Southern Miss will go for its fourth (stats) top twenty five defense over the last 4 years with the addition of some size and speed up front and at LB. USM will have Nick Dawson at WDE/OLB with the coach staff comparing his attributes to former legend Adalius Thomas at 6'4" 270 with 4.6 speed. Another big add will be at MLB with the addition of Freddie Harts who had offers from Alabama and others. He comes in at 6'2" 240 with 4.5 speed. A couple of RS Fr will be making their way into the lineup or rotation depending on if Isaiah Johnson becomes eligible or not. Isaiah is a top 100 DT that signed but still waiting on NCAA clearance. This is what we will be working with.

SDE 90 Shannon Carswell Fr (offer from Florida) 6'5" 290 380Lb Bench 4.95 40
DT 17 Delmond Landry Jr 1L 6'4" 308 (converted DE)
NT 43 LaDarius Harris Sr 3L 6'2" 288 (has played both SDE and NT) 4.80 40
Bandit/OLB Nick Dawson So 6'4" 270 4.6 40 (Nebraska offer)
WLB 30 Paxton Schrimsher RSso 6'3" 240 4.5 40 (Louisville offer)
SLB 41 Racheem Booth 6'1" 230 RSso Freshman All American
SS 13 Picasso Nelson 5'11" 205 RSsr 6th year senior
FS 46 Tyler Barnes RSFR 6'0" 200 4.4 40
BCB 21 Rachuan Mitchell 6'0" 190 4.4 40
FCB 6 J.J. Jemaurian Jones FR 6'1" 190 4.40 (Florida State offer)
Nickel 20 Ky'el Hembey So 6'1"205 4.40 40

The front seven is at least 2 deep but the secondary is going to have to grow up on the job.

Please feel free to let everyone know what your teams outlook is for spring.

For Western the only goal should be to figure out how to get the ball 2.5 yards beyond the LOS on a run....a improvement from last year. Then in the fall how to get it 3 yards pass the LOS

(02-21-2018 04:32 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  For Western the only goal should be to figure out how to get the ball 2.5 yards beyond the LOS on a run....a improvement from last year. Then in the fall how to get it 3 yards pass the LOS

Honest to God. The running game can’t be worse. Surely you don’t make it all the way to P5 Oregon as an oline coach and not be able to outcoach a guy who never made it past a D3 school. Other than hiring his father that was probably Wonder Boy’s most ignorant move.

The fact that he didn’t see fit to hire someone better than a D3 guy for what I consider the most important position group on a football team is only marginally worse than totally neglecting how important special teams is to a winning program. Add in he hired an idiot for S&C and you have a perfect storm of shitttt football.

But the topic is defense. Ours should be better since we played so many young guys last year. But this weak 4-2-5 is a bend don’t break defense. So we’ll never rate high in what the USM folk think is a good defense. YPG. Our problem with our bend don’t break defense is that it DID bend and then DID BREAK. Worst of both worlds.

I don’t look forward to football at all this year. Not sure I’ll even go to one spring or fall practice at this point.

(02-21-2018 07:58 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  So we’ll never rate high in what the USM folk think is a good defense. YPG. Our problem with our bend don’t break defense is that it DID bend and then DID BREAK. Worst of both worlds.

Can't speak for the others, but scoring defense is the only thing this Southern Miss fan gives credence to.

(02-21-2018 03:37 PM)D4RKW4T3R ROCK Wrote:  Southern Miss will go for its fourth (stats) top twenty five defense over the last 4 years with the addition of some size and speed up front and at LB. USM will have Nick Dawson at WDE/OLB with the coach staff comparing his attributes to former legend Adalius Thomas at 6'4" 270 with 4.6 speed. Another big add will be at MLB with the addition of Freddie Harts who had offers from Alabama and others. He comes in at 6'2" 240 with 4.5 speed. A couple of RS Fr will be making their way into the lineup or rotation depending on if Isaiah Johnson becomes eligible or not. Isaiah is a top 100 DT that signed but still waiting on NCAA clearance. This is what we will be working with.

SDE 90 Shannon Carswell Fr (offer from Florida) 6'5" 290 380Lb Bench 4.95 40
DT 17 Delmond Landry Jr 1L 6'4" 308 (converted DE)
NT 43 LaDarius Harris Sr 3L 6'2" 288 (has played both SDE and NT) 4.80 40
Bandit/OLB Nick Dawson So 6'4" 270 4.6 40 (Nebraska offer)
WLB 30 Paxton Schrimsher RSso 6'3" 240 4.5 40 (Louisville offer)
SLB 41 Racheem Booth 6'1" 230 RSso Freshman All American
SS 13 Picasso Nelson 5'11" 205 RSsr 6th year senior
FS 46 Tyler Barnes RSFR 6'0" 200 4.4 40
BCB 21 Rachuan Mitchell 6'0" 190 4.4 40
FCB 6 J.J. Jemaurian Jones FR 6'1" 190 4.40 (Florida State offer)
Nickel 20 Ky'el Hembey So 6'1"205 4.40 40

The front seven is at least 2 deep but the secondary is going to have to grow up on the job.

It'd be nice if we'd filled any of the 4 assistant coaching jobs (3 replacement plus one new spot).

(02-21-2018 07:58 PM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 04:32 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  For Western the only goal should be to figure out how to get the ball 2.5 yards beyond the LOS on a run....a improvement from last year. Then in the fall how to get it 3 yards pass the LOS

Honest to God. The running game can’t be worse. Surely you don’t make it all the way to P5 Oregon as an oline coach and not be able to outcoach a guy who never made it past a D3 school. Other than hiring his father that was probably Wonder Boy’s most ignorant move.

The fact that he didn’t see fit to hire someone better than a D3 guy for what I consider the most important position group on a football team is only marginally worse than totally neglecting how important special teams is to a winning program. Add in he hired an idiot for S&C and you have a perfect storm of shitttt football.

But the topic is defense. Ours should be better since we played so many young guys last year. But this weak 4-2-5 is a bend don’t break defense. So we’ll never rate high in what the USM folk think is a good defense. YPG. Our problem with our bend don’t break defense is that it DID bend and then DID BREAK. Worst of both worlds.

I don’t look forward to football at all this year. Not sure I’ll even go to one spring or fall practice at this point.

I really think you guys are being too hard on the Toppers with all the talent that WKU has pulled in over the last few years. I agree on the coach though. He seems to have taken you guy backwards to say the least. But based on talent, It seems though this WKU team will bounce back. I know we give you heck but WKU has earned much respect from just about every team in this conference. We need a strong WKU.

(02-21-2018 04:32 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  For Western the only goal should be to figure out how to get the ball 2.5 yards beyond the LOS on a run....a improvement from last year. Then in the fall how to get it 3 yards pass the LOS

It is hard to replace that dominant line with Forrest Lamp but they will grow up for sure. The new OL coach should bring out the best in these guys.

The reason I started this post was to see how excited some of the teams are especially on defense going into spring. From what I saw on signing day, there are going to be some beast lined up on the defensive front in CUSA. FIU, FAU, Marshall, even Charlotte landed massive defensive tackles.

When did we last have a great pass rush? It looks like we have the size to clog the middle now. A top-tier defense can win this conference. Need our secondary to improve despite graduating a ton of experience. Fine/Guyton were unstoppable last season.

FAU returns everyone on the two-deep in the back 7 and only losing 2 guys on the DLine.
Like FIU we also got two highly ranked JUCO limen one of which is already on campus.

(02-22-2018 11:59 AM)owlcountry40 Wrote:  FAU returns everyone on the two-deep in the back 7 and only losing 2 guys on the DLine.
Like FIU we also got two highly ranked JUCO limen one of which is already on campus.

Yup. I'm much more concerned about our offense, especially OL. We recruited some great guys to fill those holes; now it's just a matter of who starts.

(02-22-2018 12:10 PM)thefaU Wrote:  

(02-22-2018 11:59 AM)owlcountry40 Wrote:  FAU returns everyone on the two-deep in the back 7 and only losing 2 guys on the DLine.
Like FIU we also got two highly ranked JUCO limen one of which is already on campus.

Yup. I'm much more concerned about our offense, especially OL. We recruited some great guys to fill those holes; now it's just a matter of who starts.

And staying healthy. We were incredibly lucky in 2017 not to suffer many injuries in the OL. In 2016, a part of our struggles was that we could not field the same OL from game to game.