It all starts upfront and inside out. Specifically, the DTs are simply bad and can't anchor the line of scrimmage. The DTs (Mayan Ahanotu, Iton, & Ifeanyi Maijeh) last two years and even before that (Julius Turner and Michael Dwumfour) were much better players than the credit they got. They were true anchors and kept the LBers clean. Forced a lot of teams to be one dimensional against us, which is much easier to defend. 3rd or 4th & Short runs against Rutgers was far from automatic. What we have now is a far cry from that. Without singling anyone out, Hamilton has been good, but he has zero help. Malcom Ray has been... absent. Guys like Z. Angoy/T. Rainey/K. Griffin/DJ Allen have simply NOT developed and they're not young guys anymore. Everybody on that list is a Redshirt Senior except for Allen, who is a Junior. Let that sink in.
Then you mix in DEs who've never really been consistently impactful players their entire careers here. Wes Bailey is the closest thing we have to an impactful DE and - without being mean - he's mediocre at best. Even the DTs last two years could generate pressure up the middle. Ahanotu, Iton, and Maijeh were really good interior players. They couldn't be blocked 1-on-1.
So in short we can't generate a pass rush, can't stop the run, and we have inexperienced LBers, which is a recipe for the disaster we're seeing.
The Safetys are also not helping. Shaquan Loyal is the only one in the group that seems to know what he's doing. #4 has missed enough open field tackles for a lifetime this season alone. Flip Dixon is probably playing hurt, but he's always looked slow to arrive at the point of attack. Truth is he's a box safety playing out of position back there.
Coach Harasymiak didn't just forget how to coach. It's the personnel. We don't have talent in critical places (DT, DE) and there is a trickle down effect throughout the defense.
Then you mix in DEs who've never really been consistently impactful players their entire careers here. Wes Bailey is the closest thing we have to an impactful DE and - without being mean - he's mediocre at best. Even the DTs last two years could generate pressure up the middle. Ahanotu, Iton, and Maijeh were really good interior players. They couldn't be blocked 1-on-1.
So in short we can't generate a pass rush, can't stop the run, and we have inexperienced LBers, which is a recipe for the disaster we're seeing.
The Safetys are also not helping. Shaquan Loyal is the only one in the group that seems to know what he's doing. #4 has missed enough open field tackles for a lifetime this season alone. Flip Dixon is probably playing hurt, but he's always looked slow to arrive at the point of attack. Truth is he's a box safety playing out of position back there.
Coach Harasymiak didn't just forget how to coach. It's the personnel. We don't have talent in critical places (DT, DE) and there is a trickle down effect throughout the defense.
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