No time to break
Sturdy OBU defense forgoes sizzle
ARKADELPHIA — Roy Thompson’s laugh resonated throughout the football offices at Ouachita Baptist University.
It was a hearty laugh from OBU’s first-year defensive coordinator, but not one triggered by a joke or a funny story as the Tigers (12-0) prepare for Saturday’s NCAA Division II quarterfinal matchup with Ferris State (13-0) at Cliff Harris Stadium.
It was more of an I-gotcha moment, a response to a question about how his defense can be so good yet so anonymous.
OBU’s defense has allowed fewer points than any team in NCAA Division II (9.4 per game) despite ranking closer to the bottom than the top in sacks (1.7 per game), tackles for loss (5.3 per game) and fumble recoveries (6).
“Think about it,” Thompson said. “All of those guys are making a lot of plays. You don’t get the flash, because we’re not blitzing six people, seven people.
“The reason you can’t tell who’s making the tackle is because everybody’s running to the ball.”
There are a couple of notable exceptions.
Cornerback Keandre Evans made ESPN’s SportsCenter and NBC’s Sunday Night Football highlights earlier this season with his game-turning, 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in a victory over Arkansas Tech University.
Mountainous senior lineman Ernest Reed, 6-6, 285 pounds, doesn’t fill up the stat sheet — averaging 1 unassisted tackle per game — but he is one of the reasons OBU is able to run a 4-3 base defense that relies on its down linemen
to get enough pressure on the quarterback so Thompson isn’t forced to dial up blitzes.
OBU’s motto, the players say, is 9-5-9 VVR — 9 players within 5 yards of the ball 90 percent of the time.
“We’ve all got a job to do,” said Evans, a junior from Junction City, “and if we all do our job, it’ll work out in our favor.”
Evans, sophomore defensive end Dameyun McDonald and linebacker Jon Johnson answered in unison when asked what VVR stands for.
“Vicious, violent, relentless,” they said.
“That’s how we play,” McDonald said.
Thompson said the Tigers have bought in to a philosophy that eschews individual statistics for team goals.
“If everybody does their job, it’s hard to stand out,” said Johnson, a junior from Haskell. “Honestly, I don’t care who gets the stats.”
If one game can be identified as the point the Tigers knew they had reached a desired level, it was the final seconds
of their 7-3 victory over Harding University on Oct. 6, a night when the Bisons dominated the statistics but could not get the ball into the end zone.
“We bend but we don’t break,” Evans said. “We get backed up, but we can’t let them in.”
“I knew we had to have that stop,” Johnson said. “That game, if we make this stop, then we can be the defense we thought we could be.”
OBU gave up three touchdowns the next week in a 58-21 victory over Oklahoma Baptist, two of those touchdowns coming against the reserves, but it’s been a shutdown machine since.
The Tigers have given up 37 points in their past 5 games — a total of 4 touchdowns and 3 field goals — and no more than 1 touchdown in any of the
games, including last week’s 35-7 victory over the University of Indianapolis in the second round of the playoffs.
Three of the scores came on touchdown passes — a 70yard play against the University of Arkansas-Monticello, a 36-yard score against Henderson State and a 32-yard touchdown pass against Indianapolis.
OBU Coach Todd Knight said Thompson keeps the players, as well as the head coach, calm when things get hectic.
“He never panics,” Knight said.
Thompson said there is no reason to get desperate.
“People are going to score,” he said. “What we are doing is not normal.”
The goal, Thompson said, is to give up no more than 24 points per game — OBU has given up 21 twice — and simply make the opposition earn every yard, every point.
OBU has yielded 13 touchdowns — 9 rushing, 4 passing — and 6 field goals.
The opposition has scored on 16 of 26 trips inside the Tigers’ 20.
“Make the offense go the long, hard road,” said Thompson, echoing the philosophy ingrained by Knight. “Don’t give them the cheap ones.”
It’s a strategy that is easy to identify but difficult to go against.
Southern Arkansas Coach Bill Keopple said as much before his team’s 35-10 loss to OBU one month ago in the game that clinched OBU its second consecutive Great American Conference title.
“They don’t get outflanked,” Keopple said. “Hard to get an advantage on them. We couldn’t get the ball over the top.”
SAU passed for 236 yards
and picked up 20 first downs, but never dented the Tigers’ defense, settling for 4.1 yards on 66 plays.
“They do what they do, and they’re good at what they do,” Keopple said. “The only stat that matters is scoring defense. That’s the bottom line.”
Thompson said he has implemented a defense based on Knight’s philosophy.
“Coach Knight gave me the keys to the car,” Thompson said. “I drive it how he wants me to drive it, as fast and as slow as he wants.”
Thompson said it’s easy to coach when a philosophy is clear and the players buy into it.
“We want to put our kids in a situation — over and over and over and over — where they can repeat it,” he said. “Do it until you don’t get it wrong.
“Normally, what happens is people get impatient and try to press the issue. If you ask Coach Knight, I think he’ll say the defense mostly looks like he wants it to look.”
It’s the reason Knight gave Thompson the keys to the defense.
“I’ve got a ton of trust in him,” Knight said.