Georgia football: why current 3-4 defense is better than Todd Grantham’s
Defensive coördinator Todd Grantham left Georgia football five years ago. The defense has improved immensely and Grantham is now a SEC rival.
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of praise on former Georgia football defensive coördinator Todd Grantham. Media has praised him as someone deserving of the Frank Broyles Award (best assistant coach). Florida fans have made lame attempts on trolling Georgia fans with their praise of Grantham.
We get it, he’s apparently improved since 2013. A year in which Georgia allowed 29 points per game. He had a good season in his first year at Florida. The Gators only allowed 20.31 points per game (25.625 in SEC play). He’s fixing his reputation. Good for him.
His defenses still aren’t better than Georgia’s. And until he makes several philosophical changes, his defenses will never be superior. They’ll continue giving up 30-plus points against the stronger offenses in the SEC. They’ll continue finishing in the top three, but never no. 1 in the SEC East, or whatever division Grantham finds himself coaching in down the road.
How can I say that with such confidence? Because I’ve been studying defenses, particularly ours and Grantham’s. I’ve watched film to pick out formations, personnel, philosophy. I’ve looked at stats. Allow me to share with you my theory on why Georgia’s current iteration of the 3-4 defense will always be superior to Todd Grantham’s.
Complexity
Grantham’s defenses are complex. When he came to Georgia in 2010, he talked about that. At the time, we all saw that as a good thing. Grantham was coming from the Dallas Cowboys, our defenses in previous years weren’t very good. We thought we needed some NFL philosophy on defense. Grantham also installed the 3-4, moving away from the 4-3 the Bulldogs had used all through Mark Richt’s tenure.
But his defenses were complex to a fault. Still, to this day, you can see his defenses going through pre-snap communications while the ball is being snapped. It’s amazing that he hasn’t found a way to remedy this issue. It plagued his tenure in Athens. You would have thought that he would have found a way to communicate better. Though I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, he’s been at three schools since 2014. Strong communication takes time.
That’s all not to say Georgia’s defense isn’t complex. But the complexity isn’t a burden on players. The complexity lies in personnel groups which lead into the next area where Georgia’s defense is superior.