$3,000,000 worth of wisdom

I read an article today by Chris Brown, writer of the excellent blog 'Smart Football'. In the article he quotes another article (are you still with me?) that was orginally posted on CBS. I wanna draw a part of that article out for closer examination. It's a quote attributed to University of Texas Head Coach Mack Brown: ".... all players in the secondary, safeties included, must be able to be shut down receivers in man coverage. Linebackers have to be fast and able to cover running backs or receivers coming out of five-receiver sets. The linemen all must be effective pass rushers so the need for blitzing is reduced." Now according to Wikipedia (yes I know, reliability issues abound) Mack Brown is paid an annual salary of just under $3,000,000. And you kind of have to question that. The quote above was apparently given in response to a question about recruitment and what sort of players were needed to build an 'anti-spread' defense. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty bloody sure that all receivers, safeties included, should be able to shut down a receiver in man coverage. Granted, most Linebackers aren't required to be that fast, but they still have to understand how to cover a back out of the backfield. And I'm almost certain that since time immemorial, all defensive linemen have been required to be effective pass rushers in order to remove the need to blitz. So the question becomes, why are these traits considered 'anti-spread' as opposed to 'common defensive traits'. And how can you justify paying $3,000,000 a year to a coach that has only just caught on. Rant for the day over. Tomorrow, my picks for week 8 of the NFL season. Just quickly glancing at the fixtures, there's some toughies to choose between there.