The Cosh Defense… As In It’s Not His Fault!
A lot has been said about the shortcomings of the Kansas State defensive unit this season as they have been responsible for many of the losses. The most frustrating aspect was seeing the same offensive game plan used to destroy the Wildcats over and over and over again. Nebraska’s Taylor Martinez seemed to be playing against third graders and amassed an estimated 9,341 yards rushing on the way to showing every single team remaining on the schedule how to hand it to K-State. After the debacle that was the North Texas shoot-out, I wrote a post that basically showed the only answer for future improvement was to cut the head off of the defense. While I still think that might be an option, I want to play a little devil’s advocate to an issue that has most fans on one side. Click more to find out just why it may not all lie on the shoulders of Chris Cosh.
The first defense for Cosh, and what I think is the biggest, is the tools that he has to work with. Most of the athletes he is trying to turn into solid defensive players came from the Prince era. As a hold over from the Prince regime, Cosh has a bit of responsibility in the hand he has been dealt, but the players recruited fit what Prince envisioned for a defensive unit. He wanted speed above all things and did so at the cost of size. That plan failed pretty miserably. If you dare to remember those ugly years, you will no doubt recall the amazing inability to be fundamentally sound. I don’t know how many times I was ready to throw something through my TV after a play that included 3 or 4 missed tackles. Those players make up half of the current team.
On the flip side, the players that have been recruited and brought in under Snyder round 2 are looking like some great building blocks. Ty Zimmerman is going to be great, David Garrett will be a strong defensive back as a senior, and Tre Walker made some strides as a freshman. That’s over ¼ of the starters for next year. All of those are non-Prince guys and you have to figure more are on their way including LB Arthur Brown.
Exhibit B presented by the Law Offices of Cosh, Cosh, and Snyder Esq. is the overall youth of the tools talked about in the previous paragraphs. Kansas State’s D was young. 7 of the 11 starters by the end of the year were underclassmen, and 2 of those were freshman. (1 was a sophomore, and 4 were juniors in case you’re counting. Also 8 of the back-ups were underclassmen according to the depth chart for the N. Texas game.) After high school, I was fortunate enough to play a little college football. I played at the NAIA level and the biggest change for me was the speed of the game and size of the players. Everyone was bigger and they all moved faster. I can’t even begin to imagine going from high school to a major conference like the Big 12 and competing against FCS athletes. That has to take some serious adjustment time and we actually saw the growth take place in those underclassmen. Cosh might have done an incredible job of teaching the fundamentals but just not had enough time to let his guys develop. I think that’s exactly the point Snyder makes about having the extra practice time that comes with a bowl game and why it’s so important.
Defense point #3 for Cosh focuses on the defensive gameplan. One of the things Kansas State fans hated this year about Cosh was his “bend don’t break” style of defense. What if that was all he could do? Coaches learn pretty quickly what strengths and weaknesses their players have individually and as a whole. Let’s assume Cosh knew that a style of defense using blitzes would only open up the secondary to more disaster than what we saw as well as vacate the middle of the field completely. It’s possible he realized in spring training that the front four were not going to be able to hold the line so he installed a defense that would make the opposition run as many plays as possible to get down the field. More plays = more chances at a turnover, penalty, or an eventual stop and punt. “Bend don’t break” might have been the best possible option. Add a few more capable players and next year’s defensive look could be completely different. At least I sure hope so.
Finally… well after staring at my screen for 15 minutes I still can’t come up with a fouth defense for the guy. But you get the idea. If Bill Snyder decides that he wants to keep Cosh on for another go at it, I think we give him the benefit of the doubt this one last time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, Bishop wasn’t Snyder’s first QB, and Kansas State didn’t have the #1 defense in the nation until 1997. Patience may be all it takes.