Monte Kiffin has a long and imposing resume. He coached in the NFL for 26 years, and his teams finished in the top ten in yards and points an NFL record ten times. He was defensive coordinator at Nebraska in 1970 and '71, when the Huskers won back-to-back national championships. They didn't lose a game for two years. He won a Super Bowl coaching the Tampa Bay defense in 2002-2003. When his son Lane got the head coaching job at Tennessee two years ago, he hired his dad and made him the highest paid defensive coach in the country at 1.2 million dollars a year. Nepotism is all right as long as you keep in the family.
Along with Tony Dungy, who now has a vested interest in the Oregon program, Kiffin is the architecht of the much-copied Tampa 2 defense, a scheme that emphasizes speed over strength, a bend-but-don't break style of coverage, multiple looks from the same personnel, and an attacking style that forces turnovers. The Oregon game is homecoming for the Trojans, in multiple ways.
The Tampa 2 requires everyone in the defense to tackle and defend the run, placing a premium on hard-hitting, aggressive cornerbacks and safeties. The Super Bowl champion Buccaneers featured Simeon Rice, Warren Sapp and John Lynch, fast players who flew to the ball. Kiffin's teams play predominantly zone defense, with each safety responsible for half the field in the deep zones. It becomes very important for the quarterback to look off the safeties and influence them away from his intended target. The middle linebacker drops deep and defends over the middle, just underneath the safeties. The quarterback must read their speed.
Every zone coverage has soft spots, and Tampa 2 relies on the speed of the defenders to cover them and exploit mistakes by the quarterback. A team with a great running game is a tough matchup for cover 2 teams, and the play-action creates a great deal of pressure for safeties with deep responsibilities. Oregon's attack, which stretches the field in so many ways, is a good match for the Tampa 2. The USC athletes will have to make a lot of difficult split-second decisions. The elder Kiffin will want a lot of pressure from his front four to disrupt Oregon's game and ease the multiple responsibilities of the back seven. Defensive tackle Jurrell Casey performs the Warren Sapp role on the USC squad. Casey leads the d-line with 35 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.
The middle linebacker is critical in this defense. He's responsible for getting everybody lined up, for checks and defensive audibles, for directing the defense when the offense motions or shifts. He has to be not only mobile and athletic but intelligent. #42 Devon Kennard fills this role for the Trojans, and he's second on the team in tackles with 44. The defense thrives on swarm, hustle, and a gang-tackling mentality. They'll be hampered somewhat by the loss of two of the most productive defenders, DE Wes Horton (knee) and LB Malcolm Smith (back), both questionable for the Oregon game.
The statistical star for USC thus far has been free safety T.J. McDonald, #7, 6-3, 205. The sophomore from Fresno's Edison High, a high school teammate of the Ducks' Cliff Harris, has 49 tackles and three interceptions this season. His father was a 2-time All-American at USC in the eighties, and McDonald continues the USC tradition of fast, hard-hitting safeties. To be successful Saturday, Darron Thomas has to read the safety, and know where McDonald is on pass coverage, allowing for his considerable range.
There's nothing new in football, and the chess game between offenses and defenses goes on endlessly. Kiffin has had two weeks to prepare for Oregon, and will no doubt add adjustments and wrinkles to the Tampa 2 to counter what Oregon likes to do. Expect more pressure and stunting. The Trojans have depth and quality at linebacker, and will try to use that to frustrate Oregon's typical fast pace.
But ultimately, this game is not Kiffin versus Kelly, Kiffin versus Alliotti, or Helfrich with a brilliant queen's bishop pawn opening. Schemes put players in place to make plays, but inevitably someone has to make them. Ultimately it comes down to LaMichael James running with one defender to beat, and Darron Thomas delivering the ball to the open guy. USC could prepare for two weeks or a month or a year, and nothing could ready for them the millisecond in which James gives them a leg and then spins free for the end zone. You can scheme from now to Saturday, but not even Cain Velasquez can tackle air.
No comments:
Post a Comment