So either he played QB for the offense once Marcel was done or you don't realize we have multiple players with the same #…..

Roster shows THREE #16.

4-2-5 run defense was fine under Elko when he was here before. It's about talent, and the overall D talent at every level is well below what it was the last 2 seasons Elko was DC here.

Jarrin Jay said:

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4-2-5 run defense was fine under Elko when he was here before. It's about talent, and the overall D talent at every level is well below what it was the last 2 seasons Elko was DC here.

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Don't run it then. We had Cooper at LB. He was way faster than York. To be good against the run, the 4-2 requires exceptional linebacking.

Paul Pierce Ag said:

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Are we still running out of a weak eagle front on defense?

Thought that was supposed to be corrected with players back from injury

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It's our base and we ran it the majority of the game. The first TD run was an example of the issue with it. The weakside end had to play the B-Gap (because they had a tightend strong) because of that Ratcliffe had to play the edge from 11 yards deep and the corner playing man was ran into him by the receiver blocking both of them.

I liked Olin's article about the run game vs our defense. Give it a read and realize what he is saying is backed up with 2025 game 1 and 2024 season analysis of our run defense. He shows that 90% of the time the Ags do really well defending the run. So, of the 33 times UTSA ran the ball, most of their yardage came on 3 plays. Several instances from 2024 supported this.
I thought it was an excellent read, and much better than anectdotal observations of this player or that player got pushed around all night.
The challenge Coach Elko is faced with is fixing that last 10%, realizing every play is important and that one off play can cost the team.

Yeah, maybe a rah, rah propaganda piece. Makes sense to me, though.

Jarrin Jay said:

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4-2-5 run defense was fine under Elko when he was here before. It's about talent, and the overall D talent at every level is well below what it was the last 2 seasons Elko was DC here.

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The difference between then and now is ........back then we played the Nickel (Star) as the 7 defender in the box when needed. Now when we want to add the 7th defender we are adding the weak safety (The 3tech side of the formation). The reason I think its more of a Achilles heel is because that defender has to show depth to give the appearance of not being a box defender... not tip the offense off on who is who, in addition he is likely in a match concept coverage wise and has to be at depth to take the post when asked to.... and because of that teams will game plan to attack that edge (South Carolina).

The classic Star is better from a leverage stand point. It gives you a classic Sam backer when it calls for it and allows the B gap backer to be to the weak side and played in a "hip" position on the outside shade of the weakside end. Basically giving you two overhang outside backers or in other words .... Backers with Leverage. The problem with that is your Nickel is now run first and all those quick RPOs like the glance route will be aimed at him. Which is likely why we do it the other way.

I think during the game we found a balance though, we started to do a little bit of both with a buzz look (cover 3 /man free) mixed in. I think that is the answer. No defense is without its weaknesses but a good coach once told me, "You can't stop everything but you can stop what they want to do." I think as the season goes on you'll see some weeks of us in that soft 4-2-5, some weeks a harder 4-2 with a much more involved nickel, and I think vs run heavy teams you'll see us rolling to one high damn near every play.

Also for everyone to recognize this, If there is no tightend.... just located the 3tech (D-Tackle between the guard and tackle) and that is the side the safety has the run support. If there is a tightend.... then the side away from the 3tech is likely the run support and the end is going to have to play an Under technique (look like the edge but squeeze inside on the snap of the ball). Hope that helps.

In the 4-2, I like the nickel as the 7th in the box. Why did we change that?

And, is the 4-2 more complicated than 4-3?

Might help to recruit some tier 1 LB's like we had in the (distant) past

Jarrin Jay said:

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4-2-5 run defense was fine under Elko when he was here before. It's about talent, and the overall D talent at every level is well below what it was the last 2 seasons Elko was DC here.

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This, people forget that we routinely kept rushing yards to less than 100 yards, at least one year we were best in the country at rush defense if I recall correctly.

hunter2012 said:

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Jarrin Jay said:

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4-2-5 run defense was fine under Elko when he was here before. It's about talent, and the overall D talent at every level is well below what it was the last 2 seasons Elko was DC here.

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This, people forget that we routinely kept rushing yards to less than 100 yards, at least one year we were best in the country at rush defense if I recall correctly.

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This. We had some studs that had great chemistry

You mean the run defense in the first half where a bunch of new starters were out of position, or the run defense in the second half that made adjustments and didn't allow a run over 2 yards for 6 straight possesions?

4-3 gets gashed against good passing teams.

A 4-2-5 can work against both run and pass if you have the right allignments. Mainly with your safeties and NB.

Maybe we need a better nickel