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Clancy Pendergast's 52 Defense

Buffnik

Buffnik

Real name isn't Nik
Club Member
Junta Member
Whether he's a candidate or not, I assume some of you are like me and like to geek out a bit on the scheme stuff.

I was curious what this 5-2 is that Pendergast developed and found a great blog from a USC guy who goes into ridiculous detail on the scheme.

It sounds like M Kiffin's Tampa-2 is too complex for the college level while Pendergast's 5-2 is something that players can quickly pick up and play fast within a few practices... and that it matches up well against all the different offenses it needs to be tweaked for at the college level (especially in the Pac-12).

Three-part series:

The 5-2 Defensive Front

Secondary Alignment

Defensive Play Calling
 
5-2 = tweaked 3-4 under as dedicated base defense. That would make sense with our personnel of DTs and tweener DE/OLBs I guess. It gives up vertical depth to bump up horizontal depth to address the way spread offenses try and attack the full width of the field.
 
I'd like to think that our tweener recruiting would align perfectly with this scheme, but we're obviously still lacking in the height department. Those ends need to be able to deflect passes if they're rushing and don't reach the QB.
 
Darth Snow said:
5-2 = tweaked 3-4 under as dedicated base defense. That would make sense with our personnel of DTs and tweener DE/OLBs I guess. It gives up vertical depth to bump up horizontal depth to address the way spread offenses try and attack the full width of the field.
Click to expand...

The "tweak" that's pretty brilliant is figuring out how to play a 3-4 while not making your DL play 2-gap responsibilities.
 
interesting read....i like pendergast best because of his familiarity with the pac offenses...
 
My concern is we are loading up on D-linemen and seem to have little interest in Outside LB'ers.
The 5-2 adds a LB (really the 3-4 under) and takes away a D-lineman.

Olugbode and Gillam will be Juniors and played in all sets including nickel.
Greer played the Sam and is gone.
Not sure if Rippy will ever play. That leaves Severson, Gamboa, Talianko, and Rippy if he returns? Plus Watanabe (Mike I'm sure) and True Frosh?

I find it hard to believe that we could fix our defense by switching, given our personnel.
 
Buffnik said:
The "tweak" that's pretty brilliant is figuring out how to play a 3-4 while not making your DL play 2-gap responsibilities.
Click to expand...
Yup. Simple is good. And it forces teams to attack you deep or up the middle while giving you a lot of pass rush options. Although I bet a good vertical TE would cause extra problems.
 
buffaholic said:
My concern is we are loading up on D-linemen and seem to have little interest in Outside LB'ers.
The 5-2 adds a LB (really the 3-4 under) and takes away a D-lineman.

Olugbode and Gillam will be Juniors and played in all sets including nickel.
Greer played the Sam and is gone.
Not sure if Rippy will ever play. That leaves Severson, Gamboa, Talianko, and Rippy if he returns? Plus Watanabe (Mike I'm sure) and True Frosh?

I find it hard to believe that we could fix our defense by switching, given our personnel.
Click to expand...
Interesting point. The D is 1-2 years behind the O in talent and depth and is certainly in the bottom tier of the PAC12. I don't know how much scheming will help improve outcomes...what will help is to get a coach in the players' heads so they cause TO (which is more about fundamentals than scheme IMO). This D probably won't be at least average until 2016.
 
buffaholic said:
My concern is we are loading up on D-linemen and seem to have little interest in Outside LB'ers.
The 5-2 adds a LB (really the 3-4 under) and takes away a D-lineman.

Olugbode and Gillam will be Juniors and played in all sets including nickel.
Greer played the Sam and is gone.
Not sure if Rippy will ever play. That leaves Severson, Gamboa, Talianko, and Rippy if he returns? Plus Watanabe (Mike I'm sure) and True Frosh?

I find it hard to believe that we could fix our defense by switching, given our personnel.
Click to expand...

It gets a little more feasible if you include Gilbert and Shaver as LB's, maybe even Reed and McCartney as well in that alignment.
 
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TDbuff said:
It gets a little more feasible if you include Gilbert and Shaver as LB's, maybe even Reed and McCartney in that alignment.
Click to expand...

We were using Gilbert and Shaver that way this year as the season wore on. So a little more feasible, but still not sure they have the athleticism for this, nor am I sure that Falo/Hockaday do either. We needed a couple of those Juco's to be LBs (well, we already thought that and that was before we added a LB to the formation).

I think McCartney is outgrowing that concept.
 
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I have been concerned about height for a while, but Holic touched on something else-for giving up size, we sure haven't gained athleticism.
 
Short and slow is a rough combination. At least every football coach I ever had told me that... often.
 
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