Wednesday’s Defensive Take

BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University football team practiced for the second day on the campus turf field as the squad works on fundamentals and uses the bye week to get better as a team, with a heavy concentration on the younger players.

Following Tuesday’s offensive focus, the defense continues to concentrate upon themselves and getting better, especially the younger players. Defensive coordinator Mike Stoops and veteran safety Teja Young, who has 31 tackles and two interceptions, sat down to talk FAU defense as it hits the midway point of the 2021 season.

The Owls will resume the 2021 season next week when the team travels to North Carolina for a rare Thursday night game, slated for 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 21. FAU holds a 4-2 all-time mark against their Conference USA opponent Charlotte and was a 21-17 winner in 2020, a game played at FAU Stadium. FAU is 4-5 when playing on a Thursday and 3-0 at Charlotte.

COORDINATOR’S CORNER

Defensive Coordinator/Safeties Coach Mike Stoops:
On improvements to make:
“Overall, I think our guys have played good for what we’ve tried to implement thus far and [they] have tried to do what we’ve asked them to do. That part has been gratifying, and I think our effort has been good. Just eliminating some of the explosive plays would be the most troubling part of what’s happened over the last six weeks.”

On using the bye week to cut down on last week’s mistakes:
“I think there’s a combination of things. One was a missed tackle on a quarterback running. If you can’t get a quarterback on the ground, then we’ve got problems. They audibled to a run in a pass-heavy defense. We didn’t react to the run like we should have. We have to change some calls, change some tendencies, what they think we’re gonna do and what we’re actually gonna do. Those are always games that are played within the game on an offensive and defensive perspective, showing something and being able to get to something else I think is critical and make better calls, certainly for us as a defensive staff to put the players in a better position to be able to execute something.”

On establishing an identity:
“I think our players have a better understanding on what we’re trying to do in each particular front and coverage. There’s a multiple of things you see week in and week out and being able to adjust to the formations and movement. We’ve done a pretty good job in trying to adjust to the different things you see at the beginning parts of games. Overall, we have probably 75% of our defense in and there’s some things we’d like to get to, but you just want to make sure you can execute the things you do have in, and our players are comfortable with those things. We make adjustments to our defense every week, changing it schematically a little bit, not drastically, what calls we want to be in and try to tailor those to different teams we play. They’ve done a nice job adapting to different fronts and coverage.”

On pressuring the quarterback:
“I think we have affected the quarterback. You can affect the quarterback and limit what they do in the run game and certainly be more aggressive and that’s something we need to look at on third down. But on first down if they want to run, you can run yourself out by blitzing, getting yourself out of gaps and let somebody run the football. There’s a give and take always to that when you look at it from a defensive perspective. We try to do what our players are good at and what we can be good at and tailor that to our players. We certainly would love to get more pressure on the quarterback. That leads to big plays, more interceptions. There’s a balance in there too.”

On facing Charlotte:
“It’s another team that leads with the run. They want to run the football. They give you multiple looks. They try to window dress a lot of things they do but they get back to four or five basic run concepts they want to do. And then they can throw. The quarterback [Chris Reynolds] makes everything work. They build a lot of RPOs where it can be a run play and he just pulls the ball and throws it. I think they do a good job with a lot of their RPOs, getting the ball on the perimeter off their run game. They do a good job on first and second down. If you’re gonna be heavy in the run, then they’re going to get the ball to their perimeter guys some ways.”

PLAYER’S PROSPECTIVE

Redshirt Sophomore Safety Teja Young:
On the state of the defense:
“I feel like we’re not where we want to be. We didn’t execute on a couple things as a team, not just the defense or offense, as a team, all three phases. We still have more work to do but we all know what lies ahead of us, so we just have to keep our head down and keep working.”

On improvements for him to make during the bye week:
“I want to be more of the guy we can lean on for the team, not just for the defense. Whenever we need a spark, even if it’s just giving the juice to the offense on the sideline or making the play on special teams. I want to be one of those guys that can help contribute to the win.”

On playing in Coach Stoops’s defense:
“I appreciate Coach Stoops a lot. He has taught me a lot about the game that I didn’t know. He puts me in position to make plays. The defense is great, and I like playing under Coach Stoops.”

On third and longs:
“Our job in the secondary is to keep the guys upfront in tune with what the situation is. If everybody is in the right mindset of what we have to get accomplished on down and distance, we’ll all be able to get off the field.”

On having a chip on their shoulder:
“We should have a chip on our shoulder every week to come out and want to win.”

On entering the bye week on a loss:
“The greatest thing about the game of football is throughout the season every week you get a new opportunity. Last week is last week. We’ll just scratch that and move on to the next game and prepare for Charlotte.”

On stopping the run:
“Stopping the run is how you win ballgames, how you control ballgames. Stopping the run will always be at the top of the list.”

On playing on the road:
“We just have to come out and play. Don’t make it bigger than what it is. No matter the opponent, no matter the place we are [at]. We still have to line up and play 11 on 11.”

On Charlotte’s offense:
“Every week I want to line up against the best, so I love those challenges. When other teams have great players, that excels my game because I know I can line up against the best.”