Same players, new defense
The faces on Utah State’s defense will be almost the same from 2017, but don’t expect to see the same product out on the field.
The Aggies return nine starters, making the idea of simply copying and pasting last year’s defense onto 2018 very tempting. However, the coaches and players are determined to do anything but that.
One of the first steps the team took was to bring in new defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. His insight is one of many solutions head coach Matt Wells hopes will fix some of the issues that plagued his defense in 2017. And coming in, Patterson had good things to say about the program he is now an integral part of.
“There’s been a great foundation laid here,” Patterson said. “You can just tell that kids play extremely hard. They play a tough, physical brand of football.”
Patterson’s 15 years as a collegiate coach, — seven as a defensive coordinator— will bring experience to the defensive staff. And so far, they’ve been receptive to his ideas.
“I’ve been very pleased,” Patterson said, “just by the tweaks that I’ve brought in that are a little bit different than maybe the way we’ve done something in the past, or even a philosophy on how we handle certain situations. I’ve been very pleased with the openness and willingness to learn and adapt to each other and I think it’s created a great synergy among our coaches and our players.”
Primary among the issues needing resolution was a near complete inability to stop the run a year ago. The Aggies ranked 115th of 129 teams in division one in run defense in 2017. The early returns on that solution are promising according to Suli Tamaivena, who said the veteran coordinator “fixed” the defensive run game with his adjustments.
“What he tweaked,” Tamaivena said, “it was what we needed. We feel comfortable now. We know what to do, we know where to go, we know if you get blocked, who goes where and whatnot. We’re just more comfortable now. His adjustment was good.”
All of these adjustments in the front seven have been made easier with USU returning all of its starting defensive linemen and linebackers.
“Last year we were very young and didn’t know too much and we were still pretty good,” junior nose guard Christopher ‘Unga said, “This year, knowing the experience that we all have — I honestly don’t know what’s in store, but I’m excited.”
While the front seven remains largely the same with minor changes, the secondary will look very different from last year. The first item on the to-do list in spring ball was to figure out who will replace the production of Jalen Davis and Dallin Leavitt against the pass.
Wells said most of those players are still unknown commodities to fans and media, but he is confident in his guys. Leavitt’s counterpart on the backend of the defense, Gaje Ferguson shares his coach’s confidence.
“Both [Leavitt and Davis] brought amazing things to the table,” Ferguson said. “Two guys that I respect a ton and that I consider my mentors. But I can confidently say that they will be replace and we’ll have guys step up to the plate in those positions.”
The interesting part of replacing the duo that combined to force nine turnovers by themselves is that the two players expected to step into those roles — Jontrell Rocquemore and Ja’Marcus Ingram — switched positions during spring ball. Rocquemore was a safety with Ingram at corner. Now the two play at outside linebacker and safety, respectively.
Patterson said he is wary of changing players’ positions without necessity, but saw an opportunity and got positive results.
“We moved those guys right from the get-go just to see if they could do it,” Patterson said. “And I was very pleased by what we saw this spring from those guys. And I just expect great things from all of those position changes and they’ll get more comfortable the more playing time they get.”
The shakeup on the backend makes repeating last year’s success defending the pass (USU ranked 19th in pass yards allowed) even more of a challenge. In the media day press conference, Wells said improvements by the front seven will end up testing the secondary.
“The better the front seven plays, the more the secondary will be tested,” Wells said. “Front seven doesn’t play very well, the secondary looks better and they don’t get near as tested.”
The hope from Patterson is that the defense as a whole will respond well to the tests it will face when going up against various opponents and not just the Aggie offense in camp. The positional changes from Ingram and Rocquemore could bring a high level of versatility with the ability to show offensive multiple looks. When asked if that was the case, Patterson replied “no doubt.”
“We’re a multiple aggressive attacking style of defense,” Patterson said. Any time you have guys that can cover…obviously it gives you more flexibility in things that you can do without having to put in different sub packages per se. So you can be more multiple.”
Circumstance gave the Aggies a bevy of returning experience and the players, coaches and trainers have put in the offseason work to make the most of it. Time will only show if the adjustments, positional switches and attempts to replace NFL-level talent actually bears fruit.