Jackson III to Rover

[BisonDucks]

Andy Mac posted the post spring two deep at GoDucks.com. Of interesting note, our pre-fall camp starters are currently projected to be Ward (FS), Jackson III (Rover), Thurmond (LCB), Glasper (RCB). Obviously the coaches are getting the 4 most experienced guys out there. However, I am curious about what everyone things about Jackon III going to Rover. I would have envisioned Glasper being a better fit, as I remember him a little bulkier. Maybe Glasper is quicker for the CB spot.

[quackattack]

i felt like Glasper and Marvin Johnson would be the guys winning the jobs at RCB and Rover respectively, but TJIII at least learning the rover spot makes him more valuable. i think we're deeping at corner with Grady, Kenjon, and Peppars so moving TJIII to rover will balance out the secondary depth wise IMO

[DmoneyDuck]

always been a huge TJ3 fan and thought he played well in the BSU game and showed a lot of good signs. I feel comfortable in him playing as a starter.

Hopefully Willie finally steps up..dude was a high 4* out of high school and been in th program a while..we need a breakout season from him.

[GrandpaDuck]

To me getting a guy with cornerback coverage skills over to Safety is a great balance to Ward. I think Harper/Chung were a great complementary pair whereas Ward/Chung had more redundant talents.

I was thinking of starting a "If I were coach for a day thread" and it was going to be about trying Glasper at Safety. I was thinking Glasper because of his chippy feisty attitude on the field. If the coaches think TJ3 has better safety skills, so be it, they would know better than I.

It looks like the defense is going to be small but ultra fast this year. The D-line will have a DE with linebacker/size and speed in Rowe, Bair who covers ground from end to end like a middle linebacker at one of the tackle spots.

Two outside linebackers with wide receiver speed.

And now 3 corners and one safety as the defensive backfield.

[buckmarkduck]

Wow, that's some speed in the secondary this year. I think T.JackIII runs in the 4.3-4.4 range, but I would like to see him up around 190 come this season, the roster from last year shows him at 5'10 180. But if he lives in the weight room their is no reason for him not to put on 5-10lbs this summer.

[Destroyer77]

Don't forget about the speed at the LB spot. I like Pleasant and Littlejohn for overall speed and Mathews is solid just not as fast.

[wlduck]

Interesting that Gildon still can not make the two deep. I thought he would have been a contributor by now.

[UOducksTK1]

Interesting that Gildon still can not make the two deep. I thought he would have been a contributor by now.

He's still only a sophomore. With Glasper and WTIII gone after this next season, there's a good chance Gildon could be battling for a starting spot in 2010 as a junior.

[BisonDucks]

I thought Ward was going to stick with the SS position?

Our safety positions are more like left/right safety. Ward will end up the run stuffer and Jackson the deep man.

[odux]

If moving Jackson the 3rd is true. I think that is a great move by the coaching staff. I just wasn't all that sure about Javes Lewis. He is a great ball player, but nothing really ever stood out about him.
The D's problem last year was covering a TE, we all knew that. The reason for that was the Ward and Chung basically played the same position. Ward was more of the rover and Chung played more safety, but Chung is geared towards stopping the run. So there was basically two rovers out there last year. The difference between a safety and a rover is that the safety is more involved with the passing and the rover played more at the line to stop the run. Look two years ago when we had Chung at rover and Harper at safety. Harper played more of a center fielder and Chung up on the line. Last year both Chung and Ward were so aggressive that play action got them every time. Where as with Harper, he didn't bite on play action every time.
Moving TJ3 to safety will allow Ward to play more of a rover this year. And YES I know that TJ3 will be called the rover and Ward the safety, but I wouldn't be surprised if those labels got switched. Its not a big deal what we call them.
However, TJ3 will be geared towards the pass and not the run. So even though we lost a great DB in Chung, don't be surprised to see our safeties be a better unit than they were a year ago.

[GrandpaDuck]

I felt that Harper/Chung, generally played a free/strong safety setup, (Cover 1 with Harper playing deep center in zone defense).

Last year it seems they switched to left/right (Cover 2) where they both had the same deep and run support responsibilities on their respective side of the field. (Ward to the right side with WT3, Chung and Bird to the left).

<Note the above two statements are opinions based on watching games on TV, it is hard to really chalk-board defenses without coaches type "film". TV doesn't give you a great shot of the defense and defenses are always trying to disguise their coverages and mix them up.>

This maybe going to change this year back to a Strong Safety/Deep safety with Ward responsible for clogging the middle behind Matthews and run support on both sides, and the converted corner with deep cover one.

Frankly, though I think quite a bit is up with the defense overall. I think the move of putting a faster smaller player like Bair at one of the DT spots had more to do with what they want to do on defense than a shortness of bodies at DT. Playing a Hybrid Safety/Linebacker like Pleasant at SAM and assigning Alloti specific positional duties of that position is note worthy. Putting Linebacker Size Defensive Ends 2 deep on the QBs blindside seems intentional. At first it seemed maybe Rowe was just the 2nd best DE but when they moved another linebacker over in Turner to back him up and put a big DE behind Tufuaku it appears they have created a Speed DE position and a Power DE.

Our coaching staff has very strong ties with the TCU staff and they work together a lot. There are also philosophical differences on defense where Kelly and Alloti might be in closer agreement than they were with Bellotti according to an interview I heard. I think this years defense might have a lot more changes than just personnel.

We will see.

[BisonDucks]

Changes on the defense would be welcomed.

[Oracle]

To me getting a guy with cornerback coverage skills over to Safety is a great balance to Ward. I think Harper/Chung were a great complementary pair whereas Ward/Chung had more redundant talents.

I was thinking of starting a "If I were coach for a day thread" and it was going to be about trying Glasper at Safety. I was thinking Glasper because of his chippy feisty attitude on the field. If the coaches think TJ3 has better safety skills, so be it, they would know better than I.

It looks like the defense is going to be small but ultra fast this year. The D-line will have a DE with linebacker/size and speed in Rowe, Bair who covers ground from end to end like a middle linebacker at one of the tackle spots.

Two outside linebackers with wide receiver speed.

And now 3 corners and one safety as the defensive backfield.

Couldn't have said it better. A big part of the problem last year IMO was our lack of a true FS. We played two run stuffing SS types back there. Chung was always better in run support IMO and when he ended up playing deep with Ward playing up more toward the LOS I knew that we were going to have problems with pass defense.

I would rather, as our LB corp gets deeper and more talented, that we have two true safeties back there, with one being good at run and pass, similar to Chung, and one being great against the pass and adequate against the run.

I just don't think we will need so much run support from the secondary going forward. Remember in 07 Chung being the leading tackler? Ughhhh. Last year we were back to having the LBs at the top of the tackles list where they should be.