Guenther climbed the ladder
Paul Guenther has been coordinating defenses since he still played in one.
So says Dan Mullen, current head coach at the University of Florida and a former college teammate of Guenther at Division III Ursinus College. Mullen was an all-conference tight end at Ursinus. Guenther was a linebacker who set the school record for tackles.
“I remember there were times he’d call his own defense out there,” Mullen said last week. “He would just check into different defenses because he was like, ‘This is what they’re going to run, this is the defense we want to run against it.’ ”
The task, in essence, has not changed for Guenther, 46, who recently was named the Raiders’ defensive coordinator by
head coach Jon Gruden.
It’s the same role Guenther held the past four seasons in Cincinnati, where his defenses ranked in the top 10 in points allowed twice and in the top five in interceptions and opponents’ passer rating each season from 2014 through ’16.
Those numbers weren’t quite as good in 2017, but that hardly dissuaded Gruden, an offense-oriented coach who wasted little time deciding who will run his defense in Oakland. Guenther’s contract with the Bengals expired after their Dec. 31 finale. On Jan. 9, he was in Alameda for Gruden’s introductory news conference.
“I loved the way the Bengals played defense,” Gruden said from the stage. “Up the field, single gap, get after you.”
Schematically, it’s a defense Guenther helped develop in Cincinnati under head coach Marvin Lewis with previous coordinator Mike Zimmer, who’s now head coach of the Vikings.
In its aggressive style, though, Mullen sees roots reaching back to Ursinus, the liberal-arts school of about 1,500 students in quaintly named Collegeville, Pa.
“All of us, we were not the biggest or fastest guys,” Mullen said. “So you had to have a different edge when you were out there. You get a little chip on your shoulder about being a tough guy. I think (Guenther’s) always been kind of a guy that’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. And he’s going to bring that attitude with the defense he’s going to play.”
Guenther had been out of college just three years when Ursinus made him the program’s head coach — at 25, the youngest in college football. He led Ursinus to the playoffs in 1999 and 2000 before setting his sights on a bigger stage.
Guenther landed his first NFL job in 2002 under Steve Spurrier in Washington. Although listed as an offensive assistant and quality-control coach, Spurrier said it was clear where Guenther’s heart lay.
“Marvin Lewis was our defensive coordinator,” Spurrier said. “He hung around Marvin and the defense pretty much all the time.”
Lewis would leave the following year to become the head coach in Cincinnati. Guenther would follow a year later — but not before leaving an impression on one quarterback in Washington.
Tim Hasselbeck, now an ESPN analyst, started five games for Washington in 2003. He recalled Guenther tackling unglamorous tasks, such as preparing the scout team each week, but also as “somebody that never looked overwhelmed or out of place.”
“You show up to the Washington (team), it’s your first time there coming from some small school or wherever, and in your meeting room is LaVar Arrington, Antonio Pierce,” Hasselbeck said. “How do you interact with those guys? How do you coach those guys? I knew (Guenther) was a young guy, but he seemed like a young guy that belonged.”
In Cincinnati, Guenther climbed the ladder gradually. He spent a year as an advance scout and another as a staff assistant, worked with special teams, the secondary and linebackers and, in time, became the right-hand man to Zimmer, who arrived in Cincinnati in 2008.
Together, Zimmer and Guenther designed a scheme based on placing two linebackers in the “A” gaps — next to the football on either side of the center — to help create pressure up the middle and disguise coverages. From 2009 through ’13, under Zimmer, the Bengals’ defense ranked in the top 10 in the league in points allowed four times.
Guenther’s duties during that time included designing blitzes and being Zimmer’s perspective from the upstairs coaching box on game days. When Zimmer left after 2013 to take the job in Minnesota, the coordinator role shifted naturally to Guenther. In his second season, the Bengals set a franchise record for fewest points allowed, averaging 17.4 per game.
Even now, Guenther said the defense he runs is “very, very similar” to the one Zimmer uses with the Vikings.
“I’d say 80 to 90 percent of the defense — the calls, the fronts, the coverages, the terminology — is all about the same,” Guenther said on a conference call last week. “Certainly, I have my own little things that I’ve added to the defense as I went along and he’s added different things. (But) I would say it’s very similar.”
According to the Associated Press, in Guenther’s four years as coordinator, the Bengals brought the fewest blitzes of any team in the NFL. They also created the second-most pressures in that span. Getting after the quarterback, Guenther said, doesn’t necessarily mean bringing extra rushers.
“When you play good quarterbacks and you leave a guy one-on-one and he picks up the blitz, there’s a good chance you’re going to get” hurt, Guenther said. “I love blitzing. I’ve got every blitz in the book up on my board here. I’m certainly all for it. But if you can get home with four guys ...
“What I’d like to do is get Khalil Mack one-on-one. That’s more of a blitz to me than anything is getting him on a tight end or a running back or a tackle we feel like we love the matchup on. To me, that’s kind of where the NFL has evolved in some ways.
“Everyone says, ‘Your blitz numbers are down, but your pressures are up.’ That’s really the number I’m looking for. And if we’re having a hard time getting home with four, then we’re going to have to bring some blitzes.”
The question now is how Guenther’s scheme will mesh with the Raiders’ personnel. Mack and linebacker Bruce Irvin were one of the better pass-rushing tandems in the league last season but didn’t get much help. Guenther has said he hopes the Raiders re-sign NaVorro Bowman, whom he sees as a “prototypical middle linebacker” for his 4-3 scheme.
“I think they’ve got talent on defense,” Hasselbeck said. “Mack and Irvin can rush the passer, so for (Guenther), I think it’ll allow him to do a lot of the same stuff that he did in Cincinnati. Now, in Cincinnati, I think they did have pretty good corners. And part of being aggressive is you need guys that can hold up in man coverage.
“But I would say this: Him getting hired in Oakland by Gruden, I think it speaks to the reputation he had, just around the league in terms of the job that he’d done and how smart he is and some of the different creative things he’s come up with.”
After 13 seasons with the Bengals, Guenther said he felt pulled by Gruden and “the brand of the Raiders.”
“Just the ability to come with him and start something fresh from the ground up really excited me,” Guenther said.
Mullen says he sees it as a good fit.
“If I’m turning on an NFL game and watching him coach now, it’s the same guy that was playing 25 years ago,” Mullen said. “I still see the intensity, the toughness, the attitude that he brings — which I think that’s probably what the Raiders are, right? He’s going to have that mind-set when he takes that defense over.”