Latest / FSU Football: Doak Talk / FSU vs New Mexico State: DEFENSE CRISIS for 2026?

Transcript

FSU vs New Mexico State: DEFENSE CRISIS for 2026? · FSU Football: Doak Talk

0:03
Speaker 1: As a DB guy, that was tough to watch. The
0:05
Speaker 1: secondary did not look good at all. I'm not going
0:11
Speaker 1: to say at all. There's a few guys that did
0:12
Speaker 1: play well. I'm going to highlight them. But just overall,
0:15
Speaker 1: the secondary did not look good. Jabril Rawls. Well, we've
0:21
Speaker 1: got to have a come to Jesus moment, boy, and
0:23
Speaker 1: lock in moving forward because that was some bad tape
0:25
Speaker 1: we put out. The touchdown you gave up, like I
0:28
Speaker 1: don't know what real man coverage. I mean, that's the thing.
0:32
Speaker 1: Like these plays are kind of reminiscent to a few
0:35
Speaker 1: plays that just stand out, right? And it kind of
0:39
Speaker 1: turns into the outlook of the game. But that touchdown
0:44
Speaker 1: you gave up, if your eyes are in the backfield,
0:47
Speaker 1: you're guessing what the receiver is doing instead of playing
0:49
Speaker 1: your technique and trusting your eyes or your guy. Well,
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm not saying your eyes because your eyes are in
0:54
Speaker 1: the wrong place, but just your natural talent, right? Eyes
0:57
Speaker 1: are in the wrong place, kind of looking in the backfield,
0:59
Speaker 1: guessing what the receiver is doing, beat you on a
1:03
Speaker 1: mediocre move at the top of the route, end up
1:09
Speaker 1: getting open. It wasn't just that as well. It's a
1:11
Speaker 1: few other third downs that he gave up, one specifically.
1:14
Speaker 1: I think it was like third and eight, he ended
1:16
Speaker 1: up giving up. It was a comeback route or something
1:19
Speaker 1: towards the sideline, made the tackle.
1:22
Speaker 2: And then, of course, he threw more than flames to
1:25
Speaker 2: the fire.
1:26
Speaker 1: More fuel to the fire, rather, excuse me, by after
1:30
Speaker 1: the play picking the dude up, slamming him on his head,
1:33
Speaker 1: 15-yard penalty on top of that, so you give up
1:35
Speaker 1: the eight-yard play, and he had on 15 yards on
1:38
Speaker 1: top of that, and.
1:39
Speaker 2: There was a few other plays that Jabril just didn't
1:41
Speaker 2: look good on.
1:42
Speaker 1: He gave up too many passing plays in situations that
1:46
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been converted at all, right, especially from a
1:50
Speaker 1: yardage standpoint.
1:51
Speaker 2: Um, Quaterius Jones played great, though. He played great. Really good.
1:57
Speaker 1: I love what Q did. And shout out to Q, man.
1:59
Speaker 1: Gotta give Q his flowers, man. Bouncing back from last year.
2:01
Speaker 1: He struggled last year going from Adam Fuller's man-based defense
2:07
Speaker 1: to Tony White's multiple zone-based defense to where you're doing
2:10
Speaker 1: a lot more things, right?
2:11
Speaker 2: And man, it's pretty much cut and dry.
2:13
Speaker 1: It's more of a reaction type of thing and, you know,
2:16
Speaker 1: playing the man, facing that type of deal with zones.
2:19
Speaker 1: As a defensive back, it's a lot more thinking involved.
2:23
Speaker 1: Your eyes have to be distant. You have to look
2:25
Speaker 1: in certain areas. You're looking between from quarterback to receiver,
2:30
Speaker 1: between two and three as well, too. So you have
2:32
Speaker 1: your receiver right in front of you, looking at your
2:34
Speaker 1: quarterback here, looking what two could be doing, what three
2:37
Speaker 1: and two could be doing as far as coming to
2:39
Speaker 1: your zone and what responsibility you have within that play.
2:44
Speaker 2: You have to backpedal, right? You have to be comfortable
2:47
Speaker 2: in your backpedal.
2:47
Speaker 1: We really didn't backpedal too much with Adam Fuller more
2:50
Speaker 1: so with his jamming and in-your-face type of deal. And
2:52
Speaker 1: it's just different techniques that you're using. Also, we still
2:55
Speaker 1: implement a lot of man with Tony White as well, too.
2:57
Speaker 1: So a lot more thinking and using techniques, so to speak, peddling,
3:02
Speaker 1: using your eyes from a zone standpoint. But then he
3:05
Speaker 1: got hurt last year, too, which ended his season completely.
3:09
Speaker 1: Came back focused in the spring, had a hell of
3:11
Speaker 1: an offseason, had a hell of a camp in the
3:14
Speaker 1: work show, right? Made some really good plays downfield, had
3:17
Speaker 1: an interception. A few pass breakups downfield really looked the part.
3:21
Speaker 1: Ashland Barkley played great ball as well, too. Led the
3:24
Speaker 1: team in tackles with eight, if I'm not mistaken. Pretty
3:29
Speaker 1: much showed everything, well, backed up everything I've been hearing
3:31
Speaker 1: about Ashland as far as his leadership and how he's
3:34
Speaker 1: been playing over the summer and that type of deal
3:36
Speaker 1: as well, too. But, yeah, 10 for 17 on third downs.
3:42
Speaker 1: 10 for 17 on third downs. Like, that's not winning football.
3:46
Speaker 1: 10 for 17 on third down. I broke it down
3:49
Speaker 1: a little bit further. I think this is accurate. It
3:51
Speaker 1: may not be 100% accurate. I'm not a great statistician
3:55
Speaker 1: just on the third, but a little bit more digging
3:59
Speaker 1: on that. Third and six and plus, right? Third and
4:02
Speaker 1: six and plus. New Mexico State was eight for 13.
4:05
Speaker 1: I'll repeat that again. New Mexico State was eight for
4:09
Speaker 1: 13 on third and six and plus. That's 61%, man.
4:14
Speaker 1: That's not winning football.
4:16
Speaker 2: You can't.
4:18
Speaker 1: That percentage should be so damn low, 20s and 30s
4:21
Speaker 1: in my opinion. Third and six and plus, that's when
4:23
Speaker 1: you get your bread and butter from a pass rushing standpoint,
4:26
Speaker 1: as a DB standpoint, that type of deal. There's no
4:29
Speaker 1: excuse for that. But I do want to speak about,
4:32
Speaker 1: want to break down this one play specifically. Harlan, let's
4:35
Speaker 1: go ahead and jump it over. And it kind of
4:38
Speaker 1: highlights the little things, right? And how the little things
4:42
Speaker 1: can be big. The little things can turn into big things, right?
4:46
Speaker 1: So this play here, what's the guy's name?
4:51
Speaker 2: Ricky Knight. Ricky Knight ended up giving this touchdown. This
4:53
Speaker 2: is terrible. So let's rewind all the way back from pre-snap.
4:56
Speaker 2: Let's talk about this.
4:59
Speaker 1: And this just isn't terrible about Ricky Knight.
5:00
Speaker 2: This ball here could have been converted by, could.
5:04
Speaker 1: Have been through the four different guys here. All right,
5:07
Speaker 1: so let's go. Let's pause the pre-snap for me, Harmon.
5:08
Speaker 2: Please, if you can't. Ah, shoot.
5:13
Speaker 1: It's not letting us pause since it's live. You will
5:16
Speaker 1: be able to throw that pitch on in the end, though, right?
5:18
Speaker 2: Okay, cool.
5:18
Speaker 1: All right, so we're playing this play. Just look at pre-snap.
5:21
Speaker 1: It's third and two. It's third and two. Third and two.
5:25
Speaker 1: This is a simple damn call by Alan Fuller. You
5:27
Speaker 1: got zero coverage, pretty much what we call in college
5:33
Speaker 1: at Bethune-Cookman, our defensive coordinator called this chainsaw. Zero coverage,
5:36
Speaker 1: you're bringing two backers, right? Third and two, it's a
5:39
Speaker 1: simple play call. It's universally called. A lot of damn universities, right?
5:43
Speaker 1: I do, just speaking on the backers itself, I don't
5:45
Speaker 1: like us blitzing from, if you go I don't like
5:49
Speaker 1: us blitzing from seven to five yards, seven to six
5:56
Speaker 1: yards depth, especially on third and two, right? It's situational football.
6:00
Speaker 1: It's third and two. This is where coaching does come
6:02
Speaker 1: into play, but football smarts come into play as well, too.
6:05
Speaker 1: Linebackers are too damn deep to make that play, to
6:08
Speaker 1: be effective in the blitz. You're seven yards deep as
6:10
Speaker 1: it is. It's third and two. With third and two,
6:12
Speaker 1: the ball is coming out quick. It's quick game. This
6:14
Speaker 1: is where you get your stick routes. Everybody If you
6:17
Speaker 1: look at all three or four of those guys, they
6:20
Speaker 1: ran routes to the sticks.
6:21
Speaker 2: Why?
6:22
Speaker 1: Quick, third and two, that's what you want to do. Boom,
6:27
Speaker 1: all stick routes. So from your linebacker's depth, you've got
6:29
Speaker 1: to creep up more. You've got to creep up more,
6:31
Speaker 1: walk into your blitz a little bit more to throw
6:34
Speaker 1: the quarterback off. Boom, three-step drop from a shotgun. He's
6:39
Speaker 1: catching the ball, taking one. He's reading and he's throwing it.
6:42
Speaker 1: Real easy, reading and throwing it. So you're never going
6:44
Speaker 1: to get it from a linebacker standpoint that deep. You
6:47
Speaker 1: got to walk up in your blitz. Understand the situation
6:49
Speaker 1: of football. It's not third and 15, third and eight,
6:52
Speaker 1: so you have a delay. Blitz is where the quarterback
6:54
Speaker 1: is going through progressions, this, that, and third. You may
6:56
Speaker 1: be able to get there. No, you have to get
6:58
Speaker 1: there fucking quick. Quick as hell, you have to get
7:00
Speaker 1: there right now. It's third and two. Walk up, seven
7:03
Speaker 1: yards deep. You're never going to get there from a
7:04
Speaker 1: linebacker standpoint. From a DB standpoint, oh, my gosh. It's
7:11
Speaker 1: third and two. It is third and two. This is
7:17
Speaker 1: the Steel Harlem. So this is a screenshot I got
7:18
Speaker 1: at the place. So this is third. It's third and two, right?
7:21
Speaker 1: Third and fucking two. And we have, if you look
7:25
Speaker 1: at Ashton Barkley, he's, what, 10 yards from the first
7:30
Speaker 1: down marker, four to five yards away from the defensive
7:33
Speaker 1: back he's covering. You look at the top corner, the
7:35
Speaker 1: very top corner, he's fucking, he's eight yards from the receiver.
7:40
Speaker 1: Where's that receiver running? He's riding the damn line. He's
7:42
Speaker 1: riding the sticks. That yellow line, he's looking at the
7:45
Speaker 1: first down marker. It's like New Mexico State understands what
7:49
Speaker 1: they want to do from a football stand up, a
7:53
Speaker 1: situational standpoint. But we're lost when it comes to this
7:56
Speaker 1: situational football. The cornerback is too deep. The bottom cornerback, again,
8:01
Speaker 1: he's wide open as well. That could have been converted.
8:03
Speaker 1: Third and two, we're four to five yards off. Every
8:07
Speaker 1: one of these plays, aside from Jabril Ross, Jabril Ross
8:10
Speaker 1: is pretty much.
8:11
Speaker 2: In the slot. He's pretty much locked in on his guy.
8:13
Speaker 2: That's pretty good coverage. So one, two, three.
8:17
Speaker 1: There's five routes down the field. The quarterback could have
8:19
Speaker 1: picked four of these guys and could have converted each
8:22
Speaker 1: of these easily. Let's go back to the video itself.
8:32
Speaker 1: We're backing up. Why are we backing up? Every defensive
8:37
Speaker 1: back backed up. Every last one of those guys backed up.
8:42
Speaker 1: Even Jabril Rawls, like you're You play pretty good coverage,
8:45
Speaker 1: but if you're going to be in somebody's damn face,
8:47
Speaker 1: put hands on the receiver. Jam him.
8:49
Speaker 2: A free release to the inside. Why? Jabir Rawls. And
8:56
Speaker 2: even Ricky Knight, that's just terrible.
8:57
Speaker 1: There's no way in hell, as a nickelback, as a
9:00
Speaker 1: slot guy, you just free release to the end. You
9:04
Speaker 1: let the receiver free release to the inside for his
9:06
Speaker 1: things off to the races. This is their most dynamic guy.
9:08
Speaker 1: They try to get the ball to one a lot.
9:10
Speaker 1: But you open the gate.
9:13
Speaker 2: You almost... Fall out of your break. That's not good football. Now,
9:19
Speaker 2: we see number one, right?
9:22
Speaker 1: You give Malachi Tony this type of space, and it's
9:27
Speaker 1: the same damn result. He did it last year against us.
9:30
Speaker 1: A similar situation, third and short or so. We end
9:33
Speaker 1: up giving him that much space, and Malachi Tony is
9:36
Speaker 1: off to the damn races. He scored a touchdown. Singleton
9:39
Speaker 1: from Florida. That kid is dynamic. We saw him in
9:42
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech a few years ago. The receivers are going
9:45
Speaker 1: to play. This is my big issue from a secondary standpoint.
9:50
Speaker 1: We're going to play some guys at receiver. We didn't
9:54
Speaker 1: play a clean football game. All this stuff is little
9:57
Speaker 1: things that turn into big things that can be easily corrected, right?
10:01
Speaker 1: Little things that turn into big things that can be
10:03
Speaker 1: easily corrected. It's third and two. You're going to get
10:06
Speaker 1: stick routes. You don't need to be eight yards back
10:08
Speaker 1: and from a defensive back standpoint. Jabir Rawls played that
10:11
Speaker 1: perfectly pre-snap. Post-snap, he didn't play it perfectly. He didn't
10:14
Speaker 1: get hands on the receiver.
10:15
Speaker 2: He let him.
10:16
Speaker 1: Free access release on the inside, you want to be
10:19
Speaker 1: in somebody's face as a cornerback, impede the route, jam him,
10:22
Speaker 1: put hands on him, hit that shoulder, make it harder.
10:25
Speaker 1: It's third and two. Throw the timing off. Throw the
10:28
Speaker 1: timing off. If people talk about sacks and the pass
10:31
Speaker 1: rush and that type of deal, you see that? What
10:34
Speaker 1: defensive end? Who's going to make sacks like that? And
10:38
Speaker 1: that's pretty much what we saw all night. But going
10:40
Speaker 1: back to, spoke about the other guys, pre-snap your seven
10:44
Speaker 1: yards off into your back penalty. How are you seven
10:47
Speaker 1: yards off in third and two and then you backpedal?
10:52
Speaker 1: You're pretty much handing the offense the first down. Little
10:56
Speaker 1: things like that, a third and two that, and I
10:58
Speaker 1: know coaches, I know these coaches, especially once they see
11:02
Speaker 1: the finger like, come on now, this is situational football.
11:05
Speaker 1: You got to be smart and think as far as
11:07
Speaker 1: what you have and what they can do to you.
11:09
Speaker 1: Every receiver ran stick routes. It's third and two. You
11:14
Speaker 1: call a zero pressure with chainsaw so speaking of what
11:17
Speaker 1: i know chainsaw zero um zero coverage with two linebackers
11:21
Speaker 1: blitzing walk your damn backers up let your black backers
11:25
Speaker 1: blitz um shoulder blitz a little bit early walk into
11:28
Speaker 1: it and don't come from seven yards because you're never
11:30
Speaker 1: going to get there on 32 you walk your defensive
11:33
Speaker 1: backs up be physical at the line of scrimmage throw
11:35
Speaker 1: off the timing and hell that's a lot of conversion
11:38
Speaker 1: your defensive line of linebackers could get there because the
11:40
Speaker 1: quarterback is probably going to pause because the timing gets
11:43
Speaker 1: thrown off and you're there instead it's a 30-yard touchdown.
11:46
Speaker 2: He's all to the races.
11:48
Speaker 1: That's a situation of a good play call, in my opinion,
11:52
Speaker 1: in that situation, but bad execution, bad pre-snap analysis. This
11:57
Speaker 1: is bad all around from a player standpoint, pre-snap and post-snap.
12:02
Speaker 1: Everything you can do wrong in that situation, we did
12:04
Speaker 1: wrong in that situation. Pre-snap, post-snap from techniques, all of
12:08
Speaker 1: the above, we did wrong in that situation. I just
12:13
Speaker 1: wanted to point that play out to you guys and
12:16
Speaker 1: and break that video, that little video down where you
12:19
Speaker 1: have a third and two situation and we see our
12:21
Speaker 1: third down, you know, conversions and then we have a
12:25
Speaker 1: situation like that that could have been easily avoided, right? So,
12:30
Speaker 1: going to the pass rush, like I stated, we only
12:32
Speaker 1: had three sacks on the night, not great. I don't
12:37
Speaker 1: think the pass rush was an issue, so to speak, because, hell,
12:40
Speaker 1: they didn't really have.
12:42
Speaker 2: That many at bats.
12:43
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at, like, everything that they
12:47
Speaker 1: threw at us was more so three step drops and
12:49
Speaker 1: a few five step drops. It wasn't anything that was
12:52
Speaker 1: deep progression, the quarterback going from one read to another, uh,
12:56
Speaker 1: moving around in the pocket, that type of deal. It
12:58
Speaker 1: wasn't that it was just any of the times we
13:01
Speaker 1: did get some pass rush and get guys in his face.
13:03
Speaker 1: He still was able to sometimes make a play down
13:05
Speaker 1: the field and throw the football and the guys were
13:08
Speaker 1: opening and we converted. So again, it just wasn't good
13:12
Speaker 1: secondary play in my opinion. Um, But, yeah, I don't
13:15
Speaker 1: think the pass rush was elite by any chance where
13:18
Speaker 1: we just dominated the offensive line.
13:20
Speaker 2: But we really didn't give those guys a chance to
13:22
Speaker 2: lead out to the passer.
13:27
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to go too deep into a
13:29
Speaker 1: game plan situation because I really think him and Mike,
13:32
Speaker 1: you know, of course, coming in, called a pretty vanilla
13:35
Speaker 1: game plan.
13:35
Speaker 2: It was more so it wasn't any dynamic exotic blitzes.
13:39
Speaker 1: It wasn't any stunts up front or anything like that.
13:41
Speaker 1: It was more so just beat your man. Beat the
13:43
Speaker 1: man in front of you, play sound coverage, and my
13:47
Speaker 1: man is better than your man. But certain plays, we
13:50
Speaker 1: didn't really give that. Moving on to the run knee,
13:53
Speaker 1: I thought the run knee was pretty damn good. I
13:55
Speaker 1: like what I saw for the run knee. We had
13:57
Speaker 1: 47 rush yards in total. They could have had less
14:01
Speaker 1: than that. I think Darrell Desir made.
14:05
Speaker 2: A few plays.
14:06
Speaker 1: He could have made a few plays in the backfield.
14:08
Speaker 1: Did a really good job of beating his blocks initially,
14:10
Speaker 1: getting back there. but couldn't finish the play and make
14:13
Speaker 1: the tackle. Again, those are plays that separate you from
14:15
Speaker 1: being good to elite, so you've got to make those plays.
14:20
Speaker 1: Two- to three-yard loss to two- to three-yard gains, right?
14:23
Speaker 1: We're talking about six yards and six yards to the
14:28
Speaker 1: flip of the field, just like that. But still, that's
14:31
Speaker 1: just kind of nitpicking on certain things. And I say
14:34
Speaker 1: that to say there's 47 rush yards and it could
14:36
Speaker 1: have been a little bit better. Their leading rusher had
14:38
Speaker 1: 11 touches for 28 yards. I think the D-line offense
14:41
Speaker 1: overall did their job, front seven and the backers. I
14:44
Speaker 1: really like what I saw from the backers, man. I
14:46
Speaker 1: want to give this guy a shout-out. Shout-out to Makai Bayer.
14:49
Speaker 1: He played a hell of a game, man. That kid
14:51
Speaker 1: played great. He really stood out to me. Four tackles
14:55
Speaker 1: in the sack and limited reps. He looked active, had
14:58
Speaker 1: a lot of energy, played good coverage. I know he's
15:01
Speaker 1: been banged up since he came over as well, injuries
15:04
Speaker 1: and that type of deal.
15:05
Speaker 2: To have him get him healthy at the right damn time, right?
15:08
Speaker 2: He's played a lot of football too.
15:10
Speaker 1: So as far as him missing portion in the spring,
15:13
Speaker 1: missing portion in the summer, early fall camp, a veteran
15:16
Speaker 1: guy played a lot of football, familiar with Tony White's defense,
15:20
Speaker 1: played in it before in Nebraska. So not too much
15:22
Speaker 1: of a, we need you right now to get active, right?
15:25
Speaker 1: But I like what I saw out of him. Him
15:27
Speaker 1: and Chris Jones looked the best too, in my opinion.
15:29
Speaker 2: Really good.
15:30
Speaker 1: Chris Jones was an enforcer. He's who he thought he is.
15:33
Speaker 1: He's going to be the leader of that defense. And
15:35
Speaker 1: I also like his response post-game, too, as far as
15:37
Speaker 1: the standard is the standard and this shit just wasn't
15:39
Speaker 1: good enough. But, yeah, I really like what Makai brought
15:42
Speaker 1: to the table. I want to see more of him
15:44
Speaker 1: get more reps. Isaiah Williams, that kid's going to be
15:47
Speaker 1: good as well, too, the true freshman. He played a
15:49
Speaker 1: few snaps. I really like what I saw from him
15:51
Speaker 1: as well. But to kind of wrap it up with
15:54
Speaker 1: the defense, it is the first game. I know it
15:56
Speaker 1: was bright lights and that type of deal. And sometimes
15:59
Speaker 1: what you're taught kind of get lost in the sauce early.
16:02
Speaker 1: That's why I kind of talk about that third and
16:04
Speaker 1: two situation, the situation of football, tying that back together.
16:07
Speaker 1: But key word, like early, right? You just can't linger on.
16:12
Speaker 1: That's why game one to game two, you typically have
16:17
Speaker 1: the clean or the biggest jump rather from a clean
16:19
Speaker 1: ball perspective. Typically after watching film and breaking things down,
16:23
Speaker 1: that's what you see your best improvement from game one
16:26
Speaker 1: to game two typically.
16:28
Speaker 2: Now, some of these things continue. It won't be pretty.
16:31
Speaker 2: It'll be a long season.
16:32
Speaker 1: But I do think from a defensive standpoint, things can
16:36
Speaker 1: be cleaned up from the secondary. But it's not looking,
16:41
Speaker 1: just from a history standpoint, what we put out in
16:43
Speaker 1: recent years, it's not looking promising. But the biggest takeaway
16:47
Speaker 1: is the offensive line not really dominating New Mexico State.
16:50
Speaker 1: That's pretty much my breakdown on defense. Again, make sure
16:54
Speaker 1: you guys hit that like and subscribe button on the
16:57
Speaker 1: open thing.