SEC coaches: offensive vs. defensive minds

Forgive the SEC for getting a bit defensive in 2016. And, no, the topic is not satellite camps.

We’re talking about the aged axiom that “defense wins championships,” and the constant evolution of offenses to prove the saying moot.

The SEC isn’t short on braggadocio, with programs staking claims to the “Wide Receiver U” and “D-Line U” monikers, to name a few. But what is the conference’s true identity? Does it harbor an offensive or defensive mindset?

Turns out, the landscape of the SEC might have changed this offseason with the hiring of three new head coaches at Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina.

The SEC was an offense-heavy conference the past four seasons or so, culminating in 2015 with 10 head coaches who have specialized in putting points on scoreboards throughout their careers.

Excluding Alabama’s Nick Saban, the four defensive-minded coaches last year — Bret Bielema, Derek Mason and Mark Stoops — weren’t all that impressive at first glance. Their squads, however, tell a slightly different story, going a combined .500 (16-16) in conference play. Conversely, a 40-40 record among offensive-minded head coaches in SEC play is a bit underwhelming.

Perhaps teams got hip to the fact that defenses do win titles.

NEW ERA

With Kirby Smart taking over at Georgia, followed by Barry Odom at Missouri and Will Muschamp at South Carolina, the balance of the conference has shifted to seven offensive- and seven defensive-minded head coaches for 2016.

Alabama, of course, is the gold standard of defenses.

Saban’s Crimson Tide has produced a top-5 defense in seven of the past eight years — finishing No. 12 in the nation that lone season (2014) outside the top 5. That run of defensive excellence came with four national titles.

Panning back a bit on the national stage, the SEC has had just one team crack the FBS’ top 10 in total offense in each of the past five years. In contrast, the conference finished with four top-10 defenses nationally in 2015 alone and 16 in the past half-decade.

Defense doesn’t always equate to hardware, though.

Sometimes, the offense goes empire and strikes back. You don’t have to look far back for proof: See Auburn’s 2010 title under offensive-guru Gus Malzahn.

Offensive-minded tandems of head coach and offensive coordinators actually outnumber their defensive counterparts in the SEC when it comes to combined years’ experience.

All told, the conference’s 21 coaches specializing in offense have accrued 510 season’s worth of experience on either the college or professional level — compared to 461 for the SEC’s defensive coaches. And, yes, some schlep actually sat and tallied all 971 years that current SEC coaches have coached.

TOP OFFENSIVE STAFFS BY COMBINED YEARS (HC and OC)

• LSU, 72 (Miles and Cameron)
• Texas A&M, 66 (Sumlin and Mazzone)
• Tennessee, 62 (Jones and DeBord)

TOP DEFENSIVE STAFFS BY COMBINED YEARS (HC and DC)

• Alabama, 64 (Saban and Pruitt)
• Kentucky, 46 (Stoops and Eliot)
• Arkansas, 41 (Bielema and Smith)

Naturally, numbers can be bent to fit any agenda. And something as abstract as determining whether a league is defensive or offensive minded is not exactly tangible. And a (reasonable) debate can be made on both sides by professionals and fans, alike.

Problem with defensive-minded head coaches in the SEC is that if they hire a good OC, the OC is usually a head coach within a few years

— Derek Tyson (@DerekJTyson) December 2, 2015

The SEC Conference hasn't been dominant for like the last few years. The conference is too offensive minded just like everyone else. #NotSEC

— J. Jermane (@paperless80) January 2, 2015

OLD ERA

We could look at history. Since the SEC cleaved into East and West divisions in 1992, a coach with an offensive background has won a conference championship 19 times. Defensive-leaning coaches have won just nine SEC crowns during that same time frame. That number plummets to three coaches (Alabama’s Gene Stallings and Mike DuBose, as well as Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville) when you eliminate Saban and his six division titles with Alabama and LSU.

Time will tell if hiring Muschamp, Odom or Smart will turn out to be move that all three programs needed. Their hiring is part of a trend nationally to bolster defenses, especially given that three of the four coaches in the 2015 College Football Playoff — Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Saban — are cut from a defensive cloth.

Offensive coaches appear to have the history in the SEC. But the defensive-minded seem to be on the rise — despite another ancient axiom that suggests that “offense puts bodies in seats.”

How the SEC’s head coaches break down in terms of offensive or defensive minds.

Chris Wuensch

Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.