Defense: What happened

[jjlovecub]

As someone who loves watching football but truly doesn’t understand the nuts and bolts of schemes and what goes in to play calling - what happened that our defense has deteriorated so drastically over the last several years?

Forever, we knew we may not score but our defense would keep us in the game. Is it poor coaching? Not the same caliber of players? I just don’t understand why they struggle so much. Thanks for your input. 

[ForestBull]

Poor offense that can't stay on the field will kill the best of defenses

Edited September 6, 2019 by ForestBull

[TheAccountant]

I think it all started with Taggart's mentality. He had the mentality of bend dont break. The defense was going to give up points, but it was fine because our offense would score more. He recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball and not on the defensive. When he left and strong came in, we were left with a lot of young and mediocre defensive guys and a lot of talented offensive guys. Strong is known to recruit more heavily on the defensive side, which imo is one of the reasons our offense struggled last year.

 

TLDR: Taggart recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball

[Gismo]

4 minutes ago, TheAccountant said:

I think it all started with Taggart's mentality. He had the mentality of bend dont break. The defense was going to give up points, but it was fine because our offense would score more. He recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball and not on the defensive. When he left and strong came in, we were left with a lot of young and mediocre defensive guys and a lot of talented offensive guys. Strong is known to recruit more heavily on the defensive side, which imo is one of the reasons our offense struggled last year.

 

TLDR: Taggart recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball

Started when Leavitt left. Leavitt could find diamonds in the rough with respect to talent and develop it to a high level. One of his teams had like 7 defensive players drafts I think. It’s that simple. 

Taggart also left a weak defense. But Holtz really killed what Leavitt built. 

Edited September 6, 2019 by Gismo

[Bulls On Parade]

 

I saw better tackling last week it's just we were facing a great rb, o line and offense that left the defense on field.

Expect much better defensive effort tomorrow. 

[DJBulls]

D was on the field entirely too long...Wisconsin's average starting position was their own 43...that is putrid...there were actually a bunch of positives by the defense Friday..Joey post a pretty good article today regarding the transfers and the defensive performance Friday...check it out

[FazaUSF]

It has been a long downward spiral from when Leavitt had USF being talked about as "the new DB U". Holtz's staff was lax on the basics. Taggart abandoned and ignored defense altogether with the strategy to outscore opponents no matter what the defense gives up. The current staff plays checkers at chess tournaments. Defense wins championships, which is why we have none... 

[Grateful Dad]

Don't discount the role that Wally Burnham played in those years.

[DELdaBull]

54 minutes ago, TheAccountant said:

I think it all started with Taggart's mentality. He had the mentality of bend dont break. The defense was going to give up points, but it was fine because our offense would score more. He recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball and not on the defensive. When he left and strong came in, we were left with a lot of young and mediocre defensive guys and a lot of talented offensive guys. Strong is known to recruit more heavily on the defensive side, which imo is one of the reasons our offense struggled last year.

 

TLDR: Taggart recruited heavily on the offensive side of the ball

You forgot the Skip Holtz days and the Cosh non-defense.

[Fold FB Invest in BB]

We used to have multiple NFL draft picks playing on the defense. Now, we do not.

Patrick Macon looks like the real deal though.