OStateIllustrated.com - GBK: 'Put On Your Big Boy Pants'

April 17, 2012

A popular catch-phrase in football these days referencing physical play in an upcoming game is to "put on your big boy pants."
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They're snappy words that play well on sports talk shows, but it's more than a phrase for Army equipment manager Nick Determan entering the 2012 season.
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Determan and his staff are handing out bigger-sized pants as Army addresses its lack of size up front in 2011, especially in the interior defensive line. Granted, Army isn't unwrapping pants stitched for 300-plus pounders, but the Black Knights won't be lining up 225-pound defensive tackles as they did a year ago.
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In addition to Army head coach Rich Ellerson recruiting bigger players, at the same time strength coach Brett Gerch is happy with offseason conditioning results designed to add both weight and quickness to the interior defensive linemen.
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"The guys we have in the line are bigger than last year, but with Coach Ellerson it's more about getting off the ball quicker than being big and plugging the lane," Gerch said. "A guy like Bobby Kough is naturally explosive, and now he's stronger. A guy like Mike Ugenyi has good size, but we're working on getting him quicker."
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The No. 1 defensive tackles coming out of spring drills that wrapped up in March at Fort Benning, Ga., are junior Bobby Kough (6-3 239), who is down from 250, and sophomore Richard Glover (6-0, 247), who is down from 270. In contrast, sophomore backup Mike Ugenyi (6-3, 257) is up from 250. Kough and Glover are essentially newcomers. Kough was injured last year and Glover was limited to three games.
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Kough's backup is junior Shane Finnane (5-10, 238). Glover has a pair of backup listed as "or" on the depth chart with sophomore Joe Drummond (6-3, 228) and Ugenyi.

?Two freshmen with size who may crack the depth chart with playing time in the fall are Tala Atimalala (6-1, 275) and Evan Finnane (6-1, 260). Atimalala arrives from the USMA Prep School and Finnane, the younger brother of Shane Finnane, will be a true freshman from St. Elgin (Ill.) St. Edward.
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The defensive line also has a new formation. With injuries plaguing the Black Knights all season, Army finished the year with three interior linemen listed on the depth chart. AJ Mackey, a 260-pounder who isn't returning to the team for his senior year, was the nose tackle between two 225-pound defensive tackles.
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But the 2012 preseason depth chart lists two defensive tackles (Kough and Glover) with two defensive ends -- named Quick and Whip ends.

On last year's final 2011 depth chart for the Navy game, Army started Holt Zalneraitis (6-2, 225) and Jacob Drozd (6-3, 225) at the defensive tackles. Zalneraitis is now No. 1 at Whip defensive end and Drozd shares the No. 2 Bandit linebacker role with Corey Watts (5-11, 205), who also was forced to play defensive tackle a year ago.
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"We got quicker on the outside and quicker and bigger in the middle," Gerch said. "It's been a good spring for the D-line."
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Another change is the strong safety is now a hybrid linebacker/safety -- Rover. Junior Justin Trimble (5-11, 200) is listed No. 1 over senior Thomas Holloway (5-11, 196) entering fall camp. Holloway was the starting strong safety last season.
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Ellerson said the changes are a response to more mobile quarterbacks in the evolving college game.
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"I don't know if you would say we made adjustments, but the emphasis has moved as college football has evolved a little bit," Ellerson said. "I think the biggest thing will be the play in the defensive front. As that starts to mature, the second and third row gets a little more noticeable. There are some things conceptually that have always been a part of us, but maybe not the lead part, that are now coming to the forefront because of the style of play in college football.
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"If you watched the bowl season, you can see how people are investing in the quarterback's legs week in and week out. What (Tim) Tebow did in the NFL with his legs that is just an extension of what his happening in the college game.
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"There is nothing we're doing that we haven't done in the past. but those things play a bigger role. That's been the starting point. Sometimes those were the things you invested some time in at the end of spring ball. You spent a couple of days on those concepts and defensive movements. This year, that was the first thing we did. We kind of flipped the equation. That became the emphasis."
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