Jay, you know you have me painted into a corner

by Busco21, Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 00:09 (6076 days ago) @ Jay
edited by Busco21, Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 10:44

on this one. I try very hard to never say a bad word about a ND player.

Bruton not only played his ass off for ND, he was even coached in HS by one of my college teammates. When I brought this up to David at a practice, he immediately lit up, and talked about my buddy with nothing but praise.

Also, as a fellow member of the "oops, I have a child on the way" club, I can't say enough about him as a human being. From everything I've heard, he is doing his best in this very, very difficult situation.

He is an amazing athlete. My hope is he'll have a very nice career in the NFL as a special teamer and find his way into the starting lineup somewhere on D.

But no, he wasn't an instinctual FS. He was incredibly opportunistic, which can either mean he was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time, or he has instincts I didn't see and took advantage of them (I'm obviously talking about fumbles forced and fumbles recovered). But when it comes to INT's and passes defensed, the FS in Tenuta's defense can make out like a bandit.

I played in a conservative, let's call it a "Minter-esque" defense in college. I knew I had about one or two chances per game to steal a pick. The FS in Tenuta's defense will get multiple chances. I know you've read me harping about experience at the FS position. This simply can't be underestimated. It's exactly like the QB position on offense. Once a FS sees enough, experiences enough, the lines start to intersect. He'll break on a route before the QB even throws it. It's a beautiful thing. It makes him an AA.

I don't have high hopes for our FS position this year, simply because it will be a first year starter. However, if the player grabs several picks, we'll know we have something.

Once the kid has played FS for a year, I expect big time production. Any FS who is instinctual and has a ton of game experience should wake up each Saturday morning in the fall planning his INT celebration moves after each pick he's going to get. And if he's cool, he'll spread his arms out wide to the opposing crowd and finger roll the ball like Dr J.

Sorry, I had a flashback. LOL

Edit: I hope everyone realized the last two sentences were tongue in cheek. I look back on those days and realize what a complete tool I was.