Photo by Rick Kimball/ISD
Notre Dame Football
Breaking Down the Temple Defense
August 30, 2017
4,622
The first game of the season can be one of the toughest to prepare for. It's bad enough that you are still learning things about your own team, but there are always a ton of unknowns on the other sideline.
That can be said of any college football team, even if the coaches and most of the players are returning. In the case of Temple this season, it's way more difficult to know exactly what Notre Dame is going to see with so much staff and player turnover.
Temple lost seven starters on defense and their defensive coordinator, Phil Snow, followed Matt Rhule to Baylor this off-season.
Geoff Collins is the new head coach after being a coordinator in the SEC the last four seasons. It was Collins' acumen as a DC that played a big part in getting him the job, so I expect him to have a heavy influence on how the defense will be run. He hired former Purdue defensive backs coach Taver Johnson as his defensive coordinator for the Owls, but it's been over a decade since he last called a defense. Johnson might make the calls, but I think the defense is going to be similar to what Collins ran at Mississippi State in 2013-14 and Florida the last two seasons.
Because of that, I went back and watched some Florida and Mississippi State film to learn about Collins' defense. The personnel will be very different at Temple than what he had at those schools, but the base philosophy will probably remain the same.
It should be a shock to no one that Collins like to get his safeties heavily involved in stopping the run. It's a game of numbers and the extra guy in the box helps a lot. He was lucky enough to have a front six/seven at Florida that was good enough to stop the run without extra help at times. Their defensive line was nasty and they had two of the best inside linebackers in the nation (when healthy).
One thing that I saw from Collins quite a bit was blitzing on 1st and 2nd down to cause disruptions. It wasn't just with linebackers. He'd often bring defensive backs as well to try and create tackle for loss situations.
Notre Dame obviously wants to run the ball regardless of those extra bodies, which is something Alabama was able to do against the Gators.
If the Irish are winning the match-ups versus Temple's defensive line, it may not matter if they bring those extra guys. Notre Dame's tackles should be able to do well against some new defensive ends for the Owls. If that's happening, then I fully expect Temple to sell out to stop the run with blitzers. The Irish can look to take advantage of the aggressive calls with RPOs, play-action, and the screen game.
Alabama has this dialed up perfectly against a corner blitz in the SEC Championship game. Alabama was one team they couldn't handle with six or seven in the box so they had to add in to help. That can set up a play like this to a Notre Dame receiver.
Chip Long and the offense have to be aware that they will sometimes bring a safety on a dead sprint from deep as well. This was a regular occurrence from strong safety Marcus Maye and I suspect we'll see this from Temple's Delvon Randall. A bobbled snap is an easy opportunity for Maye to create a turnover against Missouri, but an RPO against this could work well.
That safety is going to be a key pre-snap read for Brandon Wimbush. That could be said in every game, but it sticks out a little bit more given how aggressive Collins has his safeties play. When it's obvious and the safety creeps into the box like the Mississippi State one does here, it's should lead to an easy completion.
This is from the Egg Bowl in 2014 versus Ole Miss. You can see the safety (bottom left) and he bites on the run because his keys say it's a run. Quarterback Bo Wallace turns this into a pass and if not for a terrible throw to the tight end, this would have been a 1st down and maybe more.
Another way Notre Dame may look to combat extra guys in the box versus Collins' defense is to spread them out as wide as possible.
Missouri did this against Florida last year. The receivers were lined up in twins so wide that it forced Florida's defense to match up or get smoked in the screen game. The single high safety is extra deep in order to have a chance at helping either side, but that takes him away from being a run defender. This is something Baylor used to do all the time.
Missouri ended up running the ball better than expected against Florida because they were able to gain big chunk yards whenever they broke through the front. If things aren't going well for Notre Dame in the running game, then this is the type of adjustment that I could see them making.
Everybody knows it's downright impossible to get a true view of what kind of coverage is called on each play from the TV copy of a game. Unfortunately we do not have access to coaches tape.
I will say that it's pretty clear that Collins likes to play man coverage a lot. I could see a lot of cover 1 (man with a free safety deep) and cover 1 robber (two high safeties with one dropping down to jump underneath throws). He had the luxury of calling those coverages because he had so many good players in the secondary at Florida and Mississippi State. With him inheriting three starters and one highly touted transfer at Temple, I would expect a lot of the same.
I think they will attempt to lock up with Notre Dame's receivers a lot, which means that players like Equanimeous St. Brown are going to have win those one on one matchups. It's also going to be an opportunity for Chip Long to find other favorable matchups with tight ends and running backs on linebackers.
Notre Dame has three backs that are going to be a handful for their linebackers to cover and we know that Josh Adams has already shown he can be very effective running wheel routes. That is something I think we'll see from him in this game.
I hope to see some chances for Alize Mack or Cole Kmet against linebackers down the seam too. In last year's game against the Gators, Tennessee did a terrific job of getting their tight end matched up with Florida's Mike through motion. The Mike couldn't run with the tight end and it ended up in six points. I thought Long did a really nice job with motion at Memphis to get into favorable match-ups. We'll see if he can do the same against Temple in this game.
The other big thing when Notre Dame elects to pass is going to be protection and it will be interesting to see what Collins will do in regards to pressure. Last year he was able to rush four on 3rd down quite a bit because his front was so good, but Temple lost their three best edge rushers from last season. I'm not sure he will feel confident enough to rush four the majority of the time in this game.
They'll change up alignments and run some stunts, but it's nothing too crazy when they are bringing just four.
If they do blitz in obvious passing situations, I would expect those blitzers to come from the secondary most of the time. Against Ole Miss in 2014, Collins easily blitzed over 50% of the time on 3rd down often using his safeties or the nickel to come off the edge.
Here he brought the slot corner and ran a stunt up front. The blitz was picked up pretty well by the back, but you can see the tackle looping around that would have had a free shot at the quarterback if he didn't get rid of the football.
Collins also used a spy against Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs on several passing downs. The Mike played passive and then went when there was an opportunity for a pressure.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was a regular occurrence in this game considering Brandon Wimbush's ability to run the ball. That's a tough situation for Sam Mustipher to be in if he has to react to the Mike if Wimbush left the pocket.
Collins didn't have too many teams attempt to run uptempo on his defenses. That was partly because only a few teams run it in the SEC, but it was mostly due to his defense being able to effectively stop the run often and force three and outs.
Missouri desperately wanted to play fast against Florida last year, but were stuck in neutral because 8 of their first 9 drives were three plays or less. Auburn wanted to do so against Mississippi State in 2014 as well, but too many mistakes didn't allow them to play at the pace they wanted to.
Like every team, uptempo causes Collins to be more conservative with his calls. If Notre Dame is trying to play fast, Temple will have to play more vanilla.
I don't think Collins minds that, though. His defenses aren't overly exotic with what they do. They play fast, physical, and they try to win with strong technique and fundamentals as much as anything else. That's not all that different than what Notre Dame has in Mike Elko.
They key for Chip Long and the rest of the offensive staff in this game is to adjust quickly to how Collins has decided to attack them on defense. If it's a lot of man coverage and early down blitzing to stop the run, Long needs to be able to take advantage of that.
I'm very intrigued to see how similar this Temple defense is to the one he had at Florida (minus the studs in the front seven). If it's close to that, then this should be a good test for Long and the offense before they face Georgia in week two.
That can be said of any college football team, even if the coaches and most of the players are returning. In the case of Temple this season, it's way more difficult to know exactly what Notre Dame is going to see with so much staff and player turnover.
Temple lost seven starters on defense and their defensive coordinator, Phil Snow, followed Matt Rhule to Baylor this off-season.
Geoff Collins is the new head coach after being a coordinator in the SEC the last four seasons. It was Collins' acumen as a DC that played a big part in getting him the job, so I expect him to have a heavy influence on how the defense will be run. He hired former Purdue defensive backs coach Taver Johnson as his defensive coordinator for the Owls, but it's been over a decade since he last called a defense. Johnson might make the calls, but I think the defense is going to be similar to what Collins ran at Mississippi State in 2013-14 and Florida the last two seasons.
Because of that, I went back and watched some Florida and Mississippi State film to learn about Collins' defense. The personnel will be very different at Temple than what he had at those schools, but the base philosophy will probably remain the same.
Playing the run
It should be a shock to no one that Collins like to get his safeties heavily involved in stopping the run. It's a game of numbers and the extra guy in the box helps a lot. He was lucky enough to have a front six/seven at Florida that was good enough to stop the run without extra help at times. Their defensive line was nasty and they had two of the best inside linebackers in the nation (when healthy).
One thing that I saw from Collins quite a bit was blitzing on 1st and 2nd down to cause disruptions. It wasn't just with linebackers. He'd often bring defensive backs as well to try and create tackle for loss situations.
Notre Dame obviously wants to run the ball regardless of those extra bodies, which is something Alabama was able to do against the Gators.
If the Irish are winning the match-ups versus Temple's defensive line, it may not matter if they bring those extra guys. Notre Dame's tackles should be able to do well against some new defensive ends for the Owls. If that's happening, then I fully expect Temple to sell out to stop the run with blitzers. The Irish can look to take advantage of the aggressive calls with RPOs, play-action, and the screen game.
Alabama has this dialed up perfectly against a corner blitz in the SEC Championship game. Alabama was one team they couldn't handle with six or seven in the box so they had to add in to help. That can set up a play like this to a Notre Dame receiver.
Chip Long and the offense have to be aware that they will sometimes bring a safety on a dead sprint from deep as well. This was a regular occurrence from strong safety Marcus Maye and I suspect we'll see this from Temple's Delvon Randall. A bobbled snap is an easy opportunity for Maye to create a turnover against Missouri, but an RPO against this could work well.
That safety is going to be a key pre-snap read for Brandon Wimbush. That could be said in every game, but it sticks out a little bit more given how aggressive Collins has his safeties play. When it's obvious and the safety creeps into the box like the Mississippi State one does here, it's should lead to an easy completion.
This is from the Egg Bowl in 2014 versus Ole Miss. You can see the safety (bottom left) and he bites on the run because his keys say it's a run. Quarterback Bo Wallace turns this into a pass and if not for a terrible throw to the tight end, this would have been a 1st down and maybe more.
Another way Notre Dame may look to combat extra guys in the box versus Collins' defense is to spread them out as wide as possible.
Missouri did this against Florida last year. The receivers were lined up in twins so wide that it forced Florida's defense to match up or get smoked in the screen game. The single high safety is extra deep in order to have a chance at helping either side, but that takes him away from being a run defender. This is something Baylor used to do all the time.
Missouri ended up running the ball better than expected against Florida because they were able to gain big chunk yards whenever they broke through the front. If things aren't going well for Notre Dame in the running game, then this is the type of adjustment that I could see them making.
Versus the pass
Everybody knows it's downright impossible to get a true view of what kind of coverage is called on each play from the TV copy of a game. Unfortunately we do not have access to coaches tape.
I will say that it's pretty clear that Collins likes to play man coverage a lot. I could see a lot of cover 1 (man with a free safety deep) and cover 1 robber (two high safeties with one dropping down to jump underneath throws). He had the luxury of calling those coverages because he had so many good players in the secondary at Florida and Mississippi State. With him inheriting three starters and one highly touted transfer at Temple, I would expect a lot of the same.
I think they will attempt to lock up with Notre Dame's receivers a lot, which means that players like Equanimeous St. Brown are going to have win those one on one matchups. It's also going to be an opportunity for Chip Long to find other favorable matchups with tight ends and running backs on linebackers.
Notre Dame has three backs that are going to be a handful for their linebackers to cover and we know that Josh Adams has already shown he can be very effective running wheel routes. That is something I think we'll see from him in this game.
I hope to see some chances for Alize Mack or Cole Kmet against linebackers down the seam too. In last year's game against the Gators, Tennessee did a terrific job of getting their tight end matched up with Florida's Mike through motion. The Mike couldn't run with the tight end and it ended up in six points. I thought Long did a really nice job with motion at Memphis to get into favorable match-ups. We'll see if he can do the same against Temple in this game.
The other big thing when Notre Dame elects to pass is going to be protection and it will be interesting to see what Collins will do in regards to pressure. Last year he was able to rush four on 3rd down quite a bit because his front was so good, but Temple lost their three best edge rushers from last season. I'm not sure he will feel confident enough to rush four the majority of the time in this game.
They'll change up alignments and run some stunts, but it's nothing too crazy when they are bringing just four.
If they do blitz in obvious passing situations, I would expect those blitzers to come from the secondary most of the time. Against Ole Miss in 2014, Collins easily blitzed over 50% of the time on 3rd down often using his safeties or the nickel to come off the edge.
Here he brought the slot corner and ran a stunt up front. The blitz was picked up pretty well by the back, but you can see the tackle looping around that would have had a free shot at the quarterback if he didn't get rid of the football.
Collins also used a spy against Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs on several passing downs. The Mike played passive and then went when there was an opportunity for a pressure.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was a regular occurrence in this game considering Brandon Wimbush's ability to run the ball. That's a tough situation for Sam Mustipher to be in if he has to react to the Mike if Wimbush left the pocket.
Against uptempo
Collins didn't have too many teams attempt to run uptempo on his defenses. That was partly because only a few teams run it in the SEC, but it was mostly due to his defense being able to effectively stop the run often and force three and outs.
Missouri desperately wanted to play fast against Florida last year, but were stuck in neutral because 8 of their first 9 drives were three plays or less. Auburn wanted to do so against Mississippi State in 2014 as well, but too many mistakes didn't allow them to play at the pace they wanted to.
Like every team, uptempo causes Collins to be more conservative with his calls. If Notre Dame is trying to play fast, Temple will have to play more vanilla.
I don't think Collins minds that, though. His defenses aren't overly exotic with what they do. They play fast, physical, and they try to win with strong technique and fundamentals as much as anything else. That's not all that different than what Notre Dame has in Mike Elko.
They key for Chip Long and the rest of the offensive staff in this game is to adjust quickly to how Collins has decided to attack them on defense. If it's a lot of man coverage and early down blitzing to stop the run, Long needs to be able to take advantage of that.
I'm very intrigued to see how similar this Temple defense is to the one he had at Florida (minus the studs in the front seven). If it's close to that, then this should be a good test for Long and the offense before they face Georgia in week two.
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