Mattison on the Defense

reading your post twice just to make sure I understood what you were saying, I realized just how many don't understand this simple premise. As one who coached this wonderful game for a number of years I can attest to the truth of your statement. Many fans, and on a percentage basis, probably more parents, feel that a highly gifted player will win matchups against lesser skilled players based on that one fact alone. But the truth is as you state. Thankfully most  that choose to play the game do so because they simply love the game. I've also had some fantastic athletes that were persuaded to try the game and after realizing initial success could become almost routine developed that same desire for the game.  And one being too many, for a coach anyway, I've also experienced watching some of the most gifted athletes I had ever seen completely void of those intangibles you mention that with even a modicum of interest in using their truly rare gifts could have become exceptional players but chose, for reasons that most cannot comprehend, to merely get by on talent. No manner of coaching, as you suggested, even making them aware of the benefits they could realize that the majority of their teammates would only ever be able to dream of could not motivate them. Sadly at the h.s. level, more often at the smaller schools their talent and willingness to show up for practice, go through drills,etc., would earn them a starting job over someone possessing all the intangibles but about half the athletic ability.  When you begin talking the highler levels of the game, it's just as you state. That talent alone might get them a spot on special teams. We read too often during the recruiting process how work ethic is a question, even for those offered by major programs. In the majority of these cases, that question rarely is answered other than the way you would imagine.

We've got some real space eaters in there and Jake has always had the ability to slip blockers. He should be even more effective on the inside, a position I think that was made for him. He just has a knack for dissecting a play almost immediately and finding the path of least resistance to the ball. When he was on the outside, his lack of tremendous speed limited him somewhat when he wasn't simply moving forward and he was known to miss some tackles in space. This should not be a problem for him in the middle with help from both sides and, according to Mattison, a big leap forward from our starting DL.  I liked Greg his first time here and I believe his many stops, including the pros, of course, has only made him better.  He's one of the few coaches I believe that stays away from what the fans want to hear and gives a clear picture of where he truly he believes we are.  However an improvement of our defense, a very good thing going forward clearly is not an indication of how we stack up against the conference's best and where we are in regard to stopping high powered offenses, or as was the case last season, some down right shitty ones. I will say though that normally when Greg fields a defense with this much depth along with the unknowns of one very good freshman, Mone, and one outstanding one, number 5, I'm confident that if the offense can do their job we should be fairly happy.

Dhani Jones was a LB'er not a DL.