College defensive coordinators that get teams off the field the fastest
These defensive coordinators have found the most success getting opposing offenses off the field in six plays or less
By
Jon Solomon
•
4 min read
The defining moment of college football last season came on an onside kick. Nick Saban knew Alabama's defense was tired in the College Football Playoff National Championship and couldn't get dynamic Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson off the field.
So Saban dialed up a gutsy and successful onside kick with a tie score and 10 minutes left that helped Alabama win the national title. When even a great defensive coach like Saban must gamble like that to rest his defense, you know defenses are playing catch-up to offenses these days.
Look at the head coach hirings. A year ago, only one of the 14 FBS head-coaching jobs went to a defensive coordinator: Pat Narduzzi. This offseason, six of the 28 jobs went to defensive coordinators (Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp, D.J. Durkin, Tracy Claeys, Barry Odom and Chris Ash). Also, Bronco Mendenhall and Lovie Smith were hired as head coaches with defensive backgrounds.
Schools went hunting for high-profile defensive coordinators this offseason: Dave Aranda (Wisconsin to LSU), Jeremy Pruitt (Georgia to Alabama), Bob Shoop (Penn State to Tennessee), Don Brown (Boston College to Michigan), and Brady Hoke (out of work to Oregon). Virginia Tech made sure to keep talented defensive coordinator Bud Foster when Frank Beamer retired. Houston was able to keep defensive coordinator Todd Orlando from leaving after Wisconsin reportedly offered him its coordinator job.
The right defensive coach is being viewed as a valuable necessity after 2015 produced college football's highest-scoring season of all-time, marking the fifth time since 2000 the scoring record has been set. With increasing frequency, many defensive coordinators view getting off the field quickly as pivotal in this era of prolific offenses. That means less sitting back and waiting for the offense to make a mistake on a long drive.
It's in the numbers. The chance an offense will score points on a drive becomes 66 percent after the second first down, according to SportSource Analytics.
"We do a lot of work with coaching staffs and I've had a lot of longtime defensive coordinators say, 'I've been waiting to be aggressive later and I'm kind of doing this wrong,'" said Stephen Prather, a partner at SportSource Analytics. "If you look at the best coordinators, they're doing the exact opposite and completely taking it to the tempo teams."
With that in mind, here is how defensive coordinators fared over the past three years with their percentage of drives that lasted six plays or less, according to SSA. The defensive coordinators are listed based on their current school, but some of them worked at different teams during this three-year period. Some schools are missing from the list because their current defensive coordinator wasn't a coordinator last season.
Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables was No. 1 in this category, an interesting spot considering the Tigers last season ranked 24th nationally in points allowed and tied for 24th in turnovers forced. Those are solid numbers, but not elite. Dig deeper and you see how the Tigers are helping to redefine what we now look for in an elite defense.
Clemson was first in tackles for loss, second in sacks, and 116th in plays allowed of 40 yards or more. In other words, one way or another, Clemson's defense got off the field pretty quickly and stayed fresh for the fourth quarter. That was a must for Clemson in 2015 considering some injuries that impacted its depth. Venables' ranking is certainly helped by the fact Clemson had 12 defensive players drafted by the NFL in the past three years. If you've got talent, it's easier to coach aggressively.
It's also interesting to see Venables at No. 1 because the Tigers' offense in recent years sometimes played extremely fast. A theory in football has been that a defense can be hurt by staying on the field too much due to its so-called tempo offense.
"It's really not the case at all," Prather said. "There's a big difference these days in how you define tempo. A lot of teams don't huddle, but aren't necessarily tempo teams. Brent Venables show that the theory is a little bit of a misstatement. You know what makes bad defenses? Bad coordinators."
| ACC Coordinator | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Brent Venables, Clemson | 67.5% | 1 |
| Bud Foster, Virginia Tech | 61.8% | 7 |
| Nick Howell, Virginia | 59.1% | 22 |
| Todd Grantham, Louisville | 58.9% | 24 |
| Mike Elko, Wake Forest | 57.1% | 38 |
| Manny Diaz, Miami | 54.6% | 54 |
| Dave Huxtable, NC State | 54.2% | 58 |
| Charles Kelly, Florida State | 53.5% | 69 |
| Jim Knowles, Duke | 53.1% | 75 |
| Ted Roof, Georgia Tech | 52.9% | 77 |
| Josh Conklin, Pittsburgh | 51.7% | 87 |
| Gene Chizik, North Carolina | 47.7% | 126 |
| Brian Ward, Syracuse | 46.8% | 130 |
| SEC Coordinator | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Dave Aranda, LSU | 66.5% | 3 |
| Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama | 64.9% | 4 |
| Bob Shoop, Tennessee | 61.7% | 8 |
| Dave Womack, Ole Miss | 59.1% | 20 |
| DeMonte Cross, Missouri | 58.4% | 26 |
| John Chavis, Texas A&M | 57.7% | 34 |
| Derek Mason, Vanderbilt | 57.4% | 39 |
| Geoff Collins, Florida | 57.2% | 41 |
| Robb Smith, Arkansas | 53.6% | 67 |
| Kevin Steele, Auburn | 52.1% | 86 |
| D.J. Eliot, Kentucky | 49.2% | 113 |
| Big Ten Coordinator | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Luke Fickell, Ohio State | 61.6% | 10 |
| Don Brown, Michigan | 60.2% | 14 |
| Phil Parker, Iowa | 57.8% | 32 |
| Mike Tressel / Harlon Barnett, Michigan St. | 57.6% | 36 |
| Jay Niemann, Rutgers | 54.5% | 55 |
| Tom Allen, Indiana | 54.0% | 61 |
| Justin Wilcox, Wisconsin | 53.3% | 71 |
| Mark Banker, Nebraska | 52.3% | 84 |
| Pac-12 Coordinator | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Marcel Yates, Arizona | 59.3% | 18 |
| Kevin Clune, Oregon State | 57.1% | 42 |
| Lance Anderson, Stanford | 55.0% | 52 |
| Keith Patterson, Arizona State | 54.1% | 60 |
| Pete Kwiatkowski, Washington | 53.5% | 68 |
| Jim Leavitt, Colorado | 53.2% | 73 |
| Art Kaufman, California | 52.2% | 85 |
| Tom Bradley, UCLA | 51.5% | 90 |
| Alex Grinch, Washington State | 48.4% | 119 |
| Big 12 Coordinator | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Phil Bennett, Baylor | 60.5% | 11 |
| Mike Stoops, Oklahoma | 59.6% | 15 |
| Chad Glasgow, TCU | 58.4% | 26 |
| Vance Bedford, Texas | 57.7% | 35 |
| Tony Gibson, West Virginia | 55.9% | 49 |
| Glenn Spencer, Oklahoma State | 55.8% | 50 |
| David Gibbs, Texas Tech | 53.8% | 59 |
| Jon Heacock, Toledo | 52.9% | 76 |
| Tom Hayes, Kansas State | 50.5% | 101 |
| Clint Bowen, Kansas | 41.3% | 133 |
| Select Coordinators | Drives of 6 plays or less | National Rank |
| Todd Orlando, Houston | 62.1% | 6 |
| Chuck Heater, Marshall | 59.3% | T16 |
| Rocky Long, San Diego State | 59.3% | T16 |
| Nate Woody, Appalachian State | 58.9% | 23 |
| Joe Cauthen, Arkansas State | 58.6% | 25 |
| Brian VanGorder, Notre Dame | 50.8% | 98 |
