Guys like this are great to have on a team. Guys who feel slighted or have something to prove can be very positive in a locker room and pull other guys along. Hopefully his size won't get him hurt and he can make an immediate impact. We'll see right away what type of motor he's got.
Demond Tucker a Force on the Inside
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That's what separates him from typical interior D-lineman. His pursuit of the ball at the next level; whether it's past the line of scrimmage or in the opponent's backfield. You don't see tackles running ball carriers down from behind very often and you can tell he takes pride in that. I hope one of our interior guys draws a double team on a regular basis; that frees up a D end or linebacker.
I hope that Tucker is everything that people are saying, but opposing teams can scheme around a very good player on the defensive line. If an offense only has to worry about one outstanding player on the DL, they can double team the good player and minimize his impacts. For Tucker to be effective, there has to be improved play at the other DL positions next fall.
If a 3 technique routinely commands a double team, there is a good chance that someone in the front 7/8 will have an opportunity to make a big play.
Well, it would be nice if that happened, because for the past 5 years offenses have pretty much done whatever they wanted against ISUs front.
Hopefully Cousin develops enough and takes the next step so they have to double team him freeing up Tucker, Taylor, and Pierson for the most part to do their thing.
If our fans don't have expectations at a reasonable level by now , reasonable just isn't in them. All I want is some competitive football.
Ken Lynn, a sometimes starter asks to move positions, is a good thing IMO. And Demond Tucker and Jordan Harris now listed as #1's on the Depth Chart is great as well. Glad Harris redshirted last year.
I definitely agree that it will be good to see a lot of new faces on the defensive side of the ball. The defense could not possibly get any worse than it was last year, but I'd be VERY worried if we were trotting out virtually the same starters as last year and expecting better results.
It always scares me when someone that stunk it up the year before is starting again the following year, but the coaches say... "yeah, but he's improved immensely in the offseason."
Rhoads needs to get to the level where Hoiberg is at.... where you over recruit guys. Don't worry about offending anyone. If you have players on your team that get recruited over, and they don't take that as motivation to put in the work to improve and instead want to quit..... then let them quit because you shouldn't want quitters on your team anyway.
That's what impresses me the most about a kid like Naz Long. He didn't look that great as a freshman, and he could have easily quit and transferred if he thought he wouldn't get any playing time here, but instead he worked his rear end off and proved he deserved to play. You want to have your entire team made up of guys like that.
Agree with your assessment of Naz Long. Great Leader.
IMO, we are always trying to recruit the best players we can get. What probably hurts us a lot at this time is that in 2011 for example we had 24 commits. Out of those 24 commits, we had 5 Juco Recruits.....which were pretty much gone by 2013 and 2014. Now add in some attrition and also a few misses, plus some career ending injuries and other issues and you get where we are today.
We only had 22 commits in 2015 and there were 5 Juco's included in that group to help us out for the coming year. There is little margin for error in today's football. And we do not get many 4 and 5 star recruits. That makes things tough. I do think that we will improve for the next couple of years anyway. In 2016, we should have a full slate of 22 scholarship players that will be seniors and actually be big contributors. We will have to see how it all plays out.
Tucker, Cousins, Leath, Garcia, Aka, Trent, Ayeni....all 285+ pound guys, some with past playing time. We certainly have a number the big bodies on the interior.....
When's the last time we could say that?
When's the last time we could say that?
