“I think they have a really basic defense. Baker, he’ll light them up.”
So said Kendall Austin, Oklahoma’s back-up quarterback about the Ohio State unit that came to Norman, OK last Saturday night.
Of course he was totally right. After two years in the Big 10 Urban Meyer had seen enough from Michigan State to know that he wanted to steal their press-quarters defense and rely on that for the purpose of unleashing all the athletes he was stockpiling in Columbus. Much like Michigan State, Ohio State now relies on that base defense for the vast majority of their calls.
The Buckeyes didn’t exactly shut the Sooners down as Mayfield still managed a respectable 7.1 yards per attempt and OU had 5.9 yards per play. However, they kept the Sooners under 25 points, largely avoided giving up big plays, and shut down Samaje Perine. They also picked off Mayfield twice.
Combine that kind of defensive effort with their own offensive performances and they’re going to tend to beat most other top teams. You also have to admire that Ohio State managed that performance despite replacing much of their 2015 defense, including most of the secondary. Against up-tempo teams and a diverse schedule it pays to be basic, whether you have superior athletes and can line up and dominate like Ohio State or if you want to focus on being sound and mistake free like Kansas State.
Last week we were all praising the Texas staff for utilizing the “Hager is coming…” 3-4 package to stuff the UTEP offense. This week it seems it’s time to criticize the staff for rolling with another exotic, opponent-specific package that was regularly beaten.
Texas’ plan for any down with four Cal receivers on the field was a dime package that usually looked like this:
That's Holton Hill playing as the field nickel, Sheroid Evans and Davante Davis as the corners, P.J. Locke replacing a linebacker over the fourth receiver, Malik Jefferson serving as the Fox, Anthony Wheeler manning the middle, and then Dylan Haines or Jason Hall (Haines here) dropping into the box to serve as another linebacker.
Texas could play a few different coverages out of this but they mostly played Cover 3 buzz like you see in the above diagram. On the surface, this would seem to be exactly the kind of thing fans would love. You have Malik blitzing regularly from a variety of directions, Wheeler locking down the middle, and then Texas' abundance of defensive backs being put to use to lock down all of the Bears' receivers.
Yet it all went so terribly wrong. Why?
Problem no. 1: Malik isn't who we all thought he was
My offseason comparison for Malik Jefferson was that he's a Kam Chancellor/Von Miller hybrid, excellent playing in a roving role in the middle of the field and destructive as an edge blitzer. Now I think he's more evil Roy Williams, brought back to the game of football and given a Longhorn uniform in exchange for crimson red.
What I mean by that is that Malik isn't really a natural front player. In any contest on the field of athleticism in space, he's generally going to win even if he's up against a really talented skill player. However, in a contest of physicality with a lineman or lead blocker where he can't use his athleticism? Malik loses that battle quite often.
He's not a Fox type player and I doubt he ever will be, he's just not wired to play in the trenches. It doesn't suit his strengths as a freakish athlete like playing in space does. I'm not saying Texas shouldn't send him off the edge on the blitz with regularity, but he's not a featured pass-rusher. He may grow more and more comfortable here in his time on the 40 acres but it's not his comfort zone or where he naturally excels.
In Roy Williams' day, players like this were just starting to move down from the safety level to the nickel spot, in Malik's era they're playing up front as linebackers.
In the dime package that Cal regularly abused, Texas would often send Malik outside and stunt Omenihu inside to become a de-facto 3-technique defensive tackle. Omenihu fights hard and wasn't really a weak spot on Saturday night, but he's been 270 pounds for a very tiny percentage of his life and his specialty is using his length to work around the edge. Blitzing Malik off the edge while stunting Omenihu inside as one of your base defensive calls isn't the best deployment of either's strengths. Blitzing Malik inside usually just results with the Predator running into a guard and disappearing, perhaps to reappear later to run down the play if the ball gets to the second level. He's frankly not very valuable attacking up the middle.
Problem no. 2: There are some really good athletes sitting on the bench
DeShon Elliott, Brandon Jones, and Kris Boyd are three of Texas' best athletes on the entire team. Each of them is a scrapper who will go out there and fight like hell to win you a ball game. However, the complexity and week to week packaging of the defense isn't suited to getting young DBs like that involved when mistakes on the back end mean a quick six.
This is a lesser problem for the Texas defense. Jason Hall and Dylan Haines are both playing at about a Big 12 average level for their respective roles and Haines may even be a shade better than that due to his predilection for getting in position to pick off passes when surrounding coverage and pressure is good.
However, if things were simple enough to allow even one of DeShon Elliott or Brandon Jones to factor into the mix then Texas would see an athletic upgrade in the defensive backfield and another player on the field that could help erase mistakes with pure speed when things went wrong. The fewer yardage available to be had by opponents when they catch Texas out-leveraged or unprepared the fewer the chances of more 50 point games.
Problem no. 3: They couldn't reliably execute this package
It was obvious that Texas' DBs were totally lost on multiple plays against Cal. Sheroid Evans missed a late call and thought they were playing cover 2, yielding a deep toss to a wide open Chad Hansen that set up a first and goal. Later Holton Hill thought they were playing cover 2 shaded to the boundary on a wheel route when they were actually playing quarters on the boundary and cover 2 to the field against an unbalanced set, no one covered the wheel and Cal got an easy six points.
Then there were plays where Texas just got beat down the field. How much of that was Bear skill and how much was lack of confidence on the part of the Texas secondary? It's hard to say, but a cleaner game would have resulted in considerably less Bear production and that's easy enough to tell.
What's more, Texas' dime package was soft against the run in an effort to erase the passing game and eliminate a minor concern I had before the game, which was whether Texas' linebackers could hold up against Cal's slot receivers. So Texas gave up a little against the run game only to still be gashed by the passing game.
The trick with exotic, opponent-specific packages in college football is that they need to have as much carry-over, cohesion, and simplicity as possible for the unit that's executing them or they tend to fall apart in a hurry when the 18-22 year olds on the field lose confidence in what they're doing. This isn't the NFL, these aren't professionals, and in the case of Texas they're not even upperclassmen.
Back when Bryan Harsin was using his wizardry to mix in different looks and formations every week to attack specific tendencies and weaknesses in opponents there was tremendous carry-over for the OL that was asked to do the heavy lifting. The tight ends might be moving all over the place and skill players could be substituting in and out with the different packages but the same five linemen were blocking the same basic run or protection schemes together every snap.
Texas on the other hand is cycling in different defensive linemen, linebackers, and defensive backs from series to series and then expecting them to have mastery over the underlying principles of the defense and to work in cohesion. That just ain't gonna happen. To match the Harsin approach Texas needs to have the same five main guys out there in the secondary executing the same main calls regardless of what's happening up front.
Is the best possible 2016 Texas defense one that veers towards keeping things relatively simple, plays mostly base defense, and incorporates the best athletes? I imagine that'd be a popular option but I'm not sure it's quite ideal. Is it one that stirs things up every week with opponent-specific packages that make use of the varying skill sets on the roster? Obviously not, especially with a team that features so many sophomores in the main mix. However, there are some ultra-versatile players like Malik, Ford, and Hughes on this team to say nothing of all the players on the bench that could thrive with limited roles in varying packages.
My proposed solution
There's nothing wrong with mixing in some exotic packages from time to time, even with a relatively young team. However, it has to be done carefully and the coaches need to have something they can scrap it for in order to make sure they have the best athletes on the field executing something they can always play fast and confidently in.
I think Texas should nail down a specific package and base defense that they can expect to reliably stuff or at least counter the varying offensive packages they'll face in conference play. Rather than maximizing every player's strengths with catered roles, I think they should nail down a base defense that makes the most of the best skill sets, and then teaches the roles before creating exotic packages.
In my estimation, this is the best every down look that Texas can create:
Malik can serve as the inside linebacker that aligns to the field so Texas can play their normal tricks on the edge against trips formations and get him out in space where he can run. There's really no need to play a lot of dime with this team save perhaps in third and long because with Malik on the field the team is basically playing a full time dime package anyways. When they want to spell Malik they can look to shield that linebacker with the safeties in coverage.
Hager should be the starting Fox on this team. He's not as versatile as Hughes when it comes to fitting runs as an inside linebacker or dropping into coverage but he's the better attacking player. If he's playing on the boundary with a tackle like Poona Ford he can regularly stunt inside or outside and focus on doing what he does best. Malcolm Roach should obviously see the field regularly as well either behind Hager, behind Omenihu on the line, or in third and long.
Texas should play more "boundary and field" with the safeties or otherwise try to keep looks and assignments as simple and straightforward as possible in the hopes that one of the younger DBs will be ready to win a job. Nail down the five main positions in this secondary and then teach multiple players to play each spot, like you would with your offensive line.
The Longhorns don't need to give up having some exotic packages or mixing in some opponent-specific wrinkles. They do need to save those for the more important games or unique opponents and they do need a versatile base defense they can hang their hat on when things get dicy on the road.
Given Charlie's comments at the press conference today, I'm guessing that's exactly what we're going to see.
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You do realize the main reason for the limited offense is BECAUSE we have a True Freshman QB?? Just compare Baylor's offense last year when Jarrett Stidham (& even Chris Johnson) was starting compared to earlier in the season when Seth Russell was healthy. They're offense was limited compared to when Seth Russell was starting.
Yeah I was not expecting Coli nikkas to overreact like cacs. nikkas legit talking Tom Herman after a close road loss to a pac-12 school, even though most folks thought we would lose this game before the season.
We really need a speed APB/WR as change of pace from our power RBs & to take advantage of this space. Rod Benard getting hurt really hurt this offense because he was perfect for that role.
