Tulane defensive plan paying dividends

• By LES EAST
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Sep 24, 2008 - UPDATED: 6:35 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — Tulane coach Bob Toledo said he and his staff “tweaked” their defensive packages during the offseason and it’s paying off.

The Green Wave is first in the nation with 13 sacks and has yet to allow an opponent to gain 100 yards in a first half.

Tulane is first among Conference USA in most defensive categories, including sacks, scoring, yards, rushing, passing, and third-down conversions.

The defense is the primary reason the Green Wave held its own in losses against ranked opponents Alabama and East Carolina and never trailed in beating Louisiana-Monroe. Next up for Tulane is SMU on Thursday night in the Superdome.

The Green Wave operates out of a 4-3 base, but also utilizes a 3-5 package, which it did last season when it led C-USA in run defense. But, Toledo said, Tulane is playing more zone and less man-to-man and doing a much better job covering underneath pass routes.

“We did not deflect a pass from a linebacker; we did not intercept a pass last year from a linebacker,” Toledo said Tuesday at the Green Wave’s weekly news conference. “We’re getting closer to the football and that’s what I wanted to do. We gave up way too many big plays. We weren’t even in the top 100 for pass defense last year.

“Our underneath coverage is so much better than it was a year ago at this time. We couldn’t stop anybody on third down. We could not stop the passing game and that was one of my big goals this year — to create an atmosphere where we could do that. So we did it not mainly by scheme, but by personnel. We’ve got more speed on the field.”

Tulane’s speed has been eye-catching as multiple Green Wave defenders have consistently gotten into opponents’ backfields — making four sacks against the Crimson Tide, five against the Pirates, and four against the Warhawks.

“There’s at least one blitz for everyone on the team,” said junior linebacker Logan Kelley, who’s fourth in the country with an average of 1.33 sacks per game. “There are blitzes for the free safety, the corners, everyone is coming. I think that helps, plus the times that the coaches call them and the way we go in with our game plan — what blitzes we put in their for their protection schemes and recognizing those protection schemes.”

Senior defensive tackle Julian Shives-Sams said new defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert, who coached the defensive line last season, kept telling the players during the spring and summer that they would be a good defense, but a few needed to see for themselves once the season started.

“During the summer a lot of guys didn’t believe we were going to be a good defense,” Shives-Sams said. “Some are surprised at how good we’ve become today. We expect to dominate our opponents. I think it comes from showing a lot of different looks and we’re being physical.”

Toledo said the defense is playing better than the offense right now, and quarterback Kevin Moore said that can inspire the offense.

“The defense has been absolutely spectacular the whole season,” Moore said. “Offensively, sometimes you feel like you have to equal them almost at some point. Having a defense like that and with how well they’ve played has been absolutely fantastic.