08-24-2023, 08:51 PM
Gilman:
* I know we've seen a lot of Gilman the last two years (not a lot of players on our team with 500+ snaps) and can also see his listed size on the roster, but man is he small. Just kind of jarring after watching all these interviews with others. As I've talked about previously and don't need to belabor, it's an alarming combination of being tiny with being slow. The coaches talk him up so I very much hope he can punch above his weight. His brother, of course, famously did so at Notre Dame and now with the Chargers. I'd really like it if Gilman emerges as a player I've written off too readily and has a great year.
* That being said, my profound pessimism doesn't come out of thin air. Last year, among 200+ snap Pac-12 safeties Gilman graded #29 of 32. The year before it was #39 of 40. And safety is not a position where one typically sees big year-to-year jumps. I think Gilman is maybe a Pac-12 backup/Group of Five level safety who happens to play on a team with no other options. What I've been hoping for is that somebody like Leigber would prove better, but apparently not. At this point our greatest hope probably lies in the true freshman Ojarikre, but I don't know how much hope we should put in that either. Realistically, for 2023 I think Gilman is one of our key players and we just have to ride or die with that. When people around the program talk there is really no doubt Gilman is not only a starter for us but a leader on the defense. I just have to hope he's better than I fear. What I really think is we just don't have anybody else.
* Similar comments on camp as what we hear from everybody, didn't feel like there was particular new insight.
* Another person really touting April's football IQ ("mastermind" in Gilman's words). I just hope the football mind dials up the right things as he gets used to coordinating a defense for the first time. I really didn't think Lance Anderson showed that he knew what he was doing and I think there's a real chance a Rex Ryan/Jim Leonhard protege understands defensive football a lot better. But it will be anxious until we actually start seeing this new defense in action (and probably even then! Offense isn't going to make it easy on them)
* It's nice to hear about April knowing how to put guys in position. I ruminated on this a lot in my reactions to the Porter interview and it seems to me like alignments and calls could play a big role in both melding our personnel with the Wisconsin defense and in showcasing our strengths/mitigating our weaknesses. I seriously doubt our safeties are as negative on themselves as I am on them, but when I hear Porter talk about how pressure lets them cover for less time or Gilman talk about putting guys in position, I hear a little bit of self-awareness that coaching matters. In their experience, bad defensive coaching exposed them and, hopefully, good defensive coaching will hopefully protect them.
* There were comments near the end of the Porter interview about playing free that as I was listening I could tell were potentially interesting but I didn't have anything in particular to say about it. Now in this Gilman interview we get a very similar comment but with some additional explanation, namely that the defense is now less of an eye movement game and more of a feel game where players can make checks based on what they're seeing and feeling. Those who've read my analyses for years know my hobby horse (bete noire, really) that defense under Anderson required too much post-snap reads and decision-making and was deeply antithetical to just letting guys play. I'm hoping I'm not hearing what I want to hear from Gilman and over-reacting to this but it sounds like the best explanation I've heard yet of not just that the defenders will be able to play fast and free but why that will be the case. All fingers and toes crossed. Notably, Gilman says that the feel game fits the way he plays better than the eye movement game, so this could also be a legitimate reason to think the new staff is poised to unlock something in Gilman that looks different than the very bad results I talked about above. Fingers crossed on that too.
* Like Porter, Gilman talked about playing a lot of Cover 3. I tied myself in pretzels on that analysis in the last post, so just want to note the data point on more Cover 3. Gilman did say there's a lot of man coverage too, an echo of the corners talking about multiple coverages, and he said he's working on his man coverage as well as getting more range out of the post to help the corners (I imagine here range is challenged by athletic limitations....exactly what I was talking about in the Porter reactions about our vulnerability to the deep ball).
* When asked about balancing coverage with run defense, he said there are keys to pick up "especially against our offense." This kind of worries me. You spend all year practicing against your own offense and it seems natural to me that the defense would gear itself to stopping the offense it practices against. That could even mean developing shortcuts ("keys") designed around the tells and tendencies you see from your own offense. Maybe in some senses that can help against other offenses, but it seems to me that it could also be a crutch to "compete" in practice but not necessarily be transferrable against other offenses.
* Gilman talks about the coaches giving them as much information as possible to let them play fast. Ahhh, the tension I can never get my head around. Maybe I have too neanderthal a view of defense, but it has always seemed to me like fewer keys and less "information" the more you can react and just go. I'm sure in the real world it's a balance of providing information without leading to paralysis by analysis, but I do get nervous whenever I hear about "as much information as possible."
* I know we've seen a lot of Gilman the last two years (not a lot of players on our team with 500+ snaps) and can also see his listed size on the roster, but man is he small. Just kind of jarring after watching all these interviews with others. As I've talked about previously and don't need to belabor, it's an alarming combination of being tiny with being slow. The coaches talk him up so I very much hope he can punch above his weight. His brother, of course, famously did so at Notre Dame and now with the Chargers. I'd really like it if Gilman emerges as a player I've written off too readily and has a great year.
* That being said, my profound pessimism doesn't come out of thin air. Last year, among 200+ snap Pac-12 safeties Gilman graded #29 of 32. The year before it was #39 of 40. And safety is not a position where one typically sees big year-to-year jumps. I think Gilman is maybe a Pac-12 backup/Group of Five level safety who happens to play on a team with no other options. What I've been hoping for is that somebody like Leigber would prove better, but apparently not. At this point our greatest hope probably lies in the true freshman Ojarikre, but I don't know how much hope we should put in that either. Realistically, for 2023 I think Gilman is one of our key players and we just have to ride or die with that. When people around the program talk there is really no doubt Gilman is not only a starter for us but a leader on the defense. I just have to hope he's better than I fear. What I really think is we just don't have anybody else.
* Similar comments on camp as what we hear from everybody, didn't feel like there was particular new insight.
* Another person really touting April's football IQ ("mastermind" in Gilman's words). I just hope the football mind dials up the right things as he gets used to coordinating a defense for the first time. I really didn't think Lance Anderson showed that he knew what he was doing and I think there's a real chance a Rex Ryan/Jim Leonhard protege understands defensive football a lot better. But it will be anxious until we actually start seeing this new defense in action (and probably even then! Offense isn't going to make it easy on them)
* It's nice to hear about April knowing how to put guys in position. I ruminated on this a lot in my reactions to the Porter interview and it seems to me like alignments and calls could play a big role in both melding our personnel with the Wisconsin defense and in showcasing our strengths/mitigating our weaknesses. I seriously doubt our safeties are as negative on themselves as I am on them, but when I hear Porter talk about how pressure lets them cover for less time or Gilman talk about putting guys in position, I hear a little bit of self-awareness that coaching matters. In their experience, bad defensive coaching exposed them and, hopefully, good defensive coaching will hopefully protect them.
* There were comments near the end of the Porter interview about playing free that as I was listening I could tell were potentially interesting but I didn't have anything in particular to say about it. Now in this Gilman interview we get a very similar comment but with some additional explanation, namely that the defense is now less of an eye movement game and more of a feel game where players can make checks based on what they're seeing and feeling. Those who've read my analyses for years know my hobby horse (bete noire, really) that defense under Anderson required too much post-snap reads and decision-making and was deeply antithetical to just letting guys play. I'm hoping I'm not hearing what I want to hear from Gilman and over-reacting to this but it sounds like the best explanation I've heard yet of not just that the defenders will be able to play fast and free but why that will be the case. All fingers and toes crossed. Notably, Gilman says that the feel game fits the way he plays better than the eye movement game, so this could also be a legitimate reason to think the new staff is poised to unlock something in Gilman that looks different than the very bad results I talked about above. Fingers crossed on that too.
* Like Porter, Gilman talked about playing a lot of Cover 3. I tied myself in pretzels on that analysis in the last post, so just want to note the data point on more Cover 3. Gilman did say there's a lot of man coverage too, an echo of the corners talking about multiple coverages, and he said he's working on his man coverage as well as getting more range out of the post to help the corners (I imagine here range is challenged by athletic limitations....exactly what I was talking about in the Porter reactions about our vulnerability to the deep ball).
* When asked about balancing coverage with run defense, he said there are keys to pick up "especially against our offense." This kind of worries me. You spend all year practicing against your own offense and it seems natural to me that the defense would gear itself to stopping the offense it practices against. That could even mean developing shortcuts ("keys") designed around the tells and tendencies you see from your own offense. Maybe in some senses that can help against other offenses, but it seems to me that it could also be a crutch to "compete" in practice but not necessarily be transferrable against other offenses.
* Gilman talks about the coaches giving them as much information as possible to let them play fast. Ahhh, the tension I can never get my head around. Maybe I have too neanderthal a view of defense, but it has always seemed to me like fewer keys and less "information" the more you can react and just go. I'm sure in the real world it's a balance of providing information without leading to paralysis by analysis, but I do get nervous whenever I hear about "as much information as possible."