Rugby Saint II

I can't think of a player that the defensive coaches have "coached up". Maybe Cam Jordan...........Maybe.
Spags is a coordinator not a coach. Name some defensive players that we have "coached up". I believe that this is a much more difficult task than it should be.

st thomas

it goes back awhile. s. ellis was a little better when payton was up his ass. but won't win no awards. we have to get defensive coach to teach some fundamentals, techniques and in strength and conditioning tackling, i'm targeting ellis because hes the most declining player i've seen besides smith and smith came through every once and awhile. ellis may have known hes out the door also so he did'nt give a hoot.

|Mitch|

I don't know, Smith looked a little better last season. Him and Cam Jordan were actually using spins and using their hands instead of the failed power rush we're so accustomed to...

Danno

There aren't many are there?
Greer his 1st couple seasons, but he's regressed under Spags.
Harper peaked under GW.
Mack looked pathetic in camp, but now looks like one of our better DB's.
Dunbar improved every year, its a shame he's gone.
Smith had a good year in 2009, which feels like an eternity ago.
Galette certainly got better, but he was so raw it was inevitable.
Quddus has improved, and may take MJ's job.

But the majority of players have either maintained status quo or regressed.

NOLA54

Things will be different now that the Sherif is back in town.

Vrillon82

despite that rough defense (absent of HC did it) I believe Spags has made some progress talent wise where hopefully our defense looks totally different for 2013. Maybe I wont have to see Harper and Jenkins at Safety or Shanle at LB.

Ashley

Not one stands out at all, maybe Cam is the only one who has improved. The rest just suck

CharityMike

Other than Cam maybe Corey White. He started off ruff but really started to get it before his injury.

darstep

...and a lot of the improvements were just personal growth and maturity.
Especially when you are talking about and 2nd year Jordan or Corey White.
Our carry over veterans were just terrible. Invasion of the body snatchers.
All of those guys seemed to take a step back: Greer lost 2 steps, we knew
Harper couldn't cover, Jenkins missed more tackles than the law allows,
Ellis just hasn't panned out, Smith well..., Vilma's injuries have taken away
his speed and leverage, the two Patricks were just average.
For players to continuously improve, the defense has to gel.
The players need to know where everyone else is on the field.
They looked to be in total disarray this year; out of position, blown coverages.
Other times just unable to recover from being one step late.
It all looks that much worse when this one-wheel wagon is being dragged
along behind our offense.

**SaintSince67**

xan

Maybe we should just throw out 2012 and chalk it up to chance. Bad Karma, a bad system and uncoordinated personnel rendered any systematic or opportunistic coaching of technique useless.

Payton had better factor in coaching highly rather than strategy exclusively in his criteria for his new defensive staff.