What Are We Looking For In A Defensive Coordinator?
A List of Qualities
Dave Aranda started a clinic with an anecdote about coaching where you are. He says when he was at Wisconsin, he would bring up a formation and say “This is how we defend it, the strengths and weaknesses of that. What do you guys think?” They would then go around the room and each coach would give his thoughts on the matter and they would proceed.1
At LSU, with a staff focused on recruiting and not so much scheme, he tried to do the same thing but was met with blank stares. He said they were like, “You tell me, I’ll go coach it, and then I can get back out there and recruit.”
Aranda also encouraged coaches to know the type of player you will coach. At some places he could give adjustments and the players would do them. At some SEC places, it was harder to do that.
Aranda of course, had great defenses at Wisconsin, then at LSU, and that earned him a job at Baylor where he and his defense are struggling mightily. Neal Brown hired the co-defensive coordinator Matt Powledge (reportedly) and it is difficult to get too excited about him.
On one hand Powledge is a Huntsville, TX native and was respected enough by Dave Aranda and Dan Lanning — two highly-respected defensive minds — to be hired as a defensive coordinator. On the other hand, Baylor has been terrible playing defense and he’s been in an important position. He’s known as a recruiter, but Baylor just had a terrible recruiting cycle. All indications were that he was about to be let go — but what were the reasons there? Could it have been that Aranda wanted to hire a defensive coordinator that would call plays and he wanted that guy to have a clean slate?
There are so many factors to what makes a good coach that it is difficult to find any patterns. Consider Clint Bowen — twice a North Texas defensive coordinator, and twice producing some of the worst defenses ever seen — is well-liked among the Oklahoma State crowd.
Tim DeRuyter was fired by Texas Tech last year, but did you know he was coordinating the Cal defenses before that for Justin Wilcox (a friend of Aranda’s) and was highly regarded? What did him in? Results, mostly.
Skyler Cassity was good coordinating Sam Houston State. His schemes were straight-forward with no exotic blitzes that were turning heads or anything. He used some standard kind of thing — four-down base looks, three-down pressures on passing downs, some non-traditional-tampa-two looks, some simulated pressures. Basically, he had a modern defense but to me, the real differentiator was that he got results.
How? Well, preparation and coaching. Dave Aranda has a journal — like one from Target or something — where he draws the “problem” plays, and thinks up checks or things that will give him trouble. Then he proceeds to meet with the staff and they all divide up responsibilities and come up with a game plan.
Cassity said that he has his DL coach figure out the opposition’s pass-protection scheme and they build their weekly pressures that way. I’m sure Powledge has some plan. Maybe he will single-handedly grind it out. Maybe he will hand it off to an analyst — Aranda called them super important for those kinds of programs where the position coach is primarily a recruiter — and they’ll do some scouting.
It doesn’t really matter so much as the essential steps are covered.
1A. Scheme
In this league, there are three option teams, with variations on their scheme but with the same underlying ethos. Then you add a UTSA, with their heavy motion-play-action look (Will Stein was there, Trey Burke is leaving, but I imagine Jeff Traylor will want something similar)s. They like to run the ball. Tulane won the league with a QB-led run game, but like to go under center and in Pistol. ECU had a spread, Air-Raid, Veer-and-Shoot offense. USF had a Veer-and-Shoot. A commonality is they all like to run the ball and use tempo.
What does that mean for the next guy? Well, he has to find a way to come up with solutions for these teams, and any other wrinkles with a base solution now.
He needs to figure out the current roster, and build a 2026 team that can execute those ideas but he also needs to be flexible enough to adapt his ideas to his teams.
No one plays the 5-2 anymore, but the ideas from the old 5-2 are present in the 3-3-5 stack. No one plays a base 4-4, but those ideas are present in the 4-2-5 and 2-4-5.
Much as Cassity’s defenses this year were pretty average at stopping drives, but near elite in creating turnovers, you can create advantages and accentuate strengths.
I think you can win with a Tite front (3-down guys primarily with a nose on the center) but you have to be pretty good. That brings me to the next thing:
1B. Players
You need guys. Cassity succeeded in part because he was able to get guys that he knew could play. Outland Jr, Trey Fields, Armstead and Fisher. These guys executed the system at Sam Houston State, and came to Denton and did the same.
MGN has long contended that the best way to have a great defense is to have a great defensive line. It is in that way that I think Dave Aranda’s “complaint” about his coaching staff at LSU being focused on recruiting is slightly flawed.
Finding a balance in Scheme with Players that can execute it is important. We think Players is 1B because you have to have a plan first. It’s like shopping at the grocery store with a recipe. If you go in and just grab ingredients with no plan you could maybe get lucky after the fact and come up with something but it is not a great idea to just rely on fortune. It is better to make your own luck.
Cassity went out and added depth to the defensive line but interestingly, none of the interior guys graded out very highly2. If you thought North Texas’ run-stopping was poor, that’s a good observation. The linebackers graded highly (which I think is down to good coaching, depth, and the interior DL playing Not-Bad).
The issue here is that everyone knows that game-changing DL are valuable and will pay accordingly. If the new DC (with his DL coach hire) can find HS and portal guys that are under-valued and can do the job effectively here they can win.
Beyond that, you can adjust. Corners are very valuable and will help your defensive line look better, and vice-versa. North Texas went with a “11-solid guys, no weaknesses” approach and won. The more game-changers you have, the better, obviously.
2. Teaching
It doesn’t matter how well the defensive coordinator knows the scheme. It doesn’t matter how well he game-plans or prepares. If the players do not know it, it might as well be Yours Truly out there calling the defense.
Teaching covers all aspects of preparing the players to execute the game plan. Matt Caponi being frustrated on the sideline, yelling about the down-and-distance is an example of poor teaching. Teaching the scheme, or the plan, or the play allows everyone to move in sequence.
Your elaborate defense with myriad calls and adjustments do not matter if they cannot be executed on game day.
How well do they teach installs? — base alignments, base coverages, base run-fits to the most common alignments and personnel?
How well do they teach adjustments? — Back away, 4-string, motion, fast-motion, etc?
How well do they teach pressures? — Not only who is rushing but what the rotation coverage is? — this is where you can be clever and efficient. Pete Golding teaches his simulated and regular pressures together because they go together. “So we aren’t having a simulated/disguised pressure day.”
Beyond that, it is teaching technique — Powledge has a video on tackling techniques that is good. How do I bring middle pressure as a linebacker? Pete Golding teaches “find grass, get paint” which means angle yourself to the opening, then scrape off the lineman trying to block you so you can blow up an inside zone. The details make a difference.
3. Game Planning and Adjustments
You have to have a plan, and your adjustments are modifications to that plan. Your weekly plan is based on your own philosophy, but also on the opponent’s tendencies, and their anticipated adjustments to your own. If you bring heavy pressure, expect them to max-protect or throw screens.
If you planned all week to bring pressure to attack their pass protection and the opposition changes it up on game day? Well, let’s hope you can adjust those pressures easily without needing too much of a runway.
Navy figured out your “assignment football” plan and you need something else? Can you quickly communicate that to all parties?
Can you stifle the opponent’s money plays? Do you have a plan for their answers to that? Evidence of a good game plan is that the defense never looks like it was surprised. You can get beat, you can get bullied, but never look surprised. That’s on the coach.
On Tulane’s final drives they tried some more naked boot action, but Cassity started calling a corner blitz. Tulane’s QB Retzlaff had to get rid of it instead of finding anything downfield. That’s good game planning, and that’s good adjusting.
So Is This A Good Hire?
I cannot say. There are a lot of factors that go into a good defensive coordinator evaluation. (Presumably) Powledge will get to run his own shop and figure it out. There will be growing pains, but North Texas football expectations for the defense are pretty low. Neal Brown is an offensive guy, and the plan is to be offense-first, with a good enough defense to win games. That’s fine. We can live with that.
Skyler Cassity’s defenses never looked caught out. USF was the biggest beat down, but that was a depth-and-talent question. The team grabbed turnovers off an explosive offense. They got some TFLs early. Against Navy, there were stops and turnovers. Against Tulane, there were guys in spots to make plays.
We just want some competence. The Caponi-era teams, the Bowen-era teams? They were an embarrassment. We do not need the best defense in the world. Look competent, look prepared, tackle well.
There is no time to wait around. The 2026 season opens against Big Ten champions Indiana. Go Mean Green.
I liked this when I heard it, as this is the kind of team I try to foster in my own Clark Kent job. I say “here is my thinking, now you tell me what your thinking is.”
According to PFF.