As the first week of CU camp gets close to the end and the Buffs get ready to head back to Boulder, we are starting to get a clearer picture of what Chris Marve wants to do with his defense. Violence, aggression, physicality, and relentless effort may not be what you want to see from your kids on the playground, but it is exactly what you want to see from a Big 12 defense, and that is what Marve has been preaching and pushing all week. One thing is sure: Marve knows how to fire his guys up, and his speeches to both the team and to his defense have that kind of old-time gospel preacher vibe to them that make you want to get up and find Jesus—and run through a wall to do it!
But fire and brimstone aren’t the only tools that Chris Marve has at his disposal. He is a coach who knows a lot about defensive football, and as a career LB coach, he knows a thing or two about the front seven on defense. And with all the different fronts seen in modern football, and the adjustments on those fronts—bear, over, under, tite, mint, and more—sometimes the best answer is still something basic and old school, like a straight-up 4-3 defense.
It doesn’t require a doctorate in space engineering to figure this out—when you have three really good linebackers, you find ways to keep all three of them on the field, particularly against run-first offenses. Given that Brennan Marion’s GoGo offense is built around the run-first mentality, it wasn’t all that surprising to see Marve go with a very textbook standard 4-3 defense in practice today. Who was lined up where in that defense, however, had a few surprises.
For starters, I think most people would have assumed that Gideon Lampron or Liona Lefau would have been the “Mike” or middle linebacker in this defense. In fact, it was Tyler Martinez at the Mike, and this makes sense to me, since he is more of the prototype tackle to tackle middle linebacker. Lampron and Lefau were the outside linebackers, both lined up outside the offensive tackles, with Lampron at “Sam” or the strong side, and Lefau at “Will” or the weak side. This also makes sense as they both have a bit more athleticism and can cover more ground as well as cover tight ends. And their placement at Sam and Will, respectively, also fits right into their strengths, as Lampron is a physical LB who can take on blockers, and Lefau is a very athletic LB who can be effective in space.
The defensive tackles were Santana Hopper at the 3 technique on the outside shoulder of the strong side guard, and Dylan Manuel at 6'1, 300 at the 1 technique shaded to the weak side shoulder of the center. From what I’ve seen so far in week one, Santana Hopper is everything he was reputed to be and the move up to a higher level has not impacted him at all. If there is a size issue for Hopper, I have not seen it impact his play in any way yet. As for Manuel, he appears to be winning the competition for what we will call the “nose guard” position and has shown to be very stout inside so far.
The strong side Edge in this lineup today is no surprise in Toby Anene. He too is living up to expectations in this first week and the edges have done good work so far. The weak side Edge may be a surprise to some at this point as it is third year Edge Immanuel Ezeogu who is currently playing with the first team at that spot. To be sure, lineups in week one often do not end up staying that way until game one, but it is apparent that Ezeogu was not kidding when he said, after running a 4.5 forty at 240 pounds in winter testing, “I didn’t come here to f*** around!”
There has been a lot to like in this first week on defense for CU, not the least of which is that the rest of the defense seems to have taken up Ezeogu’s winter mantra as the basis for their play. It has been a minute since CU fans consistently saw truly relentless effort and physical, violent, fundamentally sound play on defense. Could this be the year it happens?
I will wrap this up with a couple of other observations from the first week of practice. Defensive tackle Samu Taumanupepe, who is listed at 6'3, 375 but who looks significantly slimmer than that to me, continues to catch my eye with physical play that often pushes the line of scrimmage. Another big defensive tackle, Sedrick Smith (6'4, 320) has also caught my attention a few times with solid technique and aggressive physical play. Watching Smith use excellent technique to beat a double team today makes me think that maybe new defensive line coach Dante Carter may be doing a decent job at the position, even with limited experience.
One last thing that caught my eye today was Carson Crawford at linebacker, specifically the Mike position. If you watched Crawford’s highlights from his senior season of high school in Texas last season you could not help but be impressed by his size, his athleticism, his physicality, and his instinct for the position. Quite frankly the CU linebacker he most reminds me of is Ted Johnson, who was a four year starter and All American. What I’ve seen from Crawford in practice so far this week has done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm. He’s one to keep an eye on!
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