Kawann Short may be our best defensive lineman

[Cary Kollins]

[CollegePanther]

Can't he get eye surgery or something? That's bad.

[beastson]

As mentioned earlier, starting doesn't matter, it's number of snaps. Cole starts and plays on downs that have a higher tendency to be run plays. Short is more of a penetrating interior pass rush type and as such, he is used on more obvious passing downs. He probably could be an every down DT if needed, but I'm 100% on board with his current usage pattern. Keeps everyone fresher.

 

Thing is, he's better all around than Colin even against the run. Colin last game took up blockers, but was also easily moved out of position. You can't easily move Short, as he's showing this year

[B.BERSIN]

This is not a bad news, not at all.

[Marguide]

Couldn't agree more with the original post.

 

It seems like everytime this year there is a disruptive play on defense, Short is in the thick of it. So far this year, he has definitely been the star of the defensive line.

[Peppers90 NC]

why does short not start? they must really love Cole

my take on it is this:  if Star and KK are the top 2 DT's, then it is best to always have at least one of them in the game at a time.  So pair Star with Cole in anticipation of runs and KK with DE in later downs for passing.  

[Toundra]

Can't he get eye surgery or something? That's bad.

 

No no that's why he can keep an eye on both the QB and the RB!

[Growl]

I was actually going to start a thread on this.

I dont thinkwe can afford to keep starting Cole with Hardy out.

Short's pass rush ability is too valuable.

[faultlessjoint]

I'm withdrawing my pie since you edited your post and deleted my comment pointing out your mistake.  

[Hammerin'Cameron34]

I want a Short jersey but what if we dont resign him :/

[Who Said What?]

It is good to divvy up the snaps, but Short should be out there the first two drives.  Then you can rotate Cole.  This is just because of Hardy being out.

[cookinbrak]

I think our DT's are beasts too, I'm curious as to why Pittsburgh had so much success running on us.

 

I'm sure some of it was Bell's wait and slash style, but there seemed to be large holes in our D line a lot.

 

Was it the D line getting pushed around or the LB'ers not filling those holes?  Or both?

 

Over-pursuit by the LBs. Bell would basically wait for them to run by, then take off. Their offensive scheme is such that, I think, they pick a specific spot to run through. Bell kinda idles until it opens up, then hauls butt.

[PanthersBigD]

I think our DT's are beasts too, I'm curious as to why Pittsburgh had so much success running on us.

 

I'm sure some of it was Bell's wait and slash style, but there seemed to be large holes in our D line a lot.

 

Was it the D line getting pushed around or the LB'ers not filling those holes?  Or both?

 

I think they just had a good scheme against us. I don't think there are many ways to scheme around our D Line successfully, but Todd Haley found one. He used their aggressiveness against them. If we didn't have such great defensive coaching I'd be worried about other teams copying it, but I feel like with the players and coaches we have, our defense will seal the line back up and it'll be nearly impossible to run on us no matter what the scheme going forward.

[Kuech the Sneak]

I want a Short jersey but what if we dont resign him :/

We got three more years of him