Next Man Up. Then the Next One. And the Next
Defense has taken on many looks this season
Mike Brohard
Injuries are part of the game. Coaches expect them to hit the lineup at some point in the season, and so do the players. Very rarely in a game with so much violent contact will a team not experience the repercussions.
But at what point does it become unexpected?
Tyson Summers could put the 2024 Colorado State defense up as Exhibit A.
Heading into the 10th game of the season Saturday at New Mexico, the Rams have already used 24 different starters on a defensive unit which has had four players – linebacker Owen Long, safety Jake Jarmolowich and corners Lemondre Joe and Jahari Rogers – start every game.
Look at it this way. Summers’ base defense of choice is a three-man front. The Rams have started nine different defensive linemen due to injury, meaning the entire three-deep depth chart has started a game.
Six different linebackers have started. So have nine different defensive backs, meaning two positions in a nickel package have used six players as starters. Summers has had to get creative, but even his imagination has a breaking point. Against Hawaii’s passing attack, his desire was to start in dime.
“It wasn't dime because we didn't have enough DBs, but we played with one,” Summers said. “We couldn't get the dime, so we made one. But it was one D-tackle, and then the two outside backers were both playing what normally our end and tackle would play. So, all the jacks went to tackle that week.
“And then Kenyon (Agurs), we already had moved our jacks to end, and then we were playing with three backers, and that was how we were playing our dime version versus Hawaii.”
Summers has never presented the issue as an excuse. Neither have his players. They see a situation, then find a solution. In fact, most of them weren’t aware of the large number of different starters, focusing more on who is in the lineup and how they’re going to approach a game.
The result has been a lot of young players have had to grow up quickly and play roles they weren’t expected to fill back in August. They go out every week with the confidence they can count on the guys who line up to their left and their right, even if they don’t know who it may be from week to week.
“I think the biggest thing is nobody complains. Like you got Chance Harrison, who was a nickel, then we were down on corners, so he went to go to a corner, came back to nickel, then he went to boundary safely, this week he's back in nickel,” Jarmolowich said. “And you know, you feel sometimes that you feel a little bit frustrated, like you feel like you can't master a certain spot, but Chance comes out every day, gives it his all when his number's called, and there's a lot of guys like that. Guys on the D-line, linebacker room, safeties, corners, everyone. It's really good to see.”
Depending on the vantage point. For comparison, last year’s defensive unit employed all of 13 starters in the regular season with nine players starting every game. This year, the Rams have lost 21 games played by first-week starters.
Summers does like his packages, and he has multiple, so the plan was to incorporate multiple players during the year. But situationally, not game-to-game as starters. He wants to be multiple, and through it, aggressive. He likes versatile players, too, but this situation is something he’s never experienced.
“When injuries happen, you can't make excuses for it, and you're trying to prepare people,” Summers said. “I think the adjective that I'd like to use for our players is adaptability. You know, the guys that play … The term that you'd use in recruiting for that is range.”
I think everybody likes to have their back against the wall, because that's when you show what type of person you are.Paul Tangelo
A couple of players in particular have found out just how much range they possess. Every week, Summers is trying to find his best 11 players to put on the field. Week after week, which has meant some players are moving from one position to another.
Fill in the gaps, learn a new job. Agurs has started at three different positions. So has Paul Tangelo. His approach has been to embrace change.
“Yeah, I think everybody enjoys the chaos, for sure. I think everybody likes to have their back against the wall, because that's when you show what type of person you are,” Tangelo said. “So, everybody is enjoying that, for sure.
“This is my last year, so I'm leaving it all on the line.”
Or wherever he’s asked to line up.
There was promise when the season started. In the four non-conference games, the unit was allowing 23.0 points per game, which a team can live with in this era of college football. The number has grown to 28.8 during Mountain West play. However, the injuries started right out of the gate, and not even on the field of play. Defensive lineman Gabe Jones was lost at halftime of the season opener walking off the field, and the hits kept coming.
It doesn’t allow a unit to grow together, and it hasn’t helped it’s been on the field a lot. Again, they blame themselves for not getting stops in prime opportunities, but the offense hasn’t converted its third-down chances either.
But cash it in? Never.
“Like Owen Long and I say every game to each other, play with some pride, play with some pride,” Jarmolowich said. “And when guys start getting down, we just tell them, play for us and let's just have some fun.
“That's what I tell everybody, just have some fun, because my time's almost up with college football. I'm just grateful to be out here with my friends, playing and running around. I could be behind the desk, you know what I mean? So that's what I tell everyone.”
And the bright side is what they’re all trying to find. Tangelo could waffle about playing so many different spots, learning something new from week to week. Instead, he views it as he gets to do something new week to week, learn a bit more about the game.
In the end, he’s going to leave the field a more complete player. Positivity reigns supreme for him.
“It's pretty easy. It's actually easy,” Tangelo said. “You’ve got to wake up every day with a positive mindset. That's what the coaches really stress. Every game, if a player is asked to step up, there's always somebody that steps up. So, you've always got to be proud of the person who steps up, for sure.”
Every Sunday, Summers breaks down film of the offense his unit is about to face. He takes notes and devises a plan to combat the attack. Then he checks the injury report to see who is available to play and how he can plug the best 11 available into the system.
Can they make it work? Is there a way to mix and match those 11 into what the assignments will be? Does he have the right personnel to employ the other packages needed?
Even when the answer is no, he has to find a way to say yes. He knows his players will answer in the affirmative. Now, on top of that, he’s the interim coach, tasked with having the entire team ready for what awaits.
Even he admits the numbers presented to him seem a bit absurd. But at no time was he counting, he was just trying to solve a riddle or put together a puzzle which had the border pieces misplaced.
It can drive a coordinator nuts. Or not.
Summers is going to practice what he preaches.
“I think the beauty in that is -- we say this all the time as a staff, and I say this with the players and they understand what I mean -- you're constantly in your off-season trying to prepare for war in a time of peace,” Summers said. “And so, what you're constantly trying to do is have a plan for all of these different scenarios that come up.”
Plans he never expected to be drawn up on the expansive whiteboard in his office when the season began. But again, whose counting.
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