Bill Teerlinck's Impact on the Evolving Virginia Tech Defense
Bud Foster was a great defensive coordinator, but not everything about his defensive philosophy was perfect. The gap-shooting blitz schemes he drew up were generally very effective, but didn’t often play deep safeties, and the weight differential between his defensive ends, linebackers and some of the safeties was frequently about 20 pounds. He also seemed to occasionally leave his core players on the field in situations where perhaps he shouldn’t have. Some of these tendencies will undoubtedly change under the new regime.
Justin Hamilton has revealed that his safeties will play deeper at times than they did under Foster, but it’s likely not that simple. Hamilton highlighted a more noticeable change he’s making, but what might actually be changing is the overall rigidness of the defense.
In fact, the catalyst of the defense might not be Hamilton. There’s a strong argument that it’s actually defensive line coach Bill Teerlinck.
Background
As we have discussed previously, Teerlinck – despite his youth – has 15 years of coaching experience, including two years as an NFL defensive line coach for the Buffalo Bills. As the son of legendary d-line coach John Teerlinck, he is universally respected in coaching circles, and he already has the trust of Justin Fuente – dating back to their days on the Illinois State coaching staff (2005-06).
In Buffalo, he was further molded by Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier – two well-distinguished defensive minds. In addition to having one of the best defenses in the league, the Bills ran a 4-3 scheme. So did the Carolina Panthers when McDermott was their defensive coordinator, and so did the Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell-era Indianapolis Colts while Teerlinck was on the staff. Four-man fronts are essentially all Teerlinck knows, and one way or another, it’s the same base formation he’ll likely use in Blacksburg.
Player Preferences
At both of his NFL stops (Indianapolis and Buffalo), Teerlinck featured at least one big defensive end. With the Colts, that was Dwight Freeney – not that Robert Mathis wasn’t dominant in his own right; he just wasn’t as massive physically. Roles were a bit less defined with the Bills, but of the players that funneled on and off the field, Trent Murphy and Shaq Lawson both weighed at least 260 pounds.
That’s another element worth discussing. Unlike in recent years for Tech, the Bills constantly substituted defensive linemen depending on game situations, or simply for the purpose of keeping them fresh and offering different looks to the opposing offense. Whether a player was a starter or reserve was almost trivial; everyone on the two-deep had a clearly-defined role. In some cases, that even meant outside linebackers subbing in as defensive ends – player positions weren’t necessarily written in stone at any level of the defense.
Justus Reed’s large frame (6-foot-3 and 270 pounds) provides some scheme versatility that Teerlinck could take advantage of in a similar vein, particularly at the collegiate level against less-imposing offensive linemen. Reed could strictly play defensive end – specifically as a strong-side end – but he could just as easily bump inside to defensive tackle in certain sets, or even serve as a 3-4 defensive end.
The Ideal Scheme
Teerlinck has always been part of 4-3 defenses, so why is the 3-4 suddenly an option? In part, it’s simply a lineup variation, which he’s become accustomed to using frequently. In addition, one of the staples of McDermott’s defense has always been stunt A-gap blitzes – with a linebacker attacking the hole between the center and a guard, which inherently offsets the loss of an interior lineman.
A particular wrinkle Buffalo used that Teerlinck could bring to the Hokies is the “double A-gap blitz/bluff” principle – bringing at least the illusion of pressure from each side of the center, or simply stacking one of the center/guard gaps with two linebackers. It’s not a look the Hokies used as much under Foster as McDermott does – they favored the B-gap (between guard and tackle) a bit more heavily – but it appeared every so often.
In this case, Rayshard Ashby and Dax Hollifield both line up along the interior of the line of scrimmage, Hollifield runs a wrap-around blitz, and Ashby occupies the center/right guard gap before charging the checkdown receiver – the running back – for a seven-yard loss.
This seems like the optimal way to capitalize on Ashby and Hollifield’s talents as downhill tacklers while also making it less obvious when they’ll be left in coverage, which is their weakness. Hollifield, in particular, appears to be capable of running various stunts across the defensive front, such as the one showcased above. This type of deception is always a staple of elite defenses.
While these types of linebacker pressures aren’t the same as having a fourth defensive lineman, it makes the offensive line similarly account for an additional rusher, and it eases the load on the nose tackle.. Equally important, it’s currently a more effective way to get the Hokies’ best 11 defenders onto the field.
Substitutions
Some of the rotations will still have to be ironed out, but you’ll likely see Reed and TyJuan Garbutt serve as the top 4-3 defensive ends, with Emmanuel Belmar (and occasionally Jaylen Griffin) off the bench to relieve them. However, Teerlinck and the staff will also frequently find ways to let Ashby, Hollifield, Chamarri Conner and Devon Hunter crowd the line of scrimmage – Hollifield could even become a small-ball defensive end with his hand in the dirt on occasion. Jarrod Hewitt and DaShawn Crawford would remain the top tackles, with Norell Pollard and presumably Mario Kendricks remaining as the backups, although Reed could – and likely will – slide inside from time to time.
As for the three-man fronts, the top line would likely feature a rotation of Hewitt and Crawford up the middle with Reed and perhaps Pollard or someone from the Garbutt/Belmar tandem as the top “five-tech” defensive ends. The Hokies would also likely play big occasionally, with both Hewitt and Crawford on the field and one of them – probably Crawford – at defensive end.
In terms of additional guys on the outside, on top of the second-level crashers mentioned in the 4-3 alignment, the 3-4 variation might be a formation where Amare Barno finds his way onto the field as a stand-up edge rusher, since his long but relatively slim frame makes him an inexact match at any one position.
It’s no secret that the defensive line was a weakness for the Hokies last year. Even subbing Reed into the starting lineup without any other changes doesn’t entirely fix the problem. That’s what makes a scheme like Teerlinck’s so valuable.
The Second-Level Defenders
Truthfully, it’s entirely possible that Teerlinck’s influence doesn’t stop with the defensive line. As valuable as he may be in other ways, Tracy Claeys doesn’t have any experience as a linebacker coach. He’ll likely be open to some input, and if Teerlinck capitalized off his experience in Buffalo, he should have a lot of say in how the linebackers are deployed – even if he isn’t as consistently hands-on with them as a linebacker coach would be.
In continuing with the idea of bringing McDermott’s defense to Blacksburg, elite do-it-all linebackers have always been a fixture in his defense. Luke Keuchly was a great example of that from his days as a defensive coordinator in Carolina, and Tremaine Edmunds has carried the torch in Buffalo. It’s incumbent upon the linebackers to not only be good tacklers, but also have the ability to drop in pass coverage.
That’s not something Ashby and Hollifield have been as good at throughout their careers at Virginia Tech. In that respect, Tech should probably go back to its old model of relying on smaller players on the second level. Alan Tisdale has shown more flashes of coverage ability, and Conner and Hunter are big safeties who clearly have some coverage ability – although it seems obvious that they’re better-served in this unit than exclusively as traditional defensive backs.
None of this is to say Ashby and Hollifield shouldn’t or won’t ever play as traditional linebackers, but asking less of them in coverage should make it more difficult to exploit them when they do drop back, since it would be less expected.
Making the most of players’ strengths while remaining adaptable is the McDermott philosophy, and you can expect to see some semblance of that in the retooled Hokie defense. No more bumping guys into sub-optimal roles during the flow of a game just because they’re better overall players than the man who may be better-suited for the specific task.
If Fuente truly hired him because he has supreme trust in him, if Hamilton is willing to rely on his most veteran assistants for guidance, and if Claeys is open to being molded as a linebacker coach, then Bill Teerlinck could go down as one of the most valuable position coaches in the nation. If he can take the tendencies of Buffalo’s elite NFL defense and transfer them to a unit that has been among the more dominant in the country for decades, then the Hokie fanbase will be pleasantly surprised to see an uptick in the performance of the entire front seven and no true dropoff from the defense as a whole.
