Lance Guidry, Miami DC , Marshall Run Game and Early Down Pressures

Lance Guidry is the defensive coordinator at Miami after spending time at Marshall. His success at Marshall led to him getting hired at Miami. He is well respected for his creativity in stopping the run. They were 12th in the country in 2022 at Marshall, only allowing 105 yards per game in the run department.

This is one of Marshall’s best defensive stunts. It is a stunt with 2 inside LB coming which makes it a 6 man pressure. It will become 5 if the ball is thrown as the DE has the RB to his side. It is an excellent stunt in run situations.

They ran it several times vs JMU when they met.
I love it because it occupies every gap in the run game and they often get the ball spilled to an unblocked LB.

Stunt:
Tackle End runt stunt on both sides:
Away from the back, you are running it hard with the Tackle going first and the DE 2nd. To the side of the RB, The tackle is going no matter what and the DE is more cautious as he has the running back and folding late back inside for cutback. THE DE to the side of the RB also has him in pass so he is not as aggressive on his stunt. The DT to the side of the RB is the QB player in zone read.

Blitz:
Sam off the Edge and Will LB A Gap to the side off the RB. Other Inside away from the running back has C gap and should expect the ball spilled to him due to the run stunt inside.

Adjustments if Pass:
The DE to the side of the back has him in pass coverage

Pass Coverage:
Man free pass coverage

This is a very effective pressure on early downs that was part of Guidry’s aggressive scheme in 2022.

They do a great job in the defense vs JMU and the Linebacker scrapes outside. They are disciplined and every player knows their job really well. 

Will blitzes the a gap below.

You can see the Tex stunt on both sides as the LDE is coming b gap and the right de is stunting to the a gap. The well coached defense has every gap covered inside with the LB waiting in the C gap.

The Ball gets bounced where the lb is unblocked due to the blitzing lb and SS off the edge. 

Excellent defense for a minimal gain. 

Here it is again! Sam off the edge, with the will inside blitzing. with the T and E inside.

2 clips of the stunt below

2nd Pressure!

Mike C GAP

They blitz the Mike C Gap and play man free. This gives you the plus 1 vs and allows you to disguise because the safety is coming inside with the Sam on #2. Thus, it is important to have a Sam that can matchup with a #2 wr. This gives you some flexibility!

CB Fire/Trap Concept

Another concept you will notice is they are very good in run support from their secondary. 

They will also use their CB heavy run support often bringing them off the edge in pressure. This was evident in the JMU game 

The 2nd example they bring a cb fire to the 3x1 bunch side. Excellent call as the offense tries to run toss vs them.

The 2nd example they bring a cb fire to the 3x1 bunch side. Excellent call as the offense tries to run toss vs them. Running a cb fire vs 3x1 bunch has great merit!

Great job defensively by Marshall at giving various pressure looks but keeping the defensive scheme relatively simple so his players can play fast. 

Field Cowboy

They bring a cowboy to the field when JMU goes fib into the boundary. The orbit motion man is open as they are running mesh but the pressure almost gets home

In the Notre Dame game, they bring the CB and the Sam on 1st down and play straight man coverage. They get good pressures and are aggressive.

You can see the aggressive scheme and one of the reasons they are very good against the run. 

Game planning

This year they won some very tough games and beat some really good football teams, including top ranked Notre Dame. One thing Guidry will do on those 3rd downs is take away what you do best.

Notre Dame has 2 outstanding wr in Lorenzo Styles and TE Maher. They doubled and bracketed both when they could.

You see Maher lined up as #3 and they have the LB helping underneath on him and Styles essentially doubled on the 1 wr side. 

You can see the bracket coverage on both players as the LB drops under Meyer to help inside and Styles has the CB and Safety playing him in bracket coverage.

I can talk all day about Coach Guidry and his defense. But just wanted to touch on gameplanning.

This was just some of the fronts and concepts you saw from Coach Guidry when he was at Marshall.