Fronts and Pass defense Concepts From Coach Guidry and the Marshall Defense

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 The Marshall Defense was exceptional in 2022 as the unit was led by Lance Guidry. He led an aggressive unit that was outstanding in several categories. Several things I notices about the defense is they are very good against the run. They really try to take advantage of those plus 1 situations. They play a lot of man concepts including man free rat where they get 7 eyes on the rb while playing man free on the perimeter. They held Notre Dame to slightly over 100 yards and one big run was a reverse. They also do a great job of taking your best pass threat out of the game. This was evident vs JMU. 

They are also well coached and are a great tackling team. They don't miss many tackles and are very sound in their gap responsibilities. When they stunt and move they are sound and players are in the right gap and run fit very well.

Lastly, they are outstanding in several categories. My favorite being 3rd down defense as there haven't been many teams better than him in college football the past five years. Love his sub packages where you will see some different personnel groupings on 3rd down. His units play fast and are very aggressive. 

As you can see below, they were top 5 in several categories including 3rd down, defensive efficiency and interceptions. They were dominant at times and did some great things on the defensive side of the ball. 

Let's look at some aspects of the defense.

Base front:

They play traditional 4-2 but one thing I noticed is they play a ton of 4-2 split fronts with 2 3 techniques. I saw this vs JMU and some what vs Notre Dame. It was interesting to see how they played it in the JMU game. Tons of movement and games are associated with the front.  We will discuss further below some o their man free coverages which gives them an advantage in the run game. 

A few schemes:

They are very aggressive in their run defense. I love some of his run schemes and stunts and how well they are coached at executing a variety of stunts. 

Below is an example of their split front where they run 2 games on both sides and send the will linebacker to the A gap weak. They get the DE into the a gap with the DT b gap. The sam blitzes off the edge. The mike is scraping c gap where the ball gets bounced.

They do a great job in the defense vs JMU and the Linebacker scrapes outside. They are disciplined and every player knows their job really well. 

Will blitzes the a gap below.

You can see the Tex stunt on both sides as the LDE is coming b gap and the right de is stunting to the a gap. The well coached defense has every gap covered inside with the LB waiting in the C gap.

The Ball gets bounced where the lb is unblocked due to the blitzing lb and SS off the edge. 

Excellent defense for a minimal gain. 

2 clips of the stunt below

Another front they will use is their bear front. They have a comprehensive bear package and coverages they like with it.

Bear Package

You will see them run their bear package and it has been successful for them. They like to go bear and send 3 and drop 8 into coverage. Often that will be man on the outside and rb playing zone and combo underneath. 

Here's a nice job by Marshall as they send only 3 and drop the olb into coverage. They are rat defenders and the left defensive end gets the interception. A nice job with man free on the outside and 3 LB's helping underneath in coverage.

Both OLB drop into coverage, mike has the rb but he blocks so he looks for work underneath. The bear look keeps the rb in protection and they are able to get several defenders underneath forcing more low percentage throws on the perimeter. 

Good job playing on the perimeter by the Marshall Defense. No place really to throw on any inbreaking routes. All the dbs have outside leverage knowing where their help is. 

Here's another example of bear man free rat where it is a 3 man rush vs Notre Dame on 4th and 4.

Pass Coverages 

In addition to several base coverages they play a ton of man free rat.

Man free Rat

Man free rat is a 7 man run defense vs 11 personnel. It is very effective because you play man free on the outside and have the 3 linebackers combo the h back and the rb. This is a very effective run defense and if you can matchup, good vs the rpo game.

Another concept you will notice is they are very good in run support from their secondary. 

They will also use their cb as heavy run support often bringing them off the edge in pressure. This was evident in the JM game 

The 2nd example they bring a cb fire to the 3x1 bunch side. Excellent call as the offense tries to run toss vs them.

Great job defensively by Marshall at giving various pressure looks but keeping the defensive scheme relatively simple so his players can play fast. 

In the Notre Dame game, they bring the cb and the sam on 1st down and play straight man coverage. They get good pressures and are aggressive.

You can see the aggressive scheme and one of the reasons they are very good against the run. 

Game planning

This year they won some very tough games and beat some really good football teams, including top ranked Notre Dame. One thing Guidry will do on those 3rd downs is take away what you do best.

Notre Dame has 2 outstanding wr in Lorenzo Styles and TE Maher. They doubled and bracketed both when they could.

You see Maher lined up as #3 and they have the LB helping underneath on him and Styles essentially doubled on the 1 wr side. 

You can see the bracket coverage on both players as the LB drops under Meyer to help inside and Styles has the CB and Safety playing him in bracket coverage.

Here's the clip that goes with it. 

Also, in the JMU game they did a good job holding outstanding wr all American Kris Thornton to 4 catches for 47 yards. This was impressive and they did it by doubling him and bracketing him at times. 

These are just some of the concepts you will see from Coach Guidry and the Marshall defense. Expect to see some of these at Miami next year.

3rd down Analysis: (coming soon)