Manny Diaz's 4-5-6 defense

Man, this x and o stuff is like crack. Love it. And I love that what it boils down to is fundamentals: when you tackle better, your defense is better.

I know it is still the honeymoon, but I think I am in love with ol’ Harsinwhite Diaz. He is dreamy.

Great stuff, thanks and keep it coming. I now believe last year’s disastrous season was the best thing that could have happened to the Longhorn football program. A 6-6 season wouldn’t have done it, only a 5-7 season could have done (and did) the trick. Like a crash n burn followed by a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Great post, NR.

Quick question: When we go to nickel, and Jordan Hicks stays on the field, who usually is the LB running off? Acho or Robinson? Or are we going 3-3-5 and dropping a DT?

Great stuff.

Love that you focused on tackling in space this week. That was the biggest takeaway from this game for me and there’s no faking tackling ability. Run fits and open field tackling were my biggest concerns for this defense and they certainly showed a lot on both fronts against BYU. UCLA’s offense will provide an even bigger test in that regard.

jc25, my assumption is that we’re taking a tackle off the field. The fact that we’ve seen Brewster and Gideon on the field together would seem to confirm that…surely they aren’t leaving both of those guys on the field with 4 DL and taking an LB out. I’ll take a look and get back to you though, I haven’t actually checked our personnel packages very thoroughly.

JC 25:

We have a 30 dime front with a tackle, the 2 ends, and either Brewster or Phillips comes in. Vaccaro or Philips plays the nickel. It’s pretty wicked against the pass, you have 3 linebackers who can cover and blitz exceptionally well, if Phillips and Vaccaro are both in you have 2 safeties who can play man defense, all 3 DL can rush the passer or drop into coverage, and then there’s Diaz orchestrating pressures out of it.

It would be our best lineup if we were playing old school Tech or more pure spread passing teams. It turns out that taking Dorsey/DJ/etc off the field isn’t the boon we might have guessed though.

Love these young badasses like Diggs, Hicks, Phillips, Byndom….awesome.

Love it. I was really impressed at Hicks’ ability to close on some of those passes. Hope he got enough conditioning this summer to handle those responsibilities on long drives. Really hope Cobbs can ball like Hicks does when he comes on.

Why are we tackling better? More contact in practice, maybe?

What is “run fitting?”

I’m not an Xs and Os guy, but these great pieces on BC are making me feel like I spent a night at the Holiday Inn.

Add Cobbs to that mix, and it gets even scarier for offenses. The flexibility and the confusion it leads to offensively should lead to some kill shots and turnovers pretty soon now.

RomaVicta, think of a run fit as which players attack which gaps. Part of a scheme is setting player/gap responsibilities. These responsibilities can change as the offense motions, so it’s more confusing than it looks. Add to that the amount of pre-snap motion that Diaz likes, and it’s not a trivial problem to get the right bodies into the right holes.

Well put bat. Not sure, roma, why our tackling is improved. Part of it is probably the zone scheme that allows everyone to find the ball, another part is that we’ve replaced 2 corners who didn’t tackle well, a 3rd corner who did, and a safety who had limited range with 3 corners who are very physical, a safety who tackles like it’s 1988, and a 3rd linebacker who will play on sundays.

The physicality and speed of this team is impressive on both sides of the ball, but on defense we’re blessed with an experienced front 7 to boot.

We’re really seeing these back to back to back Top 5 recruiting classes explode under guidance from good coaching staff, I don’t think we can underestimate the impact Beanie Wylie is having on both sides of the ball.

Our guys look ready to play, and for four quarters.

Gideon had to break down five yards away from a guy who won’t be one of the most talented backs we play this year, two yards behind the first down marker. And he whiffed.

Great stuff!

What exactly do we lose, with Gideon off the field?

The spectacular overwhelms the mundane in our memories, but I’m having a heard time recalling any spectacularly GOOD plays from #21, but two spectacularly BAD ones from BYU leaped to mind without being bidden. Someone gimme a good’un?

The improvement in tackling can be from a variety of reasons.

First players being in better position which sounds simple enough, but if a player is taking bad angles, not reacting properly, or where they need to be they end up reaching-out of control-poor fundamentals overall.

Second is it might be a change in practice and what is emphasized. I don’t know what was taught last year and don’t know what is taught this year, but I do know that while you can’t teach a kid to want to be a hitter you can teach the fundamentals of tackling.

Third is even more simple and that is having players who are willing to make contact. That sounds stupid, but Chykie Brown never exactly looked like he really wanted to tackle, Curtis got better but was never really what one would consider a physical corner, and AJ looked like he went into draft stock protection mode fairly early in the year. Mix in that Robinson and Acho at times looked out of control and you can see reason for change.

nickel, the pic on the main page for this piece is the same as the blog poll. don’t think that’s what you meant to have.

How does Blake Gideon see the field? There is absolutely no intangible that he brings that justifies his lack of athleticism. Yes, we are playing nice defense, just think how well we’d play if we had 11 men on the field

excellent analysis and presentation. very much appreciated.

has there been any mention of when cobbs might be available?

Great stuff. I am starting to believe the bloggers on this site are increasingly challenging each other with their analysis and insight. For all the inane blabber available all over the web this is the go-to place for real discussion.

Just when I think I’ve absorbed a ton and have the start of a handle on what’s what, you come along, NR, and drop one insight nugget after another to show me I’m a long way from on top of things. I’d buy a thousand bucks worth of Shiner and armadillo chili to be in the booth with you, Scipio and Longhorn Scott discussing what’s happening real-time, only I expect I’d just end up feeling stupider than an Aggie trying to play quidditch.

We tend to underrate the mental part of the game. Diaz and Muschamp didn’t. He’s the quarterback of the secondary. Gideon is where he needs to be, makes the right reads, and helps his teammates do the same. The players look up to him. Physically, he’s average. He’ll miss a few plays, and is never going to lead the team in tackles. Gideon very rarely gets sucked into play action. This secondary has blown one coverage for points this year. That is pretty stout.

And look at the alternatives. Scott makes decisions on the field about as well as he does off the field. He’s not great in coverage. Brewer is Gideon Lite. Jackson couldn’t even stay at safety. None of the Freshmen have a chance to play free safety in this defense. Phillips is a possibility, but is needed as the third corner and in the nickel. He’s basically getting starters snaps anyway.

Plus, at the corner, we’re playing two true Freshmen and a Soph who was a backup and didn’t get a lot of snaps last year. You can’t blame Diaz for wanting a little experience on the field.

I’m not saying he’s my favorite defender, but there are plenty of reasons for him to be out there. Akina, Diaz, and Muschamp all agree.

Our defense seems to have improved it’s tackling more than our offense has improved it’s blocking.

BC runs the best football school on the internet. Longhorn Scott said he wanted a microphone. I will be happy to send him one as a contribution to the cause. You have my email. Just send me directions where to send it.

Thanks Bat, Nickel and Davey.

Thanks Nickel, another good read. The potential improvements in this defense over the next few years is the reason no one wants to be in our conference…not the LHN.

I need not even say Brown and JGray!

Bat had several good points regarding Gideon.

For those who are increasingly frustrated with Gideon’s presence, consider that we once again have him paired with a safety who can play man coverage and is a hawk in run support. Additionally, we have more physical play out of our corners.

It’s possible with this defensive backfield to hide Gideon very easily in run support and allow him to play deep safety where he has always been very solid. You would love for your free safety to be able to come down in run support and fill the alley or be the equivalent of a punt returner if you risk a downfield shot (Ed Reed) but we can easily survive with the quality of play Gideon provides.

Even in run support, as long as he is getting there and at least slowing down the play there’s a good chance that our pursuit will clean it up for him. Notice on that play where he was juked that Acho once again, despite having a lapse that allowed the RB to be open, made up the ground. He got from the 23 yard line to the 10 and made the tackle within 3 seconds.

Gotta agree with bat and NR and side with the coaches on Gideon. He plays because we have no one better for the role. This is also an example of this coaching staff using available talent in the best way with Gideon clearly best suited for the deep safety/center-fielder role. He was one of several players who in 2010 were put in the position of trying to be something they were not.

Good stuff, NR. Thanks.

From what I’ve seen so far, I love this defense. It’s gonna be filthy. Nasty. Salty. And it hasn’t even reached it’s potential. Combine our defenese playing up to it’s potential with our fully installed offense that has started to come together and execute consistently and we will be scary to our opponents and fun as hell to watch for our fans.

The level of coaching this year is just on a whole new level. The players are eating it up and playing their hearts out.

One more thing… It may be that I’m seeing what I want to see or expected to see, but it seems to me that the kids are really enjoying playing in this scheme. I have to imagine for a defensive player the flying around and running to daylight elements of this scheme are way more enjoyable than basic assignment football. There are still assignments,obviously, but it seems like there are more opportunities for every player to make plays.

burntorangejuice; I think you may be right about the players enjoying the scheme, although I’m pretty sure they enjoyed the dominance they enjoyed in the Muschamp system.

I think our team is going to be an unpleasant team to face for everyone on our schedule, much like the Jets. We’re going to pound you in the running game and play aggressive, physical defense. I’m sure we won’t win all our games and still probably get overwhelmed by some of the better teams on our schedule but I think we give everyone a bloody fight.

I’ve sometimes wondered about Gideon being on the field, especially after those kill shot personal fouls he seems to get flagged for on occasion. But the fact that every DC from Muschamp to Diaz has seen fit to start him speaks volumes.

I guess Blake is basically an anchor for the secondary. An anchor is the least sexy part of a ship until the day that you enter a storm and find out that you don’t have one.

Nickel Rover,

I imagine they did enjoy the dominance under Muschamp, and my comment was not meant to diminish what Muschamp did here. I just have a perception, right or wrong, that under the Diaz scheme more players get the opportunity to fly around and make plays and the players have a bit more autonomy. That is the impression I have gotten from players’ comments, but again, I could have misinterpreted things.

Gideon only shows up when he does something wrong – late hit / targeting penalties, whiffing one-on-one with a back, knocking his own teammates goofy, and so on. The steady play is unseen. We simply have not recruited anyone better, or he’d be watching from the sidelines. It may seem strange, but keep in mind our recruiting was 0 for 2 on the previous two years’ RB, and 2 for 2 last year, in terms of finding someone to beat out starters.

So, Gideon… he’s what we have. Maybe not our next all-pro, but… he’s what we have. Eh, there it is.

Thanks, NR. I did spot Tim’s son getting some reps, which I thought was surprising.

Hopefully, our nickel package isn’t needed early against UCLA. Could surely use two tackles in for this one.

Bottom line is we’re still thin at safety and we’re not going to bench a four-year starter. The only other real alternative is Brewster, and if he and Gideon switched jerseys tomorrow I doubt anyone could even tell the difference.

Good writeup!

One small bone to pick. I do not think that BYU was a good test of our run defense. Luigi is small and did not like contact. On multiple plays he just fell down when he didn’t see an open hole. He was playing scared. Luigi negated a lot of work that the BYU line did by simply being unwilling to run between the tackles. Luigi is really a receiver out of the backfield.

If you think that Texas’ run defense is anywhere near as dominant as they appeared against BYU then you are in for a rude awakening on Saturday.

jc25: I can’t imagine that we will use the 30 dime front, which is one of our 2 nickel looks, against UCLA except in 3rd and long situations. I imagine what we’ll see is our assortment of 4-3 and 3-4 stunts with Vaccaro playing close to the line over that huge TE and providing an 8th man in the box. We’ll do that unless they can bubble screen us or beat us on the perimeter.

Maybe next we’ll do a post on our different fronts and packages in the Diaz defense, they’re pretty cool.

Pillow, I’m not sure what you are talking about because there was zero room in between the tackles last saturday. Randall, Dorsey and co were swallowing up the inside running game, there was nothing there. Running backs who run sideways never look physical or imposing, that was a function of interior penetration and gap control.

Can you point to any examples where he had opportunities to get downhill and avoided them?

For those wondering why we are tackling better Diaz places a premium on coaching pursuit angles. I got to hear him speak at a clinic last spring and he gave his thoughts on tackling and believes too much emphasis is placed on “form” ,and what players should upon arriving at the ball carrier. Good “form” is usless unless you have done a good job in pursuit, taken a correct angle, and put yourself in good position in the first place.

Quick addition,

In regards to Gideon. I don’t understand Gideon apologists. When a safety must be hidden in both the running and passing games what is he out there for? Actually, that can be said of every position on the team. If the coordinator by scheme must hide Gideon in every aspect of the game then what good is he? Wouldn’t it be better to have another safety out there that stinks at coverage but is nails in run support or is nails in coverage and ball hawking and is horrible run support. Gideon provides zero upside. He not only excels at nothing but must be hidden in everything. Hearing everyone saying that Diaz is doing a great job of hiding Gideon is driving me crazy. Safeties should never need to hidden in all aspects of the gameplan.

hg03: thanks that’s a valuable tidbit to hear and it jives with all of my examples in which our open field tackling was largely a result of our pursuit. It makes sense, also, that a guy who excels in employing fire zones would want his defense to understand pursuit well to clean up when the QB finds a crease.

Nickel Rover,

I specifically remember 2 times where Luigi literally fell down at the first sign that he would have to make contact with someone. All game long I got the impression that he was running scared. This was even evidenced by his alligator arming a pass to the flat. Luigi was not running strong. I will look for these examples this afternoon.

I know people like to sunshine pump and I am excited about this team but I would temper my expectations of the run defense until we face a team that has a running back that does not fear contact.

 I’m not even saying that the defense didn’t play well but, I do believe that the perception of dominance was greatly enhanced by Luigi’s desire to avoid all contact.

Pillow let me elaborate on Gideon because the statement that we are hiding him in run support and pass coverage is misleading. We don’t want him as the force player on a running play on a regular basis and we don’t want him in man or quarters coverage over a good slot receiver. He can man up a TE pretty well from what I’ve seen and he’s a great Deep safety over the top who doesn’t go for play-action and pulled in 5 interceptions playing that role in 2009.

That’s what he offers us. With him in the game we are always sound over the top and he gets guys lined up and in the right coverage. That means no easy TD’s on blown assignments. The only place that shows up is in the lack of easy TD’s on blown assignments, it’s not a positive addition that you can notice on the field.

Pillow, I await your examples and the UCLA game tape. If you make any back go horizontally he won’t look physical. Not saying luigi is a bowling ball normally but I don’t think this sample would suggest he’s a wimp.

Great title relating back to Coach Diaz’ introductory press conference on campus and good breakdown, Rover.

The Fauria kid, scratch that: undersized power forward, is the nephew of former Colorado and NFL TE Christian Fauria, btw.

In one of my first exchanges with Manny I complimented him on his MSU defense’s open field tackling. He seemed confident it would carry over to this squad. I’m not of the belief the defense had fallen to the depths of the offense last season, but I like where they’re headed now even more.

Thanks Saul, and I’m always intrigued to hear what Diaz has said for himself about his schemes and styles. I was initally skeptical of his aggressive approach but the more I’m learning about his defenses, the more I’m impressed with his strategy and mind for the game.

Nickel Rover,

Come on man. Blake Gideon’s 6 interceptions in 2009 were directly influenced by the fact that he was next to an NFL starting safety. It was an anomaly. The other two years he had zero and 2 interceptions. I’m not trying to be argumentative.

Just wanted to offer my opinion so that people weren’t surprised if UCLA runs for 250+ on this defense or when offenses with actual passing games start targeting the team’s soft spot (Gideon).

Hey Pillow, guess what? He’s next to an NFL starting safety again and it’s going to be very hard for teams to isolate him this year.

Since you’ve ignored my description of his positive attributes I can only add that Manny Diaz, Mack Brown, Will Muschamp, and Duane Akina all think you’re wrong.

I definitely appreciate your comments and the way you brought them up was vastly superior to the myriad of posts we’ve seen like, “Gideon sucks!”. Obviously though, I think you are mistaken to totally write off his contributions to the team.

Brewster ~= Gideon? I think I buy that, no problem – it agrees with what I’ve been seeing, approximately.

Akina presumably calls the shots on starters, and obviously both Muschamp and Diaz go along with this call. Unlike GDGD and the unbelievably stupid things done with the offense, I think we trust our DC’s, so… it is what it is, yeah?

Still, the answers to the question “what do we lose without Gideon?” have been more about what Gideon brings, but not about what Brewster (or Scott, or whomever) does not.

I’ve never been able to see Gideon doing the quarterbacking that is referred to – but that’s probably because I’m too ignorant of defensive lore to know what I’m seeing. If someone could provide – or point to – some plays which show that, I think we’d all have a better appreciation for it.

Tex: Mostly what we have to go off of are the following:
a). the coaches say that Gideon is there in part to help line everyone up correctly.
b). we don’t see Gideon get beat over the top.
c). in Gideon’s 4 years as a starter we’ve seen very few freebie TD’s and half of them were on Chykie Brown’s watch.

Brewster definitely fills the alley better than Gideon does but I’m not sure he offers the same leadership in alignment or in the locker room, or the same kind of deep support over the top. Maybe we’ll find out next year, or even this year since he’s seen plenty of snaps already.

This old Horn will have defer to those (Nickel Rover, Longhorn Scott) who see the X’s and O’s much better than I. No one better back there than Gideon? OK. I’ll have to take your word for it.

I, too, thought Luigi was soft in finishing his runs last weekend and, in several instances, looked to go down without too much resistance. That said, I love watching the apparently rapid maturation of this team.

Thanks for the perspectives you guys offer.

So if Gideon were to be hit by a bus tomorrow (not saying, just saying), how would we go about replacing him? Phillips to safety full-time and more snaps for Josh Turner, Mykkele Thompson, A.J. White, etc?

Hmm.

Yeah, I noticed more Brewster already, and as you said, I don’t see a hell of a lot of difference ‘tween the two… except that I haven’t noticed Brewster getting penalties ascribable to a combination of excessive enthusiasm (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and apparent lack of good sense (which is a bad thing). That seems to tell me that we’d be better off with Brewster, but – as I pointed out before – what the fuck do I know?

Until it costs us a game that we’d have won, Gideon’s presence is just something we’ll have to live with and bitch about. We might not be having this conversation over and over if he’d caught the INT against Tech, or dropped the one against Bama…

Nordberg: Nah, they would put Brewster in, most likely, since that’s what we’re doing anyways. Brewster is a better tackler in run support for sure, but that’s less of a value for our 2nd safety because we’re playing 3 LB’s and Vaccaro at the other spot.

Phillips should eventually be better but does he have the leadership or schematic understanding of Gideon? Who knows.

Good comment above that…“We’re really seeing these back to back to back Top 5 recruiting classes explode under guidance from good coaching staff, I don’t think we can underestimate the impact Beanie Wylie is having on both sides of the ball.”

I do think our finish on each play was markedly different from what I saw last year vs. Tech, for instance. However color me a bit concerned that I swear I saw Mad Dog on the sideline fist and chest bumping players leading me to worry that the strength and conditioning issues from last year are not necessarily a distant memory. Why is he still hovering around our bench? My impression from this blog and others was that he was “promoted out of the the day to day operations”. Bummed if untrue.

i think the dog is primarily an administrative and advisory dude now. he quit handling day-to-day before bennie got here, so i think you can relax on that. if mad dog is doing a good job at what he’s doing now and bennie is building the team, i call it win-win.

if he wants to join the team on the sidelines, i don’t have a problem with that.

Mad Dog supposedly oversees the S&C (sitting and chocolate*) for the entire athletic department. Although I’d love to see a quote from Todd Wright on that subject.

*copyright brickhorn

Agreed, yeh. I think the team already looks better conditioned than last season, and the lines are mauling much better than before. I saw enough off-season videos to believe that this is Wylie’s baby. If Mad Dog wants to stand on the sideline and fist bump people, that’s fine with me.

Nickle,

I completely agree that Mack, Mushchamp, Manny, and MAkina all know more about who should start at FS this year. My question is long term secondary plans. Byndom, Diggs, White and Turner are CBs? Vaccaro, Brewster, Evans and Thompson are Safeties? Phillips? Scott?

If I try to project 2012 based on the comments on this thread and it sounds like: LCB – Byndom; RCB – Diggs; SS – Vaccaro; FS – Brewster. Is that what you have?

2013: Byndom, Diggs, Evans, Thompson

At what point (this year included) is it better to pull a FS deficient of physical gifts in favor a gifted athlete with potential assignment breakdowns? The fact that Gideon is out there and Brewster would likely replace him leads me to believe FS is the most important “assignment” on the defense and necessitates the least physical gifts.

I want to believe you could put Thompson at FS this year, tell him his first, second, third and fourth responsibilities are “over the top” and he could easily make more plays on deep balls given his range and hands and even after 2 false steps in run support could do better than Gideon.

Just looked at the Gideon pics above again… how does Gideon miss that tackle with a foot on the sideline?

Galt:

In the short term, I think the coaches like Gideon because he is very capable playing over the top, he can direct and assist Byndom, Diggs, and Phillips in their assignments, and due to Phillips and Vaccaro’s skillsets it’s very easy to hide his deficiencies.

In 2012 we don’t necessarily need to go with Brewster if Vaccaro comes back and we have some experience back there. It could go Phillips and Vaccaro at Safety, Diggs and Byndom at corner, with Brewster or the next best young guy coming in when we play nickel.

Thompson is likely to be a far better player than Gideon someday, but so much of playing safety is experience and understanding where the ball is heading. A slower, white senior safety who knows where to be will make more plays on the ball than a faster, younger freshman who only has mastery over very simple assignments.

Nickel,
Nice piece, and I agree—the experts’ take on Gideon is enough to convince me.
A sliver of feedback: a picture is worth 1000 words, but a video is worth 1000 pictures—at least for me. LH Scott wins major points for embedding video clips instead of series of captured stills. Can you steal some of that technology from him, or his he some kind of interweb witch? Or both?

I already got the technology I use from Longhorn Scott, actually, so you can all thank him a 2nd time for everything I’m doing.
I haven’t experimented with voice overs yet but that sounds time consuming and increases the chances that I make an error due to my limited knowledge and look like a buffoon.

Maybe I’ll play around with it though, I downloaded the same program. LHS is already cursing you for the flood of emails he would be likely to receive if I tried to make some videos.

I screwed up my earlier post by asking 10 questions and finishing with the one I cared least about. I’ve got the Gideon part down. No problem. (My point with the Thompson example was that, coming from offense, he’d probably have a good feel for where the ball was heading).

I’m really interested in where do the other guys project? I think we understand that Diggs, Byndom, and Turner are CBs mostly based on size. What about the rest? Many seem versatile (fast, quick, and kinda big). Of Thompson, Evans, Scott, Phillips, who plays corner and who plays safety? Numbers lead me to believe 3 of the 4 are safeties before we consider future classes. Your thoughts?

Ah, sorry, good question. I expect us to move back towards a “4 corners” philosophy in the secondary after our Cover-2 safety prospects (Gideon, Brewster, Scott, Vaccaro) failed to produce much in the spread era. In this league and day your safeties or nickel better be able to cover a slot receiver in addition to their other duties or it’s going to be a bad day.

So, we’re probably recruiting all corners and athletes, find which ones of either group can handle playing corner at this level, and then move the rest to safety.

Phillips I foresee being like Vasher and playing both corner and safety before it’s all said and done (based on team need). Turner looks like a corner already, Thompson probably lacks the quicks to play corner and will be a safety. Evans and Scott I haven’t seen as much of yet.

In Diaz’s defense, playing zone and being physical are more important qualities for our corners so guys who may not have made lockdown corners can still play the position.

I think Phillips stays at safety (and nickel) because the two current starters at CB are a freshman and a soph.

Thanks for the insights. You guys do an excellent job and, obviously, many of us are eating this stuff up.

Just my two cents, Rover:

Stills are just another form of frame by frame slow motion from the video feed. It seems to work out well to me.

Of course, you could embed the video of the same plays alongside the stills to have it there for people like SH that crave the moving pictures in full speed. The voice overs aren’t necessary as long as the written description is still on the page, so that’s just optional.

One possible format might be to continue as you did here and then embed the video to the corresponding play immediately afterward, so readers have a clear understanding of what you’re seeing and then can look for it in video to draw their own conclusions.

I’ve always enjoyed watching NFL Match-Up or reading blogs like smartfootball, and it’s nice that some in the fanbase are using technology to expand that sort of coverage for our favorite college teams. I appreciate the lot of you guys for taking the time, when it can be hard to spare, to bring the rest of us this analysis.

Gideon is GG on defense.