Missing D lost among youth and new scheme
Nevada’s cornerbacks played in a grand total of zero Division-I college football games coming into the 2008 season.
With nine freshmen, four junior college transfers and two career special teamers, the Wolf Pack corners are part of a secondary that is last in the nation (119th) in pass yards allowed per game (327.5).
Many would think that with a bunch of first-year corners, more zone coverage would be played, but Nevada has gone against that notion.
“In our zone coverages, our outside defensive backs are actually in man coverage all the time,” Nevada associate head coach Ken Wilson said.
The five corners the Wolf Pack has used most this season are sophomores Mike Evans, Kevin Grimes and Doyle Miller, and juniors Mo Harvey and Antoine Thompson. Other than Grimes, all are junior college transfers and all have had to shoulder the man-to-man responsibilities.
Wilson said the corners are the only members of the secondary in man-to-man coverage.
“The safeties and the linebackers are not in man coverage a lot, although we try to make that all look the same,” he said. “We’re probably 15 percent in actual man coverages.”
Wilson said the basic point of the defense is to try to get opposing quarterbacks to think they’re in man coverage when they’re really not.
“We don’t want quarterbacks to go, ‘Boom, they’re in man, boom, they’re in zone’ and that’s part of the system,” he said. “As the guys learn and they get better in this system, they’ll disguise it better.”
For the last three years, the Wolf Pack has had a new defensive scheme, Wilson said.
Last year, when Wilson was defensive coordinator, the Wolf Pack gave up an average of 240.8 pass yards per game (76th).
But this is not an issue of the change in coordinators. Nevada’s first-year defensive coordinator Nigel Burton was cornerbacks coach for the past five years at Oregon State. In Burton’s last year at Oregon State, the Beavers gave up 92 yards per game (235.6), less than Nevada has allowed this season.
James Ward, Nevada’s first-year defensive backs coach, said the Wolf Pack’s run defense has fueled the whopping passing stats they have allowed this year.
Nevada gives up 2.3 yards per carry, which is second best in the nation. This has forced teams into a pass-first mindset. Nevada has been thrown on an average of 39.5 times per game this season, third most in the nation (Kansas, 41.4 and Oklahoma State, 40.1).
For the past five years, Ward has been the defensive backs coach at Colorado State. During his time there, the lowest the Rams were ranked in pass defense was 51st and the most yards they gave up per game in a season was 215.
“The fortunate situation at Colorado State is that we had a ton of experience,” he said. “I can probably remember my last year there, everyone in the secondary had played in at least 25 games. That’s the huge difference.”
Three of Nevada’s eight opponents this year rank in the top-six nationally in pass yards per game (Texas Tech No. 1, Missouri No. 4 and New Mexico State No. 6). Wilson said that facing pass-first offenses and having young corners is not a good combination.
“You know, it’s not like the old days where there’s eight guys in a tight area and the toughest guy wins,” he said. “Now everybody’s spread out so guys are put in one-on-one matchups and one-on-one pass coverages a lot more.”
Although the corners are young and playing in a scheme that puts them in man coverage most of the time, Wilson said inexperience is no longer an excuse.
“Seven games into the season, that’s not really a factor anymore,” he said. “Those guys have played a lot of football so we expect to see improvement in all those positions by this time of year.”
Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com
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