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Post by TigerBear on Apr 10, 2018 20:04:27 GMT -5
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 15, 2018 23:13:56 GMT -5
Looks like a nice Grad Transfer pickup for Mercer. Stats from MiamiU seem to indicate he was a regularly-playing backup at LB as a R-FR & at DE for the next 2 years. At 6-1/245, he was probably viewed as a “Tweener” in the MAC. Looking at his MiamiU highlights, I think he likes playing with his hand on the ground, so I imagine we’ll see him as a DE in Mercer’s 3-4 alignment. That said, I believe he could also play the OLB role for Mercer as the similarly-sized Kyle Williams did for 4 years. Also, I may be committing SoCon blasphemy here, but when I look at these highlights, the comparison that comes to my mind - in terms of speed, aggressiveness, and ‘motor’ - is Davis Tull, former Chatt. DE, who was 3-time SoCon DPOY. Hope that lofty comparison doesn’t ‘jinx’ him.  |
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Post by jackal on Apr 18, 2018 8:19:49 GMT -5
The comparison is perhaps a stretch. Tull was among the great defensive players in SoCon history.
I am sure Mr. Earnest is a good player. Sagarin has Miami ranked essentially as a good-not-great FCS squad. Now, he may blow the doors off, but at this stage he has been a backup on a middling FBS squad. That's a long way from Davis Tull.
More practically, I am sure he will come in and help solidify Mercer's front seven either as a starter or rotational piece.
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 18, 2018 11:34:28 GMT -5
The comparison is perhaps a stretch. Tull was among the great defensive players in SoCon history. I am sure Mr. Earnest is a good player. Sagarin has Miami ranked essentially as a good-not-great FCS squad. Now, he may blow the doors off, but at this stage he has been a backup on a middling FBS squad. That's a long way from Davis Tull. More practically, I am sure he will come in and help solidify Mercer's front seven either as a starter or rotational piece. So, you’re using Sagarin Ratings to tell me I don’t see what I see? OK |
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Post by jackal on Apr 18, 2018 12:17:34 GMT -5
The comparison is perhaps a stretch. Tull was among the great defensive players in SoCon history. I am sure Mr. Earnest is a good player. Sagarin has Miami ranked essentially as a good-not-great FCS squad. Now, he may blow the doors off, but at this stage he has been a backup on a middling FBS squad. That's a long way from Davis Tull. More practically, I am sure he will come in and help solidify Mercer's front seven either as a starter or rotational piece. So, you’re using Sagarin Ratings to tell me I don’t see what I see? OK That's not what I said. You are making the admittedly big comparison to arguably the best defensive player in the conference in the last 10 years. I am essentially agreeing with you. Look at it this way. Davis Tull had almost as many sacks his senior year (10.5) as Earnest did tackles (13) last year. Miami is an FBS school, but Sagarin rankings (one measure of many) suggest they are essentially the caliber of an FCS team. So, odds are if he wasn't dominating the MAC, he probably isn't going to dominate the SoCon either. Again, he'll probably be a useful rotational piece for Mercer. He'll be a good player for them. I don't watch that film and think he's a 50+ tackles and 10+ sack guy like Tull was. Incidentally, watching that film reminds me how much I hate the shotgun/spread/read option that appears to be prevalent still in the MAC. Earnest notched a number of TFLs on that film where no one bothered to block him. Not could not block him. Ignored blocking him. I am so glad Furman took that offense and buried it in the pasture. Hopefully as deep as they could dig. |
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 18, 2018 13:27:26 GMT -5
So, you’re using Sagarin Ratings to tell me I don’t see what I see? OK That's not what I said. You are making the admittedly big comparison to arguably the best defensive player in the conference in the last 10 years. I am essentially agreeing with you. Look at it this way. Davis Tull had almost as many sacks his senior year (10.5) as Earnest did tackles (13) last year. Miami is an FBS school, but Sagarin rankings (one measure of many) suggest they are essentially the caliber of an FCS team. So, odds are if he wasn't dominating the MAC, he probably isn't going to dominate the SoCon either. Again, he'll probably be a useful rotational piece for Mercer. He'll be a good player for them. I don't watch that film and think he's a 50+ tackles and 10+ sack guy like Tull was. Incidentally, watching that film reminds me how much I hate the shotgun/spread/read option that appears to be prevalent still in the MAC. Earnest notched a number of TFLs on that film where no one bothered to block him. Not could not block him. Ignored blocking him. I am so glad Furman took that offense and buried it in the pasture. Hopefully as deep as they could dig. Agree on the Offensive philosophy, but Stats also don’t convince me that I don’t see what I see & what I see is a Player that does the exact same things that made Tull the great player that he was... * Relentless pursuit of the football all over the field * Speed to make that pursuit meaningful (peep him running stride for stride with Miami’s KOR man & the opponent’s DB’s in the KOR TD on the highlight reel. Played RB in HS, BTW) * Outstanding aggression against opposing blockers * Outstanding aggression against opposing ballcarriers - he explodes into the tackle * Lightning fast hands to beat long-armed OT’s with his pass Rush moves * The ability to hold the point, despite his size * Harder to tell on a highlight tape, but the ‘smell’ I get from watching this is a of a guy that loves the game, doesn’t take plays off & has a non-stop motor; like Tull did. You don’t know what the situation was at Miami. Maybe he was stuck behind a future NFL Player (which Tull is not; not really; not yet) or maybe the Coach’s son was playing in front of him or maybe it was the son-in-law of a big donor (that’s how they pick Head Coaches in SparkleCity, apparently). To paraphrase that great ball Coach Pop I., “I sees what I sees.” |
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 18, 2018 16:57:17 GMT -5
Looks like a nice Grad Transfer pickup for Mercer. Stats from MiamiU seem to indicate he was a regularly-playing backup at LB as a R-FR & at DE for the next 2 years. At 6-1/245, he was probably viewed as a “Tweener” in the MAC. Looking at his MiamiU highlights, I think he likes playing with his hand on the ground, so I imagine we’ll see him as a DE in Mercer’s 3-4 alignment. That said, I believe he could also play the OLB role for Mercer as the similarly-sized Kyle Williams did for 4 years. Also, I may be committing SoCon blasphemy here, but when I look at these highlights, the comparison that comes to my mind - in terms of speed, aggressiveness, and ‘motor’ - is Davis Tull, former Chatt. DE, who was 3-time SoCon DPOY. Hope that lofty comparison doesn’t ‘jinx’ him. Let’s see. Does the play of #9 in the video above seem more similar to or more unlike the play of #90 in the video below? What say you, SportsFans? |
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Post by jackal on Apr 19, 2018 5:04:33 GMT -5
The play of #9 looks similar to what I would expect any college “highlight” film to look like from a DE/OLB. In my opinion, Tull is plainly a longer and faster player.
The good news is, all of this doesn’t matter. Mr. Earnest can prove whether he’s the best defensive player in the SoCon this fall.
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 19, 2018 15:59:24 GMT -5
The play of #9 looks similar to what I would expect any college “highlight” film to look like from a DE/OLB. In my opinion, Tull is plainly a longer and faster player. The good news is, all of this doesn’t matter. Mr. Earnest can prove whether he’s the best defensive player in the SoCon this fall.  “Mr. Earnest can prove whether he’s the best defensive player in the SoCon this fall” - never said anything like that. Try to read only the actual words in my posts & comment accordingly. ”Tull is plainly a longer and faster player“ “Longer”Tull was measured at just over 6-2 at the NFL Combine. His Arm Length was 51st out of 55 in his group at the Combine. He is NOT long. He can jump out of the gym though - #1 in his group in vertical & broad. Earnest is listed at 6-1. We have no NFL confirmation of that...yet. We also have no metrics on his Arms, but I can see that he has 2 and they appear proportional. You can reasonably say that Tull appears that he might possibly be just a little bit “longer” than Earnest, but to say he is “plainly longer” is not something that any human can detect from these videos. Perhaps Jackals have SuperHuman spatial detection capabilities that I am not aware of. “Faster”Tull has good wheels. 4.59 is what I found for his NFL time. I don’t have a 40 time for Earnest, but I can watch him catch & run stride for stride for about 50 yards with Miami’s KOR man at 4:05 of the video. My research team has determined that KOR man is Maurice Thomas, who had a confirmed, electronic 40 time of 4.5 in HS; so it’s NOT much of a leap to conclude that Earnest is at least a 4.6 guy. On the other hand, it is a complete suspension of reality to watch these videos and conclude that Tull is “plainly faster.” Moderator - is it possible to change Jackal’s Username to “Echolocating Hallucinating Jackass”...I mean Jackal...sorry...fingers slipped on my iPad |
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 27, 2018 0:05:50 GMT -5
Let’s try this one. It’s more fun...
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Post by jackal on Apr 27, 2018 7:44:16 GMT -5
He's a good player. That wasn't the question, though.
Again, I hate the spread read game. On the second play of the video (:53), no one blocks him. Play at 1:34, no one blocks him. 2:20, no one blocks him.
Why teams feel compelled to run the ball sideways while intentionally not blocking athletic defensive linemen is still beyond my comprehension level.
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Post by FUBeAR on Apr 27, 2018 10:05:51 GMT -5
He's a good player. That wasn't the question, though. Again, I hate the spread read game. On the second play of the video (:53), no one blocks him. Play at 1:34, no one blocks him. 2:20, no one blocks him. Why teams feel compelled to run the ball sideways while intentionally not blocking athletic defensive linemen is still beyond my comprehension level. :53 is a QB hot read - essentially the QB is supposed to ‘block’ him via play action fake & getting rid of the ball quickly. Not quite quickly enough to avoid a pile-driving in this case. Speed kills. 1:34 looks like it may have been a pre-determined QB keep...which is stupid...or the QB overestimated his own speed & underestimated that of #9...which, in hindsight, was also stupid. Speed kills. 2:20 is a backside pursuit tackle of an outside zone away. Speed kills. Unblocking the last man on LOS backside is a feature, not a bug. If that man is fast enough to make the play, you’re not getting enough push from your OL playside and/or your RB’s are dilly-dallying around vs. putting their foot in the ground and getting North/South. While I, too, am not a fan of the 1-Back zone-read based offense, just want to make sure you understand that (most) option plays are designed to leave a man or men unblocked at the point of attack. The triple option leaves the last 2 men on the end of the line playside unblocked. In the triple, the dive guy is going north/south (mostly), but the QB & the pitch man are pretty much running ‘sideways.’ You have to FORCE those dudes to make a decision though. They can be the world’s greatest athletes, but if your QB & Dive back FORCE them to make a decision, then they block themselves. Shoddy steps/footwork, shoddy ball-handling/meshes/fakes, reluctance to take a hit, and/or poor decision-making are the things that allow these unblocked men to make plays. Unfortunately, those things are rampant in the 1-back zone read in college football today. It’s not the design of the offense or the athleticism/play of the defense that cause these Teams to be unable to run the football. It’s poor execution stemming from poor Coaching...and unathletic O-Linemen that have us watching this gosh-awful exhibition of ‘Offense.’ It certainly OFFENDS me! Hey, BTW, did you see #9 whip the 9th Player chosen in the NFL Draft last night & make a big hit on the QB at 1:11? I did. Speed kills. |
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Post by jackal on Apr 27, 2018 14:04:07 GMT -5
I get that, but most option plays (at least the ones that tend to work) run AT the unblocked man, not away from him.
Here is my primary problem. As schemed, the play probably looks good on paper. Add more blockers to the play side and let the QB hold the DE with the fake, and overload the defense on a zone run. The problem is that very few QBs can threaten the edge on the weakside. That is, there is almost no reason for a WDE to concern himself with outside contain. The QB can't outrun him.
Sure, there are potential pitfalls with a reverse if the WDE over pursues, but of course, he should see that coming a mile away (a WR running in the opposite direction of the play should tip him off). There's the possibility that you could throw a RPO behind him, but if the guy is tall enough and fast enough, that's not going to be much use either.
The only time that scheme seems to work is if you have a guy like Armanti Edwards at QB. A true dual threat player that can force the DE to stay at home because he knows you can pull it and get outside of him. If you don't have a player like that, all you are doing is running slow developing run play and not blocking arguably the fastest and most athletic defender on the field.
Granted, back when I played DE the shotgun offensive set had not been invented in South Georgia, but I loved it when teams wouldn't bother to put a body on me. You often get a wide eyed view of the play, and can quickly catch up from the backside while the running back waits for the hole to open.
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Post by FUBeAR on Jun 4, 2018 11:41:49 GMT -5
BUMP - See 6/4 Update for Wofford in 1st post in this topic.
They keep hemorrhaging Coaches up there in SparkleCity.
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Post by jackal on Jun 6, 2018 8:31:15 GMT -5
BUMP - See 6/4 Update for Wofford in 1st post in this topic. They keep hemorrhaging Coaches up there in SparkleCity. Not a good look when you are losing coordinators to high school programs during the summer. Wofford is going to be an enigma going into 2018. I think they will probably do well given the returning talent they have on defense, but I'm not sold on this coaching staff. This offseason has been a disaster for them (or at least that is my perception). I also notice that they seem to be losing recruiting battles they used to win over SoCon competition. They lost a lot of quality offensive linemen off last year's team, and looking at their roster, 9 of 16 linemen listed are freshmen. In 2018, Wofford was one of the few, if not the only, truly "veteran" team in the SoCon. In spite of that, they won a bunch of games by their whiskers, in no small measure, I think, because of the play of their veterans. There wasn't much between them and the much younger pack of teams trailing them. They have a lot of question marks and an untested staff. |
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