So the defense is the big question going into the 2015.
Over the first 3 years in the Leach era the defense was a very inconsistent unit. At times it would do some really good things like help secure the apple cup victory in 2012. Or hold strong against USC and get a pick 6 to help us win the game. Our first shutout in 8 years all be it against Idaho was still something nice to see, but still glaring issues where it would collapse like colorado in 2012, the bowl game in 2013. etc. Big explosive plays would happen at the most inopportune times Rutgers first play etc, and a change was needed.
I have a theory based out of pure speculation that Breske was hired to be a stepping stone DC. He was someone who was from the Northwest, had experience putting together defenses with success, and would be used to put us into a template 3/4 multi front for the future, but because recruiting was important as well as other things Leach knew his tenure would be limited. If he worked out amazing, but for the most part he was brought in to organize the style of the defense as an initial template. This is just a theory, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true. Wouldn't surprise me either if it wasn't.
Now that the template is in place and the shortcomings surfaced to where we need to move another direction to move that unit up it's time for a new young recruiting DC to elevate the personnel in the template, and after seeing what is working best in the conference the 5 DB focused defense to defend against the spreads is what is needed. Enter Alex Grinch, a guy who is familiar coming in after Breske (Grinch came in to Wyoming after Breske), Grinch is a secondary 5 db familiar coach running it at Missouri winning 2 SEC East Championships.
He checks all the boxes for the next stage in the unit rebuild. A young guy that brings in talent, knows how to follow Breske, can help finish the 4-2-5 /3 3 5 hybrid we want to run. The biggest thing to realize is that rebuilds come in stages. The entire thing doesn't go up at once. We all would like that, but Leach strikes me as someone who is doing things in stages. Just like now talking about going undercenter more. His goals were to get the frameworks in place (OL, WR, RBs) and throw it a lot to get to a point that the more complete guts could be added. Defense was no different. Get a framework in place. Now add the secondary elements and strong recruiters to fill in the guts.
So Enter Alex Grinch/Roy Manning. Great recruiters with a lot of energy, and the final 5DB component. So what can we expect our defense to look like going forward.
1. Lots of speed. A premium will be put on a LB/ Secondary that can move around this will help against containing big plays, and will be able to defend against large wr packages that are often seen in the Pac 12
2. More tradition 4 man fronts and rush DE. With guys like Jeremiah Mitchell coming in a true rush DE will be brought in more often instead of using the hybrid buck to do it all the time.
3. Safeties everywhere. We'll see a lot of safeties all over the place as running out of the nickel will happen often. Expect fast hard hitting safeties to be all over the field.
4. Turnovers. Having multi fronts with 5 secondary players means there is an extra safety to account for now.
That allows for a lot of opportunities for QBs to not see the extra safety who will be lurking around in coverage.
5. More QB pressure. With extra DBs floating in coverage the QB now has to take more time to find the right space giving more time for our pass rush to develop.
They'll be a lot of kinks to work out in the early parts, and most certainly there will be mistakes, but it looks like we'll be taking another step forward next year for the program.
