Secondary concerns

[GrapevineMustang]

The UTEP game made me nervous. A week after we were congratulating our young secondary for its fine performance against Kansas, they looked ... uh ... less than fine against the Miners. Missed tackles hurt, and there were several times it looked like we blew coverage assignments -- there were too many open UTEP receivers. That Lee Mays kid is good, but it's not like we were facing Florida or Florida State, teams that trot out a stable of 6-4 guys who can run like the wind. We need a MUCH better performance against N.C. State.

One other factor was that when I was watching the game, I don't think I heard the names of Kevin Aldridge and Markus Pratt all night. We need to get more pressure from the defensive line, or the young DB's will get bombarded again.

Good luck this week, Mustangs!

[Pack Traveler]

You will have the opportunity to find out quite a bit about your secondary this weekend. We put the ball in the air constantly (over 100 passes in two games), so the DB's will be busy. Our QB, a true freshman, leads the nation in total offense, and our top receiver is 6th in the country in both receptions per game and yards per game. I will admit that these numbers have been posted against less than stellar defenses, but the numbers are still impressive.

Good luck in Raleigh this weekend, but just not enough to win. It should be a shootout.

[ALL4SMU]

I am anticipating a total shootout. It will be a great test for our secondary, one I hope they can pass. Time will tell

[ALL4SMU]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but did anyone else think that Rushbrook played a pretty good game against UTEP. I mean he really got tested, and as far as freshman go, I thought he played really, really well. The play that sticks out in my mind was when they were at our ten yard line, and they throught a pass to their big, stud tight end. Rushbrook stepped up and cracked him, making him drop the ball. It was a really great play.

[Wolfen91]

We (NCSU) have the same issues in the secondary that you do.

We lost both of our CB's to the NFL after last year and we dismissed one of our starters from the team for a violation of U policy at the start of fall practice.

One of our CB's was named "most improved receiver" at the spring game. He just got yanked for another guy who is a soph or FR-R.

there should be a lot of points scored on Sat.

-W