Position Switchapalooza Transcribed

Making moves, trying to get better, can't really ask for more.  Let's go Ray!

more flexibility with personnel all told, increased ability to both play to players' strengths AND game conditions as well as potential promise down the road. 

RichRod is not a waffler.

I've begun to breath easier about the D next year. Anyone else feel that way? 

Now to get past PSU so that we can all feel like there will BE a next year and no Richapocalype. 

I like that the coaches have recognized some kids who can help with position shifts, and don't seem wed to recruiting rankings or earlier depth charts.  Sure, I wish Campbell was a better fit at NT, but I trust the coaches have seen enough at practice to warrant the move.  Washington seeing playing time at NT is a little scary, but I guess you have to do it sometime and against a relatively anemic offense like PSU, some of the growing pains may be masked/not exploited.

I have seen Kovacs run and I have seen Cam Gordon run, I don't see a big difference in foot speed, please correct me if  I am wrong.

I think the Kovacs lack of athleticism thing is an urban myth. Kovacs was a starter, in the Big Ten, as a freshman, coming off knee surgery, you cannot do that without being a good athlete.

my concern w/ seeing QW would be that MM isn't really 100% on that ankle.

It makes the defense better, I'm all for it.

the bye week has been a mini training camp the last three years.

lots to do, lots to do

I guess after Demens seemed to have been a success. I guess the coaches are re-doubling their efforts on talent evaluation.

I think its great the coaches are looking to make moves and admit they've made some mistakes about what positions they had kids at. Seeing them want to make adjustments is encouraging. Hopefully they are good adjustments..

am excited to see all of these guys playing in these new positions at the same time this saturday...

...once we're up by 35 points!

I am really excited for these moves.  It will be exciting to see some guys in different position that suits them better (Cam) and guys in their first real playing time (MRob,Ray).

While these are hopefully good moves, made after much thought and discussions by the coaching staff, people need to be realistic. Almost all of the names being mentioned are still freshmen or sophomores. They will probably have little immediate impact.

Though I am encouraged by the staff's attempt to better utilize personnel, I just don't want to read a bunch of people complain when Vinopal misses his first tackle or blows an assignment. These moves should be viewed as attempts to fix the big picture, rather than instant game-changers.

Yes, it's a switch, but it's not like he's never played on the O-Line before..........also, wasn't he part of the BEEF MACHINE package we saw earlier this year?

I always wondered why Carvin wasn't at deep safety from what I saw in his high school tape. Perhaps he needed more time to understand the defense. Additionally, I think we all knew that Cam was lacking the speed to be a great deep safety and that moving him closer to the line was inevitable. It appears that the coaching staff was waiting for the bye week to implement these changes and I'm excited to see how the team reaponds.

I know guys switching sides of the ball and true freshman safety are supposed to be a giant red flashing WARNING sirens, but by my watch there's still about 29 hrs to kickoff so I'm going with blind optimism to keep me sane for now.

All make great sense.   They seem to put players in the best position to use their strengths and not have their weaknesses exploited. 

RR:  We internet readers (other than Brian, Tim, TomVH and a few others), who know about 10% as much about football as you and less than 1% as much about the inner workings of this team, approve of these moves.

take a shine to and really root for.  It is usually one of the more unsung players.  In this years class it was Ray Vinopal.  I am anxious to see him get some more playing time.  I hope that he does well.

Brian, might we not see some of Big Will in the red zone?

My only question is "what do these moves do to player morale?"  Is everyone on-board with their change?  Do the kids see this as A) a better opportunity to see the field and B) a chance to help the Team?

Sometimes a position move is further evidence to a kid that he doesn't have a home, so to speak.

I'm not sayin this is the case.  I'm just sayin.

Kovacs is the least of our problems on defense.  I don't think he is going anywhere.  He is probably the second most consistent player on our defense behind MM.  He almost always plays his assignment and he has made plays when put in position to do so.  In short, he does his job consistently which is more than most on our D can say right now.  I think it is more likely and makes more sense that C-Gordon replaces T-Gordon.  That position has been all but invisible on game day. 

The statement about MRob is not a clear position switch.  That'll he'll be playing a little LB suggests is a situational, or tentative switch.  

Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm still a little confused about what exactly defines a linebacker and a safety.  Depth chart for PSU reads something like:

DT: Van Bergen / Patterson

NT: Martin / Sagesse / Washington

DE: Banks / Black*

DE/OLB:  Roh / Fitzgerald or Herron

MLB:  Demens / Ezeh

WLB:  Mouton / Leach / MRob*

Spur AKA LB/S hybrid:  C. Gordon / T. Gordon

Bandit AKA SS: Kovacs / C. Gordon*

FS:  Vinopal / Johnson

CB: Floyd / Talbott or Christian

CB:  Rogers / Avery

*Mainly on passing downs

I'm not so sure an appearance by him would be a necessarily bad thing (at least in a 4-man front).  This would allow us to put RVB at DE and hopefully avoid those annoying combo blocks where our DEs get hooked (I'm looking at you Banks and Black). 

There are reports that Q Washington is the 3rd strongest player on our team; hopefully his technique is adequate (I acknowledge this is a big assumption).  If he is able to play NT and stalemate the C everytime and prevent the C from releasing onto our LBs (not necessarily making tackles but just holding up blockers (i.e. being a "space-eater")), then look for UFR +10s from RVB and Mike Martin (at the 3-technique where he will be super disruptive and have multiple sacks) and big games from Demens and Mouton.  Obviously if Mike Martin is still hurt, then this is all a moot point.

Is it possible that GERG is a good teacher (Stevie Brown being my primary example) but not a great evaluator of talent (Demens v Ezeh, aware that non-football issues may have been the cause here). 

Seems like this could be a good reason that RR is getting more involved in defensive player positioning (well that and the defense is swiss cheese) thus the switches

Last year, after the 4-0 start, I drank too much of the Kool Aid and was disappointed by the 1-7 finish.  This year, I told myself I needed to see us win more games in the B10 to know we were moving forward.  With the 5-0 start, I was pretty happy, but still saying, 'we have to beat more than just Indiana'.  Well, we competed against MSU and Iowa but lost and I was thinking this year was turning out eerily similar to last year.  My feelings over the last 2 weeks (bye week) is that we have to win at least 2 of the next 3.  I'd love to see us win against Wisky and/or OSU, but with what I've seen so far, that is certainly a stretch.  Our D is just too young and not quite there yet.  So, I sure hope this isn't like the switch to the 3-3-5 the week of Purdue in '08 that I think cost us that game.  I think PSU is REALLY winnable and I hope the changes don't result in mistakes by some of the new guys and cost us the game.   At this point, we need to win 2 games.  At least finish 7-5 and a bowl.  We see progress, the young guys get the benefit of the bowl preparations, and all that should help recruiting and solidifying RR (END THE "HE'S ON THE HOT SEAT" crap).

I hope Q. Washington can be effective and give MM a chance at a breather once in a while.  I hope Vinopal learned enough in fall camp and in practices the first half of this season that he can produce and that is what the coaches are seeing.  I hope bringing Cam closer to the LOS will allow him to light some people up. 

Here's to PSU getting Denard'ed and the D making a few stops to get some confidece for a stretch run!  Come on, Rich Rod.   Go BLUE!

but im excited either way to see the potential for these kids.  We all watch Ray/Carvin/M-Rob youtube highlights, but seeing the real deal on Saturday could be special. Is it kickoff yet??? 

(The So... part):  Haha, I love the assumptions.