Autzen Audibles

Nice work, that's exactly the same grade I give this group. Losing Cotrell was highly frustrating and hurt. That guy hits like a truck, every tackle has the player getting knocked backwards. Would have loved to have gotten Shaq too, certainly one of the 5 start OL, but oh well.

AA is going to be a beast, and sorry but I believe Chip is better Coach and recruiter of talent than Bellotti was and as far as the D-Lineman all around these guys have alot of room to put on more weight, so all aroung our lines are getting bigger and most your Defensive Ends in whatever league are usually between 240 to 270 so thats not really considered big, but the DTs are getting bigger both wade and Ricki are over 300lbs Taylor will be close to that himself, Balducci will eventually get up to 300 and hes very strong so just imagine what Radcliff is gonna do with these guys.

I see you weighed the grades according to high school! I would give the grades:
Oline: D+ Long brings this up from an F but really a possible 1 for 1 year is all we got.
LB: D+ We were looking for 3 and ended up with one, albeit a good one.
RB: B- we missed on our second options such as Foster. And the depth really isn't there next year. An injury to Carson and Barner makes the depth even slimmer.

I would say incomplete because there's a chance for an EE to fill in at OL or LB. Big picture RB isn't a worry (with the possibilities of Tyner and Wilson coming in next year), would be nice to grab a 3rd RB in the class too.

Overall grade for the class I'd put at A- with room to grow to an A. It's hard to grade since we hit home runs with so many, but whiffed on a couple positions.

People are going to have differing opinions, and that's just fine. I have my own as well. I just thought it was a pretty funny comment how you're not sold on our style of play on the DL ... or whatever you said. I'm a big believer in the "trust the coaches" mentality, and I laugh when people make comments implying that they either know more, or could do it better than our coaches. If that's not what your comment meant to say though, no big deal.

And, frankly, I think the results have been pretty awesome. You can't pigeon-hole a specific position or unit on either side of the ball, analyze that on it's own, and make determinations without including the other factors. Take DL for example ... What don't you like? Our amount of sacks? Our TFL? Our average yards per rush we allow? What exactly? And, how can you then not factor in the LB play in any of those categories? Or, for that matter, our secondary play? OR, the fact that our defense is on the field more than any other defense in the country because our offense is so explosive?!

Again, I would ask what you base your "great offensive numbers against us" on? Because if all you're looking at is Total YPG allowed, then yes, we're towards the bottom half of the PAC-12....which makes sense that we ranked last in the nation in TOP ratio....meaning our D is always on the field, so of course we're gonna give up more total yards. But, like I already pointed out, our average YPP was just over 5 and landed us 2nd in the conference behind only Utah and 35th in the nation. 3rd in the nation in Sacks, top 20 in TFL and QB rushes. And while I couldn't find a stat for it, I would venture that we were fairly high in deflected passes (part of having taller DL).

Give some specifics about what you see as the problem and not just a blanket statment about "great offensive numbers." Of course we can single out and analyze individual players or units, but I think the better picture is to look at how the whole defense - all 11 guys on the field - work as a unit. You can't just blame all statistics on the DL...

Edit: I forgot to mention, and all this doesn't mean that I don't think our DL (particularly DT) can improve. Of course those guys need to get better and I think they will. Wade and Ricky were both Sophomores and Ricky had a nagging injury most of the season. If healthy, with another Spring and Fall camp, those two with Remington and add in Ebert (who I think will be a huge addition) and I think we should see better overall play out of our interior DL next season. Our DE's just need to keep doing what their doing which is to put pressure off the edges and contain any outside plays.