2021

39 sacks
32.8% 3rd down conversion rate
Opp. TOP 29:44
Opp. 16 PPG
Opp. 135 rushing per game / 193 passing per game
Opp. 21 total TDs
Opp. 328 avg. total yards / 4.7 avg. per play
15 TOs

2022

19 sacks (down 20, TWENTY!!!, 51% decrease)
36% 3rd down conversion rate
50% 4th down conversion rate
Opp. TOP 32:08
Opp. 21 PPG
Opp. 209 rushing per game (55% increase) / 156 passing per game
Opp. 31 total TDs
Opp. 365 avg. total yards / 5.2 avg. per play
16 TOs

Allowed 288 yards rushing vs. Bama
Allowed 390 yards rushing vs. Ole Miss. THREE HUNDRED NINETY RUSHING YARDS, in Kyle Field!!!!!
LSU had a 75 yard scoring drive that took maybe 1:20 off the clock in 3-5 plays.

Durkin should have been fired after last season. I am certain he will be fired after this season. That stupid grinning sideline face while his D continually underperforms based on his D philosophy and calls. 3 man DL in short yardage, 3-2-6 in long yardage, very little QB pressure.

The game vs. Miami was effectively over when we allowed them to go ahead TD right before HT, Miami went 75 yards on 6 plays in 44 seconds to take the lead going into HT.

Petrino was a good to excellent hire. Durkin was a questionable hire, I thought a terrible hire, and that is being proven game by game. Whatever our record is this season, it will -1 or -2 less Ws due to the incompetence of Durkin.

Any opponent with just a decent OL and / or an avg. QB just dominates Durkin's defense.

The 2022 Ole Miss game at Kyle Field should have been a fireable offense. Absolutely unacceptable.

Pretty damning.

here is what i know

elko defenses got off the field on 3rd and 5
durkin defense can't on 3rd and 15.

I knew Elko leaving was gonna hurt, but I didn't know it would be this bad man

It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

This can't be true, Jimbo said Durkin is a good coach

Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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Half of which Durkin the nitwit leaves on the sidelines the entire game, including our edge rushers on obvious passing downs.

Glad we recruited them.

Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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How can you be the most dominant if you aren't dominant?

I know it's fashionable to criticize Durkin and the showing on Saturday justifies a good bit of it. But, at the end of the day, the issues are at the top. If we're not successful this year Fisher must be held accountable.

Good post, but guess what?

It's Jimbos fault. He obviously did not do due diligence. He picked the dude, just like he picked King, Calzada and Showers.

Buck stops with Fast Talkin Jimbo.

Can't wait til he's gone. I have no personal animosity towards him, I just don't think he's a good coach.

Andrew Dufresne said:

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Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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How can you be the most dominant if you aren't dominant?

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Might want to get with Durkin on that one…

Before he got to Ole Miss, Durkin was a DC for only 2 years where Muschamp was the HC at Florida. Then he spent 1 year as DC at Michigan. And he wasn't great at Ole Miss where he was co-DC.

So he doesn't really have a ton of DC experience. I think he is like a lot of Fisher's coaches - a good recruiter first and foremost.

Andrew Dufresne said:

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Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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How can you be the most dominant if you aren't dominant?

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By being told to stay back and stay in your lanes instead of attacking and by only having 3 out there instead of 4.

In other words, incompetent coaching.

Stinky T said:

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Before he got to Ole Miss, Durkin was a DC for only 2 years where Muschamp was the HC at Florida. Then he spent 1 year as DC at Michigan. And he wasn't great at Ole Miss where he was co-DC.

So he doesn't really have a ton of DC experience. I think he is like a lot of Fisher's coaches - a good recruiter first and foremost.

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He was the HC and called the D at Maryland for 3 years. Pretty sure he was calling the D behind the scenes when he was suspended his final season as well.

When Smurkin _urkin was hired, I grimaced and here we are. Another failed coordinator.

Logos Stick said:

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Good post, but guess what?

It's Jimbos fault. He obviously did not do due diligence. He picked the dude, just like he picked King, Calzada and Showers.

Buck stops with Fast Talkin Jimbo.

Can't wait til he's gone. I have no personal animosity towards him, I just don't think he's a good coach.

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Stowers. Jameill Showers left A&M a decade ago. Other than that, I agree.

Aggieair said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Good post, but guess what?

It's Jimbos fault. He obviously did not do due diligence. He picked the dude, just like he picked King, Calzada and Showers.

Buck stops with Fast Talkin Jimbo.

Can't wait til he's gone. I have no personal animosity towards him, I just don't think he's a good coach.

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Stowers. Jameill Showers left A&M a decade ago. Other than that, I agree.

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Yeah, typo, sorry.

I want Durkin gone just like everyone else but its not going to happen middle year unless the wheels fall off. There is nothing worse than losing despite having a team with more talented players than the opposition. In my opinion I think Jimbo hired Durkin because his def gave him fits when we played Ole Miss. Step forward a few yrs and everyone's defense is giving Jimbos' offense fits.


To amend OP, though, we have a loaded DL for 2021. Demarvin Leal, Michael Clemons, and Tyree Johnson were among the 2021 team members that weren't on the 2022 squad. In 2021, those 3 were responsible for 22.5 sacks. As talented as our 2022 freshman class was, your not going to replicate that performance.

What's amazing is we did not hire a great fired head-coach as a defensive analyst to advise him this offseason. It was clear he had the fits wrong last year. Honestly surprised how well we contained Miami's run game tho. Then the pass-defense became goofy. Maybe it's just personnel but idk. Can't go wrong with a seasoned extra defensive-mind in the room as analyst.

What's depressing is he doesn't seem to want to blitz.
Sometimes you have to...even if the mediocre DB's are exposed even more.
Sometimes you gotta bring pressure and take the risk.
every one of our SEC opponents got to see the Durkin plan up close.
And they cannot wait to shred our secondary.
Durkin had better come up with something quick...cause these 3 and 4 man fronts ain't cutting it.

In 2021 we had the 3rd ranked overall defense with Elko (bama & Uga were 1 &2)

Ole miss had #50 w durkin

45 other candidates better than durkin, but durkin is who Jimbo picked


Durkin sucks but it's dumb**** jimbo that hired him when he could've had anyone....


For ****s sake he could've promoted from within & had a much better product on field than the ****show we're currently watching


Jimbo is ****ing dog****

You would think with the number of stud players we have defensively, the dropoff wouldn't be so great. Guys either are not being developed or put in a position to succeed at all.

Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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Based on actual in-game performances, what make you believe this group is the most dominant D-Line in CFB history. I contend they have underachieved.

Durkin was hired because no one else would come to work for Fisher. The sharks had already smelled blood.

Hice89 said:

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Bill Superman said:

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It's actually impressive to be unable to get any QB pressure with the most dominant group of D Linemen in cfb history…

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Based on actual in-game performances, what make you believe this group is the most dominant D-Line in CFB history. I contend they have underachieved.

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Probably just going off of what these guys were ranked coming out of high school...on paper it should be one of the best units of all time. Although, as you said, they have not been. that.

DJ Durkin's defense ranked 54th in total defense (365.0 yards allowed per game), 1st in pass defense (156.2 passing yards allowed per game) and 124th in rush defense (208.8 rushing yards allowed per game). Somehow, his defense allowed ranked 25th in scoring defense (21.17 points allowed per game). That bend but don't break defense collapsed at Miami. Our defense allowed 451 total yards (374 passing and 77 rushing) and 41 points, and that is unacceptable. Our pass rush has been weak, but our secondary struggled in pass coverage and missed too many tackles.

I still dont understand how our PPG was so low last season. We were terrible against the run, couldn't rush the passer and didn't create turnovers.

Alex580 said:

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I still dont understand how our PPG was so low last season. We were terrible against the run, couldn't rush the passer and didn't create turnovers.

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Everything reverts to the mean.

We started making up for it last Saturday.

I don't understand how complete turds even have jobs at this level.

Ever watch how atrocious Big 12 defenses are? That's what our D looks like with Durkin at the helm. Biggest difference is our team has huge talent and potential that's being wasted.

Ole Miss is still laughing.

ned911 said:

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Stinky T said:

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Before he got to Ole Miss, Durkin was a DC for only 2 years where Muschamp was the HC at Florida. Then he spent 1 year as DC at Michigan. And he wasn't great at Ole Miss where he was co-DC.

So he doesn't really have a ton of DC experience. I think he is like a lot of Fisher's coaches - a good recruiter first and foremost.

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He was the HC and called the D at Maryland for 3 years. Pretty sure he was calling the D behind the scenes when he was suspended his final season as well.

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I was not sure about that. I just had never looked at his experience before now.

Unfortunately Maryland's defensive rankings did not improve much while he was there. The Florida defenses were good, but Muschamp was the HC. And the one year he was at Michigan they were good.

Andrew Dufresne said:

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I knew Elko leaving was gonna hurt, but I didn't know it would be this bad man

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This

Agree that Durkin was a bad hire, but what makes you say Petrino was a good hire? 2 of our drives were 9 or 15 yards after special team miscues or plays. Take those away and his offense scored only 19. His offense was shut down by something as simple as a corner blitz - an aggressive OC would eat those alive.

There's a reason Petrino was going to be the OC of UNLV if we didn't call - everyone in CFB knows he's over the hill.

Durkin has had 14 games to prove his worth, and in 14 games he's put up one decent showing.

One.

That's not nearly good enough.

If this team is going to win, it will be in spite of the defense, and the defense has the horses to run if only they had a jockey who could guide them properly.