re: Sage Ryan and major burns haters

quote:

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I think players do improve

It’s the bozos on here that don’t believe players can improve

Damone Clark is a great example and I’m sure they are others

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No, Damone Clark is a great example of how a bad coach can make a bad player look bad.

Clark had a good season in a backup role in 2019. He was often getting sacks, making impact plays, and generally causing havoc. Expectations for him were high going into 2020.

Then Ed Orgeron decided he was going to bless LSU and the entire football world with access to his vast coaching knowledge and ability by finally discarding Aranda's pussy 3-4 defense and implementing his "attacking" 4-3 defense that Russell Maryland and Warren Sapp exceled in....apparently forgetting that took place 30 years prior! The result was one of, if not the worst defenses in LSU football history (at least until this past season). Suddenly, guys who were pretty good players a year before looked awful and completely lost. Most notably Clark.

Did Clark suddenly forget out to play football in the span of one offseason? Or did the terrible defensive approach/scheme mandated by the HC make him appear to be a bad player?

Clearly it was the latter. How do we know this? Because LSU's defense as a whole became remarkably better in the 2021 Alabama game. Was that simply the result of every guy on defense suddenly fully understanding Ed's "dream defense" all at once? Or was it the fact LSU completely changed their defensive approach starting in that game? The answer is obvious to everyone except those wanting to ignore what their eyes showed them (kind of like the OP in this instance). And there was NO greater example of the impact of finally getting away from Ed's ridiculous defense than Clark. All of a sudden a guy who had struggled for a year and a half became one of the best LBs in the SEC. Clark had 15 TFLs that season. Over HALF of them came in the final 4 games of the season beginning with the Alabama game. He had 5.5 sacks. All but ONE came in those final four games. Clark didn't suddenly improve. He was always a good player. He was just able to show that once more when the road block named Ed Orgeron got out of his way.

A guy like Ryan is different. Unlike Clark did in 2019, he's never shown great ability in 3 years. And that showed up again literally 5 plays into the spring game with a familiar scene of him helplessly running to catch up to a WR 10 yards behind him in the endzone who was planning a duck-duck-goose celebration while he comfortably waited for the ball to fall into his arms.

Ryan is a "tweener". Not big nor physical enough to be a safety. Not quick or instinctive enough to be a corner. It happens.