BOCA RATON – There was a time earlier this season that defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni considered radically overhauling FAU’s struggling defense.
To be specific, he considered changing the Owls base 4-3 defense, which employs four defensive linemen and three linebackers, to a 3-4 scheme.
“I thought about it during the year, would that be better for us to get certain guys on the field?” Bellantoni said. “But it’s not something you can do here in the middle of a year. It’s an offseason project. It’s a spring ball thing. It’s a summer conditioning. It’s a preseason practice. It’s got to be all or nothing.”
The way FAU’s defense has played this season, almost any change deserves consideration.
Only six teams in the nation allow more yards than FAU after the Owls surrendered 623 yards of total offense to ODU on Saturday. The Owls are allowing 36.4 points per game, No. 113 nationally out of 128 teams.
Bellantoni, however, decided that even adding a 3-4 package to give the Owls a different look would be more detrimental than beneficial.
“If you are dabbling in it, you’re not going to get good at anything,” Bellantoni said. “Our guys are young and they need a lot of reps at what we’re doing to know where to go. I’ve thought a lot about it because some of the guys that we have coming back, we’ve got some pretty athletic guys in the back seven, we’ve got to find a way to get them on the field. That’s something we need to talk about and think about here over the next month or so.”
The loss of Trey Hendrickson to graduation following Saturday’s game Middle Tennessee is one reason Bellantoni says he is going to consider making the switch to a three down linemen, four linebacker set for next season.
With Hendrickson gone, there is no clear-cut answer regarding which players will carry FAU’s pass rush in 2017.
“You hope (defensive end Hunter Snyder) steps up and becomes that, and [defensive end] Nick Internicola, guys like that, but if not we’ve got to generate a way to get (sacks), so maybe it’s with more speed on the field,” Bellantoni said.
In Azeez Al-Shaair, Jacob Douglas and Rashad Smith, FAU will return three young linebackers who played key roles this season. Another, sophomore Khantrell Burden, is coming off his best game as an Owl. With Douglas termed “questionable” for Saturday’s game by coach Charlie Partridge, Burden may get his first career start at middle linebacker. He began the year as a starting outside linebacker.
The Owls also expect to have Nate Ozdemir back next season. Ozdemir began the season as the starting middle linebacker but suffered a season-ending foot injury against Western Kentucky.
Along with Hendrickson, FAU loses starting defensive tackle Shalom Ogbonda and sometimes defensive tackle starter Denzel Whitfield to graduation.
Moving to a 3-4 scheme would also allow FAU more flexibility when looking to get nickel Ocie Rose more playing time.
The 4-3 has been FAU’s base defense for almost all of the program’s 15-year history.
After deciding that the fertile South Florida recruiting grounds offered more linebackers than defensive linemen, then defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator Kurt Van Valkenburgh switched the Owls to a 3-4 for the 2011 season – the final year of the Howard Schnellenberger era.
FAU went 1-11 that season, ranked No. 121 nationally in total defense and allowed 36.4 points per game – exactly what the Owls are surrendering through 11 games this season.
The following season newly hired head coach Carl Pelini switched back to a 4-3.
Broken Record, Clean house! How do these guys feel so confident about returning? Have they looked at their product on the field? Or game stats?