Sting's Summer Two-Deep Defense Edition

[stingthemgood]

This one is going to be very very difficult.

Defensive Line --
Warkentin was an end in a 3-4 scheme at Abilene Christian, so I have him slotted as a potential Anchor, but he might be in the interior rotation as well.
Cashiola, Knott, Ahio and Williams should be in the correct slots. From a backup perspective, I have no idea. Most of our backups seem to be 280+ or less than 230 pounds, which is different than how we've done our front in the past (usually we have four guys who have similar 250-270 builds.

ANCHOR
94 Ben Ahio
99 Colby Warkentin

DEFENSIVE TACKLE
45 Xavier Williams
90 Pate Haunga

DEFENSIVE TACKLE
56 Brandon Knott
95 Mason Brosseau

RUSH
40 Josh Cashiola
96 Elijah Hansen

Linebackers --
We have 13 linebackers on the roster and two spots. So either, we are planning on running a 3-3-5 on defense instead of our normal 4-2-5, or we will have lots of depth.

MIDDLE
21 Will Leota
4 Nakian Jackson

SAM
50 Oge Feo
OR
30 Mitchell Wolfe
39 Derek Houston
Defensive Backs --
I would classify this section as "educated guesses" - especially at Nickleback - where I have listed our three NBs in numerical order with the word OR between them.

NICKLEBACK
3 Malini Ti'a
OR
7 Jalen Williams
OR
28 Dejuan Butler

CORNERBACK
9 Zelmar Veddar
14 Phoenix Rose

STRONG SAFETY
27 Gavin Davis-Smith
17 Anta’Veon McKenzie

FREE SAFETY
1 Murvin Kenion III
OR
0 Eian Moore
16 Kaleb Higgins

CORNERBACK
2 Patrick Dean
OR
38 DJ Houston
12 Jason Oliver
Specialists --
It is very weird to say that our backup punter and backup long snapper both moved to FBS programs in the portal (Kinnick Manley is at Florida International if you guys hadn't seen that yet). I am also projecting high use of our new 6'6" backup punter Dawit Crain. I hope he can hold -- because while we all love Cal, we know that is a weakness of his (I might dig later and try to find the video of the incident I speak of).

KICKER
97 Zach Schreiner
92 Evan Kiely
OR
93 Issac Espinoza

KICKOFF
49 Dawit Crain
OR
92 Evan Kiely
OR
97 Zach Schreiner

HOLDER
49 Dawit Crain
91 Cal McGough

PUNTER
91 Cal McGough
49 Dawit Crain

KICK RETURNER
10 Danny Scudero
4 Elijah Tau-Tolliver

PUNT RETURNER
26 Anderson Grover
0 Joshua Nicholson

 

[Super Hornet 2.0]

Again, this is very good, Sting.

Re the punter's weakness as a holder: I'm old school, so I'm of the opinion that one of the quarterbacks should hold, on the grounds that they're usually more adept at handling bad snaps, simply because they see them more. The QB-H concept also lends itself more easily to fakes, whether it's standing up, rolling out, and passing, or simply running option to the kicker on a PAT. (That doesn't work so well, of course, with the stupid Goodell Extra Point in the NFL.)

The counter-argument to my case, though, is Tony Romo, who was notorious for botching placements....

 

[BSCfan]

Again, this is very good, Sting.

Re the punter's weakness as a holder: I'm old school, so I'm of the opinion that one of the quarterbacks should hold, on the grounds that they're usually more adept at handling bad snaps, simply because they see them more. The QB-H concept also lends itself more easily to fakes, whether it's standing up, rolling out, and passing, or simply running option to the kicker on a PAT. (That doesn't work so well, of course, with the stupid Goodell Extra Point in the NFL.)

The counter-argument to my case, though, is Tony Romo, who was notorious for botching placements....

FWIW, the main reason that punters hold now is that they have the time to be able to put in the work with the LS and K. Quarterbacks, and any other position player, often times just don't have the ability to put the work in with the PAT/FG unit that is required for them to operate optimally.

Since a few years have passed, I can share a little "inside baseball" with the group. In 2021, punter Sam Clark did the holding for kicks. After he transferred to James Madison the following year, Kyle Sentkowski and punter Connor Stutz worked reps together through spring ball and all summer together to get ready for 2022. Stutz had never held but had great hand, probably in part to his baseball background. He even traveled to Arizona with Kyle to get instruction in holding and punting from legendary coach Gary Zauner. After all the work that was put in, the staff decided to go with safety Abel Ordaz as the holder for the season opener at home against Utah Tech. They decided on this because Ordaz had been a holder a few seasons earlier for Devon Medeiros. The unit was able to get 5 reps together in pregame before Ordaz had to go to his position group. During this game, the unit was 0-2 on FGs. Not blaming Ordaz, I have no doubt he did his best under the circumstances. However in practice the following week, Sentkowski pleaded for Stutz to be given a chance to hold in games because they'd worked so much together. They agreed Stutz could have the practice reps all week and they'd pay close attention to how he did. Connor did well, won the job and the unit didn't miss another kick until a missed FG off the post in the Causeway Classic. That ended up being the only miss for the unit the rest of 2022. I have no doubt Stutz's holding was a HUGE part of their success!

 

[Super Hornet 2.0]

Nice back story, Sting. You make a lot of sense there.

There IS history for using safeties (namely Nolan Cromwell with the Rams and Joe Scarpati, who held for Tom Dempsey's then-record FG), but until the last ten to fifteen years or so, it's been all quarterbacks (not always the starter) except when the quarterback was also the kicker (I was going to suggest that for George Blanda, but the only pics I see of him with the Raiders show starting QB Daryle Lamonica holding).

And thank you for your mention of the time commitment. It does take work to get the timing down. I could see having issues, particularly during pre-game warmups, if the primary holder were one of the first two quarterbacks. While I still like the idea of a quarterback's ability to react to a bad snap, I'm sure if a punter were as good at holding as Stutz was, one would be dumb not to take advantage of that. In fact, I know of one HOF punter who was so good at that stuff that he was listed as his team's emergency quarterback.

 

[HornetHope]

Good analysis Sting. My strong personal preference for DT is pure beef, plug them holes. Personally I like the Chet McGlockton, Tony Saragusa size DT. 300 + lbs. Make the O Line work the entire game and make it a game of conditioning. Later in the game, getting push up the middle, collapsing the pocket. Good stuff!