Glenn Spencer on His Defense: ‘They’re Going to Have to Go through Some Tough Times’

Losing Emmanuel Ogbah, Jimmy Bean, Kevin Peterson and Seth Jacobs would make any defensive coordinator lose some sleep during the spring. Glenn Spencer doesn’t sleep anyway though so it doesn’t matter combats this by talking his teams into greatness.

Consider his soliloquy on how spring ball is going.

“They’re still trying to figure out [the dynamic with players leaving],” said Spencer. “They’re going to have to go through some tough times and we’re going to have to go through some long, scrimmage-type situations this spring and get tested a little bit.

“You can’t really tell a lot when everything is going good. We’re going to put them in some tough situations to try to find out what our character is and what we’re made of; so right now that’s an unknown, and I told them that. That’s what we have to find out. This group has got to find its identity. They’ve got to find that heartbeat. That’s going to allow them to accomplish good things and that’s a work in process.”

There are several players — Justin Phillips and Jordan Brailford to name two — that I’m excited about. Spencer is right, though. You don’t really find out about dudes until they face a little adversity. Thankfully, he’s not short on providing that for his troops. Hopefully it will translate come September.