Jeremy Pruitt @ UGA is the first that comes to mind, Saban runs it, and Carroll ran it at USC, as well. The difference is that ALL of those coaches have a **** clue about defensive football. Our guy(s) don't. We continue to try and run this 2 Gap bullsh!t when we can't do it effectively. Saban and Carroll have came out and BOTH have said that it is really hard to run it in College because the DL kids are generally smaller, don't take up much space, and it can become really complex (especially since you don't have but X amount of time to put all of the wrinkles in.) They both uses more of the 1 Gap versions of the 3-4. Therefore you can be in attack mode at the snap, not looking like an 10 month old squatting to take a dump (frog stance).
Completely and utterly incorrect.
The only other team I know of in college that runs it is Notre Dame, although not sure anymore. They ran it when Alabama ran a train on them in the title game. Bob Diaco coached under Groh right after Folden left for Temple.
Dude, All of the afore mentioned schools runs a 3-4 scheme. I don't just make **** up, like alot of posters here. They just slide the front and run a 1 gap version of it to make it look like a 4-3. ****, Pruitt ran it when he worked for Saban! Why on earth do you think a kid like Leonard Floyd is listed as a OLB when his hand is in the dirt 90% of the time. If you don't believe me, look it up. Pruitt was at Alabama undes Saban, took the FSU DC job, and now he's at UGA.
I am pretty sure that Pete Carroll has always ran a 4-3 front. I don't ever recall USC employing a 3-4 scheme while he was there.
A lot of schools run a version of a 3-4 defense, but nobody does it as timid or conservative that Golden does. My understanding of the advantages of a 3-4 scheme is to get more athletic pass rushers on the field to help you create confusion/mismatches in your pass rush and blitz packages. We do not take advantage of that at all that I have witnessed. Some schools who do seem to run it properly are Stanford, Wisconsin, and Alabama.
I do remember a quote somewhere from Carroll about how he had to slim down his defense at USC because of the limitations of trying to teach it to college kids, who had only a limited number of hours of practice time. He has a more complex defense now with the Seahawks. i think it involves a base 4-3, with a NT, and combines some features of penetration and two-gapping. I'm not sure, though. I read some articles last winter, and that's essentially my recollection.
I saw that interview with Golden the other day when he said we run multiple fronts, but he likes the 3-4 because it gets more speed on the field. So that means he uses three DLs and four LBs. Actually, Jimmy Johnson said his 4-3, the one we all love, was a "five LB scheme." He described the two DEs as essentially LBs with their hands on the ground.
I don't think Jimmy cared as much about giving up the occasional big play. He acknowledged in a quote in wikipedia that the 4-3 is susceptible to the occasional big offensive play, but he feld this was balanced out by the havoc his attacking defense could cause, resulting in more big defensive plays including turnovers.
I do have the impression that the Golden defense tries to do too much reading and protecting of areas and gaps. I remember Wannstadt as describing the Johnson 4-3 as having the DLs read as they penetrate.
If anybody remembers the old defense we used before Johnson I think it was something similar to what we have now. It was passive and reading. When UCLA prepared for us in the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the '84 season they were very surprised that our defense was not a "blitzkrieg" (as they described it). They studied Oklahoma State film to prepare for Johnson's defense and were surprised when our DLs just stayed in place. Johnson was just finishing up a very unsatisfying season where he was really forced to continue utilizing the scheme carried over by the Schnellenberger staff under DC Bill Trout.
Of course, maybe everything will change once Donna leaves. Nobody really knows how much influence she has over our defensive scheme, but I guess a lot. I'm sure she was calling offensive plays during the Shannon era. You saw that picture of her with the headphones on the sideline. Nobody is allowed to do that unless they're in on it. I'm sure she had her finger in everything.
