What do you think of the defense this year?

[FSUmanager]

I have heard numerous people complain about Charles Kelly and state Pruitt would do a better job. I would like to list the reasons why that is not the case.

1. The amount of starters lost from last years defense. Joyner, Brooks, Smith, Jernigan, and Jones. All leaders on the defense.

2. The players replacing those 5 guys by grade are Sophomore(Ramsey), Sophomore(Andrews), Junior(Northrup), Junior(Goldman), Sophomore(Walker). So you have 4 of these 5 guys who did NOT see a lot of playing time last year except in mop up. 1st year being the big dogs.

3. Kelly is doing a damn good job of adjustments. Every week he makes the perfect adjustments at the half. Maybe with a little help from Sunseri.

4. This year on D everyone knew or should have known that there was going to be a large dropoff in production. You only bring Edwards, Williams, Darby, and Ramsey as full time starters. Hunter was out with his broken neck and his replacement Andrews only played because he was hurt last year.

I think the D could get much better along the LB corp, but it will take time to replace someone like Telvin Smith would could stop the run and also cover a slot receiver in pass coverage. Right now we do not have that. Northrup is great for the run, but not coverage. Smith is the same. Thomas is still hurt so who knows what he will turn into.

One game I would like to point out is Louisville. Not sure if anyone knows this, but FSU had exactly TWO scholarship LBs for this game because everyone else was injured. Smith and Northrup. They played Brutus, Casher, and a walkon(can't remember his name) to rotate in. There is no way that the defense should have played like it did in the second half with these problems, but they did.

I personally think Kelly is going to be a really good DC once these young players get the system. Which is a little different than Pruitts.

 

[SJ76]

I think the secondary is pretty flippin good. Now we need the young D-line to get to the QB a little sooner, but there is some sick talent in that secondary.

 

[nolehusker]

I did not believe that we would have this big of a drop off, but I thought our backups had a lot more playing time.

Kelly has done an outstanding job of adjustments. It's crazy how good he is with that. However, it still does not take away from the fact they do so bad in the first half to begin with and need those adjustments.

Do I believe that Pruitt would do a better job? Yes, but I don't believe it would be anything near like it was last year.

Also to note. The defense this year has to deal with an offense that isn't giving them the best on ball position or resting time.