Pro Football Focus All American, All Big Ten teams (Coney Durr first team Big Ten)


Durr has turned out to be extremely solid. I knew that he was going to be good when he stepped up in the Holiday Bowl a few years back when our secondary was all injured and suspended. I'm surprised that PFF has him as first team all Big Ten though.

It's awesome that Ibrahim continues to get so much love. It's ridiculous how much talent we have at running back.

Coughlin should at least be on the second team.
 

Durr is actually PFF’s highest graded returning Big Ten corner.


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Also Bateman, Conner Olson and Chris Williamson are honorable mentions.
 

Also Bateman, Conner Olson and Chris Williamson are honorable mentions.

At the end of the season there are more likely to be 12 than these 7. These is looking like it should be a season to remember. Should Morgen pick up where he left off he is a serious factor.
 


Durr is one of those guys nobody notices, because he’s not giving up big plays and opposing offenses aren’t throwing his way much. But the numbers cited by PFF speak for themselves. He doesn’t get mentioned often as an NFL prospect, but that probably needs to change.

They tweeted this about Durr today too.


https://twitter.com/pff_college/status/1162049581854732290?s=21

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Durr is one of those guys nobody notices, because he’s not giving up big plays and opposing offenses aren’t throwing his way much. But the numbers cited by PFF speak for themselves. He doesn’t get mentioned often as an NFL prospect, but that probably needs to change.

They tweeted this about Durr today too.


https://twitter.com/pff_college/status/1162049581854732290?s=21

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We should call him the Silent Assassin.
 

Durr is one of those guys nobody notices, because he’s not giving up big plays and opposing offenses aren’t throwing his way much. But the numbers cited by PFF speak for themselves. He doesn’t get mentioned often as an NFL prospect, but that probably needs to change.

They tweeted this about Durr today too.


https://twitter.com/pff_college/status/1162049581854732290?s=21

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Durr definitely gave up some big plays in the Nebraska game on the first long Ozigbo TD when he lost contain and in the OSU game when he got beat for a 40 yard TD pass. I think there were a few more, maybe from the IU but those two really stuck out to me.

I don't really recall Kiondre Thomas on the other hand getting picked on or giving up big plays.
 

Durr definitely gave up some big plays in the Nebraska game on the first long Ozigbo TD when he lost contain and in the OSU game when he got beat for a 40 yard TD pass. I think there were a few more, maybe from the IU but those two really stuck out to me.

I don't really recall Kiondre Thomas on the other hand getting picked on or giving up big plays.

Thanks die hard gopher for this refreshing update.
 



Durr definitely gave up some big plays in the Nebraska game on the first long Ozigbo TD when he lost contain and in the OSU game when he got beat for a 40 yard TD pass. I think there were a few more, maybe from the IU but those two really stuck out to me.

I don't really recall Kiondre Thomas on the other hand getting picked on or giving up big plays.

I don't think we can judge a Gopher defenders performance from the Robb Smith era.
 

I've heard it said that CB play is one of the easiest positions to grade accurately. Some positions it can be hard because it's unclear what they were supposed to do on the play. With a CB it's usually quite clear. So Durr must be sneaky awesome and up for a big year.
 

I don't think we can judge a Gopher defenders performance from the Robb Smith era.

I agree.

Under Smith, everybody on defense looked slow and hopeless. Then, suddenly, all the players who had at first looked good (under Claeys/Sawvell) and then looked slow and hopeless (under Smith) played really well again under Rossi. They all seemed to be playing faster.

The scuttlebutt was that they had had to think too much when playing Smith's system, which slowed their reaction time and made everyone appear to be playing poorly.

It will be interesting to see how this defense performs in 2019. If they play as well as they did after the coaching change, we'll be a formidable team in this season.
 
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I agree.

Under Smith, everybody on defense looked slow and hopeless. Then, suddenly, all the players who had at first looked good (under Claeys/Sawvell) and then looked slow and hopeless (under Smith) played really well again under Rossi. They all seemed to be playing faster.

The scuttlebutt was that they had had to think too much when playing Smith's system, which slowed their reaction time and made everyone appear to be playing poorly.

It will be interesting to see how this defense performs in 2019. If they play as well as they did after the coaching change, we'll be a formidable team in this season.

Let's hope that it was all the fault of one man.
 


Or all the fault of an overly complex system.

Perhaps, but have you ever noticed that this is the refrain every time a coordinator is replaced or an existing coordinator resets? They always say the same thing. "We simplified things so the guys could play faster and not have to think." There must be some truth to this as you hear it a lot, but there is obviously not a universal truth to it otherwise everyone would run vanilla simple defenses and offenses. The truth is that simplifying things works well as short term answer, but over the course of time extremely simplified defense or offense is easy to game plan against and also difficult to make in game adjustments for as you only have and practice base schemes.

The key will be whether this defense can play like they did the last 3 games now that they will inevitably have to use and implement more complex schemes.
 

Perhaps, but have you ever noticed that this is the refrain every time a coordinator is replaced or an existing coordinator resets? They always say the same thing. "We simplified things so the guys could play faster and not have to think." There must be some truth to this as you hear it a lot, but there is obviously not a universal truth to it otherwise everyone would run vanilla simple defenses and offenses. The truth is that simplifying things works well as short term answer, but over the course of time extremely simplified defense or offense is easy to game plan against and also difficult to make in game adjustments for as you only have and practice base schemes.

The key will be whether this defense can play like they did the last 3 games now that they will inevitably have to use and implement more complex schemes.

You don't change overnight like that without there being serious issues with the scheme. The talent was always there but Smith's unworkable scheme and his leadership style Robbed those guys of a breakout season. No question in my mind.

As I think PE pointed out after the Purdue smackdown, it probably was present in 2017 (especially the B2B shutouts) as well but the ultraconservative offense and Year Zero approach probably masked it.
 

As I think PE pointed out after the Purdue smackdown, it probably was present in 2017 (especially the B2B shutouts) as well but the ultraconservative offense and Year Zero approach probably masked it.

Oh please. In 2017, the starters at WR for the Wisconsin game were Eric Carter, Philip Howard (now a CB), and Will Reger (1 career catch). They only started two WR's against NW, Carter and Howard, with Wozniak (Trying to play tackle in the NFL) replacing Reger. Throw in a bad OL and Croft (now in the FCS) at QB, it's amazing people still wonder why we couldn't move the ball against two very good defenses.
 

Oh please. In 2017, the starters at WR for the Wisconsin game were Eric Carter, Philip Howard (now a CB), and Will Reger (1 career catch). They only started two WR's against NW, Carter and Howard, with Wozniak (Trying to play tackle in the NFL) replacing Reger. Throw in a bad OL and Croft (now in the FCS) at QB, it's amazing people still wonder why we couldn't move the ball against two very good defenses.

All Croft’s fault, duh. Really a perfect storm of factors from coaches, injuries, personnel. I wonder how either of ZA or TM would have fared in the 2017 offense.
 

All Croft’s fault, duh. Really a perfect storm of factors from coaches, injuries, personnel. I wonder how either of ZA or TM would have fared in the 2017 offense.

Where did I say it was all Croft's fault? Don't we still have the same offensive coaches now?
 

All Croft’s fault, duh. Really a perfect storm of factors from coaches, injuries, personnel. I wonder how either of ZA or TM would have fared in the 2017 offense.

He never said it was all Croft’s fault - just the usual deflection of any statement (“year zero approach”) that could possibly be considered a shot at PJ. It was 0% on PJ - that is all we know for sure.


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He never said it was all Croft’s fault - just the usual deflection of any statement (“year zero approach”) that could possibly be considered a shot at PJ. It was 0% on PJ - that is all we know for sure.


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I never said any of that either. Your lies continue...
 


The current ‘Hole religion is that Robb Smith ruined the Gophers in 2017 and 2018, and if not for him those two years would’ve been straight continuations of 2016.

I should know, I was one of the originators of the idea (guess) that Rossi simplified the scheme and allowed the players to play faster on defense.


We will see. Rossi has been a Dcoord before, at Rutgers, and it’s not like he changed the college football world forever. Rutgers is a tough (impossible?) place to win, though, and there’s only so much you can do before you have to be fired if you don’t win.

Hey, I hope we continue right on from the end of 2018 and win 9+ this regular season.

Don’t think it will happen. Think a lot of folks will be brought back down to earth. But I do think they’ll continue improving, taking steps forward, and building momentum.
 
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I never said any of that either. Your lies continue...

Your entire post was objecting (“oh please”) to the idea the offensive and year zero approaches were the factors. Instead you offered up 6 players and an entire position group. Have an opinion and stick to it. You are so transparent.


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The current ‘Hole religion is that Robb Smith ruined the Gophers in 2017 and 2018, and if not for him those two years would’ve been straight continuations of 2016.

I should know, I was one of the originators of the idea (guess) that Rossi simplified the scheme and allowed the players to play faster on defense.


We will see. Rossi has been a Dcoord before, at Rutgers, and it’s not like he changed the college football world forever. Rutgers is a tough (impossible?) place to win, though, and there’s only so much you can do before you have to be fired if you don’t win.

Hey, I hope we continue right on from the end of 2018 and win 9+ this regular season.

Don’t think it will happen. Think a lot of folks will be brought back down to earth. But I do think they’ll continue improving, taking steps forward, and building momentum.

Agree with this. The idea that a schematic shift accounted for that big of a change in results is unrealistic.
 




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