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"Turn around!/look for the ball!" Guy

Bootle was 16th in the country in pass breakups. Tough crowd.
Very true and I had him rated very high but our defensive concept stresses taking the ball away. The mentality they are pushing is "Know when you can miss" and they mentality carries over into coverage. Bootle has brilliant positioning which is why he is so good at PBU but the next level is making the play if it's there and you are in position. Very rarely is he trailing/out of position on coverage which is why I singled him out (it's a good thing) whereas Jackson was either in the hip or 5 yards away (it definitely progressed as the season went on) and no other corner graded out nearly as high but the next step is taking that confidence of knowing you are doing everything right and making the big play instead of just a good play. Knit picking but just pointing out the way we are teaching it and that the extremes on both sides are less than ideal.
 
Very true and I had him rated very high but our defensive concept stresses taking the ball away. The mentality they are pushing is "Know when you can miss" and they mentality carries over into coverage. Bootle has brilliant positioning which is why he is so good at PBU but the next level is making the play if it's there and you are in position. Very rarely is he trailing/out of position on coverage which is why I singled him out (it's a good thing) whereas Jackson was either in the hip or 5 yards away (it definitely progressed as the season went on) and no other corner graded out nearly as high but the next step is taking that confidence of knowing you are doing everything right and making the big play instead of just a good play. Knit picking but just pointing out the way we are teaching it and that the extremes on both sides are less than ideal.
I guess my only point was, if he’s 16th in PBUs nationally, he’s turning around and getting his hands on the ball pretty often. If we are needing top10 from our corners we may be in trouble as a fan base.
 
Bootle also has zero career interceptions which in this defense if we are ok with that from a 2 year starter as a fan base we are in trouble. Two sides to the stats, the pbus show he is in the right position and the int stats show he is making good plays but not great plays and there’s room to improve.
 



Bootle also has zero career interceptions which in this defense if we are ok with that from a 2 year starter as a fan base we are in trouble. Two sides to the stats, the pbus show he is in the right position and the int stats show he is making good plays but not great plays and there’s room to improve.
Bootle has only started at corner for one year. Interceptions are how he can improve his game, but he’s turning around and looking for the ball just fine.
 
Bootle has only started at corner for one year. Interceptions are how he can improve his game, but he’s turning around and looking for the ball just fine.

Exactly how many issues on defense need to be fixed ahead of Bootle turning and looking for the ball? An alphabetical list with a pie chart would be helpful.
 
Bootle played a lot Riley’s last year so technically yes he started one year but playing time was pretty even between Lee and Bootle with Jackson getting the lions share

When taking about the core concepts of our defense it is about turnovers and Bootle is far better at playing the receiver than playing the ball. Sure other things need fixed but this thread is directly talking about locating the football, an area that I believe and the statistics support we struggle with as a secondary. If you ask this staff if they would rather have 15 pbus or 15 ints the answer is pretty clear, that being said that’s not how football works so you have to break down the cbs position, and whether the chance to make a play is there. Bootle has had chances and hasn’t capitalized. More realistically he should have been at around 11 pbus with 4 ints (a stat that fisher downgrades for missing making the play). If he dropped on pass break ups but even had one or two ints that is a huge momentum swing and could be the difference between a bowl game and sitting at home with how this season turned out.

Additionally, as a coordinator it is much easier to test a defense when the worst outcome is an incompletion rather than an int and you can see that lack of fear come in, especially in the Northwestern game where they continually challenged our secondary with no response. A pass rush can cover for the secondary and likewise the secondary can cover for the pass rush and both have room to grow. I would just like the improvement fundementally that we’ve seen take root mentally and lead to more aggression on the ball when players are in the right position and bootle was our best and most consistent player in the secondary at being in that position, now he just had to transition from making the good plays to making the great ones because he is fully capable technique wise of doing so.
 



Bootle played a lot Riley’s last year so technically yes he started one year but playing time was pretty even between Lee and Bootle with Jackson getting the lions share

When taking about the core concepts of our defense it is about turnovers and Bootle is far better at playing the receiver than playing the ball. Sure other things need fixed but this thread is directly talking about locating the football, an area that I believe and the statistics support we struggle with as a secondary. If you ask this staff if they would rather have 15 pbus or 15 ints the answer is pretty clear, that being said that’s not how football works so you have to break down the cbs position, and whether the chance to make a play is there. Bootle has had chances and hasn’t capitalized. More realistically he should have been at around 11 pbus with 4 ints (a stat that fisher downgrades for missing making the play). If he dropped on pass break ups but even had one or two ints that is a huge momentum swing and could be the difference between a bowl game and sitting at home with how this season turned out.

Additionally, as a coordinator it is much easier to test a defense when the worst outcome is an incompletion rather than an int and you can see that lack of fear come in, especially in the Northwestern game where they continually challenged our secondary with no response. A pass rush can cover for the secondary and likewise the secondary can cover for the pass rush and both have room to grow. I would just like the improvement fundementally that we’ve seen take root mentally and lead to more aggression on the ball when players are in the right position and bootle was our best and most consistent player in the secondary at being in that position, now he just had to transition from making the good plays to making the great ones because he is fully capable technique wise of doing so.
The statistics support Bootle does an outstanding job at turning around and locating the football, which is what this thread is about. Lack of interceptions supports that Bootle is on the correct side of the ball, and that’s about it.

I find it odd our only all-conference defensive player is having to defend his play in a thread about turning around and looking for the ball when he’s 16th in the country in past breakups. It’s an odd time in Husker football history.
 
The statistics support Bootle does an outstanding job at turning around and locating the football, which is what this thread is about. Lack of interceptions supports that Bootle is on the correct side of the ball, and that’s about it.

I find it odd our only all-conference defensive player is having to defend his play in a thread about turning around and looking for the ball when he’s 16th in the country in past breakups. It’s an odd time in Husker football history.

So maybe teams throw at Bootle so much because they know he won't intercept the pass, either it will be complete or incomplete and they will live to fight another day.:Stirthepot:
 
expect both bootle and Jackson to be better at int's and pbu in the 2019 season. the prince did both so well teams seldom tested him. will need better coverage against slot recievers, backs and te's. who we got??
 



Being "turn around/knock the ball away" guy just seems better than being "turn around/where'd my guy go?" guy.
Both of which fall behind the "turn around/make a play on the ball" guy

I understand where you are coming from *** but I will post the links when I find time to rewatch the games but bootle left opportunities on the table or went for the PBU when the INT was there...it's a mentality thing that our coaching staff is trying to instill. I only target Bootle because he was so consistently in the right position to make a bigger play but has yet to make it. Jackson has things I would far rather he prioritize and our young'ens are still growing and don't have enough film to process their technical development/positioning and playmaking mentality. Our Safeties all graduated and Williams has that knack to make the play but also missed some assignments/had a few technical/mental hiccups that I would rather he focus on.

Literally the only weakness I see in Bootle is his ability to make a play on the ball/trust his technique and reads more to make the big play. He is one of our best in press coverage, crashes hard in run support, has excellent hand placement and agility/hip flexibility, he just hasn't shown the turnover mentality that our staff wants on the back end and I feel like he can definitely grow into that with more confidence/trust in himself.
 

Both of which fall behind the "turn around/make a play on the ball" guy

I understand where you are coming from *** but I will post the links when I find time to rewatch the games but bootle left opportunities on the table or went for the PBU when the INT was there...it's a mentality thing that our coaching staff is trying to instill. I only target Bootle because he was so consistently in the right position to make a bigger play but has yet to make it. Jackson has things I would far rather he prioritize and our young'ens are still growing and don't have enough film to process their technical development/positioning and playmaking mentality. Our Safeties all graduated and Williams has that knack to make the play but also missed some assignments/had a few technical/mental hiccups that I would rather he focus on.

Literally the only weakness I see in Bootle is his ability to make a play on the ball/trust his technique and reads more to make the big play. He is one of our best in press coverage, crashes hard in run support, has excellent hand placement and agility/hip flexibility, he just hasn't shown the turnover mentality that our staff wants on the back end and I feel like he can definitely grow into that with more confidence/trust in himself.
Well...kind of. You see, a lot of interceptions are not the work of lockdown corners but, instead, are caused by errant throws caused by an effective pass rush. We haven't had an effective pass rush since Bootle has been here. As a result, very few: 1) errant passes caused by pressure, 2) tipped passes, 3) passes throw on the run, and 4) passes throw off course by hitting the QB as he releases come Bootle's way. I think you will see more INTs from Bootle when the pass rush improves. This is one reason why there are not 50 things more important to fix than our pass rush...in fact, there are VERY FEW things more important. BTW...I'm definitely not ***.
 
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