Kevin Steele Talks Spring Defense

[aufan57 922]

 

[aufan57 922]

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AUBURN, Ala. — Kevin Steele has a cliche to share, but the Auburn defensive coordinator wants you to know it rings true this spring.

“Now, people say every team is different,” Steele said Thursday. “That’s not is just somebody throws out there lightly. It truly is different and yes you do have components of last year that are back that gives them experience, and a lot of that experience last year was good experience. But at the end of the day we have started all over.”

Auburn’s defense took a big step forward in 2016 by ranking in the top 10 in scoring defense and top 30 in total defense nationally. Auburn loses its top two players in Carl Lawson and Montravius Adams along the defensive line, but plenty of other starters return, including the entire linebackers corps.

Steele, however, decided to start from scratch in his second spring on Auburn’s campus. He sat down with assistants Rodney Garner, Greg Brown and Travis Williams to discuss the approach this spring.

“We literally took the template of what we were doing this time last year, of what we said in the meetings, how we talked to them, the way we installed it, the simplicity of the installation, and started at ground zero as if we had never coached together and had ever coached these guys simply because we’ve got to build this thing as if it hadn’t existed,” Steele said.

The approach may tire the veterans, Steele said, but repetition is key.

“I wake up every morning and come in here like this is the first time that we've coached this,” he said. “I know there’s probably guys that go in the meeting and sit there and go, 'Wow, are we really going to go over every minute detail of this again.' But there's somebody in that room that doesn't know that. Those are the ones we've got to get up there. That's the only way to get them up there."

http://auburn.247sports.com/Article/Auburn-Tigers-defensive-coordinator-Kevin-Steeles-template-for-2-51573851

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AUBURN, ALA. 

Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele isn’t recalibrating his approach in his second year with the Tigers for a more experienced group of players.

Steele is starting from “ground zero” by going back to what worked last year and doing it all over again.

Veteran players might get a little bored as they hear the same lectures on technique from last spring, but Steele is committed to the process with results from last year backing him up.

Auburn had the seventh ranked scoring defense (17.1 points per game allowed) in the country and finished 28th in total defense (361 yards per game allowed), the program’s first top 30 finish since 2008.

“As a defensive staff, Rodney (Garner), Greg (Brown), Travis (Williams), myself, we literally took the template of what we were doing this time last year — what we said in the meetings, how we talked to them, the way we installed it, the simplicity of the installation — and started at ground zero as if we had never coached together, as if we’d never coached these guys,” Steele said. “Simply because we’ve got to build this thing as if it hadn’t existed.”

Steele is eager to get the group in pads — the team is scheduled to practice Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium — to get a more accurate idea of their progress from last season.

“We don’t play football in shorts, but we do occasionally practice in shorts,” Steel said with a laugh. “As a defensive coach you can work on alignment, assignment, communication, body positioning, hand placement, but the physicality of it, which that’s what makes defense, is nonexistent. So we did get those things accomplished in the first two days with a lot of energy and a lot of focus.”

According to Steele, the advantage of returning eight defensive starters is coming into spring with a group of established leaders.

Steele listed a handful of players — Stephen Roberts, Tray Matthews, Dontavius Russell, Tre’ Williams and Darrell Williams — backing up the coaching staff on the field.

Auburn lacked similar vocal leadership on the defensive side of the ball when the team opened spring in 2016.

“There’s a lot of leadership taking place without us having to press that,” Steele said

Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/college/sec/auburn-university/war-eagle-extra/article136121313.html#storylink=cpy

 

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/sports/college/sec/auburn-university/war-eagle-extra/article136121313.html

[AUbritt 611]

Sounds good to me!

[Randman5000 4,226]

Secondary is hurting!

[oracle79 3,569]

I love that approach by Steele as opposed to GM's 13 seconds his 2nd year.  No matter how many returning starters and backups you have coming back, every team is different.  They have to find their own identity and chemistry from scratch.

[mcgufcm 4,096]

You have to take the approach you feel like is appropriate for each team. Dabo was correct in constantly reminding his 2016 Clemson team just how close they were in 2015. That team fed off the CFP loss the prior season. Gus tried a very similar approach in 2014. It just didn't work out. As it turns out, that team was very different and probably needed to be treated as an all new team, not a continuation of the 2013 season. Still, it was a completely reasonable approach. Every coach is just trying to find the right buttons to press. Sometimes you nail it; sometimes you don't.