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Over the last year there have been over 1,000 (1,038 to be exact) mentions of Bryce English. I know that he was very impressive in spring ball and others have stated that there is a bit of nasty in his play. All of which I am excited about. I am just concerned that when he makes it to the field that some on this board will expect him to be the messiah for our defense, I for one do not see that happening. Believe it or not, our defense did improve this year, not much but we did lower the total yards allowed per game by 8.4 yards. The main difference between this year and last year was big plays in pass defense (where we allowed 28.7 more yards per game) which ended up in scores (which we gave up 3.4 more points per game) Our weakness was not the D-line. If you watch the film (and know what you are looking for) you will see that our LB's were not able to shed a block and make a play - this is personally my biggest area of concern. Our line did a good job and absorbed their block and held most of the time. Our starters on the D-line combined for 132 tackles and 3.5 sacks (As a comparison West Virginia's D-line starters, who also run the 3-3-5 had 100 tackles and 6 sacks) Flusche posted 43 total tackles, 8.0 for loss, with 1.5 sacks, an interception, a pair of pass break-ups and four quarterback hurries. Young (who would be replaced by English) started all 14 games and finished with 48 tackles, 6.5 for loss with 2.0 sacks and eight quarterback hurries while garnering all-conference honorable mention status from C-USA's coaches. Hamilton finished with 40 tackles (22 solo), 4.0 for loss, an interception, a fumble recovery and five quarterback hurries. While I hope and pray that English adds 3-4 sacks and stops at least 4 big plays from happening next year, he is not the savior you are looking for. I think putting Young back out at end where he was projected to play this year with English at NT will be a boost, however I do not think it will increase our lines stats. The defensive saviour will come from the Linebackers or possibly the Secondary. I will gladly come back to this thread and eat crow this time next year if English is the savior of our defensive woes...