I just took over Penn in D1 Allen.  We run a triangle offense with a zone/press defense.  I have never played a combo defense before.  I am not a big fan of having guys that are just ok in the defensive IQ category.  Should I choose one over the other?  What should I be thinking about in regards to changing from a combo to just one defense? Pros and cons, please!

Choose one.  Take a look at the most successful teams in DI and I bet that very few, if any, use combo defenses.  It's so important to have an IQ edge at DI, especially for a team like Penn that won't be hauling in the blue chip recruits (at first anyway).  

The one weakness to getting all those 5 stars is that they leave early and it's difficult to develop an intelligent team.  Lower level teams can sometimes take advantage with high IQ's.  You can only do that by focusing on one offense and one defense.

I've thrown 5-10 minutes at the press in order to run a combo in end of game situations.  Have had decent success with it...no idea if it was a detriment or an advantage, though.

PROS:

Allow you to press if you don't normally
Gives you some fatigue help if you normally press
Little bit harder to game plan against

CONS

Requires more practice time so less skill development
Lower IQ's

back when potentials manifested themselves in quick fashion, combo defense was the way to go because you had extra practice minutes. Otherwise you have your whole team in Study Hall for 15 minutes their Senior year. I've noticed the last few seasons that potential is taking longer. Either that or I'm not recruiting high enough WE guys. Like the poster above, I'm only practicing 5 min on press anymore as an end game defense when I'm behind.