
But you did miss the National Championship game didnt you?

You did miss the SEC winning another NC didn't you?

All you do is talk shit and they keep winning and winning

Again...like a spoiled little child...

UGA getting help from the officials to the title game and then beating a Cinderella team who's luck ran out has absolutely nothing to do with the SEC refusing to play in uncomfortable settings.

If you knew anything outside the xbox you'd understand how weather CAN most definitely play a factor in games and the SEC refuses to participate in anything remotely adverse.

Lastly...
One more time...

WTF are you doing here?
You LLLOOOVVVEEE all things SEC...and you're sheep that repeats horseshit you hear from talking heads on ESPN...

Please tell me why you're on a ND board.

I assure you Rivals.com has plenty of boards relating to the SEC.
I bet you already knew that, eh`
 
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Again...like a spoiled little child...

UGA getting help from the officials to the title game and then beating a Cinderella team who's luck ran out has absolutely nothing to do with the SEC refusing to play in uncomfortable settings.

If you knew anything outside the xbox you'd understand how weather CAN most definitely play a factor in games and the SEC refuses to participate in anything remotely adverse.

Lastly...
One more time...

WTF are you doing here?
You LLLOOOVVVEEE all things SEC...and you're sheep that repeats horseshit you hear from talking heads on ESPN...

Please tell me why you're on a ND board.

I assure you Rivals.com has plenty of boards relating to the SEC.
I bet you already knew that, eh`
But did you watch the SEC win another NC or no?

Did you see Georgia go 15 and 0 and go back to back?
 
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