kydran jenkins

Previously: Purdue Offense, Seth's video breakdown of the No-Name.

Yesterday we looked at the Purdue offense. Today we pivot to the side of the ball that head coach Ryan Walters specializes in. He doesn't have his guys yet, but this is still the principles of a Ryan Walters defense: 

The Film: Still rolling with Ohio State because they are the best offense that Purdue has faced this season and the game was relatively recent. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Purdue is playing with a consistent five-man defensive front, three defensive tackles and then two EDGE-shaped players in their base defense. The three starting defensive tackles are Isaiah Nichols, Cole Brevard, and Malik Langham. Of these three players, the one I liked the most was the nose Brevard, but none reached star status. They were also just okay against an Ohio State offensive line that is not the world's most imposing on the ground. All three rotate out a decent amount, as you'd expect with DTs. The second group of tackles are Jeffrey M'Ba, Mo Omonode, and Joe Anderson, plus Sulaiman Kpaka. I thought the second-string DTs were noticeably worse than the starters, with M'Ba being one who was taken advantage of in particular. 

Their two EDGE guys are a pair of Dudes, Nic Scourton and Kydran Jenkins. Scourton, who you may remember as the humorously named Nic Caraway in last year's FFFF (he changed his last name this offseason), has taken a sizable step forward and is a legit disrupter with three sacks and 16 hurries. Jenkins, who is twenty pounds lighter at 260, is a dangerous passrusher in his own right and has thrived having Scourton opposite him on a blitzy defense, racking up seven sacks and 21 pressures of his own. Both players can drop into coverage but they don't do it very often, 23% of Jenkins' snaps and 18% of Scourton's snaps, per PFF's charting. They also don't leave the field much but if they do, Will Heidt and Khordae Sydnor are two players who can come on in relief. 

Purdue's five man front leaves them with either one or two ILBs depending on package. Against heavy, they have two and against a more spread offense, they leave just one out there. We're making the diagram heavy because, you know, they're playing Michigan. The two starters are Yanni Karlaftis (brother of George) and Clyde Washington, who is replacing injured starter OC Brothers. I do not think highly of either of these players and I am a longtime hater of Brothers. Brothers would've gotten the cyan if healthy, Washington does. Karlaftis narrowly avoids it. 

In the secondary, we're listing four men with the nickel on the bench in starter's font. The starting outside corners are Markevious Brown and Derrick Rogers Jr., both of whom get to play with quite a bit of cushion in this man-heavy system. Brown gets the larger cushion and was exploited often by OSU in the game I charted, getting the cyan. Rogers definitely showed me much more in the way of strong coverage. Nickel Cam Allen is a bit of a problem as well, as Purdue's coverage is definitely not the same caliber of the last defense Walters fielded, when he had Devon Witherspoon at his disposal. The two safeties are the spectacularly named Sanoussi Kane at SS and Dillon Thieneman at FS, who plays in the parking lot, as is customary for a Walters defense. There's not much rotation in the secondary, but Botros Alisandro is the one corner who rotated in worth mentioning. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: man coverage with iffy corners]