When is it Our Turn?

This should be us!

Another Super Bowl is in the books, folks. And dare I say, it was a classic. I knew the moment Madonna’s set ended that regardless of the outcome this would be Huddy’s favorite Super Bowl since the Icky Shuffle. So now, after bowl season, the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl I am more than ready for the Cougs to return to post-season play. I am tired of watching other teams hold hands as the last second field goal is snapped, tired of seeing other teams’ fans screaming their heads off in stadiums where they’re allowed to buy beer. It’s our time and I am more than ready for our first ever WSU Football Blog post season tailgate somewhere warm this year (or very early next year!). As Stiffmeister so boldly uncovered for us last week, we are in store for shock and awe air raid madness this coming season, running one play and one play only; four verts baby. Surely we are a lock to blast our way into the bowl season with offensive fire power. But as I watched the BCS title game and then the Super Bowl, I was reminded of the age old adage, perhaps the most common cliché in sports since it was coined by the Roman General Marcus Maximus Augustus Lucius Titus Octavius the Younger in AD 217… Defense Wins Championships.

I know it’s not fashionable these days, but after the jump I’m going to talk defense…

Greatest Defense Ever: The Swiss Family Robinson.

In 2012 we should issue coconut bombs to the fans and dig a pit at mid field with a live cougar in it.

This coming season we are full of high hopes, but as the Huskies so brilliantly demonstrated in the Alamo bowl, you can be nearly perfect on offense and it won’t matter one bit if you fail to ever stop the other team on defense. Sure, most of us have spent the last four years pining for a good old fashioned shoot out no matter what side of the final tally we ended up on. But close and exciting losses are not going to get us somewhere warm for the holidays where together we can challenge the Guinness record for most farmer tans on display at a single sporting event. I want that record. So what do we have to do on defense to help assure that our Air Raid onslaught is not in vain? We need to improve drastically, that’s what. This year we will return a lot of experienced defensive players with only Alex Hoffman-Ellis and Brandon Rankin needing to be replaced in the starting lineup. That is a good thing. But experience and off-season improvements alone cannot get this defense where it needs to be for us to start putting some worry into the opposing offense. Fortunately we have a couple more things we can count on to help this defense take some big strides in the coming year, perhaps even as big as we expect from our offense.

The first is a change to a 3-4 defense, brought to you courtesy of new defensive coordinator Mike Breske. At first glance this would seem to fit our personnel better than the 4-3 we have been running since we have more talent and depth at linebacker than we do on our defensive line. However, the players we do have on our defensive line are not necessarily suited to the 3-4, especially our defensive tackles who would be manning the all important nose guard position. Fortunately, a couple of our linebackers seem ideally suited to the 3-4, perhaps more so than the 4-3. Two players with the potential to excel as pass rushing linebackers in our new defense are Logan Mayes and Sekope Kaufusi. Both players have the speed and athleticism to play linebacker, but they also have the size and strength to play defensive end. This is perfect for the 3-4 which can employ them as stand up linebackers in coverage, run support and blitzing off the edge, or even line them up with a hand down as a pass rushing defensive end, giving the offense an array of looks to adjust to. While there will be the inevitable hiccups you can expect with any scheme change, the 3-4 should help the defense improve upon its most glaring weakness… the pass rush.

The next thing we need for our defense to improve… an infusion of new talent. Obviously the two positions being vacated by Hoffman-Ellis and Rankin represent the biggest opportunities to get more speed, strength and aggression into our lineup. There are a number of exciting players ready to step in for AHE at the linebacker spot, including the aforementioned Logan Mayes, but keep an eye on up and comer Chester Sua who gained a lot of playing experience last year and a sometimes forgotten member of the Florida Four, Daryl Monroe. These three with returning starters Kaufusi and CJ Mizell, and experienced reserve  Darren Markle should form the linebacking corps we see on Saturdays, but come Fall camp when Kalil Pettaway, Jermiah Allison and Kache Polacio arrive, they may have something to say about that. (note: For the record, I am not one of those people entertaining the possibility of a Louis Bland return.)

As for Rankin’s place on the defensive line, you could argue that it has been absorbed by the linebacking corps with the move to a 3-4 defense. However, there are some young guns that will be looking to bolster the front three. On our current roster we have a couple young players worth keeping tabs on through Spring and Fall camp. Big, athletic defensive end Jordan Pu’u-Robinson who has been injured almost his entire time on the Palouse may be back in fighting shape, we shall see. Also Xavier Cooper, a D-tackle who entertained an offer from Wisconsin out of high school will be eligible after a somewhat windy road to WSU that included some academic hurdles. Ioane Gauta is coming in from the JC ranks, so you can assume he will be expected to challenge for playing time right away. Another interesting wrinkle will arrive for Fall camp as Alex Mitchell is finally expected to join the team. While he has been recruited as an offensive lineman, the Wulff staff appeared ready to move him to D-tackle when he arrived. It will be interesting to see what the new staff decides to do with him.

Now the Sutra is jumping up and down and yelling at his monitor, “But the secondary is terrible and we didn’t recruit any cornerbacks except one that we are going to put at receiver!” True, our secondry didn’t shine last year. But I believe that good secondary play is not really possible when you fail to put any pressure on opposing QBs. Last year we lost 3 cornerbacks, Nolan Washington and Spencer Wasseem to injury, and our lone senior Aire Justin to a suspension. With Washington and Justin the likely starters, that left us with backups for most of the season, including true sophomore Demante Horton. As we enter 2012, I really think the experience of this unit along with a much improved pass rush should help them have a bounce back year. At safety, junior Tyree Toomer seemed to regress and Deone Buccannon was merely serviceable after exploding on the scene his freshman year. With Bucannon’s sophomore slump over and Toomer motivated to have a fresh start, I expect a lot of improvement from this unit as well. The good news is, we have some great young players looking to push these guys for minutes too. Last year Casey Locker emerged as an enforcer in our defensive backfield, delivering some of the hardest hits in the conference and becoming public enemy #1 of Pac-12 officials. We also have promising youngsters Max Gamma, Anthony Carpenter and Tyrone Duckett. The cupboard is not bare here. New coaches, new schemes and a fresh start may be just what this unit needed.

I know we are all looking forward to the Air Raid and Jeff Tuel and Marques Wilson re-writing the record books, but I am here to tell you, you should be excited for our prospects on defense too. What you see from our defense next season may be just as much of a departure from the norm and just as exciting as what we see on offense. We may not be Alabama West just yet, but for the first time in too long the Shark Attack may actually mean something.

Finally, I know its been posted all over the place, but if you haven’t seen it yet, here is the segment on Steve Gleason and ALS that aired before the Super Bowl. Watch it, its inspiring, and once you finish drying your eyes, you can go ahead and join Team Gleason.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LSS10h0BKig

And the Steve Gleason we all remember…