Dream School
Freshman
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2013
- Messages
- 302
To emphasize defending the pass, Marshall defensive coordinator Lance Guidry has built the defense to have a variety of looks from similar personnel. The Herd play their base defense with five defensive backs 70% of the time, with a linebacker taking the 5th defensive back’s place the another 28%. The scheme hardly changes even as the personnel does, Guidry uses substitutions to match the offense’s players more than to run different plays.
Perhaps most jarring to the traditionalist, the Herd play with only two down linemen 69% of the time, the 3rd highest rate in the FBS. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, defenses playing a majority of snaps with two defensive linemen added more expected points than those with three against the run. Even more bizarrely, those with three did better than those with four.
Nickel defenses with two down linemen should not have enough box players to defend the run. But the Herd have the 7th highest average of men in the box, at 6.73. Through their coverage scheming, Marshall can defend the pass first while still stifling the run at an elite level.
Marshall runs Cover 1, 3, and 4 over 20% of the time and has the ninth-highest variance in terms of coverages called. Cover 1 serves as the primary man coverage and Cover 3 the primary zone, while Cover 4 uses skills from both. All three do well in their own right defending the pass, ranking in the top-11 in PS Per Play when ranked among similar coverages from other FBS teams. For Marshall, Cover 1 does the best, saving .45 Points Per Play. Cover 3 saves .25 Points Per Play and Cover 4, .42.
