Legendary - The Career of Porter Davis

[djp73]

[djp73]

[djp73]

From: Porter Davis ([email protected])
To: Defensive Assistants
Subject: Positional Analysis

Good Morning,

I hope you all are well. As we discussed here are my thoughts on the defensive personnel we currently have on the team. Remember this information is for our eyes only and should not be shared outside of our group. Thank you.

Defensive Ends
95 Kalonji Kashama 6'4" 270 SR
54 Omar McFarlane 6'1" 250 SO
37 Deshai Powell 6'3" 245 FR
74 Matt Price 6'3" 259 SR
92 Jacob Rich 6'2" 238 JR

Defensive End is a position where we really are lacking the overall speed and acceleration we hope to have at the position in our scheme. McFarlane does have what we're looking for so we will be starting him on the left side. Rich is close to what we're looking for as well so I envision him starting as well. Kashama is more of a tackle in our system but he will rotate at end when we see fit. Price brings great experience to the table and has good strength so he will work in as well. Powell is a true freshman who needs a fair amount of work in all aspects of his game. If we had more depth here he would likely be a candidate to redshirt.

Defensive Tackles
76 Travis Linser 6'4" 288 JR
93 Cy Maughmer 6'2" 278 JR
99 Aaron Pipkins 6'1" 270 SO
97 Kevin Thomas 6'1" 275 JR

A little better here with Maughmer bringing a decent skillset to the table. He's a fairly strong player for his size and he moves reasonably well. He's our top option here. Linser is a more traditional 0 or 1 technique tackle who clogs things up in the middle and we'll use him there in some 3 man fronts. Kashama figures into this rotation as well. Pipkins looks like a good player in a year or two and Thomas unfortunately seems to be over his head.

Linebackers
55 Tim Brown 6'0" 218 JR
35 Bilal Collins 6'0" 232 SO
36 Derrick Dunlap 6'1" 235 FR
25 Amos Houston 6'2" 213 FR
40 Sean Kurtz 5'11" 224 SR
44 Hunter Matt 6'1" 225 SO
50 LaVonte Robinson 5'11" 215 FR
19 Ike Spearman 6'1" 220 SO
47 Derric Williams 6'1" 210 FR
43 Anthony Zappne 6'1" 235 FR

We're really lacking overall speed at the linebacker position. We have some really high effort guys here but talent wise this may be our weakest group. Robinson, a true freshman, has been a pleasant surprise and has earned the main inside linebacker position. Behind him we're looking for guys to step up but it looks like Zappne has won the second spot. Kurtz has earned one of the outside spots but a lack of speed will keep him off the field in some situations. Spearman is better in coverage and will steal playing time in passing situations. Brown looks to be the other "starter" outside and is a bit quicker than Kurtz. Houston could be an option if he gets up to speed. Williams, Dunlap and Collins have to develop.

I will send my thoughts on the secondary tomorrow.

[djp73]

From: Porter Davis ([email protected])
To: Defensive Assistants
Subject: Positional Analysis continued

Here are my thoughts on the secondary to go along with the front seven from yesterday.

Cornerbacks
39 Kenyarda Bates 5'6" 162 Sr
27 Kirkland Bryant 5'9" 177 So
25 Jaleel Canty 5'9" 180 Fr
21 Ja'Ron Gillespie 5'11" 175 Sr
23 Diondre Moore-Young 5'9" 180 Jr
1 Darius Scott 5'8" 160 Sr
8 Kris Strange 5'11" 178

An overall lack of size is the theme at corner for us. Speed isn't terrific overall either but fortunately we play in the MAC and should be ok against most receiving groups in conference. Scott and Canty look to be our primary starters and they're both pretty solid in man coverage. We're probably going to spend a fair amount of time in nickel and dime looks so Bryant and Gillespie will get on the field quite a bit as well.

Safeties
3 Donald Coleman 6'0" 205 Sr
7 Pudge Cotton 6'1" 218 Jr
42 Kevin Johnson 5'11" 200 Jr
13 Daquan Pace 5'10" 170 Fr
26 Mycal Swaim 6'4" 212 Sr

Cotton and Coleman are the two best players on our defense, we're going to be asking a lot of them this season. We'll use them both in a number of ways. Expect Johnson to be on the field quite a bit as well whenever we have more than four defensive backs in play. Swaim is the fastest defender we have so we may look to utilize him as well. This is our strongest position.

Overall
If I'm being completely honest we have one of the least talented defenses in the conference. It's going to be up to us to scheme around the talent we do have and coach them up if we're going to be successful this season. Overall we're young on defense so the hope is that some of these players who aren't as talented will benefit from early playing time and progress nicely. As I've stated in the past I'm always open to suggestions on personnel, scheme and anything else that will make us more successful.

-Coach Davis

[djp73]

[djp73]

A few notes before the first game:

Recruiting - The CPU will handle recruiting while Davis is a coordinator.

National Scene - Reporting on the national scene will be limited until Davis is with a team that is a factor.

Conference Updates - MAC Conference updates will be weekly once conference play begins.

[djp73]

EASTERN MICHIGAN FOOTBALL
Game Report
August 31st, 2013

@
28 - 14


PUDGE COTTON'S PICK SIX WASN'T ENOUGH TO PROP UP A STRUGGLING EMU TEAM

Scoring
HOW|00|07|14|07|28
EMU|07|00|00|07|14

1Q EMU D. Scott 13 Yd pass from T. Benz (D. Mulder kick)
2Q HOW FB #35 9 Yd run (K #10 kick)
3Q HOW HB #26 2 Yd run (K #10 kick)
3Q HOW HB #5 34 Yd run (K #10 kick)
4Q EMU P. Cotton 44 Yd Int Ret (D. Mulder kick)
4Q HOW WR #89 93 Yd KO Ret (K #10 kick)

Key Stats

Passing: T. Benz 10/25 95Yds 1TD
Rushing: B. Hill 10Car 46Yds
Receiving: D. Reed 2Rec 34Yds
Tackles: K. Johnson 8, T. Brown 7, L. Robinson 7
Sacks: K. Kashama 1, M. Price 1, J. Rich 1
Interceptions: P. Cotton 1 (TD)


(Individual Stats Not Available)

Coach Davis' Take
This is a hard one to swallow. We really struggled to stop the run, especially by their quarterback. Overall we gave up 359 yards of total offense with 297 of it coming in the running game. We gave up a few third and longs on QB runs. We'll need to look at a spy in those situations going forward. We played in the 3-3-5 a lot and we really give up some tackling ability with that personnel. We may look to use the base 3-4 more going forward although that hurts us in the speed department. I guess it doesn't matter if we catch their players if we can't tackle them. In the passing game we held them to 62 yards and 50% completions. Pudge Cotton did have a great pick six on a ball that was deflected. He wasn't going to let anything stop him from scoring. Kashama, Price and Rich each had sacks so the pass rush did reasonably well. Scott had a pair of good deflections as well.

Overall this one was a letdown. We would hope for a bit more help from our offense going forward. They only scored seven points and picked up 163 yards total. Seven first downs to their 21 meant we were on the field quite a bit. We definitely need to get better on third and long.

Coach Davis' Player of the Game

4tkl, 2TFL, 1Int, 1TD
Pudge played a lot of linebacker for us in this game and was all over the field. The pick six he had was a great effort play as he scooped the ball almost off the ground after a receiver tipped it. Pudge is going to be a leader for us for sure.

Next Game
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0-1 | 1-0

[Iron Dragon]

Yikes, this could be a major struggle year one with no control on the offense, if I recall on the original roster EMU was very, very bad.