Bronco takes charge

So Jamie Hill is gone. Is anyone surprised? A year after Bronco gives up the defensive squad, we give up 29 points a game to (hold your breath) Nevada, Air Force, Florida State, and Utah State. Then again, the offense hasn’t been able to do much either. We scored a grand total of 43 points. That is enough points to win one game. That is saying something, something like other teams are tripling or quadrupling our score. So how does Bronco taking over the defensive side of the ball help?

Way to call a time out on the defense, Bronco

For one, Bronco is not afraid to be creative. He has been coaching the special teams for a few years now, and we have seen some trickery and deviance from the norm. Four years ago in the 2006 season, during the first four games or so, every kickoff the four return men would huddle, hand the ball off to one of the players, and then break and hope the opposing team followed the wrong person. Unfortunately, some players couldn’t figure out that the handoff needed to be backward and we got flagged on it several times, but it was really exciting for the fans and at least got the defense a little off its rocker.

This year on special teams, we have already seen a few gadgets. Some have worked, some haven’t. One that did work was the reverse return against Nevada. I still can’t figure out how it worked so well, simply because Hoffman had to run to the other side of the field, get the ball from Di Luigi, and then run back, but it was somehow effective and got us 10 or so more yards in field position for an offense searching for its identity. On the other hand, for one of the plays that didn’t work, Bronco sent in JD Falslev (I think - either way, it wasn’t Stephenson) to punt. Yeah, it ended up being a shank of a punt, but did you see the confusion in the Nevada punt return team? Guys were pointing and yelling and standing up out of position and everything. It made them think twice the next time we punted.

This year, I kind of wish we were cheering for this Bronco

I mean, really, can the defensive situation get any worse? Fuga is gone until next fall. Andrew Rich has been particularly injury prone this year. Pendleton left last game early with an injury. LB Jameson Frazier and S Stephen Thomas were out for all of last game in positions where we have struggled. Why not be a bit creative on defense? I know our secondary isn’t the best, but instead of dropping more guys in coverage, why not send someone like CB Brandon Bradley a few times on the weak side when he would be rushing at the QB’s blind side? Or send Rich in on a safety blitz? Did you see what defense we were playing when we had the interception against Nevada? It was a zone blitz, with the DT dropping back into coverage. Kapernick didn’t even see him (kind of hard when you realize most DT’s are 300 pounds or so). We have a total of 5 sacks this season so far, with none in the last two games. What’s stopping Bronco from taking chances to salvage a currently struggling squad?