Many believed the minds of Paul Chryst and Dave Aranda were a match made in college football heaven. The two were seen as X’s and O’s gurus on their respective sides of the football, but after just one season Aranda took the money and ran to LSU.
In his place steps former USC, Washington and Boise State defensive coordinator (to name a few), Justin Wilcox. Whatever the numbers may say, it appears that Wilcox may be just as good a fit as Aranda was in terms of his mind for the game.
As Chryst and Wilcox took to the stage for the first time together at Wilcox’s introductory press conference, one thing became clear in what the head man was looking for — fundamentally sound play.
“I think right away we found common ground in the fact that what drives it most is personnel and also being sound,” Chryst said. “I think we both believe in the fundamentals and that’s the key.”
Not only are the fundamentals important, but it also appears another F-word is highly important — flexibility.
That term doesn’t mean switching schemes, but finding a way to get the best players in the right situations to be successful. It also means not being rigid in the looks given to other teams. Taking those fundamentals and fitting your personnel to what will make you successful is what flexibility is about for Wilcox and Chryst.
Much like the past few years, Wisconsin will start out of the 3-4 framework, but are going to find ways to attack opponents in whatever way gives the Badgers defense the best results.
“We want to be a 3-4 team, but there are going to be times when we play four down fronts, and, again, it will be driven by the people, driven by the teams we’re playing and some of what they do,” Wilcox added.
“It will evolve from now until — really through the season, a lot of times, so I think some of that it to be determined but we have a starting point for sure.”
Those expecting a vast departure from Aranda aren’t going to see their wishes come true, especially since the two defensive coordinators have a shared history together.
“Dave Aranda and I have a history, when he was at Hawaii and I was at Boise, so we had been in constant communication for a number of years regarding just football things,” said Wilcox.
“So I watched a lot of tape, we had shared ideas and things like that. There is a lot of similarities. Some of the language may differ a little bit but they played excellent defense there is no doubt about it. The kids played fundamentally sound, they played hard, they’re aggressive and I think with the team as a whole that was pretty evident, offense and defense, and some of the things defensively, it’s very, very similar to kinda what my background has been, and we will see.”
No doubt that Wilcox and Aranda are different people and different coaches with different thoughts, but they aren’t that far away. Considering the Badgers defense ranked inside the top 5 of all four major statistical categories, not straying too far from what has worked isn’t a bad idea.
Clearly a game hasn’t been played, but considering the wild coaching offseason, it appears that Chryst went out and found the person who fit his idea of football best.
“I think that we both mentioned, we were talking about “fit” we both felt good that we know that it’s all about the players, and the scheme, certainly you need to have a foundation and a starting point, but it’s in the tackling, it’s in the leveraging the ball, it’s in playing sound coverage, it’s being disciplined and the rest,” said Chryst.
“The essence of the game, you know, we saw eye-to-eye on. And that’s the exciting — you know what, there had been no changes in the coaching staff. Our team is going to change, therefore, the look will change.”
That may be the most important part of all of this — this was Chryst’s hire and a coach Chryst felt most comfortable with.
It wasn’t someone with ties to Alvarez or with him holding sway either. In fact, Alvarez said that the first time he had met Wilcox was this weekend as the new defensive coordinator got to work on watching film and getting to know his team.
From here on out, Chryst will likely be judged by the hire he made in late January of 2016.
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