Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz talks with Keenan Robinson, Emmanuel Acho and Adrian Phillips. Diaz' defense will have to contain Griffin on Saturday.
Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III's 34 touchdown passes this season have averaged an incredible 35.9 yards.
Late last December, Mack Brown was in the final stages of vetting Manny Diaz as Texas' possible new defensive coordinator. There was only one thing left to do.
Watch Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl.
"I thought I'd watch him play Michigan and Denard Robinson," Brown said Monday. "I thought if I got excited about what I saw, I'd call him the next day."
Brown then watched Diaz's Mississippi State defense limit Robinson — Michigan's dual-threat quarterback — to a season-low 59 rushing yards in a 52-14 Bulldogs bowl victory.
The Longhorns head coach was on the phone the next day.
It was because of games like that in 2010 — not to mention holding Auburn and eventual Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton to a season-low 17 points — that Diaz is now in Austin.
And it's for games like Saturday's regular-season finale at Baylor, against quarterback Robert Griffin III, that Diaz's track record of containing multi-threat quarterbacks could be especially invaluable.
He's already been valuable, certainly, for transforming Texas into by far the Big 12's leading defense. But Diaz conceded Monday that he's never seen a quarterback quite like Griffin, and it's for more than the fact that the Copperas Cove product has grown from simply being a world-class track athlete playing quarterback into an all-around running and throwing threat.
Griffin, who directs the nation's No. 2-ranked offense, has an amazing supporting cast. That's part of what Diaz said makes him and the No. 19 Bears so dangerous.
"Those other guys," Diaz said, referring to Robinson and Newton, "didn't have a four-by-one (hundred) track team lined up at wideout on every play. This is different.
"This is a real unique challenge. If it could be done, it would have been done. There've been 11 smart guys (defensive coordinators) that have tried to stop them up to this point, and they've all had the same thoughts we've had."
Those other 11 coordinators, however, haven't been armed with the same quality of defense that the Longhorns will take to Waco. What Texas' defense does best is prevent exactly what Baylor's offense does best — big plays.
Griffin's 34 touchdown passes have been for an astonishing average of 35.9 yards each. By comparison, the longest touchdown pass Texas' defense has allowed this year was just 19 yards, by Oklahoma's Landry Jones to Kenny Stills.
"They are relentless in their pursuit of explosive plays," Diaz said. "To me, that is the arena where this game will be fought — their ability to create explosive plays versus our ability to try and limit them."
It will be a challenge. Besides Griffin, Baylor boasts explosive receiver Kendall Wright, who has 95 catches for 1,406 yards and 14 touchdowns. But wideouts Terrance Williams, Tevin Reese and Lanear Sampson also have combined for 130 receptions for 2,104 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Additionally, 240-pound running back Terrance Ganaway has forced defenses to play honest, rushing for 1,195 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Texas linebacker Emmanuel Acho said the key to containing Griffin is making the junior one-dimensional.
Even that's not without risk.
In addition to ranking first in the Big 12 in passing efficiency, Griffin has rushed for 612 yards, second among league quarterbacks behind the 1,013 by Kansas State's Collin Klein, who Texas limited to just 4 net yards on 26 carries.
Klein, though, has nowhere near the athleticism and elusiveness of Griffin, who despite all the talent around him is the one who makes it all work.
"You have to make them a pocket passer," Acho said of dual-threat quarterbacks. "When they're a pocket passer they become conventional. They become essentially the same as every other quarterback.
"That's the goal," added Acho, before noting, "but it's much easier said than done."
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment