I'm writing a whole story about this, but it's going to take a couple hours, so I wanted to get this up there now. This is as direct an explanation as we have gotten of what's going wrong on defense. In 439 words, Scherer explains what's going on:
"I think a lot of things about this. I obviously see a lot of it. It’s impossible not to. One, people think they know what we’re trying to do and really they’re so far off that you can’t even pay attention to it. A lot of people think they know what we’re doing, but they have no clue. So when they are trying to say ‘you should do this, this and this,’ well, you’re not even close. Then also you have to realize most guys in this system, like me, in high school, when I played defense, it was, line up and play football and figure the rest out. There was no plays. There was no scheme. I got here and the defensive scheme I learned here was the only thing I knew. It was all I knew, it was all I learned, I put four years into learning that and then we’re coming in and I have to learn a whole entire new system. Now it’s football, it’s defense, everything’s pretty much the same thing with a little different tweak to it no matter where you go, what you look at. But you also have to realize there’s a bunch of guys trying to learn a new scheme. It’s tough, it’s not easy. And some guys aren’t as welcoming of change as some others. One, you have to develop a trust in it. You have to develop a trust in your teammates that you can all do it together and then you have to believe in it and go out and do it. I think can maybe we do some things with the game plan to simplify it and make it easier for us? Yes. But we have to go out there and do it. We have to put the time in during the week to learn what we’re supposed to do and know what we’re supposed to do on Saturday so we don’t have to think about it. I think there’s a lot of things going on and then it also comes down to trust. You have to trust in the system and you have to trust in the guys that are out there with you that they’re going to make plays. I think where we go wrong sometimes is some guys may not trust it and do a different thing than they’re supposed to do. Then there’s also, I run into it, where I don’t maybe trust sometimes when I should and I try to do way too much, more than I should. The same thing with other guys where that gets you out of position."
"I think a lot of things about this. I obviously see a lot of it. It’s impossible not to. One, people think they know what we’re trying to do and really they’re so far off that you can’t even pay attention to it. A lot of people think they know what we’re doing, but they have no clue. So when they are trying to say ‘you should do this, this and this,’ well, you’re not even close. Then also you have to realize most guys in this system, like me, in high school, when I played defense, it was, line up and play football and figure the rest out. There was no plays. There was no scheme. I got here and the defensive scheme I learned here was the only thing I knew. It was all I knew, it was all I learned, I put four years into learning that and then we’re coming in and I have to learn a whole entire new system. Now it’s football, it’s defense, everything’s pretty much the same thing with a little different tweak to it no matter where you go, what you look at. But you also have to realize there’s a bunch of guys trying to learn a new scheme. It’s tough, it’s not easy. And some guys aren’t as welcoming of change as some others. One, you have to develop a trust in it. You have to develop a trust in your teammates that you can all do it together and then you have to believe in it and go out and do it. I think can maybe we do some things with the game plan to simplify it and make it easier for us? Yes. But we have to go out there and do it. We have to put the time in during the week to learn what we’re supposed to do and know what we’re supposed to do on Saturday so we don’t have to think about it. I think there’s a lot of things going on and then it also comes down to trust. You have to trust in the system and you have to trust in the guys that are out there with you that they’re going to make plays. I think where we go wrong sometimes is some guys may not trust it and do a different thing than they’re supposed to do. Then there’s also, I run into it, where I don’t maybe trust sometimes when I should and I try to do way too much, more than I should. The same thing with other guys where that gets you out of position."
