Whitt on with Bill Riley the other day.

They talked about the defense at length. The thing I like about Whitt is that he is an open book. He tells you everything you need to know about the team if you listen.

Anyways, here is the breakdown:

DE: Anae is a monster. Loves Anae. Riley asked who would start opposite him. Whitt said that Tafua is an Anae clone. He thinks those two will be trouble for defenses next year. Whitt also said that Tupai didn’t see the field at the end of the year last year, but that the light went on for him at the end of the season and he expects big things from him. He also mentioned, once again, that if Repp can put on 20 lbs, he’d be a force to be reckoned with.

DT: No one said nutin about this.

LB: He said that Chase Hansen and Thompson will be the main LB’ers. He said that they don’t use LB as much anymore. He also said that Barton was playing really well to end the season there. He did mention that they had begun “tinkering with the 3-3-5 defense” last year and we might see a lot more of that with Hansen at LB. I thought that was an interesting tid bit.

Whitt also said that they plan on taking 4 LB’ers in the class and expect some to play right away (Pirtle). He then went on to talk about how they really use a lot of LB’ers in the 4-2 front and they don’t need LB’ers as much anymore. So, I was wondering if what he meant was not that they’d take 4 LB in this class like he said, or if they only want to have 4 LB on scholarship, which would make more sense. 4 LB in this class, when we already have Thompson, Lloyd, Barton, Hansen and 4 more…seems like a lot. But, 4 LB on scholarship seems about right. I’d think you’d want 4 at the least, 5 would be ideal, and 6 if you got special talent.

CB: We are freaking stacked here. He said what we all know. Whitt said that Jaylen Johnson played the whole season hurt. That he was never healthy and he is excited to see what a healthy Johnson looks like. He mentioned Blackmon, Burgess and Smith coming back from injury.

S: Blair, Ballard and Afia. He said all three played well and that they would be good next year.

We are so freaking loaded on defense. It is insane.

Offensively, he didn’t say as much.

He said Huntley HAS to put on 15-20 lbs. Then he said, at the ver least 15 pounds.

He said Tuttle was the most prepared QB he’s ever seen. That Tuttle was coming here to play. That Tuttle was already spending a lot of time in the film room.

He also said not to sleep on Shelley either. Talked about how he is a very good QB and will be very much in the mix for the starting job.