The most explosive offense in the country fought for table scraps for most of Saturday in a 45-31 loss to SMU. A deluge delayed the game, but the Pony’s defense forced the Coogs to take shelter. First-year defensive coordinator Kevin Kane came up with a beauty of a game plan, one designed to use Houston’s tendencies against them. It didn’t hurt that D’Eriq King’s shoulder didn’t cooperate and that SMU’s running game finally woke up, but the Pony defense deserves some credit. A lot.

Know Your Enemy

The old Briles offense evolved in recent years and continues to develop, but the basic tenets are the same. The game is about asset allocation. Houston wants to do damage with their zone run; Art Briles used to say they tried to “dent” you with their inside zone. Once they start denting you, they’re betting you’ll bring safeties up, or your safeties will begin to trust their guts instead of their eyes.

Former Baylor OC and current Tulsa head coach Phillip Montgomery didn’t need a safety to crash down, he just needed one to take a misstep or a read step in the wrong direction, and the athletes on the edge would take over. The offense thrives on creating explosive plays by beating man coverage flat out and spreading you out so far that zones are ineffective.

The offense also takes advantage of another form of asset allocation, while the defense has to cover the entire field, the offense doesn’t have to attack all of it. Part of the genius of the offense is that half the receivers didn’t even run routes on certain pass plays. The strategy, deployed in part to simplify the offense and in part to conserve energy, causes the defense to spend assets covering non-threatening receivers. That strategy is used less than it was in the hay day, is still in play today. You have to commit assets that are chasing decoys.

Another facet is that because of its simplicity; the offense can go fast. That speed is predicated on getting first downs. If the offense can move the chains, they can pick up the tempo, continue to pound the run, look for man coverage or a defensive back peaking in the backfield, and bang, a big play or touchdown. The Cougars can make quick, simple pre-snap reads and keep their foot on the accelerator. Houston runs a play every eighteen seconds, the fastest pace of any team by a pretty decent margin.

The pace creates a sort of fog of war for the defense. You’d better line up quickly, have your plan and execute. Then, regardless of the outcome of the previous play, do it again. And again.

The Plan

We weren’t invited to the defensive meetings that Kevin Kane had prior to Houston, apparently our invites were lost in the mail, but we’re assuming his strategy was thus: commit fewer assets to stop the run, maintain personnel flexibility, don’t let Houston get behind you, tackle well, and make Houston use up plays to score, i.e., limit explosive or splash plays.

That’s relatively audacious, considering Texas Tech couldn’t do that to Houston and that SMU hadn’t been able to pull that off against many teams in 2018. They entered the game allowing 36 points a game.

Let’s look at each of those keys one by one. Tedious as hell. We’ll go quicker now.

Asset Allocation

SMU played an odd-man front, three down linemen, and two linebackers primarily. Defensive tackles Pono Davis and Ken McClaurin were able to control the “dent” for most of the game. Houston ran for two fewer yards per carry than their season average (4.0 compared to 6.0). Linebackers Kyran Mitchell and Richard Moore were physical and active run support.

Houston’s offense is going to take what the defense gives you, and a five-man box is too tempting, plus SMU clogged passing lanes with their coverage unit.

The SMU defensive staff took a calculated risk against the run that they could win up front often enough to neutralize the run and that their safeties could close ground and rally to the ball.

Personnel Flexibility

Kane used safety Patrick Nelson as a force player, a hybrid defensive back/linebacker. Kane gave him the freedom to move quite a bit, contribute to coverage and to run support.

SMU used three high safeties, the majority of the time, these three lined up between 10 and 15 yards off the ball. Three high safeties give you a lot of flexibility to run some coverage options with a lot of zone looks. The distance made a difference. SMU kept their spacial discipline and with a very few exceptions, didn’t get caught crashing down.

Here’s a screen grab of SMU’s typical alignment against the Cougars and their alignment against a similar personnel package a few weeks earlier at UCF. Notice the three safeties, setting a perimeter as opposed to the single high look with a more clogged run box used against the Knights.