Why the Gamecocks are teaching two D-line schemes and how having 2 coaches factors in
For the first five of South Carolina’s spring practices, the Gamecocks defense won’t work on one half of its defensive looks.
The next five, they’ll hit the reset button and work on something very different.
Some of the defensive linemen will spend the whole time with new line coach John Scott Jr., while others will be passed off between Scott and outside linebacker coach Mike Peterson.
All of this is about building what Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp calls a “multiple” defense, one that can deploy looks with three and four down linemen.
Said Muschamp: “How our teaching progression really works, we spend the first five days in four-down, which there’s a lot of attention, progression for the inside techniques that very much carry over, and then a teaching progression for our Bucks and our ends. … We’ll take practices 6-10 and just play three-down.
“As we work into practice 11, we’ll co-mingle them. It helps our offense as far as installation, as well.”
What this means in a broader sense:
First five practices: Four-down work
Who is with Scott: Inside tackles and nose guards
Who is with Peterson: Bucks and strongside ends
Coaching points:
The staff has a teaching progression with a good amount of carryover no matter where the two inside players line up.
The outside players start out by being on either the right or left. This means they’ll have to learn both the 6 technique — lining up over a tight end — and the open-side 5 technique, which is lining up on the outside shoulder of a tackle on the non-tight end side.
Second five practices: Three-down work
Who is with Scott: End, tackle and nose
Who is with Peterson: Bucks and Sams
Coaching points:
This scheme is about playing one-gap defense, which means defensive linemen play face-to-face with offensive linemen and are responsible for the gaps on either side.
The ends (4 techniques) and nose tackle in the middle (zero technique) are asked to do many of the same things. That’s a stark contrast to the Bucks and Sams, who stand up and are asked to control the edges, often rush the passer and sometimes drop into coverage.
Read a primer for what the technique numbers mean here.
Muschamp explained in the four-down (one-gap) looks, players have a lot of carryover no matter where they line up inside. The same is true of the end and Buck players in that scheme. Then in three-down, the linemen all learn similar things, far different from what the edge players are being asked to do.
“It’s a totally different technique,” Muschamp explained. “So you can’t really have one coach coaching those guys.”
