Scott McClurgThe perfect storm.
Is there any better way to describe the Kansas University defense?
None of its members was a blue-chip, can’t-miss prospect out of high school. None had scholarship offers from coast to coast. None chose KU for the winning tradition and the chance to carry on a legacy of ferocious defensive football, a pitch that could help lure big-time talent.
Yet together, the Jayhawk defense has assembled into one of the top units around – statistically and otherwise – through a combination of tangibles, tenacity, teamwork, tutelage and talent.
The Jayhawk defense is third in the NCAA against the run, has handcuffed offenses that previously had roamed free and continues to give KU a legitimate chance to win every game.
Richard Gwin“I’ve had the good fortune of being in some programs with really good individual defensive players,” KU coach Mark Mangino said. “I would say that perhaps we don’t have as many or as much star power. We have some really fine, great individual players. But there are more guys that are just hard-nosed, tough guys.
“If you polled our fans about our defense, most wouldn’t have an idea about who they are. But it’s a group that is tough and hard-nosed and plays well together.”
So how did Kansas do it? What factors – on and off the field – formed a key that unlocked the perfect storm?
Let’s examine it.
Coaching
Defensive coordinator Bill Young started coaching football before all of his assistants – linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Dave Doeren, safeties coach Clint Bowen and cornerbacks coach Earnest Collins – were born.
That gives KU’s coaching presence on defense both a flavor of old-school values and a fresh approach.
“What I like about Bill Young, and the reason why I wanted to hire Bill here, he’s a veteran coach who’s been around the game,” Mangino said. “But he’s always willing to evolve and keep up with the times and stay on the cutting edge of what’s going on in defensive football.”
Young has held positions at Ohio State, Arizona State, Southern California, Oklahoma and Iowa State, among others. He was on his seventh coaching stop when some of the current Jayhawks were born. But his players say he’s never lost the ability to relate – both with the team and the coaches he works with daily.
“He’s definitely a defensive genius,” linebacker Banks Floodman said. “He sees things that other people just don’t see as quickly.”
KU’s defense over the years (with Big 12 Conference rank in parentheses):
2002
Run defense: 256.2 ypg (12)
Pass defense: 216.2 ypg (8)
Total defense: 472.4 ypg (12)
Scoring defense: 42.2 ppg (12)
2003
Run defense: 194.7 ypg (9)
Pass defense: 217.9 ypg (7)
Total defense: 412.6 ypg (7)
Scoring defense: 30.5 ppg (7)
2004
Run defense: 117.6 ypg (4)
Pass defense: 227.8 ypg (9)
Total defense: 345.5 ypg (5)
Scoring defense: 21.4 ppg (4)
2005
Run defense: 64.6 ypg (1)
Pass defense: 242.8 ypg (9)
Total defense: 307.4 ypg (7)
Scoring defense: 16.6 ppg (6)
Young deflects the credit to the rest of the defensive staff, all former players born and raised in Big 12 Conference country. Not only have Collins, Bowen and Doeren proven themselves as recruiters (Doeren is KU’s recruiting coordinator), but the three, along with Young, always seem to decipher problems the same way – no matter how many paths can be taken to the solution.
“It’s awfully nice as coaches,” Young said, “when we pretty much come up with the same answer when something breaks down.”
Talent
Young humbly reminds everyone that KU’s defense wasn’t always this good. Young’s first two years in Lawrence were a struggle: In 2002, the Jayhawks gave up 42 points and 472 yards per game. In ’03, KU surrendered 30 points and 412 yards per game.
“I’m the same coach as when we weren’t playing good,” Young said, “and I think we all remember that.”
That in mind, Young says the players have made the most difference. The front seven has been ferocious at pass rushing and stopping the run. The secondary has a third-team All American in Charles Gordon, along with several interchangeable parts.
The junior-college ranks were recruited hard, and the result is impact players like Charlton Keith, Jermial Ashley, Rodney Fowler and Theo Baines.
The linebackers, young and fresh when the Jayhawk defense wasn’t so hot, have grown up.
It’s all clicked, to put it simply.
“Having veteran players who understand what you’re talking about makes it easier,” Young said. “Particularly in the linebackers and secondary. That’s where you have to make most of your adjustments.”
Teamwork
It could be a blessing that the ’02 and ’03 defenses were so bad – it’s kept a potentially damaging situation in perspective.
While the defense has put up consecutive solid efforts to start the conference season, the offense has had trouble scoring. It’d be understandable if the locker room became divided as the season wore on.
Coaches and players, though, insist it won’t.
“It’s a team game,” Young said. “We’re working hard together.”
If hostility ever surfaces, the 2003 season will shut it up quickly. That year, the Jayhawk offense, led by quarterback Bill Whittemore, averaged nearly 30 points and 421 yards per contest. The defense surrendered just as much, though, and on two different occasions, a 30-plus point effort by the offense wasn’t enough for a victory.
Now that the tables have turned, the defensive players know that the same respect is due to the players that initially sent it their way two years ago.
“They will correct what they did wrong,” linebacker Kevin Kane said. “It can be frustrating at times, but you have to stick with them and hope they can work their way out of this slump.”
Attitude
Young takes it a step further. For example, he doesn’t think the KU defense is totally blameless in the 12-3 loss to Kansas State last week.
“We go in every ballgame with the idea that we have to outplay our opponents’ defense,” Young said. “If they get three turnovers and a safety, then we have to get more than that. And we didn’t.”
Never being satisfied is way to always stay hungry, an underlying trait of KU’s defense. The players have indeed always yearned for more, yet they’re having as much fun as ever at the same time.
That, it seems, could be the final component toward the perfect storm: camaraderie, and lots of it.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Floodman said, “playing with 10 other guys you like to play with.”
