Defensive Backs Have No Starters?

[Mic]

"Oregon's roster lists no safeties and no cornerbacks. Everyone who is in the mix to play in the secondary is listed simply as a defensive back."  Rob Moseley

 

At the least, this might give the Bulldog's DC a bit of a pause.  How do you scheme (offensively) for a team with no safeties & cornerbacks?  Well, at least none named.  

 

I think it's great the players at these positions are getting trained at all positions and I kinda think this is Lanning & staff still uncertain who plays where, when... AND... to keep Georgia guessing.  It's a rather novel approach.  I like it.

[The Kamikaze Kid]

Sounds like Lanning may have more plans of creating chaotic havoc with positionles players

Having thought about that for a minute, I’d like to pose a question to our new Dawg friends more familiar with the coach. What would you expect Lanning to alter in the defensive scheme from what UGA runs?

 

 

[Haywarduck]

Are they playing man to man, or zone defense? Wait, what position are these guys playing? Brilliant move by our maestro!

[Charles Fischer]

If Lanning plays these unusual safeties we have that are taller and longer to offset the Georgia tight ends, (as DazeNconfused suggested) then perhaps Lanning doesn’t want to disclose that so soon?

 

Bridges won’t be listed as a corner, but he might be an ideal matchup,

[Mic]

On 8/25/2022 at 5:15 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Bridges won’t be listed as a corner, but he might be an ideal matchup,

Bridges, in his interview yesterday, admitted he was practicing mostly at the Corner position.  I think Lanning and Lupoi think that might be where he's most effective.  But there's a lot to learn when moving from Safety to Corner.  He has the speed for it, tho.

[amcdawg]

On 8/25/2022 at 4:50 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said:

Sounds like Lanning may have more plans of creating chaotic havoc with positionles players

Having thought about that for a minute, I’d like to pose a question to our new Dawg friends more familiar with the coach. What would you expect Lanning to alter in the defensive scheme from what UGA runs?

 

 

As you guys may or may not know Kirby Smart played safety at UGA and he was the DB position coach for Nick Saban before he was his DC and even when he was the DC.  Of course Saban played and coached DB's as well.  I say that to say this, the way UGA's DB's played was because that is the way Kirby (and Nick before him) wanted them to play. 

 

Dan had enormous input on the UGA defense, schemes, blitzes, game plans, so this is not a knock on him at all, but the DB's play the way Kirby wanted them to play.  There is a reason our DB coach left for Miami and our current DB coach is handling mostly just CB's while Will Muschamp handles safeties.  Being Kirby Smart's DB coach is probably the second hardest position job in the country, only behind being Nick Saban's DB coach.  Dan may want them to play a different style, who knows?

 

But if he keeps it the same, and my hunch is he will or he will want to, he will want big and physical corners.  He will want to play a LOT of man coverage and it will not be play off the receiver five yards, it will be tight and on them from the snap.  Refs in the SEC tend to allow more hand checking, grabbing, and physicality and UGA takes advantage of that. (as does bama, florida, lsu, etc)

I do not know if Oregon has the corners to play that way, that is not a knock on them, I just do not know your roster.

 

In regards to calling them all DB's the trend at UGA and all of football is to go away from the bulking safety that kills the receiver over the middle, you will probably get flagged for that.  Instead coverage skills are extremely important,  UGA's starting strong safety Chris Smith was a CB recruit, as was our star (nickel back) William Poole.  They still have to defend the run and you will not (hopefully) see them covering the X receiver, but there is a lot of "crossover" skills.  It may be that your staff is figuring out who can do what, so until they do, just call them DB's.

[SoGaDawg]

On 8/25/2022 at 4:50 PM, The Kamikaze Kid said:

Sounds like Lanning may have more plans of creating chaotic havoc with positionles players

Having thought about that for a minute, I’d like to pose a question to our new Dawg friends more familiar with the coach. What would you expect Lanning to alter in the defensive scheme from what UGA runs?

 

 

That’s a tough question.  In a broad sense I think Lanning will simply run a scheme that best fits the defensive personnel he has on the field to maximize their effectiveness.  That’s a rather cheap answer as obviously any coach tries to do this, I just believe Lanning is much better at accomplishing this than most.  
 

As far as what he might do differently, I think against GA he might scheme a bit more aggressively in an attempt to create big plays and turnovers.  In this game I expect the Ducks to focus on slowing down GA’s running game as well as finding the best way to make Bennet feel uncomfortable behind center.  If GA runs the ball well it will likely be a long day for Oregon, but if The GA offense is forced into some obvious passing situations it increases the likelihood of putting Bennet into situations where he might make mistakes, which could be huge.  
 

GA has a very good O-line IMO, so keeping them off balance by disguising aggressive pressure packages while risky, could pay off big.  And Oregon is likely going to need their defense to make a few big game changing plays to keep pace.  Oregon has great LBs and I think they will try to create opportunities to give these guys a chance to shine.  
 

I could be completely wrong, but I don’t expect Oregon have a conservative approach with their defensive scheme against GA.  The Ducks have a lot of talent on D, and I believe to have the best chance to beat GA they need to be aggressive and give that talent a chance to create big plays.   Step up those big safeties into tight coverage and in run support.  Sure it’s risky, but a few big plays could make a huge difference.  Make Stetson Bennet beat you with his arm.  Yes that’s risky also, bc he is capable, but he may also make mistakes if he can’t rely on the run game and tries to create too much by forcing the ball.  
 

In short, just be aggressive on defense.  Not to the point of recklessness, but trying hard to create opportunities for the Ducks talented defensive players to make a difference and possibly create turnovers.  

[David Marsh]

On 8/25/2022 at 9:06 PM, amcdawg said:

But if he keeps it the same, and my hunch is he will or he will want to, he will want big and physical corners.  He will want to play a LOT of man coverage and it will not be play off the receiver five yards, it will be tight and on them from the snap.  Refs in the SEC tend to allow more hand checking, grabbing, and physicality and UGA takes advantage of that. (as does bama, florida, lsu, etc)

If this is how our corners play it would be a vast improvement over the past couple of years where our secondary plays in a squishy zone that doesn't give up much over the top but gives up almost everything underneath. 

 

I can't wait for some man coverage. 

 

I'll say this from what I know about our roster. We have a good amount of potential talent. But under Cristobal I don't think we ever saw that talent realized. So we will wall have to see just what they are capable of but I think they are going to be aggressive.