LORMAN — The Alcorn State University football team is less than three months away from taking the field against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to kickoff the 2018 season in Atlanta, Georgia.

Although the Braves’ defense is already preparing for the Yellow Jackets’ formidable option-offense, it is also trying to get familiar with new defensive coordinator Cedric Thornton’s scheme. Not only that, but Alcorn is trying to replace some productive players from last year’s unit and is moving athletes to new positions this year.

What will the Braves’ defense look like in 2018? The Natchez Democrat answers what the defense might look like with the help of questions from email and Twitter.

What will the base defense package under Coach Thornton? — @TayJota on Twitter

Last season Alcorn utilized a 4-2-5 defense. When asking defensive coordinator Cedric Thornton this exact question during spring practice, he was very adamant that the Braves will be running a 4-3 scheme under his leadership.

“I’m a 4-3 guy,” Thornton said. “I coach the linebackers. So I want a middle linebacker on the field everytime I can.”

Thornton added that the transition from a 4-2-5 to 4-3 system isn’t challenging because the 4-2-5 is basically nickel defense.

Even though a 4-3 scheme will be Alcorn’s base defense, it will run a lot of subpackages such as nickel, dime and I-front depending on the situation. Basically the Braves will utilize multiple systems, but expect them to use the 4-3 defense as much as possible.

Is the linebacker group solid and who will be some breakout players? — Andre Young via email

From what I am hearing, the linebacker group is shaping to be strong this season. Thornton raved about how soon-to-be-senior Trae Ferrell — who played a decent role in Alcorn’s defense last year — progressed this spring.

“He’s coming around,” Thornton said. “He understands the writing is on the wall.”

It remains to be seen, however, if Ferrell stays at linebacker because the Braves did work him at defensive end this spring. Although, head coach Fred McNair did give solid reviews on Solomon Muhammad and Alvin Wilson. So expect the linebackers to make plays this year.

Now, for the second part of the question, there are a handful of players who could breakout this season. But the two names I heard the most were incoming JuCo defensive end Creo Argue and soon-to-be-sophomore safety Qwynnterrio Cole.

This past season, Argue played at Independence Community College in Kansas. There, the 6-foot-2 defensive end tallied 13 tackles, three sacks, an interception and a forced fumble in 10 games. According to rivals.com, the Crete, Illinois native had interest out of high school from schools such as North Dakota State, Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois.

In his first offseason with the Braves, Thornton described Argue’s performance as phenomenal. With Alcorn needing to fill that position, Argue can come in and make an immediate impact along the defensive line.

As for Cole, Thornton said he needed a safety to come along and make progress, and Cole emerged as that safety. In his first year in Lorman, Cole recorded eight tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. So either player could be a major contributor this season.

Have the secondary struggles been fixed and can we see some swag/charisma from the defense? — @Singerboy8 on Twitter

Looking at the Braves’ statistics from last year, it does seem like the secondary was the weak link of the unit.

In 2017, Alcorn allowed 114 first downs through the air compared to only 79 on the ground. It also gave up 2,708 passing yards and only 1,575 rushing yards. So there is some areas that need to be tightened up, but Thornton raved about how the secondary had such a strong spring. However, take that with a grain of salt because it was just spring practice and the Alcorn offense was implementing new ways to improve its passing game. Only time will tell if the pass defense improves or stays the same in 2018.

As for the swag and charisma question, all I see on Twitter is players posting offseason workout videos or tweets about how hyped they are for this season. Expect not only just the defense, but the entire team to play with swag and charisma because every college football team tries to compete with those two attributes.