Miners Defensive Line

[kyyote]

I remember when we were using a three five defense, the linemen were supposed to tie up the opposing offensive linemen so the linebackers could make plays.  I say that to make it clear that stats about tackles, like all statistics can be misleading.  But, when looking at rankings for sacks it doesn't matter who wasn't making the tackles UTEP was horrible.  Maybe horrible is too easy on them. We also know that there are lots of factors that go into getting those sacks.  So, I figured I would just bring you some information.  Here is the team stats for the defense last season;

## Defensive Leaders gp-gs ua a tot tfl/yds no-yds int-yds brup qbh rcv-yds ff kick saf       16 Alvin Jones 10-8 44 49 93 6.0-28 2.5-22 . 1 . . . . .       45 Dante Lovilotte 12-12 38 51 89 6.5-18 0.5-7 . 3 4 . 1 . .       36 Nick Usher 12-12 35 42 77 8.0-41 5.5-31 . 2 5 . . 1 .       27 Devin Cockrell 12-12 31 27 58 3.0-8 . . 1 1 1-0 . . .       20 Nik Needham 12-12 28 26 54 2.0-3 . . 11 . . . . .       2S Dashone Smith 12-12 25 28 53 . . 2-7 3 . . . . .       55 Mike Sota 12-9 12 35 47 2.5-4 . . 1 2 . . . .         1 Kalon Beverly 10-8 24 17 41 . . 1-0 6 . . . . .         3 Jayson VanHook 12-9 17 19 36 5.5-18 1.0-2 . . . . . . .       56 Sky Logan 12-4 12 22 34 2.5-6 0.5-2 . 3 . 1-27 . . .       24 Brendan Royal 12-0 14 19 33 1.5-8 . 1-12 3 . . . . .       54 Silas Firstley 12-7 13 20 33 2.5-5 1.0-1 . . 1 . . . .       97 Brian Madunezim 12-6 6 26 32 1.0-10 1.0-10 . . 4 . 1 . .       63 Gino Bresolin 10-10 8 17 25 . . . . 2 . . . .       33 Lawrence Montegut 12-0 12 12 24 1.5-5 0.5-4 . . 2 1-0 . 1 .            23 Justin Rogers 11-4 10 7 17 . . 1-26 7 1 1-0 1 . .       8J Johnny Jones 11-0 4 9 13 . . . . . . . . .       49 Gene Hopkins 10-5 10 3 13 3.0-17 1.0-11 . . . . 1 . .       44 Cooper Foster 12-0 4 7 11 . . . . . . . . .   99 Chris Richardson 12-2 4 17 21 . . . 1 . . . . .       39 Kolbi McGary 10-0 8 1 9 . . 1-2 1 . . . . .       95 Denzel Chukwukelu 7-0 4 4 8 . . . . 2 . . . .       66 Christian Harper 12-0 . 7 7 . . . . . . . . .       12 Adrian Hynson 12-0 1 4 5 . . . . . . . . .       84 Luke Elsner 3-0 3 2 5 . . . . . . . . .       1S Devin Simmons 6-0 2 2 4 . . . . . . . . .         5 Leon Hayes 12-0 2 2 4 . . . . . . . . .       43 Makana Fraser 3-0 1 2 3 . . . . . . . . .       52 Dylan Parsee 10-0 1 2 3 . . . . 1 . . . .         9 Jaquan White 12-0 2 1 3 . . . . . . . . .       34 Stephen Forester 3-0 1 2 3 . . . . . . . . .         6 Brandon Moss 11-0 3 . 3 . . . . . . . . .       85 Hayden Plinke 12-12 2 . 2 . . . . . . . . .       14 Alex Jean Charles 5-0 2 . 2 . . . . . . . . .      7W Curtez Woods 2-0 2 . 2 . . . . . . . . .       98 Foster Dixson 6-0 . 2 2 0.5-4 0.5-4 . . . . . . .       67 Anthony Kyles 8-1 . 1 1 . . . . . . . . .       15 Darrin Laufasa 12-12 . 1 1 . . . . . . . . .       10 Warren Redix 12-6 . 1 1 . . . . . . . . .       18 Jerrell Brown 4-0 1 . 1 . . . . . . . . .       47 Jay Mattox 12-0 1 . 1 . . . . . . . . .       29 Aaron Jones 12-12 . 1 1 . . . . . . . . .       83 Tyler Batson 11-0 . . . . . . . . . . 1 .        7 Kavika Johnson 12-1 . . . . . . 1 . . . . .                      TM TEAM 8-0 . . . . . . . . 1-0 . . .                             Total 12 387 488 875 46-175 14-94 6-47 44 25 5-27 4 3 .                     Opponents 12 406 378 784 72-345 22-186 8-165 45 30 8-63 9 2

I know this post is about the d-line, but I may have to put it up in two posts. Nick Usher is gone on.  The next d-lineman on the list is Mike Sota and he returns as a Senior. Then, Sky Logan is the next returning lineman on the list.  Silas Firstly has moved on as has Madunezum and Bresolin. Chris Richardson is a returning Red Shirt Sophomore as is Gene Hopkins. Chukwukelu (S) is next.  Harper was a Senior last year.  Now that you have that to chew on, I will give you the info on the d-linemen themselves in Part 2.

[UTEPDefense]

I wonder if there has been any improvement at UTEP historically, when a team enters it's second season in new defensive system, compared to the first year?  Just looking for some different reasons for hope.  I know that UTEP wasn't very good in it's first year under Stoker, but did better in the second year?  We then had Patterson, Lewis, Hundley, and Reffet as DC's in the past 15 years or so that maybe could also serve as year two case studies as well.

[SisyphusMiner]

That would be interesting.  Also, if we say a head coach should have 4-5 years to bring in "his players", theoretically so should an OC or DC.  How many have we had that survived long enough to have "their players"?

I would also say that over the last 40 years or so our defense has been weaker than our offense.  The few times the defense was OK we had reasonable success.

[kyyote]

To me, the even simpler question is why have we historically not been able to play defense.  I was always of the mind that offensive linemen were the key to success and the number of them available of real high quality was limited.  But, I have to say that perhaps it is the defensive linemen that are hard to find.  BUT, I have also listened to DC's talk about their schemes, filling gaps, using linebackers up on the line, and all kinds of shit-none of which worked, by the way.  Our entire offensive philosophy is built on not having to have our defense exposed by being on the field. 

A thought just flashed through my mind.  Why don't we just play back off on defense.  Give the other team all of the four yard runs they want, but no long passes or plays.  Force them to burn up clock.  We are really good at it.  What if they couldn't score on us in the blink of an eye.   Make it grind against grind.  We are good at that.  Just a thought.

[SisyphusMiner]

Your response fired a couple random neurons.

I don't have the time to verify stats to back this up, but I am thinking we might be able to link our successful seasons to having standout D linemen.  What were our records during the years we had Tolbert, Young, or another total stud on D line?

I think the strategy you propose is essentially what we did during "the game" where we beat BYU.  We rushed two and dropped everyone else back.

[kyyote]

That does ring a foggy bell.  If it was good enough to beat BYU it should be good enough to beat lots of teams we play. 

[UTEPDefense]

Just an FYI, you can actually watch most of that 1997 win against BYU on YouTube.  It is broken up into quarters.  Here is the link to the first quarter:

[UTEPDefense]

Here is a newer article posted today by SWC Round Up about our defensive line:

https://swcroundup.com/news/2017/8/19/uteps-young-defensive-line-looks-to-surprise?utm_content=buffer10ab3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[kyyote]

Part 2

I found 14 defensive linemen listed on UTEP's site.  My first impression was that we are young.  We have 6 returning players with experience. Five of the six started games.  Junior Mike Sota started 9, RS SO Hopkins started 5, SO Sky Logan 4, and Chris Richardson 2, and Chukwukelu played. Duke Elsner started two games.

These are the rest;


Christian Johnson
Height 6-2
Weight 230
Class Redshirt Freshman
Letters 0
Hometown El Paso, Texas
Highschool Parkland HS


50
Jimmy Quemado
Height 5-11
Weight 260
Class Sophomore
Letters 0
Hometown Honolulu, Hawai'i
Highschool St. Louis HS

84
Luke Elsner
Height 6-4
Weight 240
Class Junior
Letters 2 2016 (JUNIOR): Saw action in the final three games (two starts) after missing the first nine contests due to injury … registered five tackles … tallied a pair of stops at Rice … recorded three tackles during a season finale victory against North Texas.
Hometown Seymour, Wis.
Highschool Seymour HS

85
Sani Buckingham
Height 6-4
Weight 290
Class Sophomore
Letters 1
Hometown El Paso, Texas
Highschool Home School

90
Keith Sullivan
Height 6-7
Weight 260
Class Freshman
Letters 0
Hometown Aldine, Texas
Highschool Davis HS

92
Christian Buckingham
Height 6-4
Weight 280
Class Junior
Letters 0
Hometown El Paso, Texas
Highschool Hawaii

95
Trace Mascorro
Height 6-1
Weight 270
Class Freshman
Letters 0
Hometown Refugio, Texas
Highschool Refugio

97
Josh Ortega
Height 6-2
Weight 285
Class Freshman
Letters 0
Hometown El Paso, Texas
Highschool Montwood HS

98
Jerron Brooks
Height 6-0
Weight 295
Class Freshman
Letters 0
Hometown Seagoville, Texas
Prev School Midwestern State

99
Chris Richardson
Height 6-3
Weight 300
Class Redshirt Sophomore
Letters 1  Played in all 12 games, starting the final two contests … named to Conference USA All-Freshman team after registering 21 tackles (four solo) and a pass breakup
Hometown Oak Hills, Calif.
Highschool Oak Hills HS


So there is information for you to chew on.  We are young but have some experience.  We have lost most of the experienced players that anchored the damned near worst defense in the country.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  The article talks about lining up and running to the ball, and how either the players didn't understand the system or were uninspired.  Either of those two reasons is just flat out horseshit!  How fucking confusing is it to run to the ball?  How confusing is it to not let your man get behind you?  How fucking complicated is the system that college students can't understand it?  And if it is, are our players stupid or is it too fucking complicated?  Excuses, excuses, excuses.  Year after year, decade after decade. MY final question is what is different this year from last year?  That is going to make the defense a decent defense?

[KiddMiner]

Sigh.........

"Year after year, decade after decade. MY final question is what is different this year from last year?" 

The defense has always been our Achilles heel which is why I enjoyed CMPs teams, they always put up points and that was fun even though in the long run it didn't pay off. My hope is CKugs and staff can turn it around.

Pick Up!!

GO MINERS!!!

[SisyphusMiner]

I looked at some statistics over the last 25 years for UTEP.  Basically they show that if we have a top 40 offense (scoring) we can probably win 4 or more games, even with a bad D.  We don't have any years with a top 50 defense (scoring )so its hard to learn anything there.  It does look like a top 40 offense combined with a top 75 or so defense does well.

I wasn't able to find a really good site for historical statistics that were easy to grab.  if you know of a site that has sortable data let me know.

Otherwise I will try to glean what I can for any meaningful data as time permits.

[kyyote]

It has always seemed to me that Head Coaches who are Offensive minded use their defense as a tool to beat on.  The defense is the foil.  The Miners defense spends its time going against Kugler's running game.  He beats on them with the run.  So, they get a passing team and they aren't even practiced at stopping the bombs.

Price started with the premise that he was going to score on the other team.  At least it was a shootout.  We seemed to always have a chance. You score, we score.  Kugler's thinking is we will hold the ball so that you can't score as much.  The trouble is, we can't sustain the long drives and can be scored on in one or two plays. So, we fall behind and then go to the panic mode of passing even though we don't even practice it.  It gets worse.  Kugler seems to concede the defense will just always be shitty, so don't let them on the field.  Do you think Nick Saban thinks the best way to win is not let your shitty defense take the field?

[SisyphusMiner]

I'm considering the theory that it is a lot easier to build a really good offense than a really good defense.  One or two extremely talented players at RB, QB and/or WR can make a team explosive.  I don't think it's the same for defense.  The Brian Young years had a pretty crappy defense.  I am guessing that we have turned out at least as many NFL defensive players as offensive, and yet our defenses have been consistently bad.

Arguably if CMP had not essentially completely ignored the defense he could have had a lot more success.

If, as I think is the consensus, Kug is doing a better job at building overall depth particularly on the lines, it may be the case that all he has to do is open up the offense and pick up a few studs.  Of course he doesn't show much interest in doing either of those things.

[kyyote]

Ranking in order of difficulty to recruit;

#5 D-Linemen
#4 Tight Ends
#3 Cornerbacks
#2 Quarterbacks
 Drum roll please, and
#1 Offensive Linemen

Good read here on building offenses and building defenses.  It is for the NFL but it applies.

https://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2016/7/17/12207390/offense-vs-defense-which-is-harder-to-build-in-todays-nfl

[Chanson]

What is different is we have size on the line. Anyone can fall & plug a hole. I'm not sure how athletic the D line is, but the linebackers can make up for that. In combo with Kuglar winning the minutes battle, we can hopefully frustrate some teams.
A good theory is if our D is slightly better, we can win 2 more games.