Heacock was saying in this week's presser his defense is easy to learn, and allows the young LB's to just get out there and fly around. Goodwin is quick. Wouldn't mind seeing him blitz this week. You're right though..it would be too much.
Linebacker Injury Status?
- Thread starter werdnamanhill
- Start date
Goodwin will probably be the backer who goes into coverage. He seems to be the fastest of the lot that is left. Guessing we don’t see any of the other injured ones until after the bye unless things go way south in the game.
You noticed how quick he was too..He looks strong also. Watched him chuck a couple blockers. Not sure who's teaching these guys how to shed blocks but it's impressive. Strength and conditioning coaches are doing a great job getting these young guys ready. I'm not worried about who we've got right now just worried our margins are getting slim at LB.
Imming and and Sadowsky both looked a step slow Saturday compared to Barnes and Goodwin. Somewhat surprised in all this that Lovett hasn't gotten more PT. Was I too high on him last year? I thought he had more to bring other than just QB-spy duty.
I think Lovett has been dealing with something. Not sure though
Out of desperation partly. Counting Goodwin, 9 LBs are injured. Probably the most in the last 50 years. Is playing a 4-2 that much worse than relying on 4th string linebackers ? I've seen untrained LBs fail miserably in preconference for several years now. Heacock is pulling off a miracle this year with continuous next man up substitutions. If he can keep it going, more power to him.
Goodwin is on scholarship.
Barnes is a RS freshman walkon. PWO only applies to incoming freshmen, it’s for newbies.
3-3 is fine against the rush, particularly if we shade a safety down into the box to help out. WVU also has a good rushing attack and we held them well below their season rush yards average. If teams want to rush us out of the stadium, they're welcome to try.
4-2-5 I think would lead to lighter boxes to run against typically, and relies heavily on those 2 LBs to always fill and tackle without error.
The guy I've wondered about is the younger Peterson brother. He's listed as a 6'1" 235 lb running back but his bio talks about tackles, tackles for loss and sacks.
I agree, the issue isn't really number of LBs but experience. 3 inexperienced LBs with less responsibility in the defense that has been practiced since they arrived at ISU is far better than 2 inexperienced LBs with greater responsibilities in an unfamiliar defense. The 3 3 has worked well against the rush thus far so why mess with it.
Our D has been excellent though. We are not yet in a desperate place - we are kicking ass. There is no reason to change our scheme.
I don't think the 4-2 translates to better run defense, at least for us. What we do with the 3 stud lineman fives us enough to clog everything up and let aggressive, mobile LBs and safeties get to the ball carrier sooner and cleaner.
I think bringing one of the safeties up closer is the better response, especially with the hammers we have at safety.
Which is exactly what we did against WVU.
My bigger concern for the young LBs is dropping back into pass coverage, we got chewed up there a bit but I think the youngsters had it figured out by end of WVU game. I just worry about running out of youngsters.
What you’re missing is that Ebel was and is the starter at Will, so all of the injuries are effectively at the other two spots.
Which makes it fifth teamers, not fourth.
And yes, Jon Heacock, who is the ultimate authority on the subject, clearly feels it’s better to play them than a 4-2.
Also the running teams that we are facing all have fast running QBs. I would rather have a chance of a LB trying to beat a quick QB to the edge than an additional Dlineman.
Anyone know where we stand with an important "get healthy" bye week of who could potentially be back for the Texas Tech game or at least early in November?
I'm just going to assume with how things are going that we'll come out of the bye week with more injuries somehow.
It sure doesn't sound like any of the main LBs will be back. I think it was a positive that Cael was back for a bit on Saturday and another week to heal would be a good thing.
