Will Campbell, Mike Martin, and the DLine

Submitted by Korean Wolverine20 on
Going by what Steve Sharik, The Coach with the great defensive analysis a few days ago, I understood that we're playing a 4-3/3-4 hybrid defense where Herron will play the DE/LB hybrid, Graham will play the 5 tech, Mike Martin the 1 Tech, and RVB the ? tech. And I understand that the defense will feature 3 DL usually, so my question is this. Where does Campbell come into play? Will he sub for Martin like Martin last year? and if so, are we gonna have to wait 2 more years and then have Campbell feature in the 1 tech DT position?
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Logan88

August 18th, 2009 at 7:05 PM ^

Campbell==3rd string NT. Campbell will play the same position as Mike Martin, but will probably be 3rd string behind Renaldo Sagesse until Big Will makes major improvements in his technique.

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joeyb

August 18th, 2009 at 7:05 PM ^

RR talked about that today. Basically, he wants Martin to do 40-50 plays a game and have someone behind him do 20-30. That will probably be Campbell, but could be someone else like Sagesse if they beat him out in practice.

Joined: 10/12/2008

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Todd Plate's n…

August 18th, 2009 at 7:19 PM ^

(behind paywall) Chris Balas over at rivals/thewolverine.com had some random tidbits from "a few" padded practices he has seen and noted, "Defensive tackles … top three, Graham, Mike Martin and Ryan Van Bergen … are outstanding, but the depth behind them is surprisingly good, very serviceable. Greg Banks could just as well start, and Renaldo Sagesse has improved a ton. Martin’s exceptional, but Sagesse would start a lot of places and both will play a lot" this is incredibly encouraging. high praise with no mention of campbell...seems he will get meaningful time and not have a ton of pressure put on him.

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Magnus

August 18th, 2009 at 7:44 PM ^

When Campbell is ready to play, I think you will see the defensive linemen rearranged. I'm guessing Martin will slide over to Graham's spot, Campbell will become the NT, and Van Bergen will remain where he is. That would put your three best defensive linemen on the field; otherwise, you'd have Banks, Patterson, or Lalota out there, and I think Lalota is still a couple years away from making an impact.

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me

August 18th, 2009 at 8:36 PM ^

Van Bergen over to Graham's spot with Martin to Van Bergen's spot? Admittedly I don't know all the ins and outs of the defense, but I understood Van Bergen's spot was more a DT/DE whereas Graham was more DE. I would think Van Bergen and his DE background would be better suited to rush from the outside like Graham. You would then have Martin and Campbell as your "interior linemen".

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Brick

August 19th, 2009 at 2:46 AM ^

Is there a possibility we have a package with 2 DTs for traditional run heavy teams like Wisconsin? One of the many criticisms of our defense is that we do not have enough size to match up with a power run team. I think we have the size if we decide to put it on the field. I don't know if it's possible to switch to a 4-3 on occasion or if that's too much of a variable for the players to handle.

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