I just inherited my first team with a combo defense.  I have absolutely no clue how to use it, or what the pros and cons are.  My team runs a man/press with a motion offense.  Are there certain types of players that are better for this defense?  Please enlighten me in the ways of combo defense.  All input is welcome.

I used to use a combo M2M / press for my D3 team, but I abandoned it a few seasons back and went to straight M2M. Some pros and cons I see of a man / press combo:

Pros:
- Flexibility vs one-dimensional opponents. You can use press vs poor ballhandling teams, and M2M when your DEF ratings are better than your opponent's LP / PER.
- Element of surprise - can be tougher for opponents to gameplan vs your team.

Cons:
- Recruiting for 2 diff defenses. This is huge at D3 (and D2 to a lesser extent), where every player is flawed in some way. If I play M2M, I can prioritize (as an example) DEF more than STA. If I play press, STA might be more important, and I can sacrifice a little on DEF. But if I'm playing a combo, I have to find guys who have ATH, SPD, STA and DEF. My pool of qualified guys is a lot smaller than if I play just one defense.
- Playing young players. Freshmen and sophs have to learn two defenses before they can contribute.
- Less practice time for core ratings.

So imo, unless you're an A+ coach and can recruit all-around players, I think combo's negatives outweigh its positives at D3 and D2.

makes sense to me.... any other thoughts?

I think the last coach of the team was trying to transition from press to man. Personally, I think combo defense is bad. Growth is very important for D3 (and I assume for D2 as well) and combo defense slows down player development. If you get all high WE (80+) players, then sure, you can run a combo defense, get all SR to A+, and still max out, but this is highly unlikely.

When you run a combo, you either suffer a ratings disadvantage or an IQ disadvantage, or both, and thats a big hole to dig yourself into.

I'm pretty much avoiding the combo defense in the new engine.  I ran a combo man/press for about 5 seasons at Iowa St.  They were a C prestige team that ran FCP when I got there (this was before the new engine came in to play).  It was a little easier to get away with slightly worse IQs at the time so I made the transition to Man by doing the combo.  I would recommend putting more emphasis on the man defense in practice since it should occur more in the halfcourt.  I am interested to hear if anyone has had a lot of success in the new engine with a combo defense.

The motion offense is also more important I think to master, so I would switch to man to man defense if I was you.  Just my two cents.