Speaker 1: How can Louisiana's defense improve in twenty twenty six, Let's
Speaker 1: talk all about it here on Rage and Rundown. What's good,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Raging Rundown,
Speaker 1: the show where you will know all things caguns, all caguns,
Speaker 1: all the time. I'm your guy, JaMarcus Fitzpatrick, but you
Speaker 1: know you can always call me fits. And in today's
Speaker 1: episode we will be talking all about the defense. Louisiana
Speaker 1: football is entering their third week of fall camp practices.
Speaker 1: The first two weeks we have focused heavily on the offense,
Speaker 1: primarily because of the storylines that have happened with the
Speaker 1: receiver room and the injuries that they've been dealing with,
Speaker 1: but also because there was a lot that happened and
Speaker 1: last season on the offensive side, from the quarterback competition
Speaker 1: to now the two leading rushers that you had that
Speaker 1: are no longer with the program that have transferred out,
Speaker 1: all of these different storylines that we've been adjusted with
Speaker 1: the offensive line, things of that nature. Today we're talking
Speaker 1: about the defense and something that they looked at last season,
Speaker 1: how they weren't as effective as what they wanted to
Speaker 1: be particularly in the run game and also in the
Speaker 1: pass rush. So last season, as we know, Louisiana finished
Speaker 1: the season six and sis six and seven, excuse me,
Speaker 1: they dealt with injury, but ultimately defensively, they still had
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that played extremely well as a whole.
Speaker 1: Obviously we know Jaden Dugger was the star of that defense,
Speaker 1: who's now a forty nine er, and kudos to him.
Speaker 1: He led your team in tackles with one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five tackles. He had four sacks and thirteen tackles
Speaker 1: for loss and of course and also an interception which
Speaker 1: got him an opportunity to go to the NFL. But overall,
Speaker 1: as a pass rushing unit, Louisiana wasn't one of the best.
Speaker 1: If you look at last season's overall statistics, and we're
Speaker 1: talking about defensive stats as I'm trying to pull it up,
Speaker 1: the total sacks that they had last season was twenty three,
Speaker 1: which was tenth in the Sunbelt, and overall in the
Speaker 1: country it was ninety first, just in behind Cincinnati, tied
Speaker 1: for ninety first, right in behind Cincinnati, right above Northwestern
Speaker 1: and TCU, so somewhere near the bottom of the pack.
Speaker 1: When it comes to getting to the quarterback and near
Speaker 1: the bottom of the Sunbelt in that same regard. Above
Speaker 1: them was Ulm that had one more sack in twenty
Speaker 1: four than Texas State with twenty seven, Marshall with twenty nine,
Speaker 1: app State with twenty nine, Southern miss with thirty, James
Speaker 1: Madison with their Troy with thirty seven, Arkansas State with
Speaker 1: thirty nine, and then Old Dominion time for first with
Speaker 1: Arkansas State with thirty nine as well. Below Louisiana it
Speaker 1: was Coastal Georgia State, South Alabama, and Georgia Southern. So
Speaker 1: obviously there is more to the game than just acquiring sacks.
Speaker 1: It's just a big portion that can help make things
Speaker 1: harder for opposing offenses. When you get to the quarterback
Speaker 1: and you can get a five to ten yard loss
Speaker 1: that puts them behind the chains, that puts more pressure
Speaker 1: on them to now be in third and long situations
Speaker 1: to ultimately allow you to get off the field and
Speaker 1: get the football back into the hands of your offense.
Speaker 1: So earlier this week, we talked with defensive coordinator at
Speaker 1: Jim Salgado about what he believed it will take for
Speaker 1: this defense to get more sacks and here's what he
Speaker 1: had to say.
Speaker 2: I think the finish part of it, right, I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it's a personnel thing. We've had some
Speaker 2: pretty good players around here that we're going after the quarterback,
Speaker 2: But it's more so understanding the animal that you're hunting
Speaker 2: as well. Quarterbacks in college football right now, I don't
Speaker 2: care what school you're at. They can move right, most
Speaker 2: of them. There are no statues back there anymore, really,
Speaker 2: so you got to understand when I'm going to get
Speaker 2: that quarterback, even if he doesn't see you. Some of
Speaker 2: these guys have a nice like a sixth sense, like
Speaker 2: they feel you out of the corner of their eye, right,
Speaker 2: And I got to know. I got to be under
Speaker 2: control so that I can finish the play instead of
Speaker 2: I'm full speed and all of a sudden, now at
Speaker 2: the last second, boom they spin out. Right, my man
Speaker 2: from Arkansas State, he's gone, which is good. But you know,
Speaker 2: we always joke around about that with those guys, like, hey,
Speaker 2: we got to know who you're hunt so that you
Speaker 2: can finish the play, right, don't just get all excited.
Speaker 2: He don't see you coming, like these guys they know,
Speaker 2: so we need to do a better job of that.
Speaker 2: I would think the most from when I get there,
Speaker 2: how am I gonna finish on this guy? And those
Speaker 2: are the things that we've been working on out on
Speaker 2: that field, and how we get there, How I shortened
Speaker 2: my stride and drop my pad level, all the little
Speaker 2: things that come into play when you're trying to tackle
Speaker 2: somebody like that.
Speaker 1: Everything that coach Salgatto was talking about is truly important. Yes,
Speaker 1: you want to, you know, get pressure on the quarterback,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter if all you're able to do
Speaker 1: is just get there. You want to be able to
Speaker 1: finish the play. And you know, he talked about the
Speaker 1: quarterback at Arkansas State, Jalen Rayner, who's no longer with
Speaker 1: the Razor and excuse me with the red Wolves. But
Speaker 1: outside of him, I mean, there were a ton of
Speaker 1: slippery quarterbacks that Louisiana faced off against this past season.
Speaker 1: Jalen Rainer was one of them. Braylan Braxton who's now
Speaker 1: gone obviously. Then you think about Carlos del Rio Wilson,
Speaker 1: who is the Sun Belt preseason Player of the Year,
Speaker 1: how difficult he was to battle against in the Marshall game. Right,
Speaker 1: an effective quarterback, think about Aiden Armenta, who's really really
Speaker 1: good for ULM. Tucker kill Crease is obviously no longer
Speaker 1: with Troy, but he gave you a lot of problems
Speaker 1: being able to scramble around. So it's gonna be really
Speaker 1: really important for this defense to focus in on the fundamentals,
Speaker 1: which coach sal Gotto is really big on, and trying
Speaker 1: to make sure that they can be able to finish
Speaker 1: those plays you know he mentioned about because I think
Speaker 1: the foot The question came from Kevin Food asking was
Speaker 1: it a personnel thing or is it more technical thing?
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know they don't have as many of
Speaker 1: the players that helped to lead the past rushing charges
Speaker 1: what they had last season. Last season, you're leading a
Speaker 1: sack later was Jordan Lawson with five, After that it
Speaker 1: was Jayden Dugger with four, Jalen Crider with two, and
Speaker 1: then Fitzgerald West with two so fits his back. Then
Speaker 1: after that it's Terrence Williams gone, Tyree Skipper one gone,
Speaker 1: Courtland Flowers one sack gone, Cameron Whitfield one sack gone,
Speaker 1: Terry Tomlinson one sack gone, Caleb Cabodi one sack gone,
Speaker 1: Maxie Bowen is back. You're going to fight. One sack gone.
Speaker 1: Jake Saint Andre half a sack, he's back, Marion Iliam
Speaker 1: half a sack, he's back. Colin Jacob half a sack,
Speaker 1: he's back. Kadarius Miller half a sack, he's gone. So
Speaker 1: a vast majority of the guys that you relied on
Speaker 1: four year past Rush from last season are no longer
Speaker 1: with a program, right. But when you look at what
Speaker 1: Louisiana has, what we've talked about in previous episodes, they
Speaker 1: have guys that have been waiting in the wings and
Speaker 1: have been waiting for their opportunities. Alance Williams, a priest
Speaker 1: ash A Jeremiah Holtz, you know, a Chase Edwards. You know,
Speaker 1: actually Williams at that jack position to Torry Brown who
Speaker 1: looks like an absolute freak, like we were talking about
Speaker 1: it in the media, how physically built he looks. But
Speaker 1: then you also talk about a transfer player in Tito
Speaker 1: Chikuire who came in to you from East Texas A
Speaker 1: and M commerce and was a phenomenal pass rusher. But
Speaker 1: now he is more going to be a part of
Speaker 1: that jack position where he has the responsibility similar to
Speaker 1: what Cam Woodfield was, which is rushing the passer, but
Speaker 1: also depending on what type of you know, schemes that
Speaker 1: the offense is running, he would have to drop in
Speaker 1: coverage as well. And so he leaned a lot on
Speaker 1: Cam Widfield through his recruiting process that they grew up together,
Speaker 1: they were both from the Houston area, and so he
Speaker 1: leaned a lot on him during his recruiting process. And
Speaker 1: now that he's here, he's had the opportunity to look
Speaker 1: over the film from last season and he truly believes
Speaker 1: that things are going to be a lot different with
Speaker 1: him a part of this defense and what they have
Speaker 1: collectively up front to be able to get to the
Speaker 1: quarterback more often.
Speaker 3: One of my closest friends, Cam Whitfield, you know, he
Speaker 3: just transitioned from this program, but you know, really watching him,
Speaker 3: you know, in his role on the team last year,
Speaker 3: you know like it's really gonna take man. There's being
Speaker 3: a force in the pass rush, you know, knowing your
Speaker 3: assignment and you know all all even play on the
Speaker 3: same you know, string, on the same accord. You know,
Speaker 3: last year we had a lot of mistackles that I
Speaker 3: was seeing a lot of times. It would be like
Speaker 3: a lot of miscoverages and it's like that's like a
Speaker 3: communication issue. But I really feel like, man, we can
Speaker 3: talk one we can talk to one another. We've been
Speaker 3: doing you know, tackling circuits ever since I got here,
Speaker 3: ever since like the winter, winter conditioning. So I really
Speaker 3: feel like, man, we're gonna we're gonna have it straightened
Speaker 3: out come season.
Speaker 1: He believes it. Kachelle Gotto is emphasizing it. The Cajuns
Speaker 1: have ample opportunity to be able to get to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And if you go back and listen or watch the
Speaker 1: scrimmage recap that I did after their first scrimmage on Friday,
Speaker 1: I did a recap episode that you can check out.
Speaker 1: T Kiri was one of the guys that got to
Speaker 1: the quarterback during that scrimmage. Obviously he wasn't able to
Speaker 1: take him down, but it was clear cut. A full
Speaker 1: B line at the quarterback plays blown dead right, being
Speaker 1: very disruptive, and one of the things that they're going
Speaker 1: to continue to have to do is to be able
Speaker 1: to be disruptive so that way they can affect the quarterback,
Speaker 1: slow down offenses, and ultimately get off the field. The
Speaker 1: second aspect to their defense is stopping the run game
Speaker 1: and Louisiana wasn't at their best in those regards in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, And when we come back, we're going
Speaker 1: to discuss more about how important it's going to be
Speaker 1: to be able to stop the run for the success
Speaker 1: of the Raging Cagen's defense when we return here on
Speaker 1: Raging Rundown. Hey, guys, thank you so much for tuning
Speaker 1: in to another episode of Raging Rundown. We're going to
Speaker 1: get back into the action in just a second, but
Speaker 1: before we do, if you are watching this episode on YouTube,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Please do me a favor. Please
Speaker 1: like it, share it, and leave a comment down below,
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Speaker 1: us get in front of more Raging Cajun fans just
Speaker 1: like yourself. In twenty twenty five, the Raging Cajun's defense
Speaker 1: in the run game was not good. Candidly, they just weren't.
Speaker 1: They allowed one hundred and eighty six rushing yards per
Speaker 1: game last season that ranked them one hundred and sixteenth
Speaker 1: in the country, near the bottom. The Cajuns allowed more
Speaker 1: than one hundred rushing yards in twelve of their thirteen games,
Speaker 1: including three opponents surpassing two hundred yards. One of them
Speaker 1: was the Missouri game when a mad Hardy went crazy
Speaker 1: and rushed for like two hundred fifty yards. Nine individual
Speaker 1: players that Louisiana win against eclipsed the one hundred yard
Speaker 1: rushing mark last season. So, like we talked about, they
Speaker 1: have a lot of players that are back. But again,
Speaker 1: when you think about being disruptive in the run game,
Speaker 1: you're either getting short yardage or tackles for loss. And
Speaker 1: again when you look at that stat sheet from last season,
Speaker 1: Jayden Dugger led you in tackles for loss, He's gone.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Jordan Lawson led you in tackles for loss.
Speaker 1: He's gone. Then Jayden Dugger, then Courtland Flowers, then Jalen Crider,
Speaker 1: then Terrence Williams, then Ashley Williams. Who's back? Jake Saint
Speaker 1: Andre who's back, Kadarius Miller, Fitzgerald West, three guys near
Speaker 1: the top that are back. Then you have Marion Nelliam
Speaker 1: with one and a half, Colin Jacob with one and
Speaker 1: a half, Cam Whitfield who's gone, Chase Edwards with one
Speaker 1: and a half. So to that point, a lot of again,
Speaker 1: the pieces that you had that were your star power
Speaker 1: or your featured players that helped you whenever a play
Speaker 1: needed to be made are not a part of the
Speaker 1: defense this season. And so you have a lot of
Speaker 1: young guys and a lot of guys that have been
Speaker 1: waiting for their opportunities to get in that we mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier in the episode, waiting for their chance to be
Speaker 1: able to go out and hope to stop the run.
Speaker 1: So we asked coach Delgado about what is going to
Speaker 1: take for them to stop the run game, and he
Speaker 1: was his answer.
Speaker 2: So at some point, somebody's got to, you know, BSU
Speaker 2: blow stuff up in short right and be able to
Speaker 2: take on a block and shed somebody right and make
Speaker 2: us look good at times because those are the type
Speaker 2: of things that happen. And then you also have the
Speaker 2: runs right problem plays where you're getting what a running
Speaker 2: back going this way, lineman going that way, and a
Speaker 2: quarterback who can also keep the ball. So you've got
Speaker 2: three things going on. We're just working on that, right,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot going on right if I'm a linebacker, right,
Speaker 2: we talk about our linebackers get downhill well, now all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you got to you got this this
Speaker 2: and lineman going another way. So now the schematical part
Speaker 2: of it is is all right, who's responsible for what?
Speaker 2: Those were some of the things that college obens and
Speaker 2: it's gotten into pro football as well. Those are the
Speaker 2: things that you got to try to get really good
Speaker 2: at and you got to be on the same page
Speaker 2: right everybody. So we've been working on that because it
Speaker 2: shows up, you know, through our cutups from last year
Speaker 2: and those are things that we've worked on through the
Speaker 2: sprint and in the summer now in camp, so because
Speaker 2: we know we'll see it week one. It's common with
Speaker 2: I mean, there ain't nobody, there's not one guy on
Speaker 2: that defense doesn't think that's that will not show up
Speaker 2: on day one.
Speaker 1: So you got to be able to be asu blow
Speaker 1: stuff up, which I know it's something else, but that's
Speaker 1: the PG version of it. So you've got to be
Speaker 1: disruptive first of all. You've got to be able to
Speaker 1: shed the blocks and just go and make a play,
Speaker 1: and you got to be a football player. And then also,
Speaker 1: like he said, you have to be schematically in sync
Speaker 1: with each other. So what he's talking about is football
Speaker 1: one on one, two or one, whatever you would like
Speaker 1: to call it. If the offense is running a zone
Speaker 1: read type of scheme, that means they're leaving somebody unblocked
Speaker 1: and they are keen in on whatever they do, and
Speaker 1: based on what they do is how they will react. So,
Speaker 1: say they leave a defensive end unblocked, they'll block everybody
Speaker 1: in the box except that end. The quarterback will mesh
Speaker 1: with the running back and they will make a decision.
Speaker 1: If the defensive end kind of just sits there and waits,
Speaker 1: he'll hand it off to the running back, and the
Speaker 1: running back has the opportunity to either take it within
Speaker 1: the flow of the run game, or he can bend
Speaker 1: it back and hit that gap where the open space
Speaker 1: is that the defensive end has left. If the defensive
Speaker 1: end is crashing down and is trying to play run game,
Speaker 1: which typically good defenses will do that, then the quarterback
Speaker 1: has the opportunity to pull it and run. But where
Speaker 1: offenses have gotten even more elites and have expanded more,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they'll have a receiver standing out in the alley,
Speaker 1: the quarterback will pull it and now a linebacker is
Speaker 1: coming down to hit him in the mouth and he'll
Speaker 1: dump it off for a quick bubble screen. So you
Speaker 1: have multiple facets that are happening on the offensive side.
Speaker 1: And so to his point, everyone has to be in sync.
Speaker 1: So if you're the defensive end, you got to squeeze down,
Speaker 1: you got to play the running back. If you're the linebacker,
Speaker 1: you got to scrape over the top, you got to
Speaker 1: hit the quarterback in his mouth. And if you're the
Speaker 1: dB in the alley, you got to go shed your block,
Speaker 1: or if you're one on one, then you have to
Speaker 1: break down and make the tackle. That's the only way
Speaker 1: that you can stop it. And to his point, because
Speaker 1: they struggled with some of those things last season, they're
Speaker 1: going to see that. They're going to see it against Lamar,
Speaker 1: They're going to see it against USC, they're going to
Speaker 1: see it against Charlotte, they're going to see it against
Speaker 1: Arkansas State. Until they can prove that they can stop
Speaker 1: the run, whether that's in the conventional way where you're
Speaker 1: just handing it off or if it's in the the
Speaker 1: option game. Until they're able to show that, offenses will continue.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 1: And you know, obviously you can have an explosive offense,
Speaker 1: which I believe the Cajun's offense will still have some
Speaker 1: explosive play making abilities despite some of the guys that
Speaker 1: they have injured right now. I think, like I've talked
Speaker 1: about before, I think Sheldon Sampton's ready for Week one.
Speaker 1: Landon Struller will be back later in the season for you,
Speaker 1: but you still have a ton of playmakers around him. Regardless,
Speaker 1: you have to have quality defense to compliment that offense
Speaker 1: because if they go and score fifty, but you give
Speaker 1: up fifty one, you lost the game. Defensively, they have
Speaker 1: to go and do their job. So this staff has
Speaker 1: been working hard. Coach Salgado, Dennis Thomas, Scott Stoker, Jeff
Speaker 1: bird Off, the list goes on, of all the assistant coaches,
Speaker 1: all everybody on that defense is working to first of all,
Speaker 1: be able to stop the rud and then be able
Speaker 1: to get off the field on third downs by potentially
Speaker 1: creating third and long situations, get into the quarterback and
Speaker 1: getting sacks. And for those of you that are at
Speaker 1: home that wonder whether or not defense truly relates to championships,
Speaker 1: I decided to go back and the last time that
Speaker 1: Louisiana won a championship was in twenty twenty one. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, Louisiana was the number one defense in
Speaker 1: the Sunbelt. They gave up fourteen point six points per game.
Speaker 1: Other defensive statistics, they led the Sunbelt in sacks with
Speaker 1: thirty nine. Throughout the year, they led the Sun Belt
Speaker 1: and fumbles recovered with thirteen. And so when you think
Speaker 1: about those things, the old saying is that defense wins championships.
Speaker 1: And that's a direct correlation proven by that number. Obviously
Speaker 1: it was a different staff, different personnel, all those things
Speaker 1: like that. Regardless, if this defense can come out and
Speaker 1: can stop the run and can affect the quarterback, Louisiana
Speaker 1: has all the tools that they need to go out
Speaker 1: and win a championship. That's gonna wrap up this episode
Speaker 1: up of Raging Rundown. Guys, if you've made it to
Speaker 1: this point in the episode, thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: greatly appreciate you. Please do me a favor. If you're
Speaker 1: watching this video on YouTube, please like it, share it,
Speaker 1: and comment, but most importantly, make sure you subscribe to
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Speaker 1: Cajun fans just like yourself. I'm your guy. JA Marcus Fitzpatrick.
Speaker 1: We'll see you guys next time.