I freely concede my bias against Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads. He has been defensive coordinator for too long and had too many games where he has shown his deficiencies. His defensive schemes, teachings, approach and inability to comprehend any way to defend the spread offense and/or mobile QBs have been consistent through two head coaches. Three games where the defense has played average or better hardly erases that and does not begin to convince me that he has “turned the corner” or had the “light go on.”
What does he have going for him? Players love him and he’s enthusiastic.

“As the season has gone on, I’ve realized, like my dad said, that you never really stop learning,” he said. “One thing I did was make a conscious effort after the Navy game to coach and teach more positive throughout the week, and the team has benefited by that.

“And as a coach, you want to make sure the kids have the right mind-set. I believe that is one thing we’ve done to positively affect their mind-set going into these last three football games.”

Here’s a truth about Paul Rhoads from the years of blogging this team. When things are going bad, you can not locate a quote, comment or interview by the guy about the problems. He just is not to be found. When things are working, though, and he looks even passably competent he’s happy to be quoted and puffed.

So, as the Pitt defense has played reasonably well in the past three games, is it any shock that he’s ready for some attention?

Personally, I saw very little that was impressive in the Syracuse game. The Orange had a 3d stringer and a freshman punt returner trying to run the ball behind a poor O-line. They had a QB play with a cracked rib in the first half and an inexperienced back-up in the second half throw for nearly 200 yards. It still nearly came undone.

Head Coach Dave Wannstedt insists he has no doubt about Rhoads as a coach. Isn’t that great?

The thing that is bothersome is that Rhoads and Wannstedt are happy to insist that it is the coaching that has led to the improvements the past three games. Yet, there was no accountability for last season (or any other). Apparently the Navy game, the UConn or Virginia game weren’t his fault either. Guess that wasn’t the coaching but on the players.

Although the defense has responded for the past three games, Rhoads, who is in his eighth season as the Panthers’ defensive coordinator, still has a legion of critics who think it is time for head coach Dave Wannstedt to find another coordinator.

They cite the Panthers’ struggles on defense in the past few years and last year’s collapse — the team lost its final five games and gave up 1,621 yards of offense and 139 points in the final three — as well as this year’s struggles as evidence his system is not working.

But Wannstedt doesn’t see it that way. He concurs that the defense has played well in the three games since the Navy debacle. He talks about the defense’s lofty rankings in certain categories: The Panthers are 17th in NCAA Division I-A in total defense and 13th in pass defense.

Really, that opening article was just warm-up for spit takes.

And he is puzzled by popular criticism that his defensive schemes and game plans are passive, and that he does not coach an aggressive style of defense. He believes aggressiveness is critical, but frequent blitzing is not the only way to play aggressive defense.

“I believe in aggressiveness and I have always coached aggressiveness,” Rhoads said. “I have never put numbers out there on the table publicly, but I can tell you, if you break down my eight years at Pitt, I can certainly point to a lot higher numbers of games lost that we blitzed more than normal and a lot more games that we won that we blitzed less than normal, but the perception is that wasn’t the case. People seem to think we only blitz in wins, but that’s not at all accurate.

“And aggressive football and attacking football can be played with a four-man rush because those things are based on how well, as I like to say, your players are going north in attacking an offense. And it really has to do with how fast your team plays, and that comes from how confident they are.”

I really feared my head would explode as I read and re-read that. Rhoads hallmark has been the bend-but-don’t-break defense. A read-and-react approach. Don’t give up the big play. In fact, until this season…

Nevertheless, Rhoads is preaching for his linebackers to be more aggressive instead of reading and reacting to plays.

Now why would people think his defensive schemes were passive?

Wait. Let’s start with the last statement in the block quote: “And it really has to do with how fast your team plays, and that comes from how confident they are.”

I would have thought it comes from the player’s ability and how well they are positioned, coached and taught. No. Apparently they just need to have confidence. Self-esteem was the key all along. In the Navy game, they just didn’t feel good about things.
For the record, I don’t care that much about blitzing. It’s an essential component, but it isn’t the end-all, be-all of a defense. I do want to see pressure up front, and blitzing is also a reward for the D-line to really attack. It seems, though, that Rhoads is just indicting his past performance as a DC. The team has tried to blitz, but failed to produce the pressure. They couldn’t generate any pass rush or pressure up front. Not a shock for anyone who has watched this team the past few years, but just a reminder.

Although the Panthers are not blitzing more this season, Rhoads said they made some minor changes to the scheme in the offseason that have paid off. Some of the changes involve mixing up and disguising coverages, but the most important change is that the Panthers have pulled a safety up closer to the line of scrimmage to be more involved in stopping the run — they have gone from a seven-man front to an eight-man front — and it has paid off.

And this is something I have to give credit — to Coach Wannstedt. It’s about the only thing he did right with Paul Rhoads. He took away his duties as the secondary coach and put him on linebackers. It meant that Rhoads was no longer dropping the safety to provide extra support against the pass, but would bring up the safeties to help the linebackers and the D-line more.

This was something that was in the works starting last spring when Rhoads took over the linebackers. Not to mention, once Rhoads had to be responsible for the Linebackers’ performance he did become a lot more interested in making sure the D-line was improving. It also took until this season before Rhoads actually thought that maybe it might help the defense if they worked as an entire defense in some practices and meetings rather than always in individual units.

Again, seven years as a DC, and it took his job being on the line and being responsible for linebackers rather than DBs for Rhoads to see the value of bringing up the safeties against the run.