Defensive Line Depth: Helping Tech’s Defensive Tackles

Tim Settle needs some help staying fresh. (Ivan Morozov)

About that DL Depth

If you’ve read my stuff this summer, you know I haven’t been too confident in Tech’s defensive line depth, and you guys have felt the same way. In addition to seeing tons of board posts, bourbonstreet hit me with that exact same question. With WVU and Delaware out of the way, it seems our collective worries are well-founded.

I was also worried about Settle, Hill and the two-deep playing within the scheme, and again there are some problems. Delaware’s zone running scheme frustrated the Hokies at times, and more than once Tech’s second-level players didn’t come down to make fits, and the front-line guys occasionally freelanced. Tim Settle, for example, missed out on a tackle for a loss because he left his gap chasing the QB and not the actual ball-carrier. I think Coach Foster might’ve played his guys off the ball a little bit to keep gap integrity and make it easier for the linemen to recognize what kind of block was coming at them.

Tech’s defensive line played off the line of scrimmage a lot against Delaware. (Photo by bourbonstreet)

But I’m not going to read too much into the Delaware game, mainly because the Hokies played the whole game without releasing the parking brake. (Beyond the vanilla offense, Foster could’ve had Delaware false-starting into its own end zone the entire night—or sitting statute-like in their stances—if he’d wanted to.) Instead, I want to talk about how Coach Foster can help Settle and Ricky Walker. Let’s look at a few hypotheticals.

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