(Photo: Tyler Strachan/WCSN)
When Stanford travels to face Arizona State on Saturday night, they will bring with them a larger, smash-mouth style offense that is predicated on establishing the run to set up the rest of the playbook. In a conference that is known for points and high-flying offenses, the Cardinal break the Pac-12 mold and the Sun Devils’ defense has prepared for the different challenge.
Head coach Todd Graham has made some shuffles along the defensive front in preparation for Stanford, but the most notable change has been the insertion of Demetrius Cherry as a defensive end opposite Marcus Hardison.
Cherry is a 6-foot-5, 300-pound lineman who has worked as a nose tackle for ASU in previous games. One thing about the junior is very clear: He is not a Devil-backer.
With Cherry and Hardison serving as a pair of bookend defensive ends against Stanford, the Devil-backer position, which has been a staple of Graham’s defense since the coach came to Tempe, is unlikely to be used much against the Cardinal.
And that’s a good thing.
But the Sun Devils shouldn’t stop there. The team should do away with the Devil-backer position in its base defense for the remainder of the 2014 season and continue to use a pair of larger defensive ends.
Pete Carroll and the LEO
Before we go any further though, a little background might be necessary to understand the Devil-backer position and its role in Graham’s defense. While it’s an innovative piece to the ASU defense that is used by very few other defenses, it isn’t Graham’s innovation.
It was originally created by Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll early in his coaching career. But the credit might also be more appropriately directed to Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Monte Kiffin.
Kiffin’s football resume is an extensive one, but he is perhaps best known for creating defenses that could combine unrelated fronts in a way that makes the defense simple to run, but difficult to scheme against. In his long coaching career that dates back to 1966, he has worked with many coaches and his influential defensive style has had an impact on many coaches.
One of those was Carroll, whom he worked with first in 1977 when Kiffin was the defensive coordinator of the Arkansas Razorbacks and Carroll was a graduate assistant for the team. Just three years later, Kiffin was the head coach at North Carolina State where Carroll was his defensive coordinator.
But it wasn’t until Carroll served as the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers that his new innovative position began to take shape. While the 49ers ran a 3-4 defense during Carroll’s time, one of the team’s formations was known as the “Elephant” set, which featured a fourth defensive lineman.
That fourth defensive lineman evolved into a position that Carroll referred to as the “LEO,” which isn’t tremendously unique in design. Most defenses have a WILL linebacker or a different type of weak-side blitzer, but the LEO operates differently in that the sole concern of the player is to get in the backfield and wreak havoc. Neither gap control nor pass coverage are a concern of the LEO, as the primary goal of the position is to win as a pass rusher.
If an opposing team wants to run the ball, they have the option of running into the teeth of the defense that features three larger defensive lineman on one side. The more logical choice is to run toward the side of the undersized LEO, but the linebackers expect as much and flow toward the gap between the right guard and tackle.
On passing downs, there is a lesser threat off one side, but the LEO on the opposite side is given the sole goal of winning with their first step and bending around the edge to get to the quarterback.
Carroll brought the position with him to each of his coaching stops, and it has been especially successful during his current stint with the Seahawks. The team found tremendous success with Chris Clemons in the role and now relies on Cliff Avril and O’Brien Schofield most at LEO.
Graham’s Devil-backer
The Devil-backer position is essentially the same defensive wrinkle that Carroll added to his defenses years ago with the LEO, and Graham has found plenty of success with it in his career at ASU. For all intents and purposes, the terms “LEO” and “Devil-backer” could be used interchangeably. With Carl Bradford handling the duties in Graham’s first two years at ASU, the team racked up 91 sacks, second only to Stanford in the FBS during that two-year period.
However, with Bradford’s departure to the NFL following the 2013 season, the ASU defense has relied on De’Marieya Nelson, Edmond Boateng and Antonio Longino most at Devil-backer. The team is 91st in the nation in sacks. Simply put, the Devil-backer isn’t working like it’s designed to.
It’s a position predicated on winning with a dynamic first step and enough ankle flexion to bend around the edge. While Nelson might be talented enough in those two aspects, the team is hesitant to commit fully to using the senior on defense when he offers so much as a tight end for the offense. After Nelson, Longino and Boateng just haven’t shown that they are capable of being dynamic enough pass rushers to be successful in the role.
That doesn’t mean the defense should forever abandon the position. It’s not a difficult position to recruit for, as undersized defensive ends are often cast aside by teams avoiding “tweeners” that don’t fit traditional defensive end or outside linebacker molds. Freshman Ismael Murphy-Richardson (who will redshirt in 2014) is one player who could find success in the role and recent commit, Jalen Bates, is another who could contribute early at Devil-backer.
Also in third down situations, ASU should absolutely continue use the Devil-backer position to get pressure, but the defense has proven ineffective as a base scheme.
Cherry is nowhere near the pass rusher that Nelson, Longino or Boateng are, but if nobody is getting to the quarterback, the team might as well insert another big body in the base defense, bolster the run defense,and try to pressure the quarterback in another manner, through blitzes and interior rushers. Not just against Stanford, but the rest of the schedule as well.
(h/t to Eric Stoner of Draft Mecca for help with this post)
You can reach Adam Stites on Twitter @AdamStitesASU or by email arstites@asu.edu
