Ron English's Focus Goes Beyond Schemes as Defensive Play Caller for Purdue Football

Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Ron English will call the defense for Purdue during the 2022 season.

Author:
D.J. Fezler
Publish date:
Mar 3, 2022 12:43 PM EST

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue football will enter the 2022 season with its fourth defensive play caller in as many years.

With the departure of Brad Lambert to Wake Forest, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Ron English will call the defense. But the team isn't going to stray away from what made it successful last year.

"In my experience, everybody runs the same defenses," English said. "It's all about application, to be honest. It's all about how you do it, and how well you do it, and how you do it technically."

Schematically, not much will change for the Boilermakers. English, alongside co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Mark Hagen, will continue to instill the same aggressive style of play leading up to the start of the season.

In 2021, Purdue gave up 22.4 points and 366.5 total yards per game. The team boasted the fifth-best passing defense in the Big Ten, allowing an average of just 208.7 yards through the air in each contest.

It was a massive improvement after ranking near the bottom of the conference the season prior.

"They understand the general approach of attacking more, guarding things tighter, challenging things," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said of English and Hagen. "Trying to get after the quarterback, being aggressive in our approach. And then any new wrinkles that we want to look at or that any of our guys want to come up with, we'll definitely take a look at it.

"But I feel very confident that we have a good understanding of what we want to do. And it's just about trying to get our guys to fully grasp it so they can go out there and play fast."

Year in and year out, coaches are studying themselves, their players and others across the country looking for additional ideas to execute on game day. English is no different.

Spring practice will serve as a springboard for that implementation. As Purdue gets its new faces — freshman and transfers, alike — up to speed, the team's veterans are eager to build on the foundation that was laid season.

"Some extra details, he's going to put on to that to put us in better spots," Purdue senior safety Cam Allen said. "Maybe being more aggressive sometimes, showing disguises, he's going to add all that this year. I think it's going to be real good for us."

More important than simply calling plays will be the continuity for the defense with English at the helm next to Hagen once again. Next season will be an opportunity for the Boilermakers to develop a strong mentality and culture.

And English is ready to help lead the charge.

"I think the attitude is brought by the coaches," English said. "Last year, we were very, very effective at staying even keel and making corrections and coaching throughout a game and not getting too high or too low. And then the players kind of followed our lead.

"The scheme is the scheme. I think the application and when you call things, that's important — that's critical. But I think schemes are schemes. It's really how you build them in terms of, for example, how do they respond to failure? How do they respond to success? How do they respond to all those things? That's where we come in as a staff."

JEFF BROHM DISCUSSES FIRST DAY OF SPRING PRACTICE: Purdue football completed its first day of the 2022 spring practices Monday, and head coach Jeff Brohm met with the media to discuss his thoughts and what to expect moving forward. CLICK HERE