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Inside Cougar Report; Bronco now on task |
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Dick Harmon | Thursday, December 26, 2002, 10:11 am
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Bronco Mendenhall is now on BYU time.
But before he gets down to his PPIs with BYU's coaching staff, how about that Lobo defense against UCLA on Christmas Day.
The 3-3-5 got a lot of air time as time and time again the UNM defense confused UCLA's two freshmen quarterbacks into making mistakes and sacks. The Bruins, albeit the No. 6 ranked team in the Pac-10 had to use special teams and their own defense to win this football game. The Lobo offense was ugly.
For the numbers, UCLA averaged about two yards per carry and managed just 76 yards in the first half. With its offense unable to help in any way, ultimately the Lobo D just wore down.
Some thoughts on UNM's defense captained by Rocky Long-slash-Bronco:
D-linemen need to be small, around the 275 range. The five defensive backs have to be very quick, as do the three linebackers. The key is deception and stunting before the snap to hide the actual defense. Five defensive backs actually turn into safeties, corners and extra linebackers -- the key is disgusing which is going to do what and where. It's a brilliant concept if you have the right personnel to get in position at the right time just before the snap.
Surprisingly, this defense is very good against the run. I was very impressed how the linebackers moved around to make plays when it appeared UCLA's bigger offensive front opened holes. It's like those holes just automatically closed and many times, the RB was caught from behind by pursuit.
In the pass category, again, UCLA's freshmen looked confused as Matt Berry -- or Ben Olson would have looked. It was hard to read the coverage and zone blitzes and in the secondary, the true safety positions were very hard to get a read on when combined with blitzes.
The best way to attack this defense is on the edges with short passes to the flats and execution of middle screens. If you had a buff receiver who could get down an out about 20 yards deep, that would also be a key. But the deep post looked like it would be very vulnerable because of the alignment of the safeties.
In short, you'd have to have some pretty good personnel to run this defense. It's a gimmick. But looking over the past few years, BYU has had to play shorthanded at times because of the lack of depth at corner. This alignment calls for quick LBs along the talent of Paul Walkenhorst, Colby B., and Bryant Atkinson or K.C. Bills.
Bronco is heading to Provo for interviews before going to the coachin convention the first weekend of January.
This brings up an interesting challenge. It would appear the most vulnerable assistant on the staff is Barry Lamb. He already believes he may lose his job because Bronco is a safeties coach (Lambs current position). But, on the other hand, could Bronco bring in a guy with even a shadow of Lambs' background? If he cannot, it would be a "chemistry" move to replace Lamb because Lamb has the most varied experience on BYU's staff if you consider the places he's been. BYU now needs a linebacke coach since Schmidt is gone and Mitchell has only coached corners and Kaufusi has only coached defensive linemen -- DEs at Utah and both DEs and DT at BYU.
Lamb coached LBs and was defensive coordinator at San Diego State. He coached LBs as defensive coordinator at Idaho State. He coached linebackers at UNLV and was a secondary coach at Arizona State after he worked with outside linebackers and the OL and DL at Oregon State.
That's quiet a resume and it includes stints as a DC.
But the more important work Lamb has done at BYU over the years is in recruiting. He has key contacts in inner city Los Angeles and has provided BYU with some of the top talent of the last decade.
Those names include Ronney Jenkins, Omarr Morgan, Tim McTyer, Brian Gray, Hashi Robertson and most recently he closed the door on Trevonne Jackson who left school early and may not return. But you get the idea. Lamb's experience as a coach in the Pac-10 and at SDSU and UNLV has given him broad exposure to a lot of high schools who are key for the Cougars in California. Can Bronco duplicate that with the person hie will replace him with.
I stil maintain that 80 percent of college football is recruiting. You must find the horses to get into the race or the track (schemes) don't matter.
I'm not saying that Lamb has got to stay, but I'm saying his value as a recruiter should count heavy in the PPI he has with Bronco in coming days.
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