With the season rapidly approaching, it is time to start looking at what Miami’s opponents will present from a defensive perspective. Up first, are the LSU Tigers, led by their excellent DC Dave Aranda. Aranda is known for his pressure 3-4 defense with physical man-coverage against the pass. If you struggle beating man-coverage, you will struggle to score points against LSU, who does an excellent job of setting the edge against the run and their fast LB core reacts to inside run plays very quickly.
By the Numbers:
Overall, LSU’s offense allowed 4.9 yards per play, good for 26th in the FBS. They allowed 6.5 yards per pass play and only 3.9 yards per rushing play. But how did their defense stack up against their opponents in comparison to how they fared against the defenses they played other than LSU?
Statistically speaking, LSU was a very consistent defense that didn’t really dominate many of their opponents. I removed the games against non-Power 5 teams BYU and Troy from my research to show how they fared against other Power-5 teams in relation to how those opponents fared against their own Power-5 opponents. This removes some of the volatility you see from playing teams like Savannah State etc.
Against other P-5 teams LSU’s defense allowed an average of 6.75 yards per pass play, 4.05 yards per run play, and 5.29 yards per play overall. I looked at each of their P5 opponents and how they played against other P5 teams and calculated their standard deviation in their performance to see how LSU played against each opponent from that standpoint. LSU held seven of their ten opponents under their season averages overall. The reason why I say they lacked “dominant performances” on defense is that they held only one opponent to more than one standard deviation below their season averages (Auburn). I define a dominant defensive performance as one that is two standard deviations below their average performance. They were “shredded” on defense by one opponent (Mississippi State) who were 2.54 standard deviations better than performance against other opponents against LSU. Here are the season results for LSU’s defense, as well as their opponents’ performance against their other P5 opponents. The chart is a little busy, but focus on the YPP columns if you want to cut it down with the Standard Deviations that LSU them above/under their normal average Yards Per Play (YPP) in the last column.
Film Review:
Personnel-wise, LSU is led by two players I see as first-team All-Americans in LB Devin White (6-1, 240) #40, and CB Greedy Williams (6-2, 182) #29.
I’m going to look at their bowl game versus Notre Dame for several reasons: 1. They are a common opponent that many Canes fans can relate to after the beat down the Canes put on the Domers this year. 2. I wanted to look at a game that their defensive staff had a lot of time to prepare for as this mirrors the game against the Canes in which their staff has all offseason to prepare for. 3. They had several injuries in this game that put younger LB’s into the game who will most likely be players we see in our game, rather than the Seniors they’re replacing. Early in their Citrus Bowl matchup with Notre Dame, Devin White showed his ability to play both the pass and the run and make big plays. Here, White knows exactly where the sticks are on third down and breaks on the TE’s route at the stem to stop him short of the yardage needed. This is the type of play that wins games for defenses as this tackle is the difference between the drive continuing and bringing up a 4th down.
On the subsequent 4th down play, White reads the C and picks the correct gap to rush. He is into the backfield before the RB has a chance to make a move and stops him for a loss in the backfield. You’ll notice the OLB forces a hard edge on this play and gets upfield rather than being passive at the LOS. This prevents the QB from keeping the ball and gaining the edge. When you play an LSU defense, you cannot beat them with slow-developing run plays. They are an aggressive, pressure fueled defense that thrives on their ability to make tackles for losses. Notre Dame had an excellent opening drive forming against their defense after a big pass play, but the electric ability of Devin White on back-to-back plays got the LSU defense off the field.
One way that you can run on LSU is to seal the edge and get a blocker onto White. Here, ND uses their LT to seal and then brings their H-back around to turn the shoulders of the edge defenders. Then they Josh Adams out on White and cut block him. White manages to keep his feet, but this is essentially a country-trey power run with the RB serving as a FB lead-blocker and the QB becomes the RB.
On 3rd and short LSU likes to press and crowd the LOS. You have to be able to throw the ball in short-yardage situations to move the ball against LSU. In both short yardage situations they’ve gone to a Cover-1 setup and ran an exaggerated edge. ND ran tight-formations on the line which allows LSU to be aggressive.
ND saw a lot of success with pre-snap motion, particularly with their H-back Durham Smythe. They liked to offset him from the T off the LOS and then identify the strength of the defense and shift him to the other side where he would stand up and block the edge defender. On this screen shot the TE has motioned around and will take #4 on the edge, the G will run power to lead the RB through the hole, then the WR can crack down on #40 as he tries to fill. The counter action by the RB holds the LB’s long enough to allow the OL to get around the edge to block. ND runs it within their own 20-yard line to gain field position.
Note #29 is Greedy Williams here. He’s an excellent coverage player, but he isn’t exactly attacking the RB here to make a tackle. He gets run over as he stands flat-footed for the RB to get a first down.
LSU’s success against the running game is in their ability to get upfield and push the tackles back into the backfield. This changes the area that the RB has available to run to and allows their LB’s to run-and-chase from the backside of the play. When this happens they tend to rack up tackles-for-loss at a high rate. If they get an offense off-track for down-and-distance they are a very difficult defense to score against. Last year, Miami really struggled with their success rate on offense and found themselves in long 2nd and 3rd down situations.
Here is a play that Miami used against Virginia Tech with great success. It’s a read-option, but rather than reading the edge player and leaving him unblocked, which is customary, the T takes the edge player and leaves the 3-4 DE unblocked. This would be akin to leaving the DT unblocked in a 4-3, which Miami did frequently against Tim Settle and Virginia Tech. It’s a less familiar place for the interior defender to be in and he takes the RB almost immediately. In this case his job to maintain that gap and allow #40 to scrape and run. Instead they both take the RB and the QB has that huge hole to run through.
By the Numbers:
Overall, LSU’s offense allowed 4.9 yards per play, good for 26th in the FBS. They allowed 6.5 yards per pass play and only 3.9 yards per rushing play. But how did their defense stack up against their opponents in comparison to how they fared against the defenses they played other than LSU?
Statistically speaking, LSU was a very consistent defense that didn’t really dominate many of their opponents. I removed the games against non-Power 5 teams BYU and Troy from my research to show how they fared against other Power-5 teams in relation to how those opponents fared against their own Power-5 opponents. This removes some of the volatility you see from playing teams like Savannah State etc.
Against other P-5 teams LSU’s defense allowed an average of 6.75 yards per pass play, 4.05 yards per run play, and 5.29 yards per play overall. I looked at each of their P5 opponents and how they played against other P5 teams and calculated their standard deviation in their performance to see how LSU played against each opponent from that standpoint. LSU held seven of their ten opponents under their season averages overall. The reason why I say they lacked “dominant performances” on defense is that they held only one opponent to more than one standard deviation below their season averages (Auburn). I define a dominant defensive performance as one that is two standard deviations below their average performance. They were “shredded” on defense by one opponent (Mississippi State) who were 2.54 standard deviations better than performance against other opponents against LSU. Here are the season results for LSU’s defense, as well as their opponents’ performance against their other P5 opponents. The chart is a little busy, but focus on the YPP columns if you want to cut it down with the Standard Deviations that LSU them above/under their normal average Yards Per Play (YPP) in the last column.
Film Review:
Personnel-wise, LSU is led by two players I see as first-team All-Americans in LB Devin White (6-1, 240) #40, and CB Greedy Williams (6-2, 182) #29.
I’m going to look at their bowl game versus Notre Dame for several reasons: 1. They are a common opponent that many Canes fans can relate to after the beat down the Canes put on the Domers this year. 2. I wanted to look at a game that their defensive staff had a lot of time to prepare for as this mirrors the game against the Canes in which their staff has all offseason to prepare for. 3. They had several injuries in this game that put younger LB’s into the game who will most likely be players we see in our game, rather than the Seniors they’re replacing. Early in their Citrus Bowl matchup with Notre Dame, Devin White showed his ability to play both the pass and the run and make big plays. Here, White knows exactly where the sticks are on third down and breaks on the TE’s route at the stem to stop him short of the yardage needed. This is the type of play that wins games for defenses as this tackle is the difference between the drive continuing and bringing up a 4th down.
On the subsequent 4th down play, White reads the C and picks the correct gap to rush. He is into the backfield before the RB has a chance to make a move and stops him for a loss in the backfield. You’ll notice the OLB forces a hard edge on this play and gets upfield rather than being passive at the LOS. This prevents the QB from keeping the ball and gaining the edge. When you play an LSU defense, you cannot beat them with slow-developing run plays. They are an aggressive, pressure fueled defense that thrives on their ability to make tackles for losses. Notre Dame had an excellent opening drive forming against their defense after a big pass play, but the electric ability of Devin White on back-to-back plays got the LSU defense off the field.
One way that you can run on LSU is to seal the edge and get a blocker onto White. Here, ND uses their LT to seal and then brings their H-back around to turn the shoulders of the edge defenders. Then they Josh Adams out on White and cut block him. White manages to keep his feet, but this is essentially a country-trey power run with the RB serving as a FB lead-blocker and the QB becomes the RB.
On 3rd and short LSU likes to press and crowd the LOS. You have to be able to throw the ball in short-yardage situations to move the ball against LSU. In both short yardage situations they’ve gone to a Cover-1 setup and ran an exaggerated edge. ND ran tight-formations on the line which allows LSU to be aggressive.
ND saw a lot of success with pre-snap motion, particularly with their H-back Durham Smythe. They liked to offset him from the T off the LOS and then identify the strength of the defense and shift him to the other side where he would stand up and block the edge defender. On this screen shot the TE has motioned around and will take #4 on the edge, the G will run power to lead the RB through the hole, then the WR can crack down on #40 as he tries to fill. The counter action by the RB holds the LB’s long enough to allow the OL to get around the edge to block. ND runs it within their own 20-yard line to gain field position.
Note #29 is Greedy Williams here. He’s an excellent coverage player, but he isn’t exactly attacking the RB here to make a tackle. He gets run over as he stands flat-footed for the RB to get a first down.
LSU’s success against the running game is in their ability to get upfield and push the tackles back into the backfield. This changes the area that the RB has available to run to and allows their LB’s to run-and-chase from the backside of the play. When this happens they tend to rack up tackles-for-loss at a high rate. If they get an offense off-track for down-and-distance they are a very difficult defense to score against. Last year, Miami really struggled with their success rate on offense and found themselves in long 2nd and 3rd down situations.
Here is a play that Miami used against Virginia Tech with great success. It’s a read-option, but rather than reading the edge player and leaving him unblocked, which is customary, the T takes the edge player and leaves the 3-4 DE unblocked. This would be akin to leaving the DT unblocked in a 4-3, which Miami did frequently against Tim Settle and Virginia Tech. It’s a less familiar place for the interior defender to be in and he takes the RB almost immediately. In this case his job to maintain that gap and allow #40 to scrape and run. Instead they both take the RB and the QB has that huge hole to run through.
