Would ASU's defensive philosophy work for ISU?

CarolinaCy

Well-Known Member
Apr 18, 2008
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Was reading this article in the USA Today about Arizona State's defense

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...tate-sun-devils-defense-todd-graham/18876653/

and this stood out to me:

To drag one of college football's serial underachievers into relevance, Todd Graham knew he couldn't do it the conventional way. He was going to have to poke and prod at Arizona State's perpetual culture of complacency, find players that the heavy-hitters overlooked and employ a distinct style of defense built on speed and the unwavering commitment to bring pressure on darn near every play.

"I just believe it's too hard to defend all the things you're going to see and the diversity of schemes week to week," Graham said. "It's much more efficient to attack. The key is to attack with minimal risk. It's not just blind, reckless defense. It's very, very strategic and well thought out and you have to have smart guys to run it."


Is there any way that a similar defensive system would work at ISU? Can we get the athletes necessary to implement an attacking style defense in the Big 12? Will our d-line ever be able to hold their own, which would be necessary to blitz with that kind of regularity?

Seems like a long shot that ISU could get the players necessary for such a system, but wondering what everyone here thinks.
 
I would love to see us try. I think you are right that the DL talent would be tough to bring in consistently.

ASU isn't one of the big boys but they have more going for them than ISU.



I know this doesn't fit Wally, but once he's gone (retirement or otherwise) it would be worth a shot.
 
I've always loved watching his offense at Tulsa ans Pitt before now. Todd Grahm gets it though. He has forward thinking in his offense and defense. You have to do something different.
Sometime I think the game has advanced past Wally B.
 
With the type of big hitter offenses we play, I'd rather roll the dice bringing pressure all the time hoping to create 3 and outs and turnovers. Baylor is going to get a big play no matter what type of D we line up unless we can recruit like Alabama.
 
I think history has shown that no matter what type of scheme you try to run at ISU, it will fail.
I offer that everytime this year that we brought pressure, we essentially were burned. Maybe if Jake Knott was shooting the gap, it might work.
 
I offer that everytime this year that we brought pressure, we essentially were burned. Maybe if Jake Knott was shooting the gap, it might work.

The problem with ISU bringing pressure is that it never gets there. When they send a LBer they just seem to get stuck in the pile at the LOS, and never get through a gap. I don't think ISU has the kind of speed to bring someone off the edge, like a safety. For whatever reason, ISU is horrible at blitzing.
 
The problem with ISU bringing pressure is that it never gets there. When they send a LBer they just seem to get stuck in the pile at the LOS, and never get through a gap. I don't think ISU has the kind of speed to bring someone off the edge, like a safety. For whatever reason, ISU is horrible at blitzing.
You need adequate interior DL in order to effectively blitz with Lbers. We don't have adequate interior DL. That is one reason there's a pile at the LOS for our LBers to get stuck in.
 
With the type of big hitter offenses we play, I'd rather roll the dice bringing pressure all the time hoping to create 3 and outs and turnovers. Baylor is going to get a big play no matter what type of D we line up unless we can recruit like Alabama.

^^^^^

We saw what Baylor and OU did to our existing philosophy.
 
I offer that everytime this year that we brought pressure, we essentially were burned. Maybe if Jake Knott was shooting the gap, it might work.

It happened a ton in the first half of the KU game. We brought pressure a lot, especially on 3rd down, and nearly ever time it was picked up and the man to man coverage was exploited.

A blitzing defense starts with good cover corners. Not only do I question whether we have the athletes to get to the QB, I seriously question if we are strong enough in the back end to cover man-to-man.
 
Uh, that defense gives up a lot of points including 62 to UCLA (*some of those points may have from defense or special teams).

And still 10-12 ppg better than ours over the last couple of years. Not to mention generating way more sacks, tackles for loss and turnovers.
 
I haven't watched an ASU game this year but I would guess they are doing something similar to MSU then with a quarters scheme?
 
Arizona St's offense scares people, other teams are under much more pressure to score. having a good offense allows you to be much more aggressive defensively.

With todays college football being much more about offense, its almost like its flipped the old saying. Now its "the best defense is a good offense".
 
That's exactly how I would game plan for defense. You have to be the hunter, and if you're second guessing yourself all the time, you're not confident, your fundamentals break down, and you play slower and softer. Just give them the confidence to perform and make it simple. That's what Hoiberg does and we were converting like 95% of shots in the last 2 minutes of our basketball games. Sure its two different sports but its the same mental conditioning.
 

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