The Size of the Virginia Tech Defense

After how our defensive line got pushed around all day against Miami, I got to thinking about how our defense has gotten progressively worse over the last few seasons and what the root cause may be. At a basic level, our defensive line seems woefully undersized. That led me to make this comparison in the Open Thread:

2006
DE Orion Martin 6'2" 250lbs
DT Barry Booker 6'4" 280lbs
DT Carlton Powell 6'2" 294 lbs
DE Chris Ellis 6'5" 260 lbs

2015
DE Ken Ekanem 6'3" 248 lbs
DT Luther Maddy: 6'2" 283lbs
DT Corey Marshall: 6'2" 266lbs
DE Dadi Nicholas 6'3" 233lbs

In 2006 our average DE was 6'3.5" and 255lbs; today it's 6'3", but only 240.5 lbs. At the DT position we were 6'3" 287lbs; now the average is 6'2" and 274.5lbs. I understand that we are somewhat sacrificing size for speed, but take into account that Jason Worilds was 6'2" 262lbs when he played here. That's as big as Corey Marshall. Chris Ellis was bigger than Marshall and only slightly lighter. At some point you give up too much size, and I think we have hit that threshold. I am really eager to see what Tim Settle can do here, and honestly think that we should not have redshirted him. I wouldn't have been surprised to see him emerge as a starter at some point this season.

After that, I went digging through all of the media guides to compare the sizes of our rosters. This means there will be some inconsistency with what was actually on the field, but it was easier for me to go through the pre-season media guides than to try and sift through the rosters on each game.

First, we'll start out by showing some basic statistics of our defense over the last ten years:

As you can see, our defense has steadily been allowing more points per game every season. However, offenses have gotten better. The average offense from 2008 scored 26.92 points per game. In 2015 that number is 30.33, a little more than a field goal increase. From 2005-2009, the Virginia Tech defense gave up 14.46 points per game. Since that, they have allowed 20.48. Our PPG allowed increased by double the national PPG scored increased. Not good.

Yardage wise, there is a steady upward trend in all categories. However, the disconcerting thing is how quickly the Rushing Yards Allowed category is rising. Over the last two seasons we have been getting absolutely mauled on the ground. We also got gashed in 2010, but the Tyrod Taylor lead offense was enough to make up for it en route to an ACC Championship. We no longer have that luxury.

So what could be the cause of this? We all know that our defense has been slightly undersized, but they make up for it in speed and aggression. However, how much size can you lose before it starts to hurt you?

Honestly, I don't know that the heights really show that much. The scale of the graph exaggerates the height differences, but it is evident that our DTs are significantly shorter than they used to be. The more important factor is the weight. Weights across the board have fallen, but the average weights at DT and DE have plummeted. We have fallen about 10 lbs at DE and over 20 lbs at DT. While this is definitely an effort to get faster players in space to defend against the spread, I think we have sacrificed too much power.

As was said in the quote earlier, look at former defensive ends like Chris Ellis and Jason Worilds. These guys would be large enough to play at DT in Bud's defense now. Still, I would argue that despite being larger, these guys were as fast and explosive as any player we have at DE now. I really don't think you need to sacrifice that much size in order to get more mobility.

This is why I really would have loved for us to burn the redshirt on Settle and get him in the rotation, although that time has long passed. He has the size we so desperately need at DT, and the potential to be an explosive force on the line.

Still, there is the possibility that Bud wants to play bigger guys, but we just don't have them. Maybe it's a recruiting issue, maybe it's a strength and conditioning issue. I'm not sure. What I do know is that you used to never see a Virginia Tech defense getting pushed around like they did today.