New DC
I think what everyone is overlooking in discussing who we should hire as the new DC is not so much what type of defense we run, but can we get quality individuals in key spots to run whatever defense said coordinator selects. If you look back at our dominating defenses, it can be argued that we had great coaches and great schemes...or in my opinion a better arguement is that the reason our past defenses have been great is because we had great players!
Look at our '97 defense. We had the frickin heisman trophy winner playing corner for us, not to mention James Hall, Dehani Jones and many other dominating players.
Our '06 defense had Alan Branch, LaMarr freakin Woodley, Leon Hall, Prescott Burgess and Shawn Crable.
I am really not too concerned on what type of defense we run, rather can we bring in the type of players who fit our scheme and a better question is can we develop them properly and turn them into the dominating players we have scene in the past.
Surround BG with a couple of other solid play makers and I believe Shafer still has a job! Thoughts...
December 17th, 2008 at 7:42 PM ^
'06--David Freakin Harris
December 17th, 2008 at 7:48 PM ^
Great talent trumps a great scheme everyday of the week.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:54 PM ^
no good talent is gonna want to come in to play for the 3-3-5.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:03 PM ^
That is my concern, too, especially defensive lineman.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:08 PM ^
I'm not sure I understand this--but it is said incessantly whenever we discuss the 3-3-5. Certainly linebackers and secondary should view it as fine, right? As far as D-lineman, I haven't heard of teams that run 3-4 schemes having some impossible amount of trouble recruiting D-Linemen. Is there any evidence to support that great defensive players players don't want to play in a 3-3-5?
December 17th, 2008 at 9:07 PM ^
Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide would disagree...they've been operating out of a 3-4 all year. I'd take their defense in a heartbeat. Right now they have four 4* DL and one 3* DL committed for next year.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:25 PM ^
It seems like alot of NFL teams are going to a 3 man front. To me this could be a big attraction to D line recruits interested in making it to the next level. They get the chance to play in that systemn through college elevate their potential draft status.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:53 PM ^
I did a little blurb on past recruiting classes at WVU (I'll find it later) and he consistently recruited 3-4 DL per year, with years of 5-6 sprinkled in there.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:22 PM ^
Can we avoid making statements like "no good talent is going to want to come in and play the 3-3-5"?
That is a ridiculous statement that probably has zero statistical evidence to back it up (and would be hard to prove anyway).
Plenty of college and NFL defenses use three defensive linemen. Whether it's in the 3-4 or the 3-3-5, the DL's responsibility is virtually the same. So that doesn't compute.
Plenty of college and NFL defenses use three linebackers. And in the 3-3-5, a lot of blitzes are used. So no high school linebackers are going to want to come to a high profile school and blitz the hell out of Big Ten QB's? That doesn't compute either.
Ditto for the defensive backs. It's not like running a nickel backfield is going to prevent a kid from getting to the NFL.
"Oh, I don't know about this kid. He's fast and strong, but he played in the nickel. Let's draft the slow, weak guy - he's a 4-3 defensive back! Yeah!"