Facing Houston’s defense is like trying to read a scarlet-and-white Rorschach test. Opponents this season have looked across the line and usually said, “Um?”
“You can see in the other offense’s eyes that they don’t know where you’re coming from …,” Cougars linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “Sometimes it gets funny.”
Florida State (10-2) will be the next to try to find the method in the zone-blitz madness when it takes on Houston, 12-1 and champions of the American Athletic Conference, in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Thursday in the Georgia Dome.
Florida State co-offensive coordinator Lawrence Dawsey twice used the word chaos when describing what makes the Cougars so effective during a press conference on Monday.
“You never know who is coming,” Dawsey said. “I think that’s why they have had so much success.”
The chaos is actually organized, according to Houston defensive coordinator Todd Orlando, who honed the 3-4 based, multiple scheme in his previous job at Utah State before joining coach Tom Herman at Houston in January.
He said the concepts behind the defense are sound and are usually something teams have faced before. But for offenses to recognize what they are seeing can be like trying to find a butterfly in an inkblot.
“To cause a little bit of indecision, to cause that flinch …,” Orlando said.
It seems to be working.
The Cougars are No. 19 in FBS in scoring (20.5), No. 12 in rushing defense (116 yards per game) and No. 2 in turnover margin (plus-17).
Orlando played a 4-3 scheme at Connecticut when he was defensive coordinator there from 2005-10. But he also began to tinker with a 3-4 scheme. He used it mostly to give opponents something to prepare for, though he now says they weren’t sure of everything they were doing.
When Orlando joined Utah State in 2013, he morphed the 3-4 and 4-3 as his base defense. It wasn’t an adaptation to the talent he inherited. It was because he wanted to attack, or at least make the quarterback think that he is going to attack.
He also reasoned that if something during a play breaks down, he would rather have four guys deeper behind the line who are able to try to clean up what went wrong, rather than three. He credited Gary Andersen, head coach at Oregon State and formerly the coach at Utah State, and Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Aranda with helping him learn the scheme.
“Some of it is pressure,” he said. “Some of it is the illusion of pressure. Some of it is making sure the guys can make plays. From our standpoint, it’s a lot of low-risk things.”
But the ability to switch between a 3-4 and 4-3, going back to what he used at Connecticut, makes it that much harder for offenses to prepare, particularly when that hybrid end/linebacker can line up anywhere on the field.
“If I can make an offensive staff sit in a meeting room for 11 straight hours to get ready for all this stuff then that’s a good thing for us,” Orlando said.
Florida State will be a different challenge for the Cougars. Orlando didn’t tone down his respect for the Seminoles, particularly Dalvin Cook, who has rushed for 1,658 yards this season.
Orlando said they haven’t seen a runner like Cook and likely won’t until the Cougars go to their next bowl game. Orlando said several times that Cook will be a first-round draft pick whenever he leaves Tallahassee. He also said the Cougars likely don’t have a first- or second-round draft pick on defense.
“You won’t stop him,” Orlando said. “He’s blown by people that we don’t have.
“You have to limit him from reaching the outside perimeter. If you get him in space you have to take a shot and hope nine other maniacs are running him down.”
Rather than worry about all the ways that Florida State can use Cook, or any of the other weapons in an offense that is averaging 32.3 points and 424.9 yards per game, Orlando said is trying to simplify his message to his players.
But like his defense, that message looks easy but is layered.
“It’s running, hitting and executing,” Orlando said.
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