Mathieu Araujo was named Yale’s Defensive Backs Coach after stints at Boston College and Springfield College (Graduate Assistant). Vashel will coach the outside linebackers and McGowan will assist with the defensive backs as well. Welcome aboard Coach Araujo and best of luck in transforming this secondary!
Spencer Matthaei and Josh Keeler are the top returners at defensive tackle. Both have flashed dominance in spurts, but need to be much more consistent at the point of attack this season. Sebastian Bruno, Michael Chime, Tate Goodyear and Adam Raine all have a chance to see extending playing time with a solid performance in Spring Ball.
Charles Callender and Devin Moore both return as starters from a year ago. Callender wasn’t the same player this past season as he battled through an injury, while Moore struggled to contain the outside edge at times. Christian Sampleton, Sean Kissel, Oso Ifesinachukwu and Reid Nickerson all played major roles last season and have the potential to replace Callender or Moore. Ethan Campbell and Brett Gerber could enter the defensive line rotation as well. Will Kyle Mullen ever return to reclaim his starting position?
The linebacking corps is full of raw talent that has yet to be fully developed. Micah Awodiran, Ryan Burke, Blake Hill, Noah Pope, John Dean, and Jordan Carey all started at some point last season. There never seemed to be a consistent unit on the field that could mesh well together, so developing cohesiveness among the top linebackers is crucial this Spring. These six players must take drastic leaps from 2018 to solidify the defense. Abelite, Frommer, Large, MacPhee, Ryan and Westafer will have the opportunity to compete for playing time and likely will be key players on the special teams units.
The secondary has an abundance of depth and experience returning, but these players need to be properly coached and put in a position to succeed. Our defensive backs must look for the ball and tackle well to give us a chance in 2019. Rodney Thomas will likely return as the starting free safety. Tosan Agbeyegbe and Miles Oldacre could be in competition for the strong safety spot, although Oldacre seemed to play more as an outside linebacker last season opposed to a true safety. Isaiah Dunham really showed a willingness to hit opponents in his limited playing time, something that was lacking in the secondary most of the season. Abraham, Alburg, Dixon, Ellis, Granberry, Henson and Hickey saw a lot of snaps last season and will battle it out for the starting corner positions. Dixon and Hickey played safety during parts of last season and could contend for the strong safety position with Agbeyegbe and Oldacre.
15 replies on “Defensive Preview”
What is Mullen’s status? Is the incident still under investigation?
Is there ANY chance Mullen will play for us again?
gentlemen; back to spring training where hope springs eternal. i am not sold on our offensive line with the exception of mr. eiselin,mr. warfield and mr. strother with him moving back to center. the defense is a complete mystery from top to bottom who will emerge remains to be seen but suffice to say the middle of the defense should be of major concern and rehabilitation.
Old Blue, I don’t know why you’re hung up on the Oline? I think the offensive output was very good last year, hell look at what that rookie QB did last year(probably couldn’t do it with a poor o line). We lost our star RB and QB and still put up some very good offensive numbers. Not the Dline/defense…I try to watch every game, I had to dvr a few and the Dartmouth one from last year was one that I stopped watching (even though I didn’t know the final score). That QB Gerbino absolutely EMBARRASSED the defense/Dline….. THAT should be the focus and the lack of DL recruits…..and don’t get me started on the MOST important loss…Mullen and his selfishness
gentlemen; respectfully, I do not believe one comment regarding my two cents on the offensive line constitutes an overwhelming obsession as opposed to one man’s opinion. If there is a fire burning under me it is indeed as to our blue defensive side of the pigskin which at times was a complete disaster due to the inability to tackle and cover receivers.
OB….its not directed expressly toward you, but people seem to harp on the offensive side of the ball and with the numbers put up (Frosh should’ve been put in the Columbia game) and the loss of skilled starters, I think they did pretty good. The defense…….another story
I do not believe the Elis lack talent on the defensive side of the ball. There are multiple highly rated recruits at each position. The down lineman need to mature and get stronger but we return seasoned linebackers and DBs.
We need a sound defensive philosophy that the athletes can execute. Too many big plays surrendered last year and too many defenders isolated in the open field against skill players. I am not a fan of running platoons on and off the field as I believe it leads to confusion and the inability of the defender to read the opposition.
I totally agree with Eyes. Running defensive players on and off the field on almost every play interferes with reads. On many plays our down lineman were not even set when the ball was snapped and/or were looking toward the sideline. Third down personnel substitutions are one thing, but constant changing like we saw last year quite another.
It’s obvious to all of us that the defense needs to improve a lot over last year’s poor showing. I agree that the coaches platooned way too much but wonder whether this was out of necessity simply because no set of defenders seemed to rise to the level of talent that was needed.
More experience should help but my concern is that our linebackers and dbs are somewhat undersized and that may be one of the reasons the tackling was so often ineffective.
Lack of Fundamentals,not wrapping up the ballcarrier . Plugging the gaps. Will help tremendously..Having the DB’s looking back for the ball and making plays on the play will work wonders..!!!
Yes we our undersized at LBandDB other teams in the league arebigger then us. What gets my coat is when i go on twitter to check on recruiting all you see is DB or WR no lineman. What gives. I hope Coach Reno knows he has to have an outstanding year recruiting lineman both sides of the line.If you look at the roster for 2019 we lose a lot if offense lineman next year.Good players,Will the SO and JR help this year i hope so. I have been looking to see Tyler Jost and Grant Neagli in action. Good Luck Yale.03
This board is constantly calling for players that they have never seen play. Have faith in the staff and believe these guys are not playing for a reason. High school skills do not translate to immediate success and these players are probably not ready for Ivy League action. It is up to these individuals to prove themselves on the field and in the weight room to determine the impact they will have on the season
We need a serious infusion of talent on the Defensive Line. I am sure losing Olson hurt our recruiting efforts last year. I think last years Oline class was very solid with several freshman getting playing time towards the end of the year. One of the keys to this year is the development of Goodyear. He was a highly regarded run stopper and that will be needed if Yale is to make a run this fall.
Doesn’t matter, Go Harvard..!!
DL: D, Pr and H all shredded the DL to an embarrassing degree.
LB: I would need to be an eight-armed goddess to have enough fingers to count the number of times that RB’s and slot receivers simply ran right past LB’s like they weren’t there and made deep receptions.
DB: for the love of all that is good, when you’re beat, read the WR’s eyes and body language and PLAY THE BALL!
Next up, tackling 101.
https://youtu.be/kLldjE6vvFs