Tag: Eric Gentry

Midseason report: USC Trojans’ defense is flawed, but it has the leaders for Pac-12 Defensive MVP

Tuli Tuipulotu and Eric Gentry both struggled against Utah, but through 7 games, they’re still at the top of the list when considering a #Pac12 defensive MVP.

We talked to Ducks Wire about the Pac-12 midseason defensive MVP. It’s true that the Utah game was not a good one for the Trojans, but a full six games preceding the Utah loss have still established two USC Trojans as the leaders in this particular race.

This is what we told Ducks Wire:

Defensive MVP is a tie between two USC Trojans: Eric Gentry and Tuli Tuipulotu. Gentry was better through the first four weeks, but Tuipulotu has been consistent throughout the season and then got three sacks against Washington State.

USC finally won a game in which its opponent did not commit a turnover. That was against Wazzu. Tuipulotu recording three sacks and creating all those negative plays enabled USC to win without forcing a turnover. Gentry was the guy who was causing those turnovers earlier in the season. Multiple deflections turned into picks.

He has been very disruptive. The second half of the season will tell us a lot about the comparison between the two.

The surprisingly good play of USC’s defense has to put the Trojans in front at the midway point, but if USC falters and the defense finally starts getting shredded — which is certainly possible — the DPOY race will take on entirely new dimensions. It’s a fluid situation.

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USC football notebook: Trojans get great news on health status of Jordan Addison and Eric Gentry

There are lots of details to share with you as #USC starts its week of rest before the home stretch.

There are lot of notes to catch up on after a wild weekend, a thrilling game, and an ultimately controversial loss for the USC Trojans against the Utah Utes.

It’s a USC off week, so there’s no game to prepare for this coming Saturday, Oct. 22. The Trojans are going to get some needed rest and regroup for the stretch run of their season. Their Oct. 29 game against Arizona in Tucson is their last regular-season game played outside the Los Angeles metro area. The Trojans will spend all of November at home. If they get past Arizona, they’re still in position to have a very strong season.

They received some very good injury news to start their week.

Get that and many more USC football notes below:

USC football notebook: Eric Gentry is the MVP of this defense … and the Pac-12

On the #USC postgame show with @TJAltimore @TPrangleyJr and @LBCTrojan at the @VoiceOfCFB, we agreed: Gentry is the leader for #Pac12 DPOY.

Where do we begin in assessing the USC Trojans after their win over Oregon State? There’s so much to say. There are so many interesting statistics and game notes to pass along. We’ll share a lot of them here in this article.

We have to start with Eric Gentry. The man is making lots of plays, but more than that, he’s making plays in so many different facets of the game. Beyond that — as we saw against Oregon State — he made plays in a close, important game when the Trojans lacked a large margin for error.

Tuli Tuipulotu is playing really well and deserves his props, to be sure, but if you had to pick the best player on this USC defense, I think it has to be Gentry.

We start with Gentry in our wide-ranging USC notebook below. We continue with all sorts of interesting facts about this Oregon State win:

Eric Gentry offers a reminder to look beyond the stat sheet in football analysis

This isn’t a knock on statistics, only a gentle reminder that stats always need to be placed in context. Gentry’s stat line at ASU wasn’t overwhelming … and that’s not a concern.

Is USC looking for considerable statistical production from Eric Gentry this season? Of course. Alex Grinch and Lincoln Riley want and need high-impact players who will make significant equation-changing plays. Yet, if statistics are the sole prism through which one evaluates Eric Gentry and assesses his ceiling at USC, that’s a very limited framework.

Arizona State’s defense got smoked by Utah, did not dominate a bad Washington offense, and was placed in terrible spots by its offense against Washington State in 2021. Gentry didn’t get a lot of help from his defense or his offense (or, for that matter, his coaching staff). His stat line at Arizona State wasn’t particularly imposing.

Should that worry anyone at USC?

It shouldn’t.

Gentry has been a star in practice, drawing lots of positive reviews from Alex Grinch. His leadership contains value beyond numbers. That point aside, when linebackers make tackles, one always has to look at where and when they occur: Are they the result of the defensive line getting a push and creating a favorable situation for the linebacker, or are they the result of a linebacker having to make a tackle in open space because a teammate didn’t do his job?

Mark Rogers talked about this point with us at The Voice of College Football:

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Eric Gentry is earning high marks with Alex Grinch, USC defensive coaching staff

Alex Grinch loves what he sees from Eric Gentry. That’s fantastic news for #USC heading into the 2022 season.

Korey Foreman and Romello Height not getting on the practice field? Yes, that’s bad. However, Tuli Tuipulotu is a star. Mekhi Blackmon looks great in the secondary. There are some positive stories on this USC defense.

The most positive story of all could be the development of Eric Gentry.

The transfer from Arizona State brought a lot of hope to USC. If he can reach his ceiling, the Trojans stand to benefit a lot. The more precise hope was that Gentry could evolve quickly, so that the Trojans would have a starter-level player for the early-season Pac-12 games on the schedule. Gentry’s familiarity with the Pac-12 and its opponents — such as Stanford (Week 2) and Oregon State (Week 4) — made him a uniquely valuable piece to the puzzle for USC. That Oregon State game in late September is such a central moment for this 2022 team.

Guess what? Gentry is drawing a lot of praise from Alex Grinch. It’s such a big boost for the Trojans.

247Sports gathered Grinch’s comments about Gentry:

Another player getting universal acclaim is transfer linebacker Eric Gentry.

“I’m very impressed with Eric. You could tell he’s played football at our level. The difference between a freshman and sophomore…there is no greater difference. And then sometimes we will minimize that as coaches and expect these high level high school guys to come in here and beat grown men. There’s a huge difference between 18 and 19. So you see that and I give him a lot of credit. He didn’t have the spring with us. Summer is good. We can do some things and max out the time that way but coming out here and picking up as well as he has in a short period of time has been a real bright spot for us.”

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Gentry made this list below:

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These two former Gators cracked ESPN’s list of the spring’s top 25 transfers

The spring transfer period is heating up and Florida is looking to gain more than it loses this time around.

Florida football had its ups and downs during the fall transfer period. New head coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] brought in a trio of former players from Louisiana in and [autotag]Jack Miller[/autotag] came over from Ohio State. Meanwhile, the team lost several projected starters as the new coaching staff settled in.

Now that spring practices are wrapped up and the new culture is somewhat established, Napier and the Gators are preparing to take on the spring transfer period. ESPN dropped its list of the top 25 players available in the portal and only two departing Gators are on it, [autotag]Emory Jones[/autotag] and [autotag]Carlos Del Rio-Wilson[/autotag].

Jones entertained the idea of transferring in the fall but ultimately decided to stay through the spring to get his degree at UF. As spring practices wound down, Jones finally put his name into the portal and will be playing elsewhere next season. He checks in at No. 11 on ESPN’s list of available spring 2022 transfers.

Jones waited three seasons for his chance to start at Florida, but this season did not go quite as anyone planned. Though Jones earned the starting job, former coach [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag] also played [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] — and his highlight plays left fans clamoring for more of Richardson and less of Jones. Mullen could never seem to decide the best way to use them both, and Jones never got going in a consistent way.

Del Rio-Wilson, the No. 16 transfer on ESPN’s list, waited until after the spring game to make his announcement. After only attempting two passes in the fourth quarter of the Orange and Blue game, he decided to seek more opportunities elsewhere with Napier’s backing.

Del Rio-Wilson was the No. 58 recruit in the 2021 class and signed with Florida out of Cartersville High School in Loganville, Georgia. He redshirted his first season and is now looking elsewhere to play out the rest of his eligibility.

The good news for these two is that they are considered the top two quarterbacks in the portal right now by ESPN. Behind them are Baylor’s Gerry Bohanon and UNLV’s Justin Rogers which means the former Gators have a good shot at landing somewhere decent. JT Daniels was the most coveted quarterback transfer in the fall cycle and wound up at West Virginia. A similar transition could be in store for Jones.

Florida will also look to add players through the transfer portal this spring, and ESPN has them in the mix for two of its top-5 transfers. Former Arizona State linebacker [autotag]Eric Gentr[/autotag]y is No. 2 on the list and Florida is competing with Miami, Penn State and Texas for his services. There’s also wide receiver [autotag]Ricky Pearsall[/autotag] from ASU who sits at No. 4 on the list and led the team with 580 receiving yards and four touchdowns.

Pearsall might be the more coveted recruit for Florida given the team’s lack of depth at wide receiver, but Napier’s pointed out that there are several holes for the team to fill throughout the spring. Time will tell if Florida can keep up in the evolving NIL space as well after losing out on defensive lineman Darrell Jackson to Miami.

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Transfers that Texas should consider after missing out on Caleb Johnson

Texas should consider pursuing these linebackers after missing out on Caleb Johnson.

Just when the Longhorns thought they had some help coming their away in transfer linebacker Caleb Johnson, the rug was pulled out from under them.

The now former Longhorn and Bruin, as Johnson spent a little time in Austin before transferring to UCLA, decided to take his talents to Miami to play for new coach Mario Cristobal.

While this isn’t the end of the world for Texas as they do have some decent players at linebacker, adding some depth would have helped this group greatly.

The linebackers were average at best last season, as they along with the rest of the defense struggled with physicality and were apart of the reason Texas ranked No. 114 in run defense.

Since the staff is so keen on adding more players from the transfer portal, there are definitely viable options that they should consider to make up for losing out on Johnson.

Here are a few linebackers that the Longhorns should pursue after missing out on their latest transfer portal quest.