USC coach Lane Kiffin said the defense was too aggressive last season and needs to focus more on not giving up deep balls even though some college coaches felt the defense was too conservative.
USC coach Lane Kiffin said the defense was too aggressive last season and needs to focus more on not giving up deep balls even though some college coaches felt the defense was too conservative.
another reason the Cadre loves this Kiff!! he immediately recognizes the KISS approch is better with college kids!! oh, if only our beloved Neu-Hassle would adopt this as well!! keep it simple, practice it like crazy!!
memo to Kiff: call this Butler kid already!! this is becomming like an OCC situation with Paul Jr. and Paul SR!!!!
sweeeeet scoooopin’, wolfman!!!
I’m not sure I’d classify last year’s defense as too aggressive, but I do know during the first half of the season they didn’t seem like they could tackle worth a [fill-in-with-expletive]. However, the simplification of the defense should do wonders. When you have a physical advantage over opposing offenses (i.e. superior recruiting classes), I don’t think it’s necessary to play complex schemes. Line up and beat your man. The rest takes care of itself.
This is what people didn’t realize about the genius of Pete’s defense. Yes he had Taylor Mays playing 20 feet deep but how many 25+ yard completions do you remember USC giving up in Pete’s entire tenure at USC. Pete was willing to give up the stuff underneath in order to keep the big plays off the board. The fact is most college level QBs are not great at taking the underneath stuff and being patient. Sounds like Kiff may be realizing the same thing…
@Tyler: Twenty feet deep? You mean twenty yards deep. As a result, that underneath stuff which should really only net two to five yards picked up ten to fifteen yard chunks instead. Yes, you didn’t give up a 25 yard completion but you still allowed the opposition to gain big chunks of yards and move the ball down the field on you consistently. And, more often than not, Mays was out of position by the time the player reached him or he went for the big hit instead of wrapping up and the play resulted in an even bigger gain. Essentially, what Pete did was play every play, regardless of whether it was a run or pass, with one less player defensively. It was an idiotic idea and we got burned over and over again by the good teams.
Yes my bad I meant yards. Yards don’t win games. Points do.
Also that’s the most ridiculous argument against Pete’s defense I’ve ever heard. USC had a statistically superior defense every year under Pete’s tenure. His defense gave up yards but stopped teams in the red zone and from scoring points which is where it counts. The only year they struggled was the year after they lost 1/2 the defense to the NFL. The defense struggled against running QBs but was consistently excellent against most college offenses. The dude lost no more than 2 games for like 7 years straight. Child please….revisionist history.
BTW Tyler I am actually talking about Pete’s last season in reference to your Mays comment so it’s not revisionist history. Other seasons, he didn’t keep someone twenty yards off the ball. It was a dumb move, plain and simple, and did Mays no favors in his development as a player or his standing as a draft prospect.