Takeaways: Patterson talks Arizona, the defensive scheme and more

The Red Raiders have only allowed 13 points in the two games they have played this season. Many may argue the team has not played anyone at its level, however.

That changes this upcoming weekend.

Tech will be heading to the desert to face the Arizona Wildcats (1-1) led by former Heisman nominee quarterback Khalil Tate. Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson addressed the media Monday afternoon on the strategy for the Wildcats, the hunt for their first takeaway and more.

The first thing Patterson discussed was the tackling and aggressiveness to get to the ball.

“The biggest thing for me has been our closing space in our tackling,” Patterson said. “Instead of waiting, we’re being more aggressive on the open field and those tackles that are made out in space. That’s kind of really jumped off the video the first couple of weeks. Obviously disappointed we haven’t forced any takeaways, but I think there’s something like 15 three-and-outs in two weeks, three fourth-down stops if you want to count the forced missed field goals. So, that’s been a positive."

Patterson was in the desert the year 2016 when the Red Raiders visited the Arizona State Sun Devils back when Patterson was with the Devils. That game ended in a 68-55 win for the Sun Devils. He remembered that night being a hot, high-scoring affair and battle with a familiar name.

“There was a young man by the name of (Patrick Mahomes),” Patterson said. “The one thing I remember about that game was we had to move a defensive end to “Mike” linebacker. We were playing out of our top six linebackers, four of them were unavailable for the game. There was a little anxiety that kind of turned into a scoring-fest that day.

It’ll be good to go back. I’m excited about it and really more from the standpoint to find out where we are truly as unit and as a team as well.”

Heading into Arizona knowing the defense will be matching up against a dual-threat quarterback in Tate, Patterson joked about going by Canadian Football League rules to stop him.

“Play with twelve,” Patterson laughed, “Canadian rules.

He’s just one of those one of a kind special athletes. If he was playing football back in the ‘80s, he had been probably at Nebraska running and playing I-formation tailback. He’s an incredible athlete, just has a knack almost like a sixth sense. He can feel when the pressure’s closing in on him and does a nice job of alluding the pressure. So, he’s the guy that you have to be definitely aware of, and you got to try to force him to force other people to beat you, and it all starts with Khalil for sure.”

As far as the rest of the offense goes, Patterson said the ground game for the Wildcats will be worth noting especially since it stands out just as much as Tate.

“I would say it starts with their running backs,” Patterson said. “They have three running backs I think that are explosive. Everything is off their run game, so you have to stop their run game. You have to be very discipline. It’s almost like playing assignments, triple-option football really with all the RPO’s (run-pass options) and the run game. If you allow them to get the run game going, then that’s going to set up all the vertical shots. So, if we can make them one-dimensional and try to force the ball out of those running backs and out of Khalil’s hands and try to keep them contained when he does try to throw it, it’s easier said than done, but I think we’ll have a good plan to try to contain him.”

Patterson’s defense goes against offensive coordinator David Yost’s high-tempo squad in practice, so you think that they will be able to keep up the Wildcats this weekend. Patterson said Arizona might “rival” them.

“I saw they (Arizona’s offense) ran a play with nine minutes and thirty-two seconds on the clock, and they snapped the ball with nine minutes and fifteen seconds on the clock in their last game. That’s pretty quick. My deal is when people are going fast, I’ll call defense fast. It’s just when people go fast, I call defense fast. To me, the most effective thing to do is changing tempo. When people are methodical, methodical, methodical, big play, boom (snaps fingers) tempo because that’s when you get a defense there. Sometimes they’re a little bit discombobulated and arguing with each other. That’s when tempo, to me, seems most effective.

You can’t be a disciplined defense if you can’t get lined up and get in a stance. Seventy percent of all big plays in (Division 1-A) football come from a misalignment or busted assignment. It’s not great execution by the offense. More times or not it’s the defense dismantling themselves just by something as simple as get the defensive call. That sounds very elementary, but man, you put 60,000 people in a stadium and kids react different ways and when it gets a little bit frantic down there, just something as simple as getting the defensive call, getting lined up, getting deployed, make sure our numbers are right, and we try to distribute the run and the pass and try to outnumber them.”

Something worth noting is Tech’s offense ranks ninth in the country in total offense, Arizona’s at sixth. Defensively, the Wildcats rank 123rd in total defense allowing 518.5 opponent’s yards per game, while Tech sits are ninth allowing 210.

Red Raiders quarterback Alan Bowman ranks 10th in the country averaging 348 passing yards per game while Wildcats signal-caller in at 49th with 249.5 per game.