Spurrier And Meyer Address Third Down Defense As No. 1 Georgia Looms Next

As he often does, Spurrier quoted John Wooden: “He said, ‘They will play very close to how you teach them to play.’”

By BUDDY MARTIN

GatorBaitMedia.com Editor

Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, hard against the St. Johns River, the Four Horsemen ride again: Fear, Doom, Doubt and Gloom. The Bulldogs are coming. The No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. Get the women and children off the streets because Jacksonville is about to appear in the cone of destruction. Head to higher ground, quickly.

That’s a partial parody of how the great American sportswriter Grantland Rice described Notre Dame’s conquering of Army 98 years ago as a juggernaut of college football. His version of the Fighting Irish’s Four Horsemen: “In dramatic lore, they were known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death.”

It kind of feels like the appropriate apprehension for what’s about to transpire next week. A massacre looming, perhaps? Gather round Gator faithful for the gnashing of teeth. The wise guys in Las Vegas have made Florida more than a two-touchdown underdog to The Mighty Dawgs.

So shall the Gators just go ahead and waive the white flag now?

“You never know, they might upset Georgia,” said the Bulldog-killer himself, Steve Spurrier, but only half-heartedly as a rebuttal to a friend who was suggesting that an ugly beatdown of the Gators was possible, even probable. We had been talking about coaching strategies on defense, third down in particular, what might work when something different is tried or tested and when might be the appropriate time to change.

“I’d like to see them try something different,” said the HBC, summing up the sentiment of all who have seen the recent movie “Nightmare on Lemerand Boulevard.”

Let me make this caveat: Spurrier in no way was second guessing Billy Napier’s strategy or defensive coordinator Patrick Toney’s technique or calls. I wanted to know how coaching related to concept and should translate to execution on the field. And what has worked for Spurrier in the past. We were simply having conversation.

As he often does, Spurrier quoted John Wooden: “He said, ‘They will play very close to how you teach them to play.’” But pointing no fingers, because frankly he doesn’t know how these Gators are being taught or even how to evaluate Toney.

I was taking a bit shallow dive into the subject of third down defense with the two greatest head coaches in Florida football history: Spurrier and Urban Meyer. Among other things, I wanted to know if lack of proper personnel could be offset with different defensive technique and strategy. After all, these two were 16-2 against Georgia. What might we draw from their expertise?

One thing I was reminded about – although I pretty much knew -- is how perplexing third down the challenge is for all coaches. Both Spurrier and Meyer explained there was no easy, one-size-fits-all answer and that it would vary, depending on your opponent. Neither of them cared to venture into dilemma about how to adapt Florida’s defense. However, they did talk about their own personal experiences.

The HBC recalls the key change he made at Duke. (Chris Spears Photo)

Spurrier told the story of how making a defensive adjustment for the Clemson game in 1989 was the key to upsetting the Tigers, 21-17, and catapulting his Blue Devils from a 1-3 record to seven straight wins, a co-ACC title, bowl game and punching his ticket to Gainesville.

“Without it, I’d have never gotten the Florida job,” he said.

Meyer made third down a huge emphasis. “We practiced third downs every Wednesday,” he said, meaning from both sides of the football. “We even had daily competition in the spring. Third down is the ‘Money Down.’”

Money? That’s when it hit me. The most famous quote ever uttered by Billy Napier was “Scared Money Don’t Make Money.” It was said by Napier at halftime of the Louisiana-Ohio game in reference to his bold decision to eschew a field goal in favor of a TD at the one-yard line while leading 14-3. And it became the battle cry for Gator fans.

Scared Money? I guess it could also apply to playing tentative on either side of the ball. What if you applied the same philosophy to Florida’s third down strategy? When you’re last among all FBS teams in third down defense, what’s to lose?

This week Napier gave his defensive coordinator a vote of confidence, saying Toney was “absolutely one of the best coaches I’ve been on staff with,” explaining his DC is deeply disturbed and “working very hard’ to fix what’s broken.

One pending debate among pundits and fans is whether Napier and Toney have the right players on defense and if they are just so short-handed of talent that failure is imminent. “Well, then put a walk-on in and see what he can do,” suggested one frustrated former Gator star. Of course we know change just for the sake of change doesn’t normally work, but perhaps you won’t know until you do it.

This being an open date and the Georgia game looming, Gator fans have scary Halloween visions of Darnell Washington and Brock Bower catching 20 Stetson Bennett passes each and running roughshod over the Gator defense like a Zamboni over an ant bed.

Fans are getting nervous. When you’ve already lost 11 of your last 14 SEC games and just hoping to limp into the post-season with a bowl bid after starting the season with an upset over No. 7 Utah, you need somebody to light a candle instead of complaining about the darkness in The Ides of Halloween.

“I hope we do something different,” is really the only advice Spurrier would offer.

I asked Spurrier what he did at Duke with a beatdown perhaps looming from Clemson back in ‘89. For one thing, Duke needed to force more punts by the other team. He said he and DC Bob Sanders simply committed to the idea of sending more players than Clemson could block. Sounds simple, right?

“We went to a ‘Zero Coverage’ package,” said Spurrier. “Sometimes on third down we lined up eight across and had the free safety roaming in the secondary.” It put pressure on the opposing quarterback and forced the other team to throw when it didn’t want to. In essence, the defense dictated the play calling.

The other thing Spurrier emphasized was the importance of adapting personnel to the scheme, or vice versa. “Don’t ask them to do what they can’t do.”

Once upon a time in 2005 when Urban Meyer was fighting the whispers about his funky offense and Mountain West Conference education at Utah, the Gators lost to LSU, 21-17, fell to a 4-2 mark and the natives were restless. As soon as the plane landed in Gainesville, Meyer, quarterback coach Dan Mullen and offensive line coach Steve Addazio pulled an all-night chalk talk to change the offense.

Urban made changes in 2005 - Photo Credit Fox Sports

“We had under-estimated the speed and power of defensive ends in the SEC,” Urban told me this week. So they decided to put a fullback in the offense again, except they didn’t have one. So they flipped Billy Latsko from linebacker and off they went. (Later they also tinkered with the secondary.)

In other words, they used the open date to work on changes, something most coaches will do, and something no doubt Napier and Toney are considering.

How did it work out? They beat Georgia 14-10, winning four out of their next five, defeating Iowa in the Outback Bowl to finish 9-3. The next year they beat Ohio State to win the BCS national championship.

As a side note, my colleague Franz Beard points out that Napier’s defense went from 97th to 47th after his first year at ULL and his record from 7-7 to 11-3 and then he proceeded to win 23 more games and two Sun Belt Conference titles. So for all you who pooh-poohed ULL as a Sun Belt representative, remember those who also pooh-poohed Utah and the Mountain West.

The common denominator here is intelligent change, patience and perhaps development of a surprise attack. So far we’ve not seen much difference in the results, although the effort is certainly there.

Napier and Toney are getting their baptismal under fire, needing to keep fans and future recruits assured that the program is solid and will measure up to expectations. Can they? The pressure is on.

“Yeah, I don’t think they’ll be going to Crescent Beach in the near future,” Spurrier said jokingly, referring back to the day when he and Gators DC Bob Stoops would sometimes go for a swim in the Atlantic.

“Bobby,” Spurrier once said from his float on the week of a big game, “wonder what those Tennessee coaches are doing today?”

For the team in Knoxville, I guess it would be the equivalent of spending the day at Dolly’s place in Pigeon Forge on a Friday before playing at Georgia. Given the way things are going for Josh Heupel, that might even happen.

---

Catch Buddy on "The Buddy Martin Show"

Monday-Thursday @9pm est. www.Facebook.com/TheBuddyMartinshow/