The Questions Answered!

What We Knew

The Cougars came into this season with a lot of confidence on the offensive side of the ball. After all, pretty much every starter was returning except Sete Aulai, Matt Allen, and Manase Tonga. With a flood of young talent coming to help fill in the gaps, there were few doubts about the offense

What We Didn’t Know

The Defensive side of the ball, however, was quite different. The departure of Manumaleuna to a mission, and the return of Russel Tialavea left the defensive line pretty much un touched. But now also gone were names like Kehl, Criddle, Poppinga, Gooch,Gabriel, and Buchanan. With most of the starting linebacker corps and defensive secondary gone to graduation, the big questions were about who would man the defense.

Linebackers

David Nixon provided a solid starter to build a linebacking corp around. But before practices could even hardly get going, they lost Terrance Hooks to injury and later, an early season injury cost them Vic So’to. But fortunately, linebackers Shawn Doman, Matt Bauman, Jadon Wagner, and CJ Ah You all returned with significant playing experience. A good group of starters, but very little depth.

Secondary

With no returning starters from the secondary, safety’s Kellen Fowler and David Tafuna, having significant playing time, were counted on heavily to ancor this group. Backup Brandon Howard, and walk-on Scott Johnson filled out the roster.

Bring in the Reinforcements

Just like an old-time western movie, just when you look to be in trouble, in comes the cavalry. New names like Bradley, Rich, Clawson, Putnam, Pendelton, Sorensen, Te’o, Alisha, and Pritchard came rumbling onto the scene. this group of reinforcements filled out the depth charts, are seeing significant playing time, and making great contributions to the defensive effort.

The Future

Bronco and company have put together recruiting efforts that should keep the team, and especially the defense strong for years to come. Coach hill and his staff are doing an excellent job of teaching technique and developing performance. Colby Clawson looks like a beast and Putnam, and Bradley have also made some big plays. Given that the Defense should only lose Fowler, Tafuna, and Nixon, that side of the team should have answered the question for next year as well.

By the Numbers

After four games, the Defense is holding opponents to a per game average of:

Rushing: 107 yrds

Passing: 196 Yrds

Touchdowns: 1.25

Points: 11

Take-aways: 3

This Cougar defense has put up two straight shut-outs, and those with the first string sitting on the bench by the end of the third quarter.