Good read for Wisco folks not used to Air raid life...
theathletic.com
The myths, challenges and solutions to being a DC in an Air Raid system
Coaches rebuke the notion that an Air Raid offense makes a defense soft, but there are some real challenges for defensive staffs.
theathletic.com
The difficult truths of being an Air Raid DC
1. Tempo and pacing
For some DCs, the toughest aspects of the job are how their offense practiced their tempo plays, which isn’t unique to the Air Raid. (Leach didn’t rely on going up-tempo.) Holgorsen evolved what he did offensively as well as how he ran his practices, but back in his early days as a play caller in his first job for Kevin Sumlin at Houston after leaving Leach, the Cougars operated at a frenetic pace. In 2009, the Cougars led the nation in plays per game.
“I would walk off the field when I was with Dana and Sumlin at Houston and look around and be like, ‘What just happened? Did we even line up 11 guys in a stance on defense?’” Spavital said. “It was just so fast and crazy. Guys running onto the field, so unrealistic to what a game was like because it was all about just reps and reps and efficiency — catch and throw, catch and throw, catch and throw — then they’d hand the ball off on a light-box every 30 plays.”
When Gibbs and Spavital arrived at Texas Tech, their first practice had Davis Webb and Patrick Mahomes running the Air Raid with several future NFL receivers, leaving a memorable impression on the new defensive coaches.
“I felt like they scored 20 touchdowns in practice,” Spavital said. “They were dunking the ball and celebrating and we were like, how are we ever gonna get a defense with this? But Kliff did a good job of starting to blend it in.”
2. Tight ends
Spavital noted the other big challenge has been recruiting coveted defenders to an Air Raid system.
“You can go get the top-rated wideouts, but if you’re not getting the defensive personnel drafted and them having the success, (and) that’s a tool that was really utilized against us in recruiting by certain schools,” he said.
One position on offense Air Raid staffs usually don’t recruit, though, is tight ends. Because of that, it can be a trickier formula to master when it comes to addressing the needs of each side of the ball, especially depending on who is in charge. The traditional Air Raid isn’t reliant on tight ends. Those bigger bodies that many programs utilize as X-factors and to play “big boy” football seldom exist on Air Raid rosters.
“Where it’s really difficult is all spring long, you’re going against that offense so you’re not seeing the power-run games, the gap schemes, the tight end sets,” Gibson said.
Being able to run enough 12 personnel or condensed formations is problematic, according to one D-line coach who has been on Air Raid staffs. “You’re just not used to seeing it,” said the coach. “You gotta grab a defensive end, throw him over at tight end on scout team, and he’s like ‘OK, whatever,’ and he gives you a shitty-ass look.”
3. Game planning for teams that don’t run what you run
Spavital, who worked at Texas State for his brother Jake (an Air Raid coach), estimated that opponents the Bobcats faced in the Sun Belt ran about 40 to 50 percent similar concepts they’d see in practice from their own offense.
“They all say that there’s a physical aspect to it, but I’ll be honest, that was probably 15 years ago when the Air Raid was just starting,” Spavital said. “Now, all these coaches — Lincoln, Dana, Jake — they’ve all done well at adapting to the run game part and being able to have periods to practice it and segment their practices a lot differently. That’s helped.”
USC may run GT Counter 15 times a practice, but last year, the Trojans’ defense might’ve seen that only 15 total times for the entire season, according to a former coach. GT Counter, though, is something Grinch’s defense is going to see a ton of, particularly in spring football, as Riley’s offense reps to get its timing down.
“You have to have some answers for that,” said the former Riley staffer. “You can’t just sit there and get your teeth beat in for 15 practices.”
That, too, is rooted in the psychology of coaching defense. Grinch talks a lot about scripting for success. At Washington State, there were no tight ends in Leach’s program. Grinch would grab a linebacker and use him as the scout team’s tight end. Otherwise, the defense never went up against a tight end in spring or preseason camp.
4. Confidence issues
The offense Grinch sees every day at USC practice has produced three of the past five Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks — and that doesn’t include Jalen Hurts, who came in second in 2019 and just led the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Knowing the skill they’re facing every day in practice, it wouldn’t be hard to come away from all that reeling mentally with your confidence shot.
That’s something Grinch has thought a lot about. He knew how big of a piece the psychological aspect of his job was after being around OU and observing how whenever his players gave up a big play, it triggered a defeated response of, “Oh, no, here we go again.”
“It’s about making sure you’re not a victim in practice to where it’s like, ‘Well, we can’t stop ’em because they’ve got Caleb Williams,’ or, ‘We can’t stop ’em because they have Jalen Hurts,’” Grinch said. “If you create the mentality that you’re somehow lesser or not expected to perform at certain levels, it’s hard to flip that switch during the season. We expect to perform at a high level and we will hold guys accountable when they don’t. And it’s hard but you can do hard things.”
So how do Air Raid DCs make it work — or try to fix it?
1. Alex Grinch: ‘Words matter’
No DC is more versed in the life of an Air Raid DC than Grinch. The 43-year-old is in his third stop running the defense for an Air Raid head coach, first working for Leach at Washington State and then for Riley, a Leach protege, at Oklahoma and USC. At each program, he inherited a dreadful defense.
At Washington State, his defense went from No. 117 to No. 74 in his first season to No. 50 in Year 2. Oklahoma improved from No. 101 to No. 64 in his debut season before jumping to No. 28 in his second year.
The Trojans were No. 103 in 2021 and No. 93 in his first year. People inside the program, Grinch included, are expecting a big improvement on that side of the ball this season. An influx of transfer talent, including two former five-star D-line recruits who transferred in from the SEC, plus linebacker Mason Cobb, Oklahoma State’s leading tackler, should provide a much-needed boost.
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Riley and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams should ensure that USC has another explosive offense that’ll carry the team into the top 10, but making sure the Trojans defense has the right mindset probably will determine whether they can make a run at a national title. Getting caught leaning too much emotionally on a great offense can end up undermining a defense.
“I think what’s really critical for defensive coaches attached to high-scoring offenses is to make sure that you don’t use that as an excuse,” Grinch said. “That’s the biggest slippery slope in my opinion.
“The scariest thing is when guys think, ‘It’s OK, the offense will come save us. All we gotta do is get a couple of stops and a couple of takeaways and we can call it a good game.’ You just can’t play victim. Words matter. You’re just never gonna hear that from us.”
2. It helps if your boss has a defensive mind
Mark Snyder spent three seasons as an Air Raid DC at Texas A&M from 2012-14. His defense helped the Aggies have their best season in a half-century when they finished No. 5 in 2012. Two seasons later, he was fired. In his eyes, Bob Stoops set the standard on how to run a defense for an Air Raid team.
Stoops’ first OC hire at Oklahoma was Mike Leach. The thought of the Air Raid at the place that dominated college football for generations with its power running game seemed bizarre then. Snyder was at Ohio State with Jim Tressel when they visited Stoops at OU and was blown away.
“He had to manufacture the mentality of it,” Snyder said. “He had the formula for that stuff. It was like, ‘When they get big, you gotta be able to get big and bust them in the mouth.’”
Stoops ran a lot of goal-line tackling drills, and he would bring down his second unit to run inside drill for 15 minutes. The Buckeyes coaches observed that the whistle didn’t blow until Stoops was satisfied.
“It was a stinkin’ bloodbath,” Snyder said. “It was what we were used to every day at Ohio State.”
Stoops went to Norman after three seasons as Florida’s defensive coordinator for passing-game whiz Steve Spurrier. In his first season in Gainesville, Stoops, a former Big Ten DB at Iowa who had come from Bill Snyder’s Kansas State staff, helped Spurrier and the Gators win the national title in 1996.
“I had an advantage those other (Air Raid defensive guys) didn’t have,” Stoops said with a laugh. “Mike was my coordinator and I was the head coach.”
At the time of Stoops’ taking over at OU, Nebraska and Kansas State were powerhouses the Sooners had to deal with. Stoops could set up how long inside drill would run. Leach might not have wanted to do it that long, but that wasn’t his call. Stoops, the son of a celebrated high school defensive coordinator in Ohio, believes defense, for the most part, is reactive, and it always took a little more time and drilling to get the defense where it needed to be.
“Part of practice was for Mike and our offense, and the other part of practice, I was emphatic — and he didn’t challenge me — was, we’re going to get in these other formations for the defense. I had (Mark) Mangino on my staff who understood what plays we needed and how to block ’em. Part of my spring there always were certain segments that were gonna be physical and heavy run game and that was for the defense. And Mike had his segment when he was gonna do his deal, which I loved. I didn’t fight any of that.
“I had a little bit of a similar deal with Coach Spurrier. I’d be arguing every day for five more minutes of inside drill, 10 more minutes of team-period: ‘I can’t get it done this fast.’ I’d ask for 15 and he’d say, ‘All right Bobby, I’ll give you 10.’ I experienced that before being a head coach with Coach Spurrier, and he would accommodate me, to a degree.”
So, why do the top-rated defenses often appear at places where fans tend to hate the offense?
It seems a lot easier these days to identify who is a good offensive coordinator than a defensive coordinator when a coach’s stock — at least statistically — can plummet dramatically from one year to the next. The top five scoring defenses in college football in 2022 were Illinois, Iowa, Air Force, Minnesota and Georgia. Perhaps not coincidentally, those teams ranked No. 78, No. 110, No. 131, No. 126 and No. 55 in offensive pass attempts per game.
“Coaching defense nowadays is impossible no matter where you are,” said one veteran defensive coordinator. “Unless you’re in the Big Ten, and then you got a chance.”
Presented with the rankings of the five stingiest scoring defenses, the coach said he thinks the head coaches in the Big Ten are more old-school.
“I don’t think Ohio State is old-school. They’re different,” he said. “Michigan is a little bit different because they have all those tight ends, but you would much rather have them line up in two tight ends and run you over, but they’re only gonna score so many points. They’re not as explosive. When you were in the Big 12, there were three or four NFL quarterbacks in that league. To me, that’s different. C.J. Stroud. Beast. Ohio State could’ve beaten Georgia easily. We act like Georgia’s the best thing ever, but they’re one play away from not winning that game.
“Georgia’s defense is they just got all those cats. Air Force’s defense is an anomaly. The Big Ten, just talking to coaches I know there, they’re very simple and they just try and control the clock. They’re just trying to shorten the game and give themselves chances to win games. For whatever reason it works up there, and they keep doing it. But those teams are never gonna win national championships either.”
For another old defensive coach, he’s also looking at history that he isn’t about to let repeat itself. His son, still a teenager, is an aspiring football coach.
“He’s gonna coach offense,” the dad said. “I am not gonna expose him to some of the years when you feel like you did your best job coaching ever, and you got fired. Truth is, that’s what happens when you’re on defense.”
