Boston College Athletics
"We're Not Going To Look Like Ohio State on Defense"
September 17, 2020 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Jeff Hafley will revolutionize BC's defense by leaning into the Eagles' unique composition.
The past nine months felt like both a blink and an eternity for Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley. He trumpeted a new era when he arrived in Chestnut Hill, but the public injection of a fresh look at the Eagles stopped abruptly with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A very public presence in his first months, those early months forced his program's unveiling into the back shadows. The topsy-turvy timeline combined foci, and attention to medical protocols, testing, and physical conditioning forced football talk, the early source of enthusiasm, into a shared status.Â
It wasn't exactly the way anyone expected his first head coaching experience to begin, but the factors all caused time to simply fly by, even if it sometimes felt like it stood still. This weekend, though, it will all finally culminate with the public unveiling of the Eagles, in their first game of the 2020 season, against Duke.
"I can't believe I've been here for nine months," Hafley said this week. "It's been great to be here. I haven't had any time to reflect. I told the guys that I love this team, and I love the way they work and stick together. I'm very fortunate to be around a good bunch of guys to coach football. It felt like we weren't going to be playing for a time, but now we're a couple of days away from getting on a plane (for) a football game. It's awesome."
Hafley's first game was always going to heighten the senses, but the forced secrecy and privatization only served to intensify the anticipation of the initial public offering. Saturday marks the first time anybody will see the Eagles in real game scenarios after wondering aloud for nine months about what exactly they would look like.
It comes against a Duke team undergoing its own transition two years after quarterback Daniel Jones left for the NFL. The first round draft choice left a legacy in the hands of Quentin Harris, but the latter graduated last year after one year as the starting quarterback. It turned into something of a bridge year with a 5-7 finish, though the foundation laid bricks in Durham for the arrival of Chase Brice, the team's new starting signal caller.
Brice's name should sound familiar because he was once a sought-after quarterback recruit in the Class of 2017. He was a four-star prospect out of Georgia, a state champion after leading Grayson High School to 40 wins and the 2016 Georgia 7A High School state championship. An Elite 11 quarterback, he committed to Clemson after drawing his share of attention from power conference programs.
He oozed potential, but his arrival in Death Valley coincided with one of the most successful runs in modern college football history. He committed to the Tigers in 2016 while Deshaun Watson was winning the national championship, and he redshirted in 2017 when Kelly Bryant led the team back to the College Football Playoff.Â
Brice was eligible to play in 2018, but Trevor Lawrence's arrival cued another Clemson national championship. Lawrence beat out Bryant for the starting job before throwing for 3,000 yards, and last year ended with 14 more wins and another appearance in the College Football Playoff's final game.
The run relegated Brice to second-string status, but he wound up with action in 23 games across two seasons because Clemson dominated so many of its opponents. He amassed nearly 1,000 yards over two seasons, but with no upward mobility behind Lawrence, he transferred to Duke with two years of eligibility remaining. Last week, he assumed the starter's role for the Blue Devils in his first game, and he threw for more than 200 yards in his debut against Notre Dame.
"I thought Chase played really well under a difficult circumstance," Cutcliffe said of the Notre Dame game. "You're playing a really good team so (there is) a lot of challenging front pressure. He made some great throws...I think if we would have run the ball a little bit better, it would probably have opened up some things for us."
Defending Brice isn't easy, but Boston College actually has experience playing against him. He played against the Eagles during last year's blowout victory for Clemson, and he threw for 97 yards and a touchdown on 8-of-16 passing. Jeff Hafley wasn't with BC for that game, but he is well aware that Brice is a quarterback who can cause damage.Â
As for Hafley, success at Ohio State meant his first matchup as a head coach would always generate must-see theater, but a game against a highly-touted quarterback only added to the marquee. That said, there's a line of demarcation separating his work with the Buckeyes and his current goals for the Eagles. By default and definition, BC is going to be different than Ohio State in its genetic code, and the head coach is well aware that it creates very different opportunities and possibilities to spread creative thought throughout the defense.
"I think a prime example is where I was at last year," Hafley said. "We took the best 11 players we had and created a defense to suit what we had. We played a linebacker who could do a lot of things, and we played with three corners in the game. We would play with one safety in the game, and we're not going to do that here (at BC)."
Ohio State had three first round draft picks on its defensive roster, and Chase Young and Jeff Okudah went No. 2 and No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft. That natural depth is impossible to replicate at any program and with any team in any year. So instead of trying to repeat his past, Hafley opted to take a different approach by building depth through scheme, creativity, complexity, and education.
"You have to look at what you have and decide what your defense is going to be," he said. "If you have two linebackers that play really well in the box, you might have a linebacker who can match up with wide receivers or play some zone and you keep them in the game. If you don't, you have to match up by putting a nickel in the game, who has coverage ability and zone ability but can play the run if there's a two-back set.
He analyzed his personnel groupings and based his schematic design around every potential possibility. The coaching staff then deepened the cohesion among the players by teaching them about the different levels of the game. It further diversified the Eagles through the preseason and encouraged new skills among the players.
"You have to ask about the personnel you're playing against," he reiterated. "Are you playing against 12 where there's only two wideouts in the game and we need a bigger body, or is that nickel big enough to take on the tight end and run? Then you're also asking who the tight end is, if he's a fast guy or a blocker. If there's two blockers, you want bigger bodies. It's all matchups.
"I think that's why we're not going to look like Ohio State on defense," he stressed. "We have to create what we do, what we have, and play football."
All of this went a step further by incorporating a 360-degree coaching element into the team's understanding. His staff developed workflows to identify an offense's personnel groupings, and the position coaches developed further packages under defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu. It sped up the substitution process while enhancing players into roles in the event that they can't get off the field or are facing fast-moving confusion.
"We have guys in the box that will tell us what offensive personnel is in the game," he said. "Once we hear that, we can determine who we want to have in the game. That's the chess match as you go (through a game). If we hear that there are three wide receivers on the field, we might want three corners or a nickel. If they have one wide receiver, we probably want more big bodies.
"The challenge is when we don't know or the personnel is wrong," he explained. "Early in the season, the biggest challenge is having new guys and new faces, and you have to constantly adapt."
Boston College and Duke will kick off at 12 p.m. from Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium. The game can be seen on the ACC's Regional Sports Network coverage and can be seen locally in Boston on NESN. The game can also be heard via the BC IMG Sports Network, locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM. Satellite broadcast can be obtained on Sirius channel 134, XM channel 382 and Online channel 973.
A very public presence in his first months, those early months forced his program's unveiling into the back shadows. The topsy-turvy timeline combined foci, and attention to medical protocols, testing, and physical conditioning forced football talk, the early source of enthusiasm, into a shared status.Â
It wasn't exactly the way anyone expected his first head coaching experience to begin, but the factors all caused time to simply fly by, even if it sometimes felt like it stood still. This weekend, though, it will all finally culminate with the public unveiling of the Eagles, in their first game of the 2020 season, against Duke.
"I can't believe I've been here for nine months," Hafley said this week. "It's been great to be here. I haven't had any time to reflect. I told the guys that I love this team, and I love the way they work and stick together. I'm very fortunate to be around a good bunch of guys to coach football. It felt like we weren't going to be playing for a time, but now we're a couple of days away from getting on a plane (for) a football game. It's awesome."
Hafley's first game was always going to heighten the senses, but the forced secrecy and privatization only served to intensify the anticipation of the initial public offering. Saturday marks the first time anybody will see the Eagles in real game scenarios after wondering aloud for nine months about what exactly they would look like.
It comes against a Duke team undergoing its own transition two years after quarterback Daniel Jones left for the NFL. The first round draft choice left a legacy in the hands of Quentin Harris, but the latter graduated last year after one year as the starting quarterback. It turned into something of a bridge year with a 5-7 finish, though the foundation laid bricks in Durham for the arrival of Chase Brice, the team's new starting signal caller.
Brice's name should sound familiar because he was once a sought-after quarterback recruit in the Class of 2017. He was a four-star prospect out of Georgia, a state champion after leading Grayson High School to 40 wins and the 2016 Georgia 7A High School state championship. An Elite 11 quarterback, he committed to Clemson after drawing his share of attention from power conference programs.
He oozed potential, but his arrival in Death Valley coincided with one of the most successful runs in modern college football history. He committed to the Tigers in 2016 while Deshaun Watson was winning the national championship, and he redshirted in 2017 when Kelly Bryant led the team back to the College Football Playoff.Â
Brice was eligible to play in 2018, but Trevor Lawrence's arrival cued another Clemson national championship. Lawrence beat out Bryant for the starting job before throwing for 3,000 yards, and last year ended with 14 more wins and another appearance in the College Football Playoff's final game.
The run relegated Brice to second-string status, but he wound up with action in 23 games across two seasons because Clemson dominated so many of its opponents. He amassed nearly 1,000 yards over two seasons, but with no upward mobility behind Lawrence, he transferred to Duke with two years of eligibility remaining. Last week, he assumed the starter's role for the Blue Devils in his first game, and he threw for more than 200 yards in his debut against Notre Dame.
"I thought Chase played really well under a difficult circumstance," Cutcliffe said of the Notre Dame game. "You're playing a really good team so (there is) a lot of challenging front pressure. He made some great throws...I think if we would have run the ball a little bit better, it would probably have opened up some things for us."
Defending Brice isn't easy, but Boston College actually has experience playing against him. He played against the Eagles during last year's blowout victory for Clemson, and he threw for 97 yards and a touchdown on 8-of-16 passing. Jeff Hafley wasn't with BC for that game, but he is well aware that Brice is a quarterback who can cause damage.Â
As for Hafley, success at Ohio State meant his first matchup as a head coach would always generate must-see theater, but a game against a highly-touted quarterback only added to the marquee. That said, there's a line of demarcation separating his work with the Buckeyes and his current goals for the Eagles. By default and definition, BC is going to be different than Ohio State in its genetic code, and the head coach is well aware that it creates very different opportunities and possibilities to spread creative thought throughout the defense.
"I think a prime example is where I was at last year," Hafley said. "We took the best 11 players we had and created a defense to suit what we had. We played a linebacker who could do a lot of things, and we played with three corners in the game. We would play with one safety in the game, and we're not going to do that here (at BC)."
Ohio State had three first round draft picks on its defensive roster, and Chase Young and Jeff Okudah went No. 2 and No. 3 overall in the NFL Draft. That natural depth is impossible to replicate at any program and with any team in any year. So instead of trying to repeat his past, Hafley opted to take a different approach by building depth through scheme, creativity, complexity, and education.
"You have to look at what you have and decide what your defense is going to be," he said. "If you have two linebackers that play really well in the box, you might have a linebacker who can match up with wide receivers or play some zone and you keep them in the game. If you don't, you have to match up by putting a nickel in the game, who has coverage ability and zone ability but can play the run if there's a two-back set.
He analyzed his personnel groupings and based his schematic design around every potential possibility. The coaching staff then deepened the cohesion among the players by teaching them about the different levels of the game. It further diversified the Eagles through the preseason and encouraged new skills among the players.
"You have to ask about the personnel you're playing against," he reiterated. "Are you playing against 12 where there's only two wideouts in the game and we need a bigger body, or is that nickel big enough to take on the tight end and run? Then you're also asking who the tight end is, if he's a fast guy or a blocker. If there's two blockers, you want bigger bodies. It's all matchups.
"I think that's why we're not going to look like Ohio State on defense," he stressed. "We have to create what we do, what we have, and play football."
All of this went a step further by incorporating a 360-degree coaching element into the team's understanding. His staff developed workflows to identify an offense's personnel groupings, and the position coaches developed further packages under defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu. It sped up the substitution process while enhancing players into roles in the event that they can't get off the field or are facing fast-moving confusion.
"We have guys in the box that will tell us what offensive personnel is in the game," he said. "Once we hear that, we can determine who we want to have in the game. That's the chess match as you go (through a game). If we hear that there are three wide receivers on the field, we might want three corners or a nickel. If they have one wide receiver, we probably want more big bodies.
"The challenge is when we don't know or the personnel is wrong," he explained. "Early in the season, the biggest challenge is having new guys and new faces, and you have to constantly adapt."
Boston College and Duke will kick off at 12 p.m. from Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium. The game can be seen on the ACC's Regional Sports Network coverage and can be seen locally in Boston on NESN. The game can also be heard via the BC IMG Sports Network, locally in Boston on WEEI 93.7 FM. Satellite broadcast can be obtained on Sirius channel 134, XM channel 382 and Online channel 973.
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