JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
#93 DT – JR – Kawann Short – 6’3 310
For the third consecutive game Iowa will face a very good defensive tackle in Purdue’s Kawann Short. In the previous two weeks Iowa had to deal with Michigan St’s Jerel Worthy and Michigan’s Mike Martin. Earlier in the year Iowa saw Penn St’s Devon Still, a player many scouts grade as a 1st round prospect, myself included. Worthy has first round physical tools but hasn’t been as consistent as you’d like to see, and at this point I’d put him as a 1st round grade with an asterisk by his name. Mike Martin is a guy who’s had issues staying healthy throughout his career, but will likely still be a 3rd-4th round type guy come draft day. Iowa has definitely seen their share of quality defensive tackles this season and they can now add Kawann Short to that list. We’ll take a look at Short’s game and see how he stacks up.
Run Game
Short is an active guy in the run game who is able to get into pretty consistently opposing teams back-fields. He is very quick for his size and shoots gaps on his guy often. He’s racked up 15.5 TFL on the season along with 26 solo and 22 assisted tackles. Short lines up mostly as the 3 technique in Purdue’s base 4 man front and will slide out to play a 5 technique in 3 man fronts. He relies mostly on his quickness to get free and will play a little high at times. He’s got solid hand placement but doesn’t have a real violent punch at this point. Purdue will also pinch the A gaps with their tackles pretty often and get a lot of penetration that way. Short is especially effective when they pinch and has produced many of his TFL on A gap stunts. Short is similar to Worthy in terms of first step quickness and Worthy really disrupted Iowa’s run game last week.
Pass rush
Short has 6.5 sacks on the season along many more QB hurries and pressures. He is a pretty good athlete for his size and mostly tries to win with quickness in his pass rush moves. He will use stutter/hesitate+slap moves and some arm overs when lined up inside. He posted two sacks with hesitation moves against Illinois earlier this season. When lined up as a 5 technique he will mix in more variety including spins and rips. Purdue also likes to stunt him back inside from a 5 technique and blitz from the outside from their 3 man fronts.
At times Short will give up on pressing the pocket in his pass rush if his initial burst doesn’t get him free, but he has good awareness of where the QB is in the pocket. He’s pretty crafty at shedding his blocker as the QB tries to scramble and has made some plays doing so. He’s coming off a 3 sack performance last week against Ohio St and 2 of the 3 came on situations where the QB extended the play by scrambling and Short tracked him down. Overall Short is a very solid pass rusher who knows how to pick his spots.
Summary
To effectively stop Short in the run game Iowa will need exhibit sound technique and smart schemes up front. After seeing the Michigan St tape Purdue is almost sure to attack the A gaps on high percentage run situations with Short. Iowa will have to adjust for this and prevent penetration to have success in their zone heavy run scheme. They can do that by switching up the play call some, or fold blocking on Short when he lines up over the A gaps.
As far as the passing game goes, Iowa will need to be aware of where Short lines up and watch for stunts and react quickly. Short only needs a small mistake by the blocker and he’ll get to the QB. The good news in pass protection is that Short is the only real big threat Purdue has. Other than Short the next biggest pass rush threat only has 2.5 sacks on the season and Purdue is 71st in the nation averaging 1.7 sacks per game. This should help Iowa get 2 bodies on him more often than not and give James Vandenberg the time he needs to survey the field.
For the third consecutive game Iowa will face a very good defensive tackle in Purdue’s Kawann Short. In the previous two weeks Iowa had to deal with Michigan St’s Jerel Worthy and Michigan’s Mike Martin. Earlier in the year Iowa saw Penn St’s Devon Still, a player many scouts grade as a 1st round prospect, myself included. Worthy has first round physical tools but hasn’t been as consistent as you’d like to see, and at this point I’d put him as a 1st round grade with an asterisk by his name. Mike Martin is a guy who’s had issues staying healthy throughout his career, but will likely still be a 3rd-4th round type guy come draft day. Iowa has definitely seen their share of quality defensive tackles this season and they can now add Kawann Short to that list. We’ll take a look at Short’s game and see how he stacks up.
Run Game
Short is an active guy in the run game who is able to get into pretty consistently opposing teams back-fields. He is very quick for his size and shoots gaps on his guy often. He’s racked up 15.5 TFL on the season along with 26 solo and 22 assisted tackles. Short lines up mostly as the 3 technique in Purdue’s base 4 man front and will slide out to play a 5 technique in 3 man fronts. He relies mostly on his quickness to get free and will play a little high at times. He’s got solid hand placement but doesn’t have a real violent punch at this point. Purdue will also pinch the A gaps with their tackles pretty often and get a lot of penetration that way. Short is especially effective when they pinch and has produced many of his TFL on A gap stunts. Short is similar to Worthy in terms of first step quickness and Worthy really disrupted Iowa’s run game last week.
Pass rush
Short has 6.5 sacks on the season along many more QB hurries and pressures. He is a pretty good athlete for his size and mostly tries to win with quickness in his pass rush moves. He will use stutter/hesitate+slap moves and some arm overs when lined up inside. He posted two sacks with hesitation moves against Illinois earlier this season. When lined up as a 5 technique he will mix in more variety including spins and rips. Purdue also likes to stunt him back inside from a 5 technique and blitz from the outside from their 3 man fronts.
At times Short will give up on pressing the pocket in his pass rush if his initial burst doesn’t get him free, but he has good awareness of where the QB is in the pocket. He’s pretty crafty at shedding his blocker as the QB tries to scramble and has made some plays doing so. He’s coming off a 3 sack performance last week against Ohio St and 2 of the 3 came on situations where the QB extended the play by scrambling and Short tracked him down. Overall Short is a very solid pass rusher who knows how to pick his spots.
Summary
To effectively stop Short in the run game Iowa will need exhibit sound technique and smart schemes up front. After seeing the Michigan St tape Purdue is almost sure to attack the A gaps on high percentage run situations with Short. Iowa will have to adjust for this and prevent penetration to have success in their zone heavy run scheme. They can do that by switching up the play call some, or fold blocking on Short when he lines up over the A gaps.
As far as the passing game goes, Iowa will need to be aware of where Short lines up and watch for stunts and react quickly. Short only needs a small mistake by the blocker and he’ll get to the QB. The good news in pass protection is that Short is the only real big threat Purdue has. Other than Short the next biggest pass rush threat only has 2.5 sacks on the season and Purdue is 71st in the nation averaging 1.7 sacks per game. This should help Iowa get 2 bodies on him more often than not and give James Vandenberg the time he needs to survey the field.
