Defensive Coordinator Van Malone

[Charleston Pony]

You either have speed or you end up chasing it. Our D simply does not have the same talent we now have on the offensive side of the ball...by design if you are paying attention to how Chad Morris is building this program. I just hope he sticks around to finish the job.

[JasonB]

I didn't see us getting beat for speed. Or being pancaked on blocks. I saw a really bad angle for one touchdown and a ton of missed tackles. A ton of missed tackles, for the second straight game, that went for long gains or touchdowns. Clemons had guys squared up and hit them hard and let them bounce off at least twice on big plays. Mixon should be embarrassed for turning his back like that instead of just hammering through Postma on the sideline. Mistakes happen in college football, but this is absurd.

[SMUer]

Same issues against TCU...weΓÇÖll be exposed by all average-or-above teams...weΓÇÖll at least more-so that the bad teams have troubled us.

[smusic 00]

Yes

[RGV Pony]

D frustrated me as well, but I still didnt think 35 would beat us

[Nacho]

D is killing us. We need an experienced d coordinator. And bench those guys who couldn't tackle their grandmother.

[redpony]

We only have 4 problems on D- coaching, scheme, technique and players. Oh well, this is SMU what can you expect.

[Pony Boss]

We only have 4 problems on D- coaching, scheme, technique and players. Oh well, this is SMU what can you expect.

Those are pretty much the key parts of any defense. Are you saying they are junk?
We lost because SMU couldnΓÇÖt score in the redzone, a kicker that misses field goals and right when they have a chance to win they throw the ball away...4 times.

[MV pony]

So no operational offense, degense or kicking. Different year, same result.

[redpony]

We only have 4 problems on D- coaching, scheme, technique and players. Oh well, this is SMU what can you expect.

Those are pretty much the key parts of any defense. Are you saying they are junk?
We lost because SMU couldnΓÇÖt score in the redzone, a kicker that misses field goals and right when they have a chance to win they throw the ball away...4 times.

with respect I disagree. cougar high absolutely gashed us with their running and then some of their passes. Catalan had a field day. yes, our O didn't do us any favors but that might change someday when we have a qb that looks at all receivers instead of locking in on one and staring him down.

[SMU_Alum11]

Just gonna bring this back up... time for changes to happen..

Hahaha yeah we canΓÇÖt afford a top tier defensive coach. Maybe Fatterson will lend us a hand?

A 14 year old with Madden could do better than Van Malone.

I love it. Best comment ever.

[footballdad]

According to the Stallion theory, Malone is great, just need to wait until next year for the D to magically transform. Morris recruits like Christian Davis, Clemons, Onu, and Sutton will become good players next year. You just wait and watch, he's never wrong. If not next year, the following year.

[Stallion]

the only one of those that I really touted in high school was Onu-he's the best of the bunch. Progressing fine for a true Sophomore. Christian Davis and Sutton are perfect examples of guys we dropped down to get only after our targets committed elsewhere. Sutton had like 1 other offer. Davis was a little bit more highly recruited. He'll end up being decent-but again not really seeing Championship level talent at DB. I see only moderate improvement on defense-kind of like last year--I never predicted anything else despite BitterFootballDad whose son couldn't cut it

[footballdad]

Haha, hilarious how you're now dropping little excuse nuggets for the Morris rebuild plan out to 2 years, when all along it was next year, based on all your genius recruiting analysis.

Just give it up. You know nothing more or less than anyone else, including a monkey throwing darts at a board.

We know, you're never wrong, just have to constantly change your current predictions to cover for the predictions gone bad. Blind squirrels find nuts too

[Mexmustang]

Is Malone qualified to be a DC? I don't know, this is his first DC job, he has had many other jobs at a number of colleges and high schools, but never as a DC. Basically he is a defensive backs coach which is generally far down the pecking order of defensive coaches. This is where you put your youngest coaches, your strong recruiters that are weak coaches, or just filling out your staff. Almost his entire experience has been as a defensive backs coach. Love him or hate him, Mason had a great deal of experience as a DC. He even gave clinics every year to a couple of SEC teams on the 3-4. He realized early on, that a school like SMU wasn't going to get the number top defensive lineman needed in a 4-3 -- he changed. He constantly schemed to cover up the team's shortcomings. During the game he quickly changed his schemes. When we were healthy, and we had time to heal in the three bowl games we won, we looked pretty good, not the team we are seeing today. These games were played against some top QB's that later became starters in the NFL and he made them look bad.