College Football Teams Making Huge Scheme Adjustments in 2013

The sport of football is changing, and with that change, college coaches are left with a momentous decision: stick to what has worked in the past or adapt accordingly.

The game is getting faster, the players shrinking smaller, the defensive margin of error growing thinner each year. With so much speed on the opposite side of the field, traditional systems both offensive and defensive have begun at times to look antiquated.

Not every coach will bend with the rest of his sport. Don't expect Paul Johnson to hire a spread-offense coordinator at Georgia Tech any time soon. But every year, a few more coaches bring non-traditional schemes to traditional programs. 

And 2013 is no different.

Auburn (Defense)

Things got ugly at Auburn last season on both sides of the ball. In response, the Tigers hired Gus Malzahn as head coach and brought in Ellis Johnson to tailor a new defense, which they plan to use as a supplement to Malzahn's wide-open offense.

Johnson is moving the Tigers to a 4-2-5 formation, a system he used from 2008-11 as defensive coordinator at South Carolina. Though Auburn beat the Gamecocks each time they played in that span, Malzahn was still impressed by what he saw—especially in being held to 16 points in 2011.

The key to Johnson's scheme is unpredictability. Per AuburnTigers.com:

"

Offenses won't see the same defensive set on every snap. Far from it. Sometimes there'll be two Stars in the game. Sometimes, on running downs, there might be three linebackers or even an extra defensive lineman. Sometimes the Star will cover the slot receiver. Sometimes he will play zone or have deep coverage on the outside. Sometimes he will blitz. Sometimes he will drop down into the box. Sometimes the Tigers will line up in a 3-4.

"

If spread offenses want to keep defenses guessing, Johnson wants to fight fire with fire. So long as the personnel buys into the scheme, it seems like Auburn should improve under the 4-2-5.

Kentucky (Offense)

Neal Brown joined Mark Stoops' staff in Lexington this year, following a successful three-year stint as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech. The Aggies averaged 475.7 yards and 34.8 points a game in Brown's three years at the helm.

Last year Texas Tech ran the ball 399 times, just four less than Kentucky's 403. At first glance that seems to suggest a modest change in philosophy, but look closer at the average carry-by-quarter splits (per cfbstats.com):

Team	1Q Avg. CAR	2Q Avg. CAR	3Q Avg. CAR	4Q Avg. CAR
KEN ('12)	10.3	8.58	8.08	7.09
TTU ('12)	6.85	7.23	7.38	9.0

Kentucky wanted to be run-first offense under Joker Phillips, but its commitment to the run wilted in each successive quarter. They were falling behind and forced out of how they wanted to play, resorting to the pass in an attempt to play catch up.

Texas Tech, meanwhile, was the opposite. The Aggies' commitment to NOT run the ball was clear in the first three quarters, where they were consistently air-oriented. Only in the fourth, when Brown's pass offense had afforded them a late-game lead, did they start pounding the rock.

That commitment to start with the pass and end with the run should be clear at Kentucky this season, even if the personnel doesn't necessarily fit the system right away. Whoever wins the starting QB job in Lexington could face trial by fire.

Wisconsin (Defense)

Much ado has been made about Gary Andersen's offense, the wide-open attack he employed at Utah State and how it would translate to Bret Bielema's power-minded personnel in Madison. But Andersen will likely mold the scheme, in part, to his players' strengths (at least in Year 1) so as not to upset the natural balance of success.

Wisconsin's defense, on the other hand, will look radically different.

New defensive coordinator Dave Aranda brings an aggressive 3-4 scheme into Madison—one that contrasts starkly from the straightforward 4-3 system of years past.

The Badgers defense was very good last season but forced just 15 turnovers. In his three years as a defensive coordinator (two at Hawaii and one at Utah State), Aranda's ferocious 3-4 has averaged 27 forced turnovers per year. He likes to get after the quarterback, gamble in the secondary and make 20-year-old passers pay for their inexperience by forcing them into mistakes.

Wisconsin's defense brings back five players from last year's front seven, returning from a unit that, per the Football Outsiders Almanac, ranked 22nd nationally in Sack Rate on passing downs last season.

With that type of blitz-efficient personnel in Aranda's blitz-happy 3-4 defense, those numbers might actually go up in 2013.

California (Offense)

Former coach Jeff Tedford, once among the most bankable QB developers in football, was unable to mold any blue-chip signal callers in the eight years A.R. (After Rodgers).

California's air attack struggled accordingly, ranking 59th in Football Outsiders' passing S&P+ last season and 82nd in passing-down efficiency. 

Enter Sonny Dykes, whose Air Raid (soon-to-be Bear Raid) offense helped lead Louisiana Tech to a historic season last year. The Bulldogs finished third in the country with 350.8 passing yards per game, doing so with less passing attempts per game than both No. 2 Texas Tech and No. 1 Marshall.

By contrast to its passing struggles, California finished 22nd nationally in rushing S&P+ last season, fourth-best in the Pac-12 behind Oregon, Arizona and USC.

The gap between its rushing efficiency (114.5) and passing efficiency (101.0) was 13.5, whereas the gap between Louisiana Tech's was -6.7—indicating that the Bulldogs passing game was 6.7 points more efficient than their also-very-good ground game.

Dykes will change Cal's emphasis on rush from the get-go.

Oklahoma (Defense)

The Sooners defense, which has long made a 4-3 alignment its calling card, is switching to a 3-4 under Mike Stoops this season.

Oklahoma's defense looked meager last time it saw live action, allowing Johnny Football to dice them like an onion en route to a 41-13 loss. But, as CBS Sports' Matt Hinton explains, the switch might have more to do with returning personnel than some sort of overblown knee-jerk reaction to the Cotton Bowl:

"

Last year's top four defensive tackles,David King, Jamarkus McFarland, Casey Walker and Stacy McGee, are all on their way out, along with the 80 combined starts they amassed over the last three years.

In their place, there's Jordan Phillips, a 6-foot-6, 315-pound sophomore who came off the bench in 10 games as a redshirt freshman, and literally no one else who has seen significant game time in the middle of the line.

"

Hinton goes on to document Oklahoma's struggles in 2012, chronicling the defense's last-season collapse after such a strong start. But the unit still finished 23rd in Football Outsiders' Defensive F/+, third-best in the Big 12, so the move probably has more to do with lack of depth than lack of success.

In addition to the defensive line attrition, Oklahoma lost four of last year's five leading tacklers. The Stoops Bros. responded by throwing a wrench in a long-successful defensive scheme.

Whether it works or it doesn't, things will certainly look different in Norman this year. 

Tennessee (Offense)

Butch Jones and Mike Bajakian enjoyed great success at Cincinnati, and their offenses were always good enough to get by. But they were also plodding and methodical, a far cry from the one Tennessee employed in 2012.

Tennessee has, perhaps, the best offensive line in college football, with four players on the three All-SEC preseason teams. Those blockers are capable of excelling in the pass game, but the best way for Jones to exploit them is through a conservative, run-based scheme.

With Derek Dooley, Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter and Cordarrelle Patterson all still in Knoxville last year, the Vols offense was optimized to pass. So that's precisely what Dooley and spread-happy offensive coordinator Jim Chaney did. 

But now Chaney heads to Arkansas, where he'll mitigate the offensive change under new head coach Bret Bielema. And in his stead, Bajakian and Jones will run a much different style.

USC (Defense)

USC had its share of defensive triumphs under Monte Kiffin, but his once-vaunted Tampa 2 looked like a relic against new-fangled spread offenses. So Lane's father had to depart this offseason, making way for noted Pac-12-offense stopper Clancy Pendergast.

In his three seasons at Cal, Pendergast's defenses twice led the conference in fewest yards allowed. And now that he's made the move south, he plans on altering the schematic status quo.

His new scheme has been described as some sort of 5-2/3-4 hybrid—defining the two outside players as linemen or linebackers is really the discretion of the viewer. But it's certainly different than the standard, straightforward, potentially anachronistic defense USC employed in 2012.

It takes unique personnel to run the 5-2 system and aggressive play-calls Pendergast champions. Between Morgan Breslin, Hayes Pullard, Leonard Williams and youngsters like Kenny Bigelow and Su'a Cravens, it appears USC might be a good fit.