Is this Joe Rossi defense the real deal, or will an off-season give folks time?

BleedGopher

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per Off Tackle Empire:

Is this Joe Rossi defense the real deal, or will an off-season give folks time to figure the Gophers out?

Jesse: I think it’s probably somewhere in the middle, right? Like, the Gopher defense definitely did better after the change, but I have to believe some of that could not have just been on the coordinator. Otherwise, holy hell is the head coach not paying attention at all. I mean, I watched the Nebraska game. Devine Ozigbo ran away from defenders all day and you cannot convince me that is still not somewhat of an indictment on what the tension between success and failure really is.


Ok, that said, I think you could see Minnesota in the top half of defense in the Big Ten. Part of their problem - hopefully for them - is that they could be on the field a lot because their offense is moving pretty fast and might be really successful. More possessions for the opponent could cause some statistical anomalies even if they are that good. So yeah, top half but maybe better than that.

Boilerman31: The element of surprise will be gone. Teams should know what to expect of Minnesota’s defense this year. That said, the contrast between the Illinois and Purdue games was quite striking.

As for the most noteworthy foreign born recruit. Umm, well, football doesn’t really have any that come to mind. I guess if we’re going foreign, we’re going basketball and Matt Haarms. Oh, that glorious hair.

MNW: I keep wanting to say Carter Coughlin will get figured out, but I thought Paddy Fisher would get figured out, too, and he just keeps on rolling. As for Joe Rossi...the rest of the Big Ten has now had an off-season to watch tape of his defenses, and we’ll see if it’s as simple, as WSR suggested this morning, as just “Do your job, and you’ll succeed.”

https://www.offtackleempire.com/201...-lineup-dc-joe-rossi-lb-carter-coughlin-elite

Go Gophers!!
 

I wish they could go back and play the Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa game with Rossi at the helm.
 


I’m going with real deal. I think we will be better this year on D.


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I wish they could go back and play the Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa game with Rossi at the helm.

Maryland was the first inckling for me last season that something was amiss on defense. One could argue the last two games on 2017 should have been a wake up call for Fleck. Close to 600 yards rushing in those two games.
 


He earned the job

Having said that his resume doesn't really scream to hire him for such a position.


Maybe just good timing and talent altogether?
 

Our offense doesn't really move that fast...

EXACTLY!

Our offense is physical, ground-n-pound, burn the clock. At least, that's what it was in the Purdue, Wisconsin and Georgia Tech games. Seemed to work quite well in those games.
 

We lost some key pieces but get a couple back and healed (Antoine, Thomas). Safety is a bit of concern depthwise especially with the JUCO backing out and KHH, Beck. The Nevada kid needs to make the second year jump and someone like Sapp or someone we don’t know about yet needs to splash like Antoine did his freshman year.

Lots of talent on paper. Should be decent to good if the new guys are the real deal. I don’t think the last 4 games were a mirage. Prior to the change the guys were playing so, so slow. It was bizarre and obviously horrifying to watch. Slow, missing tackles, dejected body language. Classic snowball collapse. Then someone, Rossi or otherwise lit a fire under the guys, apparently simplified things more to the guy’s abilities and it was like watching a different team.
 

^^^ paralysis by analysis. That’s my hypothesis. Smith made things too hard and loaded the guys’ plates too much with scheme. First step slow because trying to look around and analyze everything. Can’t do that. Rossi comes in, simplifies everything, and let’s the guys pin their ears back. That’s my guess.
 



Maryland was the first inckling for me last season that something was amiss on defense. One could argue the last two games on 2017 should have been a wake up call for Fleck. Close to 600 yards rushing in those two games.
Maryland kicked our ass for two years straight. They are the litmus test, for me, regarding this years defense. I am sick of watching Maryland players make our boys look like a Jr High squad. I keep hoping the squad that defended Wisconsin will be the norm from now on.
 

I don’t think the 2017 game was an a__ kicking? I seem to remember that game as a “shoulda, coulda won” type game.
 

They started their 4th string QB and we didn’t bring pressure all game, couldn’t match up with their receivers and I believe they had their best game of the year versus us. That was a canary in the coal mine we had a huge drop off at DC vs Claeys. The explanation was “team speed” although Maryland struggled mightily vs everyone else.
 

I don’t think the 2017 game was an a__ kicking? I seem to remember that game as a “shoulda, coulda won” type game.

Correct. Super conservative on both sides of the ball. It was painful to watch MD stack the line, leaving 8-10 yards behind the line of scrimmage wide open for easy short passes. Zero adjustments made on offense. Clock management was not good. Head scratching time out.
 



I don’t think the 2017 game was an a__ kicking? I seem to remember that game as a “shoulda, coulda won” type game.
I’ll bet Mr. Winfield is both stoked and nervous (2X) about the Maryland game. We weren’t the same in either the ‘17 and ‘18 game without him.
 

They started their 4th string QB and we didn’t bring pressure all game, couldn’t match up with their receivers and I believe they had their best game of the year versus us. That was a canary in the coal mine we had a huge drop off at DC vs Claeys. <b>The explanation was “team speed” </b>although Maryland struggled mightily vs everyone else.

Wasn’t it “talent”? Or was that in 2017?


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^^^ paralysis by analysis. That’s my hypothesis. Smith made things too hard and loaded the guys’ plates too much with scheme. First step slow because trying to look around and analyze everything. Can’t do that. Rossi comes in, simplifies everything, and let’s the guys pin their ears back. That’s my guess.

Agree! It was almost like there was fear to react because they didn't want to make a mistake.
 

I don’t think the 2017 game was an a__ kicking? I seem to remember that game as a “shoulda, coulda won” type game.
It was, but they embarrassed our defense once Winfield went down. As for next year, little concerned at safety, but I think we have a very good front seven. Losing Coughlin, Martin, Barber and probably Winfield if he stays healthy will be tough. I think we will learn more about Rossi in 2020, but clearly an improvement from Smith

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