University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Defense Forces The Issue Saturday
8/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
|
| By Stephen Howard, August 14, 2010 - 10:58 a.m. |
A crushing hit from safety DaWaylon Cook on receiver Michael Outlaw typified the day for the Mean Green defense. Outlaw, who was trying to spring a block for his scrambling quarterback, was sent to the Fouts Field turf in a heap by the hard-hitting junior.
It was just one meaningless hit on a harmless roll out, but it showed the attitude that the defense, and especially the secondary, has brought into fall camp. Their mindset: It's time to force the issue for a defense that was one of the nation's worst at producing turnovers last year.
Head coach Todd Dodge and his staff have made flipping the turnover ratio their top priority entering '10. NT ranked No. 117 in turnover ratio last year, and that simply must change for the Mean Green to win.
While the Mean Green defense only forced two turnovers in the Saturday morning scrimmage (a fortuitous pick from Daniel Prior off a receiver's face mask, and a Robbie Gordon INT off Riley Dodge's shoulder pads), it created havoc for the offense, limiting the O to few touchdowns in the 100-play affair - one of which came in a situational bad field position start.
We saw a pair of sacks from John Weber, a ton of pass breakups and several tackles for loss. The linebackers, one of the "weaker" areas of the squad on paper, performed admirably, especially late in the drill.
If there was a weakness that the NT defense showed it was in the running game. Lance Dunbar looked sharp, and James Hamilton broke loose for a nice 30-yarder of his own. But our running game is bound to bust loose, even against some of the nation's top squads.
Overall, the defense kept the NT offense from racking up first downs, and had this been a real game, would have put its team in position to win. That's all you can ask from a defense.
In my opinion, if this defense can show up every Saturday night this fall the Mean Green will be a tough squad to beat, especially if Cook and the secondary keep rearranging chin straps like they did today.
