It's been 10 years, but yeah, it's nice to have.
Craig Bray gets a big thumbs up, IMO. He's done a great job hiding weakness while featuring strengths to crank up the performance of this defense. ASU's much better against the run than they have been, and I'm not sure this line is as talented as they've performed as a unit. It's come at the expense of some sacks and some pressure, but they maintain their gaps and generally contain the pocket. The corners are better, but that does have something to do with the infusion of talent. Bolden is just much more gifted opposite Tryon than we've had at that position in awhile. Tryon may be the best cover corner we've had since Craig Newsome. Not as physical, but physical enough. The safeties had a very good game, which was nice, because the defensive coaching staff almost scalped them in the WSU game. Barrett played much better.
The linebackers continue to be solid. For the life of me I don't know how Travis Goethel continues to make plays, but he does, and isn't a weak link next to better athletes in James and Wooten. That flag on the helmet-to-helmet hit was BOGUS, in my opinion. If Locker had the No. 9 on his jersey the flag stays in the ref's pocket.
Anyway, Bray continues to mix up the schemes. We saw some nickel package last week which I haven't seen all year. We saw a lot of mixed blitzes tonight. In the second half Locker had the deer-in-the-headlights look. He was definitely looking at something different than he saw in the first half ... namely Dexter Davis started getting in his face from the first series on, and the game was really over when they dropped him back-to-back. Nice adjustments there.
