Red Raider Gridiron | Jones, Richards and Payne Discuss Defense

STORIES OF THE DAY

Yesterday, we got to see Jackson Richards, Bruce Jones and Chris Payne. This is an interesting group of players. Richards seems like a thoughtful guy, I thought it was interesting that he was asked about the position change and he said that the change was difficult, but not discouraging. What was interesting was that he immediately didn't want to sound negative at all, but still acknowledge that it was a challenge to play defensive end in a 3-4 defense, which is essentially a defensive tackle position.

Jones did acknowledge that he is the guy that is on one side, most like the field corner, but also acknowledges that the staff is still looking for that second cornerback. It wouldn't surprise me to see one of the two JUCO players, Martin Hill and Dorian Crawford, get a look very quickly this summer. I don't know what to think about Payne as I wasn't sure what he was saying in terms of the difference between the defense last year and this year.

NOTEBOOK

JONES READY | The LAJ's profile was about the aforementioned CB Bruce Jones and here is cornerback coach Kevin Curtis on the spot opposite of Jones:

"We’re rolling guys through right now," Curtis said. "Everybody’s playing, and we’re just kind of seeing what they’re doing. That’s what spring is for, to kind of see what everyone can do. I think Bruce has put himself at the top of the list, and those other guys are fighting to try and prove what they can do."

SOMEONE EXPLAIN LONG STICK SHORT STICK | The LAJ has a notebook with summaries of the Payne and Richards interviews and Richards said this, that I didn't catch when initially watching the video:

"There’s a lot of blitzes added, and the whole thing with the D-line is we’re moving a lot," he said. "You can long stick, short stick. You can go outside, inside, step one way and go the other. It’s a big variety. The playbook, no two calls are even near the same, so it’s really been fun."

I had to figure out what long stock and short stick is. From what I can tell, long stick is when a defensive tackle slants across two gaps, while a short stock is a slant across just one gap. Someone please correct me here as I am using the internet to verify this.

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