After Saturday's night scrimmage, Wally seemed very pleased with his defense. He said they are much better at stopping the run and that he has 18-19 guys that can play defense at a high level. He added that he's had some pretty good teams that had 18-19 guys who could play.
He also said that the one thing that stands out about this group is they play hard, they love to play, they give maximum effort all the time and they have a great camaraderie. Wally singled out Jordan Harris, Demond Tucker, Trent Taylor, Cotton-Moya and Jay Jones as standing out in the scrimmage and also gave special recognition to Kane Seeley, Willie Harvey and Brian Mills as really coming on strong.
Sounds to me like that's more than 18 or 19, considering he only talked about one player at one of our deepest position on D ... the backfield. He did mention them later and said what a good group it was. But he was very complimentary of the LBs too. I can't wait for the season to start.
Mangino was also asked about the defense and who he thought stood out. He mentioned Tucker as a guy who was hard to block and got a lot of penetration. He singled out Jones, who he said has a lot of length and can do multiple things for the defense, which is what you want at his position. He called Jhaustin Thomas very raw, but a beast and he thinks that a year from now, Thomas will be "a very special player." I hope he shows some flashes of that very special player this year.
He also said that the one thing that stands out about this group is they play hard, they love to play, they give maximum effort all the time and they have a great camaraderie. Wally singled out Jordan Harris, Demond Tucker, Trent Taylor, Cotton-Moya and Jay Jones as standing out in the scrimmage and also gave special recognition to Kane Seeley, Willie Harvey and Brian Mills as really coming on strong.
Sounds to me like that's more than 18 or 19, considering he only talked about one player at one of our deepest position on D ... the backfield. He did mention them later and said what a good group it was. But he was very complimentary of the LBs too. I can't wait for the season to start.
Mangino was also asked about the defense and who he thought stood out. He mentioned Tucker as a guy who was hard to block and got a lot of penetration. He singled out Jones, who he said has a lot of length and can do multiple things for the defense, which is what you want at his position. He called Jhaustin Thomas very raw, but a beast and he thinks that a year from now, Thomas will be "a very special player." I hope he shows some flashes of that very special player this year.
