Shafer
October 19th, 2008 at 5:10 PM ^
Schafer has honestly shown lackluster coaching ability thus far in the season. He is extremely slow to react to opposing teams that exploit a defensive formation.
Case in point - screen passes that go for 10+ yards.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:01 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:31 PM ^
Where are we??? China? the USSR? WTF?
I'm with you, his defense looked great the first quarter and went down hill from there. It was like Penn State adjusted and we didn't.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:34 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:36 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:38 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:39 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:27 PM ^
He started out this year running alot of 4 man fronts through the ND game.
Then all of a sudden tons and tons of 3 man fronts, probably 60% of the time.
I remember RR saying he likes the 3 man front they used at WVU because of the flexability.
I would assume after watching 3 games of this defense play, when most of the breakdowns were not coming from the line, for one reason or another RR told Shafer he wants 3 man fronts?
What we are see is contrary to every year Shafer has been a DC and he has a substantial history.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:28 PM ^
The main problem is that our "veteran" players, who've been in the program 3-4-5 years, CANNOT TACKLE. Is that suddenly Shafer's fault? No.
Brown and Stewart, who were such liabilities just last year that they rarely saw the field, are now starters. Two of the LBs are new starters, including Thompson, a 5th year senior who never started before. And now we know why: he pretty much sucks.
Our defense was average at best last year with many of the same players. So remind me again why these guys were supposed to suddenly become a "dominant" unit? I will agree with you that they are a disappointment thus far, but I never expected them to be dominant.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:43 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 7:48 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 8:02 PM ^
"He then proceeded to explain to me personally that his defensive pursuit should be there so he would be happier with a missed tackle 4 yards behind the line that turned the ball carrier back into pursuit than a made tackle at the line of scrimmage. "
Right, because that means they got to the guy 4 yards behind the LOS. However, I'm pretty sure if you teach that 2nd guy to tackle, you kind of have to teach the first guy as well. I'm pretty sure what his approach here is that don't sell out to make a huge tackle behind the LOS, but funnel the guy towards the rest of the pursuit team as you still try to take him down.
I don't think approach has anything to do with his actual philosophy on tackling, which is probably, "Bring the guy down when you hit him."
October 19th, 2008 at 5:31 PM ^
He started out this year running alot of 4 man fronts through the ND game.
Then all of a sudden tons and tons of 3 man fronts, probably 60% of the time.
I remember RR saying he likes the 3 man front they used at WVU because of the flexability.
I would assume after watching 3 games of this defense play, when most of the breakdowns were not coming from the line, for one reason or another RR told Shafer he wants 3 man fronts?
What we are see is contrary to every year Shafer has been a DC and he has a substantial history.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:33 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 5:51 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 6:06 PM ^
Though Shafer is to receive part of the blame, the players, I believe, are highly responsible. Shafer's schemes have put our players in the situations to succeed but poor tackling and mental errors have led to our defense underperforming. Poor tackling is the worst offense, especially from our veterans, as it has been plaguing our D all year. The PSU game was no exception.
Shafer was also handed a team with poor linebacker speed and middle range coverage skills. These are crucial necessities for a team that runs a complex blitz package.
Lay off Shafer, he's doing fine.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:23 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 7:27 PM ^
I don't think a fall guy is needed. Who is going to be demanding blood? No one that matters I'm willing to bet. It's not like it was expected for us to be good.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:42 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 7:58 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 8:00 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 8:04 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 9:10 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 9:12 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 10:34 PM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 8:37 AM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 9:44 AM ^
About tackling being on the coaches:
I don't buy it. Is high school two-hand touch? I think these people have been tackling for years.
October 19th, 2008 at 8:18 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 8:36 PM ^
odds are 50 to 1 that Brian does a piece this week about Scott Shafer. Topics that will be covered:
-his use of the 3-man front
-the regression of the seniors and defense in general
-lack of sacks from this so-called sack-expert
-inability to tackle
-general douche-baggery
I am positive this will happen.
October 19th, 2008 at 8:44 PM ^
3-man front: no idea.
Regression: Loss of 2 safeties, shitty LBs, offense is fucking the defense.
Lack of sacks: 3 step drops or max protect.
Inability to tackle: no idea.
General douche-baggery: Huh?
October 19th, 2008 at 9:14 PM ^
"douche-baggery" i love the use of a tucker max term. A prime example would be the bomb that was caught with only one receiver running a route. "douche-baggery" not knowing what the f is going on, looking confused, being morgan trent or stevie brown (even though stevie has managed not to pull a "Stevie" in the past few weeks)
October 19th, 2008 at 9:24 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 10:41 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 10:43 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 11:57 PM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 12:13 AM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 12:17 AM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 9:45 PM ^
will be critical in the evaluation of the team. MSU, Purdue, Minn, NW. Michigan's defense should be able to hold its own against all 4 of those teams. Then there's OSU, which is ALWAY'S a bellweather game for judging Michigan.
If the defense kicks ass the next 5 games then you'd only have 2 and a half games out of 12 that the D really collapsed.
Let's wait and see.
And regardless of what happens, Shafer is absolutely NOT getting fired, so stop any such speculation.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:50 PM ^
im speechless, i actually got dumber reading these comments...
SHafer from the very begining said he will use a lot of odd fronts against spread teams. And got aggitated when people asked him what he was, most of the time he said im a multi-front guy, who bases out of the 4-3. I told you about 10 months ago that he would run the 3-4 a lot against the spread..
please refer back to the spring, when i told you shafer would use a lot of odd fronts against spread teams.. also see back in the spring when i told you WHY you run odd man fronts.. also reading back a few weeks when i told you shafer would run more odd fronts in the comming weeks... also see what i have said for the past 2 years about the lack of fundamentals being taught on defense.. (notice how many upper classmen have major flaws in their fundamentals, yet Bubo the freshman, looked to play the way shafer likes to play, hmmm) also note when i said that implementing a new defense and scheme is just as hard IF NOT HARDER, then instaliing a new offense. its not just a bunch of guys out there running around looking for the ball, every one of the players have a specific responsbility to do, and there are some major people on the defense that are incapable of doing their jobs. It shows up the most against spread teams. So there is a lot being done by the coaches to make up for these problems. SHafer is one of the top five defense coordinators in the nation.
October 19th, 2008 at 10:44 PM ^
October 19th, 2008 at 10:44 PM ^
Yeah, Greg, I hope you noticed a few of us trying to maintain the sanity around here.
And maybe you were just exaggerating to make a point, but: Muschamp, Venables, Tenuta, Heacock, Norm Parker, Bradley, D. Walker, Mickey Andrews, etc. etc. There are a lot of really good DCs out there, I'm not so sure that Shafer is in the top 5.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:50 AM ^
October 26th, 2008 at 9:21 PM ^
How long do you think it will take to get said pieces into place? Like how well do you think BooBoo fits into his system? Also, what about Brandon Smith and Michael Williams?
Is this a one-year fix, or is it going to take longer?
October 19th, 2008 at 11:53 PM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 9:48 AM ^
I have felt that our tackling has been shit for many years. Since about the 2000 NW game I can remember thinking so many times that our guys were either trying to smash guys without wrapping them up, or they were going after the ball too much and not consistently bringing guys down. I used to work with a guy around that time who was a reserve defensive back and when I talked to him about it, he used to tell me that they stressed the propert things in practice, but guys would go back to their habits during the games.
To say that our defense having an issue tackling now is Shafer's fault seems premature, as he's dealing with guys that have had tendancies built in for the past few years.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:20 AM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 11:27 AM ^
October 20th, 2008 at 12:21 PM ^
Martin didn't become the professional success he is by not sticking to his visions.
if you question this, just look at the coaching search. I'm not saying he ran it well, but he stuck to his "process" when everyone was trying to line up an adequate supply of torches and pitchforks. The guy doesn't let short term public opinion influence his decisions.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:14 PM ^
Somebody point out a year for me when West Virginia had a top-notch defense with Shafer as the coordinator.
This guy came to town with one strike against him in my book. I'm kinda surprised that RichRod has stuck with the guy. Maybe he can only handle so much transition at once.