First of all, this is great work, covering a lot of ground. I’ve long held that Chizik is a Monte Kiffin doppleganger. The retardation of SEC offenses during his time at Auburn in the SEC West was substantial and those vanilla looks played right into his hands. He built a reputation and wisely moved on with his graduating seniors.

That’s the problem with being an emulator rather than a creator: when conditions change, you’re unable to apply your hard and fast principles to that changing landscape and you’re incapable of reasoning your way out of it. That applies to a hell of a lot of dynamic environments beyond football, of course. When he confronted spread offenses in all of their forms (from the Aggie option to the Tech air attack) you saw a guy who was completely incapable of making an adjustment. And that’s with 4 NFL elite DBs and a loaded DL. Chizik is Rich Little - a capable mimic. No more, no less.

What I fear from our defense is a Carl Reese approach. It’s very appealing to the uneducated fan to blitz as they associate this with “trying something” and “being aggressive.” The truth is that outnumbering blockers with blitzing is a sign of weakness and defensive incapacity.

If we can manufacture pressure with 4-5 guys, play the run soundly with 7, and leave those safeties back, I’ll be a happy man. At least we’ll be playing identifiably competent defense.

At Arizona, they had to manufacture pressure, just like Mike Leach has to manufacture ball control. They are used to teaching a normal, 7 man pass defense with a confusing, stunting pressure package. They don’t blitz 6 just to blitz, they are smart about it. This is what I expect for us. The history for it is there.

And this is where I fear Akina and McDuff will continue the tradition of recent Texas DC’s. I expect any team with a hint of misdirection to humiliate our “11-men-flying-to-the-ball” defense.