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What is life like as an Air Raid defensive coordinator in college football? Let them tell you.
An interesting article (now that Miami has an Air Raid OC) about how defenses on Air Raid teams tend to struggle. Based on some of the things that we have heard from Dawson and Mario's reputation for wanting to run the ball/control the clock (I realize this is an open question as to how much he will dictate to Dawson), many of these things may be less of an factor for Miami's defense, but still found the article interesting. Some excerpts below, but check out the full article if you have a sub....
There’s a running joke among coaches that the only thing harder than defending the Air Raid is having to defend it every day at practice — and then defend something quite different on Saturdays.
The stats paint a grim picture. Among the lowest-ranked defenses in yards per play last season, many were schools that ran a version of the Air Raid on offense: USC (124th), Louisiana Tech (123rd), North Carolina (115th), North Texas (113th), West Virginia (108th) and Houston (102nd).
The article chalks it up to several items such as more plays run in the game (for both teams), less running and TEs in practice to prepare the defense for teams that don't run the Air Raid or even the style of the running game...
Of course, there are different variations of the Air Raid. Leach, who died in December, and his protege Graham Harrell, now the offensive coordinator at Purdue, were considered by their colleagues to run the purest form of the Air Raid (the run game wasn’t something they were going to prioritize).
Holgorsen, Riley and his younger brother Garrett, now the offensive coordinator at Clemson, have evolved quite a bit since leaving Lubbock, as had Garrett Riley’s old boss at TCU, Sonny Dykes. They would be more than happy wearing defenses out with their running attacks. Still, it’s how they run the ball that might be different.
Lincoln Riley’s offense gashes opponents with its GT Counter run game, something Riley and his former O-line coach Bill Bedenbaugh developed.
The article closes out with an observation on the top defenses and their teams' offensive rankings. Now I am sure a counter argument could be made that if the defense is so good, the offense can go more conservative once it gets a decent lead, but still enjoyed this coach's response:
It seems a lot easier these days to identify who is a good offensive coordinator than a defensive coordinator when a coach’s stock — at least statistically — can plummet dramatically from one year to the next. The top five scoring defenses in college football in 2022 were Illinois, Iowa, Air Force, Minnesota and Georgia. Perhaps not coincidentally, those teams ranked No. 78, No. 110, No. 131, No. 126 and No. 55 in offensive pass attempts per game.
“Coaching defense nowadays is impossible no matter where you are,” said one veteran defensive coordinator. “Unless you’re in the Big Ten, and then you got a chance.”
Presented with the rankings of the five stingiest scoring defenses, the coach said he thinks the head coaches in the Big Ten are more old-school.
“I don’t think Ohio State is old-school. They’re different,” he said. “Michigan is a little bit different because they have all those tight ends, but you would much rather have them line up in two tight ends and run you over, but they’re only gonna score so many points. They’re not as explosive. When you were in the Big 12, there were three or four NFL quarterbacks in that league. To me, that’s different. C.J. Stroud. Beast. Ohio State could’ve beaten Georgia easily. We act like Georgia’s the best thing ever, but they’re one play away from not winning that game.
“Georgia’s defense is they just got all those cats. Air Force’s defense is an anomaly. The Big Ten, just talking to coaches I know there, they’re very simple and they just try and control the clock. They’re just trying to shorten the game and give themselves chances to win games. For whatever reason it works up there, and they keep doing it. But those teams are never gonna win national championships either.”
