USC considering Dave Aranda/a look at how Aranda responded to last year's blowout loss to OSU

so let's just wait for any answer. Plenty of opportunity to wring our hands over the hire once made.

He would simply cause a torrential downpour whenever the opponent was on offense. Greg Mattison could still do the actual coordinating - but it would be much easier when the offense is basically blinded by the rain.

Oh yeah - and he would hold OSU to around 14 pts/game.

I just want Lance in here. Bring in Long with him and close out this recruiting class. I have a feeling the d-line will be nasty along with the DBs and will cover up a young and athletic LB group. 

He plays a true one-gap 3-4 of which I've, written about and goes with a 2-4 nickel package to keep 4 LBs on the field. This plays into a great blitz package that has resulted in a ton of sacks. The OLBs have been their best group, but his ILBs have been solid to good for him, and very young with good promise this past season. Bama killed them this year because the Wisconsin weakness the past couple seasons have been their DL, which I think is what resulted in them getting killed by OSU and Bama. They couldn't keep the ILBs clean at all. Aranda loves the SS in the box, playing him in the hole or robber zone a bit to help against the run. It's almost always a one high safety, so some similarities in coverage for Michigan. I tend to prefer more of a 4-3 look, but Aranda would be a great hire IMO. One gap 3-4: http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/2014/10/football-fundamentals-one-g… Vs 12 personnel: http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/2013/11/Wisconsin-Iowa-3-4-2-TE-zon… Blitz package: http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/2014/11/football-film-review-wiscon…

A lot of highly-respected defensive minds are resolved that they're going to give up yards and points defending a good, up-tempo, spread attack.

As we all know, Rich Rod made it famous, then Randy Walker and Northwestern made it infamous in these parts in 2000. Shortly thereafter, a new defensive scheme at Mississippi State created by DC Joe Lee Dunn was slowing down spread offenses, and even shutting some down. The defense? 3-3-5 stack.

This defense was successful primarily because offensive coaches had never seen it before, and none of the blocking rules accounted for the alignment. Additionally, Joe Lee had a concept in his D called "SPD" which stood for "Stem/Prowl/Disguise." Every player on the defense had freedom--the D-Line could stem into different shades and gaps, the LBs could prowl in and out of gaps, and the DBs could disguise their look amongst press, off, inside/outside shade, safety depth, etc.

So the spread run game against the 3-3-5 stack was stifled to a large degree. Moreover, Joe Lee was a blitz-happy fool

Not only did the offense have to figure out blocking rules, they had to figure out who was where and what the D was actually in. I sat in meetings w/Joe Lee and other DCs from his tree where we'd watch film and the DC himself couldn't tell what the play call was pre-snap a lot of the time. He either had to read the play list or he had to wait until the ball was snapped and see who ended up where.

Eventually, opposing coaches found a solution. (They always do.)

The 3-3-5 stack of Joe Lee Dunn would always keep the 3-3 in the box, and the 5 DBs would align over the 5 eligible receivers, so almost always there would be one DB in the deep middle b/c the 5th receiver was the RB (empty formations the exception). In other words, the defense always used 1-high coverages. Once offensive guys figured this out, they would run a ton of 1-high "beaters." Additionally, these coaches also installed blocking schemes to account for the 3-3 stack (and zone blocking doesn't care what the structure of the defensive box is).

But I think the general philosophy to stop (or perhaps slow down) the modern spread is to A) be creative, B) be confusing, C) use hybrid personnel, and D) use multiple fronts and high safety looks. I don't buy the notion that the DL has to be able to substitute due to fatigue. You can't tell me that the OL on the other side of the ball will always be in better physical condition, and they don't ever sub mid-series. 

Aranda was the first - and only - DC to outscheme Chris Ault's Pistol. He is insanely bright.

I actually think, and have seen, coaches bait the spread into doing what they want.  Most up tempo spread offenses get to the line of scrimmage quickly and then the coaches look at the defense and then call a play.  They get away with this because once they get a first down or a big play, the defense is on its heels and forced to play base sets.  I've seen some coaches show the offense an obvious weakness to trap the offense when they cover up that alignment "weakness" after the snap.

An example of this is putting 5 men in the box to bait the offense into running and then run or scrape blitzing after the snap.

This technikque is obviously not flawless since great spread offenses tend to catch on to trends, but if you can control the ball on offense and can bait the offense just enough, you can escape with a win.  I don't see great spread teams losing unless there is great team effort in all phases.

Do you know what else helps stop elite offenses like Ohio State's?  Being able to keep your offense on the field for more than 5 plays.  Part of the issue we had this year was that we couldn't ground out yardage like OSU could.  Of course the defense is going to wear down and get progressively worse when the offense goes nowhere for long stretches of time.

Why do we give the offense a pass (pun intended) for crapping the bed this year, but the defense is terrible and needs a magical savior to overthrow OSU.  Maybe no matter which of the capable DCs we hire this year will have better results when the offense can put up more than 13 points in a game?

like 70% of college teams run that stuff these days and people here still act like cavemen who come across fire and think it's magic. 

People here spent years talking about how the spread is a gimmick and how it won't work in the Big Ten, now we're suddenly looking for the magician DC who can stop spread offenses cold and predictably end up with a very very short list.