tuli and taki

Previously: FFFF Washington Offense 

Much of the focus on Washington's stunning loss to Montana has revolved around its anemic offense and the whole "scoring 7 points against an FCS team" thing. That's understandable- it's the reason that the team lost the game and from a box score perspective, Washington's defense was pretty good. They held Montana to 13 points and only 232 yards of offense. They did their job. But just because the story of the game was written through Washington's offense, that doesn't mean that there wasn't anything interesting to glean from watching their defense. After all, the Huskies have produced some excellent defenses in the last 5-7 years. 

So, we will embark on this defensive FFFF journey. As noted in Wednesday's post, this is my first time doing FFFF, so it's going to be a tad more rudimentary than what you may have been used to with Seth the last few years, and probably not quite as well versed in formation terms and plays. I admit it, I'm still learning. With that said, let's get started. 

The Film: We are obviously still on Montana. That is the only game that has been played this season. 

Personnel: The diagram from Seth. Correct from the start this time: 

Washington plays with a few guys who are out there very consistently. Defensive tackles Sam "Taki" Taimani and Tuli Letuligasenoa (this is a fun week for Pacific Islander names) play on most plays and don't get rotated out often. There are several other DT's who rotate in if Washington chooses to play with more DT's (see: Base Set section). At the LB level, Jackson Sirmon and Edefuan Ulofoshio play most every play. I don't think I ever saw Sirmon leave the field, and though Ulofoshio went missing for a period of the game, his absence was clearly missed. Those two guys are going to play a lot of snaps against Michigan. The three starting corners play most of the time too, Trent McDuffie, Kyler Gordon, and nickel Brendan Radley-Hiles.

The two positions that see a lot more rotation are safeties and edge. Washington plays with 5 DB's pretty often and who the other two besides the three starting corners are can vary a good bit from play to play, including Julius Irvin, Kamren Fabiculanan, Alex Cook, and Asa Turner. Similarly there's a pretty hefty rotation at the Edge position, which are either OLB's or DE's depending on who they are and classifying them was not simple and will be discussed at length much more later on in this post. Ryan Bowman plays the most of them and is more of a DE. The other spot (if they go with two Edge players) is a constant rotation of different types of players, including Cooper McDonald, Sav'ell Smalls, Jeremiah Martin, Bralen Trice, and Jordan Lolohea. Expect the Huskies to be switching out the parts that accent the core of their defense, which are their two traditional LB's, two traditional DT's, and their three corners. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More about Washington's defense]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receiver, OL

Another week, and another The Enemy piece. This week we switch over to the defensive side of the ball, starting with the defensive line. For clarification on this piece, I'm defining the defensive line to mean down linemen and LB's who are explicitly edge rushers ("JACK" type players), so in Michigan's case this would include the three DT's and then Aidan Hutchinson + whoever is lined up opposite Hutchinson. For some teams this requires a judgement call, although most on this list run standard four man defensive lines. Onto #1: 

1. Ohio State

Yep, another article where the Buckeyes start out on top. It really shouldn't be terribly surprising, given how well OSU has churned out defensive linemen in the past decade, although this group has some questions, as every team in this article does. What is not a question mark is Haskell Garrett, who was a 2nd Team All-American last season and would have been a high draft pick had he departed for the NFL early. Garrett is a wrecking ball defensive tackle who is going to be the veteran leader of this group. The ends, which are normally dominant for a school like OSU that produced the Bosas and Chase Young, were not quite as sharp last season but there are lots of reasons for optimism. Tyreke Smith's underlying metrics were very good in 2020, even if they didn't materialize into actual sacks, and he's a returning starter who could make that leap to great this season.

Zach Harrison, who you hopefully don't remember from his agonizing recruiting process that nearly saw Michigan pluck the 5* DE from OSU's grasp before a cold dose of reality smacked the Wolverines upside the head on November 24, 2018, has actually not been as good as advertised thus far in his NCAA career. The Bucks need improvement from Harrison, but the talent in his body makes that a decent bet. And of course, even if Harrison doesn't pop off, they have two more 5* blue chip recruits in TR Fr Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimoloau to plug in at DE. The other DT spot is led by Taron Vincent, who was, surprise, also an elite recruit and has solid experience. Experience is a theme for back-up tackles Jarron Cage and Antwaun Jackson Jr., who provide solid depth. Ohio State ranks #1 because of a track record of producing stars at this position, in addition to the presence of an established star in Garrett, the good shot that they get another star out of one of Smith/Harrison/Sawyer, and the depth provided behind them.

[AFTER THE JUMP: More lines with more questions]