2024 Season Preview: Let's Talk About That Defense
2024 Season Preview: Let's Talk About That Defense
I promised more depth
We published a summary of the e-book here. I encourage you to either download the e-book, which is free for MGN subscribers, or simply buy it outright for the 3.99 or so that it costs you. You could even check it out at a library — like Overdrive or something.
I promised some more depth on the matter of the offense and defense. The e-book format is not great for diagrams and audio/visual links. I tried to keep it high-level, yet informative. Here we will go into deeper detail about the defense.
First, a warning. I am not a defensive coordinator nor am I in the meetings with the team. I have gathered what I will call “knowledge” here from watching a lot of football, listening to coaches, reading so many breakdowns, and also watching a lot of film. The fun part about this game is that there are a great many resources for learning the game. An additional great aspect is that it is taught by some regular dudes. Your average high school football coach has to teach these concepts to a 16-year old kid who just wants to go out and hit somebody. A lot of times they are putting out some film to help some fellow coaches and to also get a job. It is a fun rabbit hole. A shout-out to all the guys grinding out there.
To begin, we have to talk about the 3-3-3. Yes, Iowa State’s John Heacock calls it a 3-3-3. That is because you have three down-lineman, three ‘backers, and three safeties. That is the spine and what differentiates this defense from the other three-stack we had at NT under Reffett and others, is that three-safety look.
The version we had prior to Caponi was something like a traditional 3-4, with a rush end. You saw this called a “Jack” or something. It just meant a “linebacker” that really did more pass rushing than anything. The linebacker were the two in the middle. Those were your “normal” looking linebacker types. Brandon Garner and EJ Ejiya had good seasons in those roles. The Nick safety was a hybrid kind of player who played close to the line, offered run-support but also dropped in coverage. In 2022, this guy was picked on often as he was not the greatest in coverage. There are always weak spots. Reffett’s version of the stack would isolate the corners, and bring heavy pressure. Both NT corners went on to become NFL players so that tells you a little something about Reffett’s eye for talent and also the burden put on those guys.
Before we continue, I am putting the paywall here as both a hint (wink, wink) but also a notice that this post is long and you might want to open it in the app or browser instead of your email client.
The main difference is in how they use that third safety. The “normal” stack moves that Nick around, and uses them as a fourth linebacker, or a third pass defender. The thinking was “we need to get lighter, and faster to stop the spread.”
The 3-3-3 as it is run by Iowa State and others is in that it really does “stack” the linebackers. You will see very light boxes often. Last year vs FIU when they ran for days, a popular NT site was tweeting about how awful it was. Something to the effect of “This light box is just asking to be run on! It’s football 101!”
Yes, and no. The idea behind this defense is to stay sound against the run but protect against the big play. The biggest plays come through the air. The run game is dangerous, but you can swarm to the ball often enough that you feel comfortable.
The down linemen usually line up in one of three looks — a 505, a 504i, or a 4i04i aka “tite”. The five technique means outside edge of the offensive tackle. That is the ends are on the tackles, or just inside his eye. The nose is usually straight up on the center. The idea is to contain the offensive line and prevent some easy pins. The Sam and Will (Strong and Weak) line up in 30 technique usually, meaning just on the outside edge of the guards, but of course 3-5 yards behind the line. The Mike usually lines up 00 or right behind the nose. There are shifts. In the above diagram we are showing a typical shift where the linebacker is walked out on top of the slot receiver.
You will see a lot of stunts and shifts from the line. An end will shift late, to the guard side and you will often see a combination blitz behind him from the linebackers with the idea to isolate a given lineman and make him wrong.
Run Fits
The game plan is to control the gaps inside, and spill the runs outside where you have two safeties — the traditional free and strong — to fly down and make a tackle. You’ll also see reads based on tendencies where against a probably inside zone, you’ll see a called stunt away from the playside to confuse the lineman.
There is a lot of thinking, coordination and movement involved and if one of these things does not happen right, you get a big play. That is bad. Generally speaking, you want to see the lineman control their gaps, get some penetration, and allow for line backers to get into the interior gaps. The ballcarrier should be bouncing the ball outside into spaces where safeties — your speed and athleticism — can make plays.
Coverages and Pressures
There are many ways to do coverages and real life college football involves lots of tweaks to the rules. You’ll see combination coverages and cover two, and two-man, and cover three, and matchup stuff. There are a lot of ways to cover, but only eleven men in which to move around. This defense lends itself to some nice Tampa Two looks. You’ll see the corners occupy that flat area while the safeties cover deep half. Meanwhile, your linebackers can combine for some eight-man zones or you can bring one of the backers to get a traditional four-man pressure. We showed you the look earlier where you can get deep cover three with six-man pressure. That can very, where you are sitting back with seven, and only bring five. You will see lots of corner pressure, as well, when the mood strikes or film suggests it would be great.
The great thing about this scheme is that you can vary the looks and the pressure with good movement and timely line shifts. It means the offense has to keep thinking and can’t quickly line up and identify the dangers.
You’ll see rolling coverages — those pre-snap looks that smell like cover two but roll into a cover-three — and inverted Tampa — where the corners take the deep half and the safeties roll down. You can also see how this would lend nicely to quarters coverage. That Star safety allows you to do some things in the Tampa Two that not all middle linebackers can do.
That Is Great So Why Did We Give Up So Many Yards?
Everything looks great on a chalkboard. When you say “you have this gap” it is easy. The problem is you have to line up and actually recognize the play, put yourself in position and — crucially — tackle the ballcarrier.
When it worked it worked well. Against Cal there were some nice TFLs. Against SMU NT forced some third downs and got some sacks. There were far too many plays like this:
Cal ran a sweep left, Logan Wilson lined up the hit and met the ballcarrier at the line of scrimmage. It was as we hoped: A play going outside met by our speedy tacklers. Instead of being a stop, the ballcarrier escaped this, and got down to the two. NT shot the gap the next play and got a loss. Then Cal went inside zone and blew away the defense. This is the second problem. Not enough beef on the line.
Finally, it was tackling. This improved throughout the season but you could see stuff like this throughout. This Cal game was emblematic. Lots of good. Some gashing runs. More good. Then some awful tackling.
The Positive
Okay, enough with the bad. Now the good. Logan Wilson and others are replaced by some guys who should be able to fly up and tackle. There is more experience with this defense, and some of the instances (not shown in this post) of linebackers and safeties catching blocks instead of attacking them (and spilling them to the outside) should be addressed. That is the hope. There is a lot to like about this defense in theory. A little more heft up front should mean the offensive line gets squeezed more, and the linebackers can shoot the gaps and force the ball into the waiting arms of athletic tacklers.
Wesloski did a lot of nice things in that Cal game. He isn’t the most fleet of foot, but the run defense does not ask him to fly sideline to sideline. That is the Star safety job. The backers are asked to diagnose the play, get around/off a block, and control the gap.
We didn’t see the pass defense get tested too often as the run game was so vulnerable. The RPO game was effective, and so was the deep ball when NT brought heavy pressure. It was high risk stuff to stop the bleeding. This season, the new talent along the defensive line and the depth at linebacker should help address some of that. We want to see quick diagnosis, and speed to the QB. There were good ideas last year, but the backers and line didn’t always get to their target.
This scheme will allow yards. That is not a question. There are some bubbles and weakside grass openings that we are asking our safeties to cover that is questionable. But the idea again is to trade one thing for another. Want to run and get 4 yards? Okay, we are betting that you won’t do that all game — especially with the offense scoring. The problem last year was that was not just four yards, but 44.
Watching a lot of 2023 again showed me the good we had. Nearly every game there were a couple of sequences of quality stops. The line slanting hard and forcing a cutback or something. There was good linebacking play. The safeties flying around for tackles and turnovers. Then there would be a collapse somewhere.
The plan is to limit those big gains, and stay producing good defense throughout the fourth. The new additions are here to do just that. Defensive linemen, new linebackers, and new safeties. I am hopeful.
Also, a reminder that the FIU recap had some video of similar concepts and how we were simply missing tackles. The scheme is there. https://www.meangreennation.com/p/film-room-fiu