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Maybe a lack of talent is to blame for some of our recent ills but its interesting to see the decline on the defenisve side of the ball after Bennett and Gush took over for Cavan & Co.

2001 NCAA Rankings (out of 115 D-I teams) - Cavan's last season
Total Defense 22
Pass Defense 35
Run Defense 30
Scoring Defense 69/115
out of 115 teams

2002 - 2007 NCAA Rankings
Total Defense - 86, 73, 113, 70, 75, 114
Pass Defense - 97, 67, 103, 89, 110, 113 (Gush "coaches" D-Backs)
Run Defense - 63, 69, 104, 48, 24, 90
Scoring Defense - 90, 92, 111, 57, 71, 109

The Defensive Coaching Juggernaut of Jim Gush and Phil Bennett posted a statistically better team than Cavan's last season on exactly two occasions. The 24th ranked Run Defense in 2006 was one. But with the 110th ranked Pass D why bother running the ball.

PonyFanBCLA wrote:Maybe a lack of talent is to blame for some of our recent ills but its interesting to see the decline on the defenisve side of the ball after Bennett and Gush took over for Cavan & Co.

2001 NCAA Rankings (out of 115 D-I teams) - Cavan's last season
Total Defense 22
Pass Defense 35
Run Defense 30
Scoring Defense 69/115
out of 115 teams

2002 - 2007 NCAA Rankings
Total Defense - 86, 73, 113, 70, 75, 114
Pass Defense - 97, 67, 103, 89, 110, 113 (Gush "coaches" D-Backs)
Run Defense - 63, 69, 104, 48, 24, 90
Scoring Defense - 90, 92, 111, 57, 71, 109

The Defensive Coaching Juggernaut of Jim Gush and Phil Bennett posted a statistically better team than Cavan's last season on exactly two occasions. The 24th ranked Run Defense in 2006 was one. But with the 110th ranked Pass D why bother running the ball.

This is blasphemy...the great and all known Gelding will tell you the defense has been injured, so it is no their fault. The players have not done their jobs, so you cannot blame the coaches. I mean, if Gelding says it, it must be true.

Thanks by the way....love to see that the stats prove it...although some like to call like they see it...even if only they see it.

Not saying that our defense has been fantastic by any stretch of the imagination...

But the comparison is skewed a bit by the fact that Cavan ran a ball-control, run oriented, eat up the clock offense, so our D wasn't on the field nearly as long.

Wow...Ball control...run the clock....what novel concepts.