Mids Set for Utes' Defense Mechanism
Utah's Paul Kruger, top, and Koa Misi made sure UCLA's Ben Olson knew all about the Utes' aggressive defense.
(By Douglas C. Pizac -- Associated Press)
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Thursday, December 20, 2007
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 19 -- In the first bowl game of the 2007 college football season, Navy faces a Utah team known for its aggressive but disciplined defense.
Sounds like a perfect challenge for the imagination of Paul Johnson, the coach who presided over a five-year run of unprecedented success for the Midshipmen.
But Johnson no longer is the coach at Navy, having departed earlier this month for Georgia Tech. In his place is Ken Niumatalolo, formerly Johnson's top assistant, and Thursday night's Poinsettia Bowl will be the first demonstration of how much Johnson will be missed.
Calling the plays for Niumatalolo will be Ivin Jasper, who was promoted to offensive coordinator, instead of Johnson, who handled those duties himself. But the Midshipmen (8-4), who led the nation in rushing, hope the new division of labor will produce similar results.
"We've done the same things for years," Niumatalolo said. "Ivin's going to call the plays, but we'll all be feeding him information. The dynamics of how we call plays will be the same. The only difference is that Coach Jasper will be calling them" instead of Johnson.
The Midshipmen should be well supported Thursday. Nearly 46,000 tickets have been sold, according to bowl organizers, and at least 35,000 spectators are expected to be Navy fans.
They'll watch their team attack a Utah program that places an emphasis on its defensive tackles. The Utes (8-4) have seven defensive tackles on their roster who weigh 290 pounds or more; among them are transfers from Southern California and Colorado.
For Thursday's game, Utah Coach Kyle Whittingham stressed to his defense a scheme called "one-eleventh." Essentially, the defenders are given one assignment; they must fulfill that assignment on every play regardless of what play is being run.
"It's assignment football; any breakdowns in those assignments and [Navy] is out of the gate for big gains," Whittingham said.
The Utes used the one-eleventh scheme to face another option-heavy offense when Fisher DeBerry was coaching Air Force. Utah won its final four meetings against DeBerry's teams, but Air Force scored 43, 35, 35 and 14 points and rushed for a combined 957 yards in those games.
The key matchups Thursday are expected to be Navy center Antron Harper (5 feet 11, 272 pounds) and guards Anthony Gaskins (6-1, 281) and Ben Gabbard (6-4, 297) against Utah defensive tackles Gabe Long (6-3, 290) and Koa Misi (6-3, 263).
"Their tackles are really good, they are big but also very light on their feet," Harper said. "We have to keep our pad level low. When we're undersized, we can't try and take them on while we're standing up. Our fullbacks always run hard, so it's up to us to get them some room."
