Dave Aranda and Texas' linebacker problem

On3 imageby:Ian Boyd04/05/22

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There is no finer architect of modern zone-blitz defense than Baylor’s head coach Dave Aranda. I’ve been extremely skeptical of the scheme after observing it struggle within the Big 12, often firsthand with the Texas Longhorns, but Aranda’s knack for executing a modernized version of the “safe, smart pressure” system has thus far borne out in Waco.

The 2021 Baylor Bears made very effective use of a pair of 6th-year players in nickel linebacker Jalen Pitre and Mike linebacker Terrell Bernard. While their defensive front didn’t exactly excel at applying pressure in a traditional fashion from the edge, the Bears made up for it with their pressures which often obliterated opponents in very timely circumstances.

Where Aranda is different from the zone blitz coaches of the past is his emphasis on bringing 4-man pressures rather than the old school 5-man pressure with either a “fire zone” or match/man coverage behind it involving six defenders for as many as five receivers. The 6-on-5 nature of the fire zone and its descendants wasn’t really great for combating HUNH spread teams in the Big 12. It was too easy for quarterbacks to find favorable 1-on-1s if not wide open targets.

Aranda prefers the modern world of “creeper” and “sim” pressures, which fall under the umbrella term of “zone replacement blitzes.” For fans of football tactics, some of these terms may be familiar by this point. There are two main ideas driving the system. The first idea is to have defenders positioned so you can bring a 4-man blitz by adding a cornerback, linebacker, or safety while dropping someone out into coverage, thus matching the unpredictability of the old 3-4 defense. The second idea is to further optimize the effectiveness of the 4-man pressure by showing a blitz from one direction and then bringing it from another. A particularly good coach can get an offense to set their protection in one direction, then bring the blitz from another and get an outcome like a linebacker on a running back.

It’s a very clever system which has brought back the possibility of executing “safe pressure” in the HUNH spread world by bringing targeted strikes in the weak spots of pass protection while still dropping seven defenders (usually, they do mix in heavier blitzes) into a coverage. The catch? You’re building around the linebackers…that position which the state of Texas has not been known for producing.

Dave Aranda’s journey to the linebacker wasteland

Aranda was there when this system really started rolling at Utah State with Gary Andersen. They left together after one year but the system stuck as institutional knowledge which would later be passed on to guys like Matt Wells and Todd Orlando. He followed Andersen after a great season to Wisconsin back in 2013 and things REALLY took off.

Wisconsin was known before and has very much been known since as a linebacker university. The farms of the state tend to produce a lot of big people, many of whom maximize in college strength and conditioning into powerful and versatile football players, and the greater Midwest region produces more of the same. The 2021 Badgers still run a version of this system and fielded the following linebackers in their starting lineup:

  • Mike linebacker: Leo Chenal, former 3-star from Wisconsin. 115 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks.
  • Will linebacker: Jack Sanborn, former 4-star from Illinois. 89 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, five sacks.
  • Sam linebacker: Nick Herbig, former 4-star from Hawaii. 61 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, nine sacks.
  • Jack linebacker: Noah Burks, former 3-star from Indiana. 42 tackles, eight tackles for loss, three sacks.

They vacillate year to year from relying on 3-down and 4-down fronts, but always emphasizing the linebackers, same as they did under Aranda. Sanborn and Chenal’s numbers in 2021 make clear the extent to which this defense wreaked havoc by bringing the inside linebackers on well-timed blitzes to soft spots in protection.

They got up to similar machinations from 2013-15 under Aranda with even lower ranked players such as NFL veteran Joe Schobert (a local walk-on) or Derek Landisch, a (barely) 3-star ranked Wisconsin who had 15 tackles for loss and eight sacks as a 5-foot-11, 230 pound inside linebacker in 2014.

From Wisconsin, he took his methods to LSU, and I was actually skeptical of the prognosis. The 2016 LSU Tiger roster he inherited included a natural Edge rusher in Arden Key (who’d go on to produce 11 sacks that year) and in general the Tigers were well known for regularly fielding some athletic linebackers but dominating due to their hordes of future pro defensive backs. Aranda’s knack for making the most of heady players with clever, shifting tactics seemed miscast for a school which can dominate on defense simply by playing with great fundamentals and overpowering athletes.

Well he figured it out, even though they never had inside linebackers putting up Wisconsin numbers in the pass-rush (Devin White did serious damage but mostly against the run). He also made great use of some of the big, athletic safeties they had such as Jacoby Stevens or Grant Delpit, positioning them around the box to blitz like we saw from Pitre in 2021.

From there? He eventually took the Baylor head coaching job left vacant by Matt Rhule and completed his journey from linebacker abundance to the linebacker wasteland.

Recruiting linebackers in Texas

The problem MIGHT be overstated. The University of Texas in particular has had major struggles trying to find good linebackers over the last two decades, Oklahoma didn’t always share those problems, particularly when Brent Venables was their linebackers coach.

However, there are a few undeniable, fundamental issues.

The main one is this, a modern linebacker playing against spread offenses has two diametrically opposed tasks to perform. The first is to play interior gaps against the run, navigating oncoming offensive linemen trying to tear his head off and the need to bring a powerful running back (or quarterback) to the ground. The second? To cover receivers in space.

Handling all those tasks generally requires a player to have some good size to him and then to have pretty elite athleticism. Well if I’m a high school coach in spread-happy Texas who’s goal is to win games, rather than to develop linebackers on behalf of college coaches, where am I sticking my best and biggest athletes? If I have a dude who’s 6-foot-2, 205 pounds who can run and change direction with a frame to grow bigger and stronger, aren’t I playing him at quarterback, running back, or receiver?

If I have a dude who’s 6-foot-3, 230 pounds with blazing speed and a knack for the sort of violence which makes a great defender, where does he have maximal impact?

It used to be a Mike linebacker, blowing up lead blocks and shutting down run-centric offenses. Now? It’s on the edge at defensive end/outside linebacker where he can’t be pulled from the game with spacing or run/pass conflicts. At Mike he gets attacked, on the Edge he is the attacker.

The upshot, as I’ve noted many times now, is that the guys who might potentially make dominant inside linebackers don’t play inside linebacker. This is manifested in the recruiting rankings. Check out the top 10 ranked linebackers in the state of Texas for 2023.

  1. Anthony Hill. 6-foot-2, 228 pounds. 96.25 (5-star) from Denton Ryan (DFW). Going wherever he wants.
  2. S’Maje Burrell. 6-foot-1, 215 pounds. 90.17 (4-star) from North Crowley (DFW). Committed to Texas.
  3. Christian Brathwaithe. 6-foot-1, 225 pounds. 89.25 (4-star) from Cy Ranch (HOU). Committed to Baylor.
  4. Justin Cryer. 6-foot-0, 222 pounds. 89.00 (4-star) from Royal Katy (HOU). Considering FSU, LSU…
  5. Anquan Willis. 6-foot-0, 220 pounds. 88.80 (3-star) from Rider (Wichita Falls). Committed to Texas Tech.
  6. Kylan Salter. 6-foot-0, 190 pounds. 88.50 (3-star) from Cedar Hill (DFW). Considering OSU, TCU…
  7. Cory Kelley. 6-foot-2, 202 pounds. 88.33 (3-star) from Clear Falls (HOU). Considering Baylor, Miss State…
  8. Dylan Rogers. 6-foot-2, 205 pounds. 88.00 (3-star) from Cy Woods (HOU). Most likely LSU.
  9. Daymion Sanford. 6-foot-2, 190 pounds. 85.50 (3-star) from Paetow (HOU). Considering Army, SMU, UTSA…
  10. Taurean York. 5-foot-11, 220 pounds. 84.97 (3-star) from Temple. Committed to Baylor.

There’s a lot to unpack here in this list of 10 names.

Hill is the second highest ranked player in the whole state (DT David Hicks is no. 1), then you have to scroll down to the 42nd ranked player to reach Burrell, 54th to get to Brathwaithe, and York is the 137th ranked player in the state.

There are SIX cornerbacks ranked in between Hill and Burrell along with FIVE safeties, EIGHT wide receivers, and FIVE Edge defenders. The top ranked players in Texas don’t play linebacker.

Hill is a great player, but to what extent is his high ranking a reflection of scarcity? Finding a 6-foot-2, 230 pounder with high level athleticism who actually plays linebacker and isn’t missing several years of instruction in a very difficult position is hard. Once you get outside of the top five in our list above, no one weighs even 210 pounds.

Another interesting component to the list above is how often Baylor shows up on it. They’re in the running for two players and have the 3rd highest ranked player already committed. You wonder to what extent a Baylor offer bumps a linebacker’s rankings, the Aranda seal of approval is meaningful. It also indicates the importance of Aranda’s name in what they’re trying to accomplish at Baylor.

For instance, there’s another route to take here in acquiring good linebackers…

With the news of Josh White’s transfer from LSU to Baylor last night, Baylor has a potential starting linebacker corps for 2022 which goes as follows:

What’s notable is the means of acquisition. Both Doyle and White transferred in, from Iowa and LSU respectively. Terrell Bernard and Matt Jones were modestly ranked players (Jones at Edge) out of high school. Doyle wasn’t highly ranked but Baylor only got him because his dad (longtime strength coach of Iowa) was fired, making him available via the transfer portal. White originally committed to Aranda at LSU, missed 2021 with injury, and was buried a bit under a lot of staff changes and competition from upperclassmen.

None of that is to say Baylor can’t continue to add the sorts of linebackers who aren’t available to them out of the Texas high school ranks via the transfer portal, that’s just the thing. If you build a brand as a school which develops NFL linebackers, the transfer portal can give you extra recruiting power. High schoolers may choose based on NIL but transfers often make moves because they want to play or they want to go somewhere to receive better development. Doyle is the sort of guy who’s common in the Midwest for Big 10 schools but uncommon in Texas. No problem, Aranda has a reputation in the Midwest among linebackers. White is the sort of player who’s ranked too high for Baylor to have a great shot at recruiting (at least currently), but in the portal? It’s possible.

Aranda is running a linebacker-centric scheme in a locale which isn’t known for producing many great linebackers. If he can keep turning lower-ranked guys like Bernard into stars or pulling higher-end talents from the portal, perhaps they can continue to overcome the issue. Then down the line, just maybe we see Texas high schools start to put better athletes at inside linebacker again.

Does Dave Aranda have the best linebacker corps in the Big 12 now? Discuss for free on the Flyover Football board!

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