Charlton Warren Says He Knows the “Character” of the Defense

Written by Matt Smith

Charlton Warren has big shoes to fill following the performance of the defense last season under Kane Wommack who is now the head coach at the University of South Alabama. However, Warren is very excited to see what the defense will show him in the opener at Iowa on Saturday.

“I think we know the personality of our team, we know the character of our team and we know what makes them tick,” Warren said during his press conference on Monday. “As any coach we are anxious to see them go out there against live bullets, where everything counts. Also how they react to adversity.”

With a lot of players transferring and graduating, one of the groups that have been a focus point during the offseason has been the defensive line.

“I think they’ve taken personal accountability to win their box, and they’ve done a much better job and coach peoples has done a much a tremendous job of getting those guys to come off the ball and strike, work their technique and fundamentals and the mindset of going into this game, you’re going to have to play big boy ball,” Sheridan said.

As far as the opener against Iowa, Warren is looking at the different depths of personnel that they can put out onto the field. According to Warren, Iowa has a very strong two running back set in their offense and their quarterback is going to be a lot better in their system this year.

Another challenge that Iowa brings is their depth and strength at offensive line. One player that stuck out was Tyler Linderbaum, who is a big “challenge” according to Warren and a player that defensive line will need to “will yourself on defense to overcome.”

There are some new players on the defensive side of the ball including Ryder Anderson and Jaren Handy who will be playing their first game in the system on Saturday.

“They’ve given us tremendous competitive nature. Both those guys walked onto campus ready to buy into the culture, ready to be coached hard, and ready to contribute in any way they see fit. They never walked in expecting anything more than a chance,” Warren said.

One of the successes of last year was the defense and the amount of takeaways they had. Warren said that takeaways are a part of their DNA, and something that they incorporate into practice every single day.

Offensive lines were a worry last year due to the short amount of time they had to get ready, but according to Warren they were always ready and you need to coach your players for that.

“Oh no, every game we play they’re ready, because I wouldn't put them in if they weren’t ready. So we need to go into every game knowing that they’re fully loaded, they’re fully prepared, we never count on a team not being ready,” Warren said.