FWST: TCU defensive lineman growing into starting spot

[TopFrog]

FWST: TCU defensive lineman growing into starting spot

By Stefan Stevenson
sstevenson@star-telegram.com

D.J. Yendrey is hoping the experience he gained starting the last five games last season allows him to become more of a force on TCU's defensive line this fall.

Yendrey, a 6-foot-4, 273-pound junior, is a good example of the kind of unheralded recruit that has excelled at TCU under coach Gary Patterson. Yendrey was 246 pounds when he arrived as a freshman in 2009 out of Edna High School, a Class 3A school northeast of Victoria in south Texas.

"It was a lot different and our high school didn't have detailed stuff," said Yendrey, who played defensive end and tight end in high school. "It's a lot more complicated here." ...

 

[Gunner]

After Griffin got hurt and facing Wisconsin's offensive front, many wondered if Yendry would hold up. Not only did he hold up, he did a great job. Wisky was averaging 56 points a game for the several weeks heading to the Rose Bowl. They scored 76 points against Indiana in the closing weeks.

Many said if we had a decent playoff system, they would be the favorite to win it outright. Well, they got 19 points and had to scramble at the end, to do that. GP said our DT's did great. Mentioned he might not have played the backups enough.

 

[West Coast Johnny]

After Griffin got hurt and facing Wisconsin's offensive front, many wondered if Yendry would hold up. Not only did he hold up, he did a great job.

GP said our DT's did great. Mentioned he might not have played the backups enough.

Uh, I'm not sure which Rose Bowl you watched. There were huge holes in our interior defensive line all day. I believe Gary Patterson said that our defense during the day played like [Craig James].

 

[TopFrog]

Uh, I'm not sure which Rose Bowl you watched. There were huge holes in our interior defensive line all day. I believe Gary Patterson said that our defense during the day played like [Craig James].

You are right. Unfortunately, DJ was knocked out of the way a number of times leaving huge hole in the middle by the big Wisky OL. Obvious to anyone who watched. To me he is not big enough for the interior. I'd like to see him on the outside, unless they have added a good amount of weight. He plays hard and makes some plays in there, but give me 280-300 pound guys on the interior DL.

DJ can maybe play inside against a lot of teams in the MWC, or the likes of SMU and Tennessee Tech, but against the upper teams with big lines ...

 

[talor]

You are right. Unfortunately, DJ was knocked out of the way a number of times leaving huge hole in the middle by the big Wisky OL. Obvious to anyone who watched. To me he is not big enough for the interior. I'd like to see him on the outside, unless they have added a good amount of weight. He plays hard and makes some plays in there, but give me 280-300 pound guys on the interior DL.

DJ can maybe play inside against a lot of teams in the MWC, or the likes of SMU and Tennessee Tech, but against the upper teams with big lines ...

WCJ and Top are right. I remember DJ getting pushed out of position numerous times. He was also replaced, or at the least spelled by Broughton multiple times during the game.

I think DJ can be a stud DT, however he needs to be 290+, so we may have to wait another year.

 

[snoop9606]

agreed, he needs to gain weight. he can be a stud for us in the big east is he does.

 

[TCUFrogs]

You are right. Unfortunately, DJ was knocked out of the way a number of times leaving huge hole in the middle by the big Wisky OL. Obvious to anyone who watched. To me he is not big enough for the interior. I'd like to see him on the outside, unless they have added a good amount of weight. He plays hard and makes some plays in there, but give me 280-300 pound guys on the interior DL.

DJ can maybe play inside against a lot of teams in the MWC, or the likes of SMU and Tennessee Tech, but against the upper teams with big lines ...

I think if you re-watch the first big Badger run from the Running Back you will see how the OL holds on to the front of Maponga's jersey--even notice how Maponga tries to pull back and away as the guy has both fists in the front of his jersey. The RB went right by where Manponga was set to stop him. It is obvious on replay but not called. That is how that run happened.

If you break down specific plays, not sure how you can say the White Rhino was "knocked out of the way" without looking at how the play might have happened because of holding that might have otherwise been called or chop blocks that are illegal.

 

[FrogFutbol]

I agree with TCUFrog, at the game I thought DJ was getting manhandled, but once I got home and rewatched the game, he actually played pretty good. Was he overmatched at times by a great Wisconsin OLine? Yes. But he held his own just as much. Hopefully the Rose Bowl will help motivate him in the weight room this offseason, because if you put another 15 Lbs. on him he'll be hard to handle.

 

[oldscribe]

Apparently he is close to 275 now, up from the 260-something of Rose Bowl. And his forte will always be his quickness and speed, not huge size.

 

[Jefffrog1993]

On double teams he needs to get down on ground and clog not get pushed out of the hole he will learn.

 

[micahjh]

Big fan of the Rhino. Its true that he is probably more of a natural DE, but we have needed him much more at DT, so he got in there and got after it. He has really done a phenomenal job so far when hes been called on. I will never forget him trotting out on the field against UVA, as a skinny looking true freshman, then recording a sack on one of the first plays he was in. He was just a sophmore last year, and probably still undersized to be inside, but there he was coming through again and again for us getting great pressure and disrupting things up front. Then Griffins injury forced him into the starting job late in the year.

I defy anyone to watch that Rose Bowl and tell me Yendrey got whipped. He didnt go all Ndamukong Suh on them, but he held his own. Also, lets not forget, lets NOT forget that Wisconsin had the greatest O line since the days of the Pharaohs! Against Wisconsin, Griffin would have been better to start, but we didnt have that luxury. But go back and watch, and youll see Yenderey hanging tough and being a handful up front. Pretty amazing that a backup, Sophmore DT, that is undersized was able to play so well against the big Badger O line.

Anyway, Yendrey is one heck of a football player, shades of Bob Lilly. I would kind of like to see him at DE, myself too, but he can play DT for me anyday. Just line him up anywhere up front and tell the Rhino to charge, good things will happen.

 

[fanatical frog]

I think if you re-watch the first big Badger run from the Running Back you will see how the OL holds on to the front of Maponga's jersey--even notice how Maponga tries to pull back and away as the guy has both fists in the front of his jersey. The RB went right by where Manponga was set to stop him. It is obvious on replay but not called. That is how that run happened.

If you break down specific plays, not sure how you can say the White Rhino was "knocked out of the way" without looking at how the play might have happened because of holding that might have otherwise been called or chop blocks that are illegal.

The Wisconsin O-line had more tackles than their D-line did. We won in spite of it, so it's just an observation, not sour grapes.

Our other DT had a tough time with Wisky O-line too. On one play on the first possession he got flat out run over by a RB after getting stood up by the O-lineman.

Wisconsin was a very good team and their O-linemen were extremely skilled at holding....and our defense held them to 19 points anyhow. I think Yendry and the rest of the D-line played pretty well considering the quality of the opponent and the size of the stage.

 

[TopFrog]

DJ did play tough in the RB in a tough situation for him, and I do recall plays where he was a factor and held his own.

 

[Jefffrog1993]

OUr D has to hold ground and not make tackles we design the linebackers to tackle. D-Line has to keep O-Line off linebackers they did not do a great job until goal line. The ran the ball throug us like nothing you saw it. When do we give up 200 yards rusing? Never also this without a running QB which has hurt us in past. Wisconsin flat our killed us running inside on our D all day. The gaps were too big for Linebackers to fill properly this was due to D-line being pushed it doesn't look that bad and unless you understand defense hard to tell. Our D-Line got owned in Rose Bowl until inside our 20. OUr goal line D stepped up big time and kept them out of the end zone thank goodness.

 

[Mike Brooks]

OUr D has to hold ground and not make tackles we design the linebackers to tackle. D-Line has to keep O-Line off linebackers they did not do a great job until goal line. The ran the ball throug us like nothing you saw it. When do we give up 200 yards rusing? Never also this without a running QB which has hurt us in past. Wisconsin flat our killed us running inside on our D all day. The gaps were too big for Linebackers to fill properly this was due to D-line being pushed it doesn't look that bad and unless you understand defense hard to tell. Our D-Line got owned in Rose Bowl until inside our 20. OUr goal line D stepped up big time and kept them out of the end zone thank goodness.

I dont remember our goal line D stopping them. I remember us stopping them outside the redzone several times. Also, not sure how they killed us all day and had 13 points with 2 minutes to play. Definitely a challenge but think you are off a bit.

 

[micahjh]

OUr D has to hold ground and not make tackles we design the linebackers to tackle. D-Line has to keep O-Line off linebackers they did not do a great job until goal line. The ran the ball throug us like nothing you saw it. When do we give up 200 yards rusing? Never also this without a running QB which has hurt us in past. Wisconsin flat our killed us running inside on our D all day. The gaps were too big for Linebackers to fill properly this was due to D-line being pushed it doesn't look that bad and unless you understand defense hard to tell. Our D-Line got owned in Rose Bowl until inside our 20. OUr goal line D stepped up big time and kept them out of the end zone thank goodness.

Air Force has gained 200 yards rushing on us, more than once. Other than Air Force, there isnt another team we have played in the Patterson era, that has a better power ground game than that Wisconsin team. There were two long running plays, one on the first play of the game, that gashed us. But other than that the ground game was kept in check. If you take away the fake punt, and the two big runs, then Wisonsin rushed 44 times for 145 yards, or 3.3 ypc. This was the most feared rushing attack in the nation. Wisconsin scored their lowest point total of the year, and rushed below their season average. That doesnt happen when you "own" the other teams D-Line.

Also, I understand how gap assignments work, its not rocket surgery. Something that maybe you dont understand, though is that we were never selling out to stop the run until short yardage and redzone situations, when as you say, the Dline stepped up. The idea was to contain the ground game, but Coach P was more worried about play action passes to the TE and that good WR. So, he kept the LBs and Secondary back and ready for the play action. So the box was not super stacked to stuff the run. We essentially gave them 3 yards per carry, to prevent big play action passes, and hoped that they wouldnt bust too many big runs. Then when we got into short yardage we loaded up the box to stop the run, and for the most part were able to do so. It all turned out pretty good too. Of course, unless you understand defense its hard to tell.

 

[AggieAngst]

Love yer enthusiasm, GUNNER, but he got owned horribly by Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Not sure which game you were watching. The Wisky Olinemen were pancaking him on nearly every play. Grant held his own vs Wisky and Coleman was fine.

He needs to gain some weight (15 lbs) to be effective at the position he plays and he has been told that.

Nearly every Bcs Conf team these days has at least one guy the size of Marcus Cannon (6'5" or 6'6" and 340-350 lbs. Baylor has one this season at 6'6"/355. And that guy is the Baylor starting Right Offensive Tackle. He is somewhat athletic too, so how on this green earth is a TCU DT at 265 lbs gonna handle an Off Tackle that outweighs him by more than 80 lbs? On running plays, the 265 lb TCU DT is gonna get steamrolled and flattened every time (like in the Rose Bowl Game). 80 lbs differential is just too much horsepower to give away to the guy in front of you. 60 lbs is even too much to overcome. Against the ever increasing size of college football OLines, TCU's last season DT's were just about right with both of them (Griffin and Grant) at about 310-315 lbs. That kind of size just shuts down the opposing offensive rushing attack. 265 lbs for a starting DT is almost laughable in comparison !

Which is why some of the younger guys coming in may push him very hard for his starting spot before the season is over. He will be the starter (initially), but at just 265-270 lbs he may not be able to hold his starting spot all season with the great talent and size coming into Tcu.

265 lbs vs 320 lb elite Olinemen DOES NOT work !! That lesson was learned very clearly in the Rose Bowl. if he doesnt get up to 285 it is my opinion to look in another direction for the DT spot.

After Griffin got hurt and facing Wisconsin's offensive front, many wondered if Yendry would hold up. Not only did he hold up, he did a great job. Wisky was averaging 56 points a game for the several weeks heading to the Rose Bowl. They scored 76 points against Indiana in the closing weeks.

Many said if we had a decent playoff system, they would be the favorite to win it outright. Well, they got 19 points and had to scramble at the end, to do that. GP said our DT's did great. Mentioned he might not have played the backups enough.

 

[AggieAngst]

Jeff is partially correct that the Frog DTs got owned. One DT did great (Grant) and one didnt. One held his own and one got pancaked repeatedly. The Frog linebackers were told to compensate and "overplay" for the expected running plays toward the lighter and smaller Tcu DT. Both Tcu All-American LBs played fabulously or Tcu would have lost that game. If Tcu would have had slightly lesser LBers in that game Wisc would have won. It took 2 All American LBers to keep that game from going to Wisky.

Patterson also used multiple defensive schemes and blitzes from safeties and corners to further confuse the Wisky offense. In other words, due to the inability of Tcu DTs to stuff the Wisky running game, in addition to 2 All American LBers it also took a defensive genius at Coach to keep that game from going into the loss column.

The obvious weakness at one DT spot was (BARELY) compensated for by a genius defensive Coach and 2 All American LBers. Your statement that Wisky only had 13 pts with 2 mins to go in the game, has very little to do with the one DT soft spot that is being discussed.

I dont remember our goal line D stopping them. I remember us stopping them outside the redzone several times. Also, not sure how they killed us all day and had 13 points with 2 minutes to play. Definitely a challenge but think you are off a bit.

 

[toad horny]

BONSU

 

[smufrogger]

Our dine was pushed around big time, including the ends. The lbs and safeties held wisky from scoring