What about your Defense?
Obviously Siskowic mentioned in the previous post is the leader of this defense, but last years defense was much better with Brent Hawkins (runner up for Buck Buchanon award) played DE. Siskowic finished 13th in the Buck Buchanon voting, and may be considered to be our leader on defense, but LB Niall Campbell and Kye Stewart will allow him to roam freely and stay in attack mode.
Last year those three combined for 293 tackles and 5.5 sacks. The sack total may not seem like a lot, but considering Hawkins (now with the Jacksonville Jaguars) amassed another 68 tackles, 17.5 sacks, and forced 7 fumbles by himself. The linebackers just had to focus on keeping everything in front of them. DT Jarek Thomas 12 tackles (3 for loss), 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, and 1 blocked kick returns to solidify the DL after a season ending broken hand injury. The loss of Thomas significantly hurt our run defense, so we're glad to have him back.
DB's - Jesse Caesar, Ramon Barber, Tom Nelson (who started as true freshman), and James Temple combined for 224 tackles (18 for loss), 7 IINT, 18 passes broken up, 4 forced fumbels, 3 fumble recoveries, with 2 being returned for TD's.
They are probably the weak spot of our defense, but as the year progressed they got significantly better. Alex Filin (Transfer/Kentucky) comes in for our nickel package and provided another 27 tackles.
In terms of how we fared against other D-1A teams. Last season at Iowa State we were up 8-2 at the end of the 1st Q, Tied 8-8 going into halftime. Down 22-15 going into the 3rd Q, with less than 4 minutes in the game it was 29-21, and Iowa State added a late FG to win 32-21. The previous year against Minnesota we were ahead at halftime 20-14, and were outscored in the second half 17-7 to lose by the final 37-21.
Here is a quote from Glen Mason head coach at Minnesota:
""They outcoached us, outplayed us and outfought us," Minnesota
coach Glen Mason said. "I feel very lucky to have won this game
and I hate feeling lucky. We better get better quick with our
upcoming schedule or we're going to be in a whole lot of
trouble."
This Gopher team featured two NFL running backs in Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney.
The previous year against the University of Illinois, Illinois State gained 511 yards of total offense against Illinois in
a 49-22 loss. That game featured quite a bit of home cooking from the Big Televen officials. With ISU trailing 31-19
on a 3rd and 18 play, now KC Chief Boomer Grigsby lowered the boom on Illini QB Jon Buetjer which would be heard
well into the upper deck of Memorial Stadium. Fox commentators pointed out it was clearly a legal hit, but Boomer
was assessed a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty which led to an Illini TD on that possession. Grigsby finished with
a game high 21 tackles.
So for what it's worth we're 0-3 over the last three years, but each year we're pulling closer to winning one against the
big boys. Hope that helps.
