Anxiety, frustration, impatience, but no easy answers in defending the spread

Once again, the Tigers and their fans can’t wait until next year.

But the pride, satisfaction, enthusiasm and anticipation that should rightfully accompany a breakthrough season are suddenly tinged by anxiety, frustration and impatience.

Everyone knew, deep down, that the Tigers hadn’t quite arrived, as indicated by their up-and-down ride over the final third of the season. But who among us expected that West Virginia, which had slipped into the Orange Bowl via a share of a three-way tie in the Big East, would hang 10 touchdowns on a Clemson team coming off not just a win, but a rout, over the highest-ranked opponent in school history?

After the game, Dabo Swinney – whose big-picture vision includes an end to these wild ups-and-downs and the elimination of the phrase ‘pulled a Clemson’ from the national vocabulary – vowed to fix what’s broken.

He did the same last year, and two days later dismissed offensive coordinator Billy Napier; and a bit over a week later, hired Chad Morris as offensive coordinator.

There are more than a few fans who were, and for that matter still are, hoping for a similar scenario in regard to defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

An easy quick-fix would be nice; but don’t hold your breath.

Steele has spent his career in the thick of some of college football’s best defensive attempts to solve the gnarly problem of defending various incarnations of the spread offense.

It ain’t easy.

Clemson, we might remind ourselves, isn’t paying Chad Morris $1.3 million a year for nothing.

Unless Steele gets hired away by Tennessee, or somebody else, look for him to be back for another year, his sleeves rolled up and working harder than anyone to give Swinney the fix he demands.

He’s still as good a fit as anyone for the task at hand.

Of the 14 games Clemson played this season, well over half were played against teams that attempt to spread the field, create open spaces, and force defenders to match-up against their fastest, most athletic and dynamic playmakers.

Since he arrived at Clemson three seasons ago from Alabama, Steele has taught the same defensive system – one designed to negate some of the spread’s inherent advantages.

It relies on team speed, the ability to track and pursue with discipline and tackle in the open field, and upon consistently taking care of gap responsibility. For players in Steele’s system, it is essential 1) to do your job, and 2) to trust your 10 teammates to do theirs.

The better the team speed and the more athletic the defenders, the better the system works.

The more experienced the defenders, the fewer mistakes, or ‘busts,’ are made, and the better the system works.

Most of the defensive coordinators that Clemson could hire, were it looking, employ many, if not most, of the same core principles.

In his first two seasons at Clemson, Steele got to play with what at its top end was a flush hand. In 2010 and 2011 NFL draft, Clemson had seven defensive players selected – Da’Quan Bowers, Jarvis Jenkins, Marcus Gilchrist, Byron Maxwell, Ricky Sapp, Crezdon Butler and Kavell Conner. During the same period, five more defensive players signed free agent contracts – DeAndre McDaniel, Miguel Chavis, Jamie Cumbie, Chris Chancellor and Kevin Alexander.

Clemson’s numbers reflect the talent: in 2010, Steele’s defense ranked 19th nationally in total defense, 13th in scoring defense, 22nd in pass defense, and 28th in rushing defense; in 2009, the Tigers ranked 20th in total defense, 25th in scoring defense, seventh in pass defense and 67th in rushing defense.

This past season, Steele’s hand was a lot spottier. And it showed.

Seventy points doesn’t just look bad. It is bad.

But Swinney has promised to fix what’s broken, and he and Steele have earned that chance.