How Virginia Tech Can Stop the Spread and Win the ACC

By Alexander Koma on July 29, 2013

It’s the question on every defensive coach’s mind at all levels of football; how on Earth do we slow down the spread?

Whether it’s RGIII in the NFL or Tajh Boyd in the ACC, no one’s yet found a consistent solution to stop these mobile quarterbacks and the read-option plays they’re running.

With last weekend’s ACC media days making it perfectly clear that outside observers believe that Clemson’s spread attack will make it the top team in the league, it seems pertinent to wonder how anyone in the league, let alone Virginia Tech, will be able to slow the Tigers down.

While the past three matchups against Clemson have not been kind to the Hokies, defensive coordinator Bud Foster has been scheming for new ways that his defense can evolve to stop all kinds of high-tempo, run-heavy offenses.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Chris Brown of Smart Football just wrote a comprehensive piece on Grantland detailing just these kinds of changes that are taking place on the pro level, and much of what Foster has already started doing mirrors this approach to defending the spread.

Now, Clemson’s offense torched the old Foster defense for 99 points the last three times they met and North Carolina’s similar attacked racked up 48 points in last season’s matchup, but much of that was due to the old way the Hokies tried to defend the run.

Foster utilized a 4-2-5 gap defense that stressed big plays by the secondary, rather than his old 4-4 defense. This placed the onus for defending the run on the stunting defensive line, leaving safeties to drop back in coverage and the “whip” linebacker to play more like a nickel corner than a run stopper.

However, the embarrassing loss to North Carolina last year made it particularly clear that this strategy just wouldn’t work against read-option teams.

On the following play, the Tar Heels run a simple draw after Bryn Renner sees that the Hokies are sitting back in coverage.

The line can’t react to the change quickly enough, and it results in a big gain.

By the time the Hokies headed down to Death Valley to play the Tigers, they’d already started altering their defense, and although they suffered a costly loss, the defense still played pretty well.

As the subsequent play demonstrates, Foster started using safeties Kyshoen Jarrett and Detrick Bonner in run support, and it works to devastating effect on plays like this.

Jarrett acts as the rover, normally known as the strong safety in pro defenses, while Bonner works as the free safety, and plays a deep zone with the capacity to cheat up to the line.

The team would still allow the Tigers to put up 38 points, but this was largely due to the offense’s growing ineptitude, featuring three interceptions, one of which was an incredibly poorly timed wide receiver pass by Marcus Davis.

But after Foster had the extra month of practice time before the team’s meeting with Rutgers in the Russell Athletic Bowl, he was able to restore the pure 4-4 look that was so successful in the ‘90s.

Now, the whip linebacker and the rover both play on the line of scrimmage, overloading the box for run plays. The free safety continues to sit back in deep coverage, but can add an extra man in the box if they see something that indicates the offense is planning on running.

As the following play against the Scarlet Knights demonstrates, it’s a powerful way to stop any offense, whether they’re spreading the field or not.

Brown details a similar strategy for defending this read-option, where the defensive linemen “scrape” toward the running back, while linebackers spy the quarterback. Foster has incorporated this strategy, while also assigning the rover to “squeeze” potential cutback lanes. The free safety can then “fill” if the offense breaks into the second level.

The problem with this strategy is readily apparent: it places a tremendous amount of responsibility on the cornerbacks should the quarterback keep the ball and drop back to pass.

But Foster’s attitude toward this is simple. His players were being decimated in the secondary even when he dropped more of them back, so why not try and put as many defenders in the QB’s face as possible?

It certainly worked against Rutgers QB Gary Nova, and while Boyd and Renner are miles better than the beleaguered Knights signal caller, it requires any passer facing the defense to make lightning fast decisions or get crushed.

Now, this defense may not be tailor made to stop the Hokies’ opening opponent, Alabama, but it’ll be key to conquering division rival UNC.

If Tech has any shot at winning the Coastal division and playing presumptive Atlantic division champion Clemson in the title game, then the Tar Heels’ visit to Blacksburg will be a crucial matchup. Maybe Foster’s new defense can stifle Renner and company, and even help the team topple the Tigers in Charlotte.

That was a paragraph filled with two huge “ifs” and “maybes,” and that’ s even without considering the much-needed development of the offense, but Tech probably has a better shot at pulling off these upsets than the general public thinks.

But if anyone could pull it off, it’s Foster. Maybe he really can combat these new spread offenses with his old 4-4 system, and there can be some magic in Blacksburg this season.

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