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Virginia Tech's secret to shutting down the Ohio State juggernaut
For well over a decade Bud Foster has been considered one of the best defensive minds in all of football. The Virginia Tech DC's rep grew even more last season when his Hokies went to Columbus, harassed Ohio State freshman QB J.T. Barrett and rattled the Buckeyes' offense, sticking Urban Meyer with his first regular-season loss at OSU, 35-21. A big key to the Hokies' triumph over the eventual national champs was going to the Bear defense.
Just exactly what the Hokies did, why they did it and how the change-up impacted their defense for the year has been detailed in a fascinating series that's just come out via the coaching site, XandOlabs.com. The site, which offers premium content, is done by football coaches and for football coaches, but a lot of the material also resonates for regular fans of the sport, especially the ones intrigued by the X-and-Os.
Mike Kuchar (a former colleague of mine and a friend) spent a lot of time in Blacksburg this spring with the Hokies' defensive staff and came away with some really insightful stuff. The three-part series begins with the genesis for Tech's Bear package, which stems from Foster meeting with the Ole Miss staff and Rebels DC Dave Wommack, who, based out of a three-down front, was experimenting with a five-down front in order to better defend the interior run game he was seeing in the SEC.
"According to Foster, what Wommack was doing was having his edge players, or defensive ends, 'wire,' which means read the guards in order to fit inside on any run schemes," Kuchar writes. "Foster loved the idea, but with the speed of the quarterbacks on Virginia Tech's upcoming schedule (Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Duke, etc.), he was concerned about the quarterback perimeter run game. He had to find a way to accomplish two tall tasks: load the box to stop the interior run, yet be sound enough on the perimeter to defend the read option game.
"So when Foster got back to work in Blacksburg, he hit the lab to try to find a way to mesh what the Hokies were doing with its three down package, which was mainly used on third downs, to Wommack's concept. A few days later, the birth of the Hokies' Bear package came to fruition."
A caveat: Much of the material in the series, which includes lots of diagrams and video, is very technical. It is far beyond Football 101.
"It was called a Bear package because of the presence of two 3-techniques on the line of scrimmage, which will be detailed below," writes Kuchar. "Having two 3-techniques on the line of scrimmage negates any combination blocks at the point of attack, which is [the] foundation of the one-back gap scheme run game infiltrating college football today. It was built off the former Chicago Bear defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan 46 defense philosophy, to create as many one-on-one blocks at the point of attack as possible, and just coach your players up on the back end better than your opponent."
Foster told XandOlabs.com that the entire premise of the Bear package is to get plus-one in the box to defend quarterback option teams, and its coverage structure is man heavy. So part of the decision in implementing it is having the guts to play with one or sometimes no high safeties in the middle of the field.
"The Y-off or slot formation (aka Ohio State) was one of the primary reasons Foster implemented the Bear package," Kuchar writes. "In fact, it was the Hokies' automatic check to that formation this spring. The reasoning is simple: Teams aren’t using that Y player as a vertical threat in the pass game (unless it’s off the run action), which is why Foster was more concerned about him producing an extra gap, either play side or back side, in the run game. 'Anytime the Y is off, we like going to Bear because you have to defend the run package with misdirection,' Foster explained."
When Virginia Tech used the Bear package it allowed only 2.9 yards per carry, which was a full yard less than the Hokies' season average, according to XandOlabs.com. In shutting down the eventual national champs, Tech held Ohio State to 21 points, 327 total yards and just 2.7 yards per carry on 40 attempts and also intercepted Barrett three times, including one pick-six. Barrett finished the game 9-for-29 while stud RB Ezekiel Elliott gained only 32 yards on eight carries, both of their worst games of the season. In OSU's other 14 games, no one else held the Buckeyes under 31 points.
Against Ohio State, Foster wanted to make sure he had a backside player, rather than the defensive end or backer, to account for the quarterback read game, so he kept his corner there and pushed the coverage to the side of the motion. The Buckeyes were running the speed motion and then ran either a sweep or a flood concept of the jet mesh.
"What Ohio State did on first and second down with their play action game was lethal," Foster said. "We couldn't get caught running with motion and get picked with their rub routes." So against that speed motion, Foster would tell his defensive end or backer, who are usually contain players, to "attack the mesh point of the quarterback" and have his Rover or free safety fit inside to protect against the flood concept. The play-side corner would take the most outside receiver, the Nickel would handle No. 2 (which was usually the X in motion) and the Rover would play No. 3. The free safety, who is responsible for the back, will add on to the rush if it is a pass."
On Monday, Sept. 7, the Buckeyes get a chance for revenge against the Hokies' and Foster's Bear D when Ohio State visits Blacksburg in the season opener for both teams. To read much more from the series, go here.
Bruce Feldman is a senior college football reporter and columnist for FOXSports.com and FOX Sports 1. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author. His new book, The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks, came out in October 2014. Follow him on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB.
