S11 Film Preview: Wrecking the Raider's Defense
In prior articles I covered Tech’s statistics and broke down their offense. Let’s take a look at the defense.
Defense
Defensive Coordinator David Gibbs is in his fourth season in Lubbock after putting together a productive unit at Houston under Tony Levine. Gibbs has seen steady improvement annually as the nucleus of his defensive roster has matured. He places a big emphasis on turnovers and most years we’ve seen Tech do well in that category.
Scheme
Texas Tech’s defense has improved over the last four years and they now have a serviceable defense that can present different alignments, coverages, and blitz schemes to an offense. Their basic scheme is a hybrid scheme that uses a flexible RUSH Linebacker to alternate between a three man front and occasionally a four man front. Their preferred front is the “Tite” three man front with a Nose Tackle heads up on the Center and two linemen inside the shoulder of the offensive tackles in 4i techniques. Against 10 personnel they will often use it with the RUSH and MLB as overhang defenders in what looks like a 5-1 (five on the line, one linebacker stacked) but usually they have it with a typical two stacked backers. The tite front creates issues for many conventional blocking schemes. A good example is how UT used it last year to stuff Oklahoma State’s running game.
In coverage they will use a lot of Cover 3 and Tampa 2 against passing teams.
Against run first teams like KSU they showed a lot of aggressive Cover 4 and were frequently willing to go with various types of man coverage.
Tech’s alignment allows them a lot of ability to disguise what they are in as you can see examples of here.
Last year WVU was able to use short RPO’s to option off their overhang defenders to get consistent short gains against them with their predictable alignments and coverage looks.
Personnel
At Nose Tackle the Red Raiders will either play stout Rice graduate transfer #99 Preston Gordon (6-1 280, Sr.) or #97 Joseph Wallace (6-1 315, So.) who will usually be either head up on the center or in an A gap. Their DT is #96 Broderick Washington Jr. (6-3 305, Jr.) who is their best interior defender. Their DE position is manned by #53 Eli Howard (6-4 270, So.) who is a similar type of player to Baylor’s Greg Roberts.
Their RUSH position is a hybrid Linebacker and End. They sometimes will line up as a 4-3 End and sometimes as an overhang linebacker on the edge. Tech will play both #9 Tony Jones (6-2 225, Sr.) and #13 Kolin Hill (6-2 245, Sr.) here and both are capable pass rushers who can drop into coverage.
Tech features two traditional Linebacker positions. Their Weakside ILB is the protected player in their usual fronts and will almost always be stacked behind the line. Tech typically starts former “Last Chance U” star #40 Dakota Allen (6-1 235, Sr.) who has started virtually every game he’s been healthy for in his time at Tech during 2015, 2017, and 2018. Allen is a quick Linebacker and one of the best defenders in the Big 12. He might be out so #6 Riko Jeffers (6-2 245, So.) will likely be the guy this week as he was last week.
The other Inside position is their MLB spot manned by #1 Jordyn Brooks (6-1 240, Jr.) who is a big, physical, and athletic linebacker. Usually he will be stacked behind the line as well but often moves to an edge/overhang alignment against four receiver trips sets.
Their Nickel position is sometimes aligned as an outside linebacker on the edge and sometimes acts like a traditional safety. They’ll use two very good options with #31 Justus Parker (6-1 205, Jr.) and #3 Douglas Coleman III (6-1 190, Jr.) who are both solid enough against the run while being capable in single coverage.
Their primary two corners are #4 Desmon Smith (6-2 190, Jr.) and #23 Damarcus Fields (6-1 200, So.) but youngster #20 Adrian Frye (6-1 190, R-Fr.) has been coming on strong lately and had a very impressive one-handed interception against KSU.
Their starters at safety are four year starter #7 Jah'Shawn Johnson (5-10 185, Sr.) who is an undersized but playmaking leader for Tech and #15 Vaughnte Dorsey (5-11 200, Sr.) who is probably the most physical hitter on the team. Texas graduate transfer #10 John Bonney (6-1 205, Sr.) also sees a lot of time.
Special Teams
#96 Clayton Hatfield (5-10 185, Sr.) is their kicker and he’ll handle both placekicking and kickoffs. He is 16 of 17 on the year on field goals and he gets touchbacks on 53% of his kickoffs. Punter #85 Dominic Panazzolo (6-5 210, Sr.) averages 42 yards per punt which is better than most. Tech is solid in kickoff returns but average at punt return. They aren’t lockdown on kickoff coverage but do a good job on punt coverage.
Questions and Answers
What are some thing Baylor can do to help themselves run against the Tite front that Tech uses?
Certain blocking schemes (variations on Dart and Counter) can be more effective against this as well as going to bigger personnel to attack the edges of their defense.
Incorporating QB option reads is also a productive idea. Ohio State's run game was mostly carried by reading OU’s 4i technique players with option reads.
What's the deal with this "Bohanon in for one play (where you know it's gonna be a run) then bye-bye for the rest of the game" stuff?
The staff had some Quarterback run game plays for him that he had to check out of based on what he saw pre-snap. They then ran another play that didn’t gain many yards and needed Charlie to come throw. I disagree with the substitution as Charlie had been productive on QB runs both designed and on scrambles and putting Gerry in made us predictable. So I’m critical of the substitution but the initial playcall they had to audible away from was likely a call more of the fanbase would have liked than the play they ended up running.
I'd like to know how Charlie is progressing with his ability to read the defense in the passing game and find the right guy downfield when he actually has time. And how's he doing identifying blitzes and hitting a WR on a hot route?
Charlie forced two or three passes last Saturday but for the most part is doing well. He was given a tough assignment last week with how badly the line and backs struggled to protect him. He’s been pretty good on identifying things when the blitzes are picked up the way they should. He's young and developing and should continue to improve.
For example, many people probably blamed Charlie for this play where the tailback missed his assignment. He didn’t have a chance on this play. It’s a shame as the playcall was wide open and might have been a big play with Baylor down 7 in the fourth quarter. Hurd would at minimum have had a great chance for the first down if not more as that safety was in no position to catch him easily.
I have heard two opinions repeated regarding our offense in the TCU game: 1) Brewer carried the offense, without his legs we would have been much worse off, and 2) Brewer's limitations were on display in that game - his inability to 'see the field' and deliver on the deep ball really stood out. What is your take on Brewer's performance in that game and how he dealt with TCU's defense?
I think Brewer wasn’t great with the deep ball and forced some throws (like the interception in to the TCU safety) but others were simply great plays by TCU. Baylor had two smash routes called to occupy the Corners and Safeties of TCU and isolate the tailback on their linebacker up the seam. Only reason it didn’t work out is their Senior Nickel safety recognizes it early and gets over the top of the route to keep his Linebacker from being burned.
Without Charlie’s legs the Bears would have had a worse go of it by far. He was far from perfect but his ability to buy time, extend plays with his legs, and mostly make good decisions bailed Baylor out of several difficult spots. Even his touchdown was a broken play that he turned into something.
Why does Baylor feel like the 10 sets are better than their 2 RB sets?
It may depend on the opponent and who is available. If they thing 10 personnel can create predictable looks via trips sets or if they don’t have as much confidence in their replacement for Hasty at tailback they’ll go with what they think gives them a better shot.
What is the staff's thought process with putting QB under center for only the most crucial downs. Why put him in unfamiliar situation in most high stress situations.
Usually they go into big sets for short yardage runs where additional big personnel create more gaps and they have a couple complementary plays to muscle for needed yards where their line may struggle to block the defense in spread sets. My opinion of the tactic varies based on the game and situation. I do think in one of their failed short yardage plays it would have been better off to sneak the ball with Brewer.
In short yardage situations, when we bring in the "heavy" package and move Hurd to I back could we possibly release a TE or do something other than stuffing the ball into the teeth of the run blitz?
They mix up which blocking schemes they use and whether they run strong or weak to mitigate some of the run blitzes. As for why do they not release Tight Ends and backs into routes it likely has to do with limited receiving options and how long it takes to get them into their routes. They’ll mix it in but it’s clearly a run set.
People are torn between "poor coaching" and "poor execution". Can you give us an example/some examples of each from the game?
I think a bad coaching decision was bringing Bohannon in to run things Brewer could do less predictably.
I think poor execution can be shown on the play where Ebner missed his block to give up the sack and on the fumbled snap.
In any game there are examples of each.
Did you love/hate the 3 man front and why?
I loved the idea of running their 3 man dime sets from a tighter line alignment where you often had at least one player in a B gap and they finally mixed in the tite front. Obviously whether the playcall is a good one depends on what you do with the other 6-7 guys on defense but as a general idea it’s a good one used by ISU, UT, Tech, and WVU to slow down the Air Raid teams.
I had trouble telling from the broadcast and I couldn't be at the game, but I wondered how open the WR's were. Charlie was acting like there was very little to throw to, even on the rare times he wasn't pressured. Are receivers not open, or is he not finding the open ones?
TCU did a great job in coverage. Their two corners are very good and they had at least one very good coverage safety in there. Additionally, their coverages often do a good job denying easy throws. The risk with that is deeper throws and double moves but often times Baylor wasn’t going to protect well enough for double moves and deeper throws were tougher with TCU’s solid coverage personnel.
What teams do the Red Raiders remind you of in terms of schemes?
I think their defense reminds me a lot of Kansas, Iowa State, Texas, and OU. They aren’t as multiple as WVU but they can also apply. I think Baylor’s success moving it on OU, ISU, Texas, and Kansas bodes very well for this game. Tech will mix in some man coverage but I think they’ll try to deny the big play. That’s exactly the look that Charlie moved the ball up and down the field with in Ames.
Prediction?
If this game was in October I would predict Texas Tech comfortably. I have a lot of confidence that Baylor can move the ball on them but this offense is a handful. With Tech’s injuries at QB there aren’t any assurances they’ll be up to their usual standard. I don’t think Bowman plays and I don’t think either of the other two are up to their usual level of play.
Baylor is a team who I predicted would fall anywhere from 4-8 to 8-4 depending on how 50/50 games broke and they are 2-2 in one-score games which means they could easily be 3-8 or 7-4 right now. This game will likely be the 5th close game of the year.
Tech is a good team who had injuries strike at the wrong time and the Bears take advantage and get to a bowl.
Baylor 31, Texas Tech: 27
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