Is Bedord part of the problem?

I watched what we call a defense and know that DKR is rolling over in his grave.

Poor tacking, poor angles, poor coverage. Is this partly a Bedford problem? I know were have some youth, but damn they are bad. They make the defenses of the pirate at TTU look like the steel curtain.

I am getting tired of Hearing Charlie saying in his presser after the game, "we have to get better". We all know that Charlie, the question is Charlie, why are we not getting better? It's between us, Kansas and Iowa State to fight it out at the bottom of the what we call a conference..

It's a questions for the more knowledgeable posters. I have no answers, just questions.

 

What I didn't like hearing after the Rice game was how if they had just converted on a few failed sacks that the game would have been entirely different and they would have won easily. It was like he really thought if they just fixed that, then the entire defense would have looked stellar. He seems to me to be putting more of the problem on the players themselves and not on the schemes that he is rolling out. The 2 interior DTs seem to just get pushed out of the way to allow huge running roles up the middle. We don't necessarily need those 2 guys to be in the backfield and pushing the OL back, but we do need them to be able to hold their ground and not get pushed to the side. Not sure if this is a scheme issue or a player issue but I am leaning towards scheme.

Hoping to see Charlie get in there and make some changes with the scheme.

 

I would think that angles and missed tackles is more on the position coaches.

 

Yes. Bedford is, sadly because I like the guy, part of the problem. Multiple breakdowns game after game. Poor positioning, poor decisions on schemes and blitzes.

 

So the fact that the defense was a strength last year, we lose a bunch of key people and now we have issues where we didn't have issues before... that doesn't lead you to think that maybe it's about the personnel? Where was everyone complaining about bad angles and missed tackles last year? Did Bedford go from a good DC last year to a bad one this year?

 

Ahh, no Bedford is not the problem.​

To think Bedford is coaching poor tackling is laughable
Never coached, except little league, so I am not qualified to give an expert opinion- have we considered the number of FR- some true FR starting or playing?
Cary, I live you like a brother but man our D has been in position many times and missed on sacks I feel because of over excitement, these guys are playing hard.
I am excited about this teams future.

 

Or maybe all those "key people" last year covered up Bedford's weaknesses as a coach?

 

He got a pass the 1st 3 games because the offense was so bad.

You sure can't blame last night on the offense. I know they are young, but it's time to see some improvement.

 

ND: Third-Down Conversions 8 of 14
Rice: Third-Down Conversions 14 of 21
Cal: Third-Down Conversions 5 of 13

While there are other issues that do need to be fixed, one thing the D is getting better at is getting off the field on 3rd down and giving the Offensive a chance to score.

Excuses: really young DBs, but gaining experience and getting better. Didn’t we have four freshmen (RS or true) playing with one senior after Hall was injured? I believe that was for a lot of the game. Ridgeway and Jackson are coming back from injuries and getting better (playing stronger and longer) each game.

At any rate, I believe the D will continue to improve each game. The one game I was truly disappointed in was the ND game where it seemed that no one on either side of the ball came to play.

 

I saw improvement last night, but the run D is very concerning and I don;t see an easy fix to that. The DL is just not physical enough...
OK State is probably going to run for 300 yards on us next week.
And I don't know if that is 100% on Bedford. I really wish we had kept Oscar Giles and had a different DT coach. We have been whiffing on the recruiting trail AND its apparent these guys are not getting coached up either.

 

That is exactly what I was thinking. Cal's 65+ yard TD run they had was either due to poor execution and decision-making by the defense or the coaches calling the wrong defensive scheme making us vulnerable to a run like that.

I see a little bit of both so far in the first 3 games.
Improvement in getting off the field on 3rd down was there, but overall, this defense makes you hold your breath on whether this is the play the opponent breaks one for a score.

 

Very good point. Lots of room for improvement but the D made a few key stops last night and gave us a chance.

 

Vance Bedford has my complete support, for all that's worth.

 

On that play, Jinxkins went was lined up for the A gap, the OL opened up the A gap, so Jinxkins ran straight to the B gap. Makes sense, right? After all, he's just a senior.

 

my opinion - we have one major problem on defense. We're soft up the middle with very little depth there. The difference between having Malcom Brown stuffing the middle and creating havoc in the backfield last year and not getting any of that this year is tremendous. Without Malcom, we can't slow down the run (let alone stop it) and that has a huge ripple effect on the rest of the defense - especially when you have a young defense. Without being able to stop the run and get consistent pressure on the QB up the middle that would cause quicker throws from the QB, the secondary is left to fend for themselves. The secondary is too young and maybe not talented enough to be on an island. we don't have any Thorpe winners on this defense and the secondary is light years away from the days of Huff, Griffin, Griffin, Brown, Ross, etc.

I'm not saying we're one Malcom Brown away from being an elite defense, but it's pretty obvious to me, we would be much better with a Malcom Brown in the middle. We're probably 1-2 recruiting cycles away from establishing that kind of depth. That's why losing the Mack kid to A&M last year hurt so much. He would help a lot this year even if it were just to provide depth and give the starters a blow.

With Malcom Brown, we most likely win yesterday. Without him, every game is a toss up where the offense HAS to show up or we don't stand a chance.

Just my 2 cents.

 

YES along with the rest of the coaches. They made enough bad calls to help the defense and offense lose the game.

 

Plenty of depth at DT maybe not much talent.

 

They are young. In the 1st 3 games we opened up against the what 10 team in the country and what many consider the best qb and offense in the country in Cal they are going to struggle like a son of a gun and we still have to play Baylor OU and TCU the experience now will pay off later

 

I could see this becoming a pretty salty team by bowl time. Unfortunately, I think they'll have too many losses to be eligible.

 

I so hope you are absolutely correct. I want Bedford to succeed, and thus our D to return to dominance. Its just those meltdowns, especially in the set up and execution of the defense that lead to big plays in critical situations that have me very concerned. No one is rooting for Vance more than me.

 

There were some critical breakdowns last year, especially against BYU and Arkansas and TCU. We had good personnel last year in the D line and D back position, but the system was new, and the team was poorly coached by Diaz for two years prior to Vance getting here. So Vance deserves some time to coach his system. And get his guys very familiar with what he expects scheme wise.

And this year we are very young in so many key positions. That being said, how do you let a team go 80 yds just before the half on four run plays. I think VAnce over blitzed and basically gave up running lanes to Cal. No way could Cal's O line dominated our front 7 to allow that drive in 90 seconds if we were playing straight up.

 

The fact that the D lost their 2 starting safeties in the first half probably hurt the pass defense and the run support, since both those guys tackle well. I thought overall the defense is improving, considering the opponent offense they were facing. The only thing I'm not pleased about this morning is the final missed extra point and the "L".

 

Last year, armed with upperclassmen everywhere and a first round draft choice, there were more than a few defensive meltdowns. I put most of the blame of the offense, or lack thereof, although games like BYU were unfathomable. The D was carrying the entire burden. That was not the case last night, and the performance against Rice was disappointing as well.

The argument that the kids are working with someone else's scheme doesn't work for me. After all, look what Robinson did with Diaz's players and scheme by his second or third game. Bedford has now had 16 games.

Yes, we are young. But we are also talented. Until we see consistent progress from the defense I will continue to be skeptical of our coordinator's ability to lead a top tier performance.

I will be happy to concede that my perception was inaccurate, but only if or when we see a consistent level of performance over a number of games.

 

Of course how many posts were there about how Mack left "NO TALENT" at the QB position, then Watson got demoted, and a new QB started. There have to be a million "no talent at QB was left behind" posts. Different coaching decisions were made, different plays were called, different QBs started and now QB might be a strength for us. Some fans like to talk about how Strong coached up players at Louisville, but seem to think it's never possible our players might not be getting coached up here. Some fans refused to accept Watson was not a good call at OC.

Manny Diaz looked great year 1. Then he lost some good players and did not year 2. Bedford has this season at least so it's too early to tell. However, he better improve because we are doing terrible on defense.
We are 118th in total defense.
We are 115th in scoring defense.
We are 119th in rushing defense.
We are 105th in passing yards allowed.
We have all these stats and one of our games was against rice!

I like Bedford. I do not think he should be evaluated until the end of the year. However, like our offense last year, our defense does NOT have sub-100 talent. The whole "our offense has no talent" was a lie that prolonged Watson as OC through the Notre Dame game and did NOT help Coach Strong. Well our defense may be young, but they are talented enough to be AT LEAST in the top 100 with better coaching. Let's not act like everything is just a talent issue and make up lies that we have worse talent than Idaho who gave up 38 points to the w-sips of wofford yesterday and yet are ahead of us in some defensive statistical catagories. I'm not calling for any jobs, but with Okie State, TCU, and OU coming up, the coaches need to make some changes quick whether it is different starters or different schemes. This team is good enough to win some games this year and I would like to see them do it.

 

Vance absolutely has my support too. For my Hornfan brethren please don't mistake my observations regarding what I perceive as defensive call mistakes by Vance as a lack of support. He is a good guy, bleeds orange and coaches toughness.

I just wish he would calm down the blitzes a bit. There seems to be little return so far to the risks created by his blitz packages.

 

That's a function of the front four getting minimal pressure. Right now that's the deck Bedford is playing with, just like Norvell is playing with a bad deck at the OL. (Which, as it happened, is showing measurable improvement!) He's trying to mask issues on the front and try to protect youth in the secondary, which means blitzing and soft coverage.

Lost in the yardage and points given up was that Cal rarely if ever got a big play through the air, and the run game only had the one explosive play. I think they didn't have their first explosive until late second quarter. He's trying to force teams to drive the field, and right now they're doing it because it's hard to play that kind of defense when you're giving up three yards a play consistently.

I'm seeing some positive signs, and as the offense gets better and gives the defense more breaks (hello, third quarter anyone???) I think you'll see more consistency, better effort and some solid improvement.

BY season's end I expect the defense to be serviceable, but still soft up front. I don't think that gets fixed this year.

 

Bedford is a figurehead. Strong is the real DC. That was the problem - Watson was doing as he pleased with the offense because Strong wasn't looking over his shoulder. TCU, pig people and ND lead to Strong actually looking at the offense and saying enough was enough.

 

This is what is troubling. I understood from day 1 what was going on with the offense. There was no supervision of Watson. I do not know what to make of our defense right now.

 

Bedford is fine and has my TOTAL support. Last night we played against a QB that will possibly be a top 5 draft pick! Plus we LOST BOTH starting safeties! One on TICKY TACK targeting penalty and the other to injury. thus we were very green and young in the secondary. They played with heart and desire and came up with several key stops.
The future is VERY BRIGHT my fellow Longhorn fanatics! VERY BRIGHT!

 

Maybe, maybe not. The problem is every time we lose a game, there is a chorus about whoever we played is the greatest team ever. Some fans said 7-6 arkansas was really good (they were not, that's why the lost 6 times). Fans said BYU last year was amazing, yet there defense was not very good and showed it through the course of the year (BYU finished 65th in total defense last year). I do not know if this propaganda of every team we play is "amazing" is very helpful. I think it contributed to prolonging Watson as play caller. It's also kind of funny because in 2013 every time mack brown won a game the other team "was not very good" according to the chorus. I think Cal has a very good offense and QB. In fact they are number 11 in total offense right now (though they have only played Texas, Grambling State and San Diego State who lost to south alabama at home yesterday). I do not know that their offense is better than Oklahoma State, TCU, Tech, OU, Baylor, or West Virginia. Maybe it is, maybe it is not. I just do not know that this type of propaganda is useful and it's too early in the year to make such proclamations. Rice moved the ball on us without a problem. There are real issues on the defense right now. Strong has a great track record at Louisville and Florida and I feel he is up to the task to fix the defense. Now he just needs to follow through... hopefully in time to beat OU.