FSU fan here that participated in the original conversation that was referenced. To clear the record, the convo was civil and respectful. He was banned because one of the rules of the "Tribal Council" (which is our premium members only board) is that it is solely for FSU fans. He was banned for that reason, even though I think it was asinine decision and I blasted the asshat mods for it.
Now that we got that out of the way, back to football talk.
Concerning our (FSU) defensive backfield, most every knowledgable Seminole fan believes our secondary is actually going to be better than last year. Yes, we lost Ramsey who was a special player. But he is just one player. There will be a slight drop off at that one spot, but we are improved at every other spot.
For those that don't follow FSU closely (I am assuming that is everyone reading this) we really run a 4-2-5 as our base defense, even though our coaches don't officially list that. We run the 4-2-5, or Nickle personnel most of the time. That is largely due to the fact that our main competitor for our conference title is Clemson that runs a spread so our defensive personnel is built around stopping spread teams. Similar to what you saw with Alabama building their defense with massive LBs to stop LSU a few years ago when they were battling it out every year, and then they got exploited by spread teams that used their size against them. We sometimes get exposed by big power attacks (see Boston College giving us trouble for several years in a row).
All that to say this: we have 3 corners on the field most of the time. The biggest playmaking position on our defense is the "star" position, or what most people call a Nickle back (3rd corner). But we play that position in multiple ways. That was the position Ramsey played his sophomore year when he put up much better stats and impacted games much much more than his junior (last) year when he played boundary corner. He switched to boundary corner that because he wanted to prove to NFL scouts that he could be an outside corner, and the coaches obliged. But the "star" position is our biggest playmaking and impactful position on our defense, where we usually put our best player.
Our "star" position last year was a lightning quick, strong, athletic player named Tre Marshall. He was on his way to having a breakout year and was playing at an elite level last year. He tore a bicep muscle early in the year and was out all year rehabbing. Otherwise, you would know who he was because he was on his way to All-Conference honors. That was a huge blow to our defense as we didn't have anyone with his skill set to replace him, and we ended up starting a walk-on at that spot for the last 7-8 games of the year.
We have that player back, who is a work out warrior and has improved his speed, strength, and explosiveness in the off-season. Just getting him back is going to be a huge improvement to our secondary.
The corner opposite of Ramsey last year is a stud and would have been drafted last year if he had come out early. (Marquez White). He apparently has had an amazing off-season and expects to play even better as this is just his 2nd year playing football year-round. He split time on our basketball team his first 2 years on campus.
We are replacing Ramsey with a 5-star sophomore that is a physical freak (6'2" 210lb) that was the top corner coming out of highhschool 2 years ago.
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/390
All reports so far is that he is living up to the hype. He would have started at over 90% of power 5 schools last year as a true freshman, but he just happened to be behind a top-5 pick last year.
Lastly, I don't think anyone outside of Tallahasee realizes how good Derwin James is. Just remember that name. After our game you guys will all have a huge amount of respect for him. He is being talked about as having the potential to be the best defensive back to ever play at FSU. If you know our history, you know that is high praise. I think it's a little early to be talking that kind of hyperbole considering we have had many Thorpe award winners and hall of farmers including Deion Sanders. But he certainly is different than any player I have seen. I just don't know what to make of him.
I know many of you are rolling your eyes and thinking I'm a blindly optimistic homer. I'm not. I am pretty objective and have correctly predicted our record before the season for several years in a row now. I said we would lose 2-3 games last year, with a 10-2 regular season (that's exactly what we finished at). So I am not one of these fans that thinks we are going to go undefeated every year. I follow our team closely, know the equipment manager, and get good insight from our closed practices.
If you believe our secondary is going to be something you can exploit, I strongly disagree. It is our deepest and most talented position on our entire team. The only question mark we have is how a 5-star freak of a corner is going to play in his 2nd year, if that's our biggest question mark, I feel pretty good about our secondary.
Any questions feel free to fire away.
I have one question regarding your defensive front, and particularly the interior DL. You guys mostly play a 3-4 correct? You play a true nose guard in a zero-tech. Or do you play more 2 and 3-tech DTs?
Our center is a little undersized and weak compared to the rest of our line. That is my one area of concern. If you have explosive and powerful Nose guard you can push the pocket back into our young QBs face and really cause us issues (yes our freshman is going to start at QB).
I look forward to the insight you provide, as we'll as the game. I will be at the game looking forward to a good early season test to see how we look. Pumped for the game, good luck
