fuck that Johnny Football shit btw

http://insider.espn.go.com/college-football/blog/_/name/haney_travis/id/9023228/how-defenses-defense-johnny-manziel-2013-college-football


Given the attention donated in the past couple of months to his social calendar, it's quite possible that we've started to forget about the sort of season Johnny Manziel had for the Texas A&M Aggies in 2012.

You know, the one in which he averaged nearly 400 total yards a game and accounted for 47 touchdowns on the way to becoming the first freshman Heisman winner.

One small slice of the population, however, has not lost sight of Manziel's historic level of production -- because they're working to prevent it from happening again. And can you blame SEC defensive coordinators for their motivation? It's only their livelihoods on the line.

"People are going to have a better plan for him," one SEC defensive assistant told me this week.

Yes, the cat-and-mouse game that Manziel initiated as a first-year starter is entering its second season. Catch him if you can.

"Those tempo teams, the thing not many people realize is they want to run the ball. They want to spread you out all over the field and run it," the SEC assistant said. "If you've got Johnny Manziel in the backfield and there's one back, it really becomes two backs.

"He's always a constant threat for the run game, the designed runs and the plays he just makes with his feet."

There are no secrets now about Manziel, though Florida -- one of two losses for A&M and its QB -- was the only team that was truly caught flat-footed, since it was his college debut.

So how will defenses go about corralling him now that the so-called "book" is readily available?

The first objective, opposing coaches told me, is to stop the run -- whether it's Manziel doing the running or the team's backs.

"We didn't do that," another assistant told me, "they got settled in and we were playing behind the whole game. Being able to run for first downs is what allows them to get in their tempo offense, run a bunch of plays. Defensively, you have to figure out how to prevent that. We didn't."

The perception that the Ags will drop off without Luke Joeckel -- the left tackle who could go first overall in next month's draft -- is a bit overblown. Jake Matthews, who will move from right to left tackle, is a first-rounder in his own right. And one A&M coach told me this week that Cedric Ogbuehi, moving from guard to right tackle, "has a chance to be the best one of all of them." He'll likewise be coming to a 2014 draft board near you.

On top of that, A&M might have the deepest pool of running back talent in the country. Veteran Ben Malena averaged 5.9 yards a carry last season. Youngsters Trey Williams, Oregon transfer Tra Carson and Oklahoma transfer Brandon Williams will all vigorously compete for carries.

All those are complementary pieces to Manziel, who averaged 7 yards a carry and 18 yards per scamper on his 21 rushing scores. Eight of the running scores were 20 or more yards.

Generally, the response for a DC is using a linebacker or safety to be responsible for the athletic quarterback as a spy. And the opposing coaches said they did and will use some of that against Manziel.

But the best means of defending Manziel and the A&M offense, those coaches said, is to scrap your standard base scheme and get as many athletic defenders as possible on the field. Invent more "spurs" and "stars" and "rovers" and "bandits." Whatever you call them, get the hybrid-DB types on the field.

Running some version of nickel or dime -- Auburn's base under new DC Ellis Johnson will be a 4-2-5, for instance -- eats up some of the space that is the most valuable commodity to players like Manziel and offenses like Kevin Sumlin's.

Now, most teams around the country do not necessarily have the personnel to do that very well, but the SEC is uniquely positioned so that most teams do.

One coach pointed toward A&M's two losses as examples. Florida and LSU can trot out athlete after athlete at linebacker and defensive back. Manziel gouged the Gators in the first half. They adjusted and turned him into a passer in the second half, allowing them to escape with a three-point win. The Tigers also did a good job of stifling Manziel and the Aggies' offense, as A&M averaged just 4.9 yards per pass and 3.5 yards per rush in the loss.

And that's where the focus is for A&M. As Sumlin told me this week, it's a matter of changing "an athlete who's a quarterback into a quarterback who's an athlete."

That growth was evident as 2012 went along. Against Florida, when the run was taken away, the Aggies lost. Against Alabama, when the run was taken away, Manziel made just enough plays through the air -- the development of his receivers throughout the course of the season helped with this -- to complete the upset.

"He's evolving and our offense is evolving," Sumlin said. "That's something we all do together, we change a little bit and he's part of it."

The balance is sort of a tricky one for a coaching staff, encouraging Manziel to stay in the pocket and go through his reads versus allowing him to do what he does best, freelancing and making plays with his legs.

That challenge was passed from 33-year-old Kliff Kingsbury, now the head coach at Texas Tech, to 27-year-old Jake Spavital. Fortunately for A&M, Spavital was easily the natural choice.

He had been on Sumlin's staff at Houston, where he worked with Case Keenum. He worked with Brandon Weeden on Dana Holgorsen's offense at Oklahoma State and then with Geno Smith on Holgorsen's West Virginia staff.

Additionally, Spavital is one of Kingsbury's best friends. He regularly exchanged and picked apart A&M film a year ago, unbeknownst to him the sort of advanced scouting he was doing.

"He's the kind of young guy, just like Kliff, that can relate to and communicate well with Johnny," Sumlin said of Spavital.

"I know he can run and make plays," Spavital said this week. "My whole goal is to keep developing him as a quarterback and keep him in the pocket as long as I can.

"We want to develop him as a thrower, but not handcuff him and let him play ball."

In watching film, Spavital said the Ole Miss game was one that stuck with him in terms of Manziel's development. Why? It was probably the offense's worst game all season, Manziel included. Yet the Aggies managed a late rally, fueled by Manziel.

After his third turnover of the game, his second interception, the Rebels led 27-17 with 12:20 to go. By then, Manziel was gun-shy on most throws. As a result, he was relying too much on his running ability and not letting plays develop downfield.

But Kingsbury was patient with his young quarterback. He continued calling the same passing plays, imploring Manziel to use his arm. The game-winning touchdown in the final minutes was a 20-yard out route that Manziel had given up on several times earlier in the game.

"When he was forced to throw, he did a hell of a job," Spavital said. "You could see him progress as a quarterback as the year went on. With how teams are going to try to game plan him, that's what we have to do."

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Travis Haney
ESPN Insider
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• Joined ESPN as Insider's national college football writer in April 2012
• Previously wrote for The Oklahoman and The Post and Courier
Tags:Insider, Insider NCF, NCF, NCF, Texas A&M Aggies
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