This looks familiar
Maybe this is a bit of an overreaction to the last thing that happened, but when Michigan was thrust into a D.C. search after one year of D.J. Durkin, Brian's not the only guy who immediately thought "I really hope we get a guy who can take down the spread!"
So can Brown? Well we haven't had that many opportunities to see. While you'd think the spread would be ubiquitous in college football now, there actually aren't as many teams who are dedicated to it as you'd think. Bill Connelly has a helpful (though far from perfect) list of offenses by how spread they were in 2014. Just three BC's FBS opponents this year were in the top 25 of spread-i-ness last year—Syracuse (2nd), Clemson (11th), and Louisville (23rd). Florida State, which spends most of its 1st down snaps under center, was 26th, just to give you a baseline. And Syracuse transitioned out of the gun-and-read offense this season.
So: Clemson. They're a lot like Ohio State. They line up in the gun with a slot receiver nearly always, hurry up, read-option as the basis of their running game, throw deep to keep safeties away from that, and work in a lot of power blocking. They also have access to way more talent than Boston College. So let's watch a quarter of that together and see how BC played it.
Play 1: Go route vs. Man 1 — The slot receiver comes in motion and that drags the nickel across the formation while the SS walks down. The free safety is lined up 13 yards from the line of scrimmage so he's not going to be able to help much against a run.
Michigan fans should recognize the coverage since it's exactly what we ran all year. Only thing is the free safety was bracketing the receiver at the bottom of the screen so this one has pure man. He has a step but the ball's overthrown.
Play 2: Read option vs Man 1 — Same look again with the backside safety walking down and the free safety playing way high. But this time they're blitzing the WLB. The DE forms up to make it handoff, and everybody has their gaps. The playside DE shoved the RT upfield so there's nowhere to go, but the backside DE whiffs when closing in. It looks dangerous for a second and then the free safety has arrived.
Play 3: Go route vs Man 1—We get a glimpse of why this was such a good pass defense. They come out in the Okie:
(free safety is way deep)
With the RB staying in the MLB came on a delayed blitz. Slot got separation downfield but the ball went over his head. FS is trailing way behind like he was bracketing the other side again.
Things: So far this is a lot like Michigan's defense. Clemson had two chances for an 80-yard TD against man coverage that they missed, and one running play that went for a loss because the SDE made a great play.
I think the free safety is helping out with a particularly dangerous receiver and Clemson is using that to target the other side. A safety who can range sideline to sideline is a luxury beyond the means of B.C. and they were living dangerously because of it.
But like Michigan their down linemen are good with their hands and can handle soloing gaps. I would be interested to see the Okie come back—some of the fun 2011 defense things we had to do to glue that thing back together are worth trotting out still even if the main thing is sound.
Then again it's been three plays and other than the little variations this is the same defense Michigan had all year.
I'll get into another drive or two tomorrow.