oskirules said:
Rolovich's teams have yet to show they can play quality defense. Maybe it was the defensive coordinator or the offensive system that contributed to this so I'll wait and see.
He went through several DCs -- but I would venture to say that Hawaii level defensive talent may have been an issue.
Aranda was the best that Hawaii had from a scheme standpoint and even his defenses there were not the statistical performers that his USU or Wiscy or LSU defenses were.
Now, it's not like he will have access to top-level (conference) defensive talent at Wazzu either, so the success of that team will still be largely driven by how well the offense performs.
There's a number of pros and a number of cons to the scheme that he uses.
The past two years @ Hawaii were a mix of pure Run and Shoot, with some Nevada-esque QB Run stuff, with some Run and Shoot adapted RPO concepts (whereas most spread teams run Slot Fade / Glance patterns, Hawaii would use Seam Read / Choice type route adjustments for their RPO). Good mix of Gap & Zone run concepts that utilized the QB as a runner.
The RB was not a significant threat in the passing game outside of the function of constraint screens (slip screens, and their patented shovel screens) -- the RB is critically involved in protection -- since the majority of their dropback passing game is executed off a half-roll.
The Dropback RNS stuff is largely centered on leveraged based adjustments on vertical stemming routes -- take the RNS's version of Four verticals -- 80/81 Divide:
On divide, typically for the single side X rec in a 3x1 vs a one high shell with inside shade, that vertical would adjust to a post, outside shade -> Speed or Deep Out, Tight/Press -> Fade, Off -> Curl / Sit. Man? Takeoff of backshoulder -- the adjustments are similar for quarters, but totally different for hard 2 shell.
Now to the fieldside, you would be looking at the same streak read to the #1, with the #2 running some form of a seam read, and the #3 running an adjusting over route.
All receivers are taught to recognize and adjust to the blitz on hot routes -- single side would slant, the two slots would slant at various depths, and the outside to trips would run a quick in.
Very similar in a sense to the way we would run Six or Streaks in the old Bear Raid.
Where the RNS gets a little more unique is with various route concepts like Choice / Go / Switch / Hook/ Slide.
The idea is that it kind of doesn't matter what a defense is running, because the routes will adjust accordingly, the RNS pass game is the antithesis to the pattern match principals that a lot of modern defenses are built on.
Saban hates that stuff.
I would not necessarily worry about it too much, since we will matchup well in terms of DB vs Receiver -- but as alluded to earlier, the fact that so much of that scheme is dependent upon a 6 man protection scheme leaves it vulnerable. You could see Hawaii try to adapt and run more empty sets, and involve the QB run, but I get the sense that our defensive staff should be able to handle it.
Nonetheless, Wazzu made a hire that fits their current personnel very well -- much more impressed by what they should do offensively vs. what Jimmy Lake picked up @ UW...