Newstaff tries to remake defense
Maligned. Horrendous. Awful. Brutal. Atrocious. Dreadful. It can’t get much worse.
These are just some of the words and terms that can best describe Houston’s defensive play at the end of last season in which the Cougars allowed five of their final six regular season opponents to exceed 36 points, culminating in a 70-14 blowout defeat to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Last season, the Cougars finished near the bottom nationally in nearly every major defensive statistic among the 129 FBS football programs. They finished 118th in points allowed, 115th in rushing defense and126th in total defense. They also were 90th in yards allowed per play.
First-year Cougars coach Dana Holgorsen and his defensive staff, headed by defensive coordinator Joe Cauthen and co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Doug Belk, have their work cut out. They’ve already made changes and brought in reinforcements to a unit that battled through injuries a year ago. But it alsowas a defense that was worn down as the season progressed, missed tackles, had spacing issues and simply ran out of gas at the end.
A change in philosophy should help the defense, which in an 8-5 season thatbegan7-1, hadgames in which it gave up 63, 59, 52 and 45 points, before the embarassing 56point loss to Army in FortWorth.
“We’ll be extremely aggressive, I can tell you that,” Cauthen said on Wednesday. “We want to go. We want to come off the ball and get after thequarterback, getthem in minus yardage plays and try to put the pressure on them, try to get them to third down.
“Having thatmindset, it’s a little different mentality thanwhat they were in the past. So that’s big a big change for the kids. I think they like it.”
This year’s personnel is different than last year’s. Adjustments involving players and coaches are being made.
“At times, we’ll look a little like they did last year because that’s the personnel that is here,” said Cauthen, who spent the past five seasons at Arkansas State and is known for his aggressive style of play and his teams playing with an edge.“We’ve added some new guys and we’ll have a combination, amix of being four down and three down. We’re recruiting to the four-down (linemen) philosophy.”
Houston’s current staff inherited a number of outside linebackers that don’t fit into the Cougars’ new 4-2-5 basic scheme. Many have beenmoved to defensive end as the unit searches tofind its identity.
“We’re going to have to be creative in what we put on the field and making surewe’re not playing guys a bunch of snaps,” said Cauthen, who also coaches linebackers. “In the past, there’s a couple of guys that had to play a lot of snaps. I’m not fond of that.
“I want to play really hard, the way I want you to play and I want toget youoff the fieldandget youa break. It’s going to take us a bit to recruit to that. So we’re going to have to bemultiple inwhatwe do, initially.”
The Cougars aren’t nearly as deep a team as Cauthen would prefer. He said there were only three defensive tackles when he arrived to UH in January. Atlias Bell, Jamykal Neal and Oliver Charles-Pierre have been added along the line.
Cauthen said returning linemen Payton Turner, Aymiel Fleming, and Blake Young are doing a good job, and that Isaiah Chambers has turned it on in the past couple of practices. Cauthen also noted that Derek Parish at end was playing hard and DonavanMutin has been a pleasant surprise and making strides at linebacker. In the secondary, Terrance Edgeston has risen up.
Depth in the secondary was a concern when the new coaching staff arrived. The Cougars have added seven defensive backs since January to have what Belk calls a solid two-deep.
“I’m happy where we’re at,” said Belk, who along with receiver coach Tyron Carrier and co-offensive coordinator Marquel Blackwell, cametoUHfromHolgorsen’s staff atWest Virginia. “We’ve added some pieces that are going to help us.”
Belk is expecting a lot from returning safeties Deontay Anderson and Gleson Sprewell, who are out front in the race for starting positions. Both have played a number of games and have been productive. Houston also brought in several cornerbacks. Damarion Williams hasbeenthemost consistent, according to Belk, and D. J. Small continues to develop.
“We’ve got multiple sets, multiple DBs, different positions, differentschemes, so there’sopportunities for a lot of guys to come in and compete,” Belk said. “There’s a lot of good players and we want to continue to develop all of them.
“The one thing that we’ve been pushing is a lot of energy on defense. Trying to force turnovers, tackling, getting to the ball, playing physical, playing fast.”