Tosh Lupoi--Ducks Defense Will be 'Confrontational'

[Mudslide]

I'm SO in love with this approach to defense.  If I have to watch one more coach aspire to play prevent defense, I might have to become a rugby fan.

As published today in Footballscoops.com ....

Tosh Lupoi Uses "Dictator" and "Confrontational" to Describe the Vision for his Oregon Defense

Tosh Lupoi doesn't want the Ducks secondary walking any kind of fine line.

• Doug Samuels
•  

Dan Lanning filled out his Oregon staff with a handful of really impressive coaches, one of which was his defensive coordinator - Tosh Lupoi. With stops at Cal, Washington, and Alabama, Lupoi established himself as one of college football's best recruiters before jumping to the NFL where he spent the past few seasons working with the Browns, Falcons and Jaguars.

 

The opportunity to step back into a defensive coordinator role at Oregon with Lanning brought Lupoi back to college football, and he shared a bit of his outlook on what the vision for the Ducks defense is.

 

"Confrontational" and "dictator" were two interesting words he chose to use to describe what he wants to build in Eugene.

 

When asked about his secondary "walking the fine line" between being being aggressive in press and giving some space to speedy receivers, Tosh shared they're actually not interested in walking that fine line at all.

 

"We probably don't walk that fine line. We want to be extremely aggressive and confrontational."

 

"We want to play press coverage and operate out of man-match and quarters and Rip / Liz match system in cover three and then compliment that with some zone and do our best to mix up things and offer disguises and pressures out of those looks as well."

 

"We want to be really aggressive. That's the system that I come from and that I believe in, and coach Lanning as well and we really want to be the dictator at the end of the day. So we are going to constantly challenge our players to embrace that."

[30Duck]

I really like the idea of a defense being "Confrontational". That is exactly what I want a defense to be, Don't just react to what the offense is doing, but force it into submission. 

[Haywarduck]

It is pretty simple, you either act or react. We will now act, and let them react. I like it! I actually love it!!!!!

[Log Haulin]

Baited breath, we have heard this before. Even Allioti had some bend don't break approach.  Lanning's D last year and what I saw in the spring game gives me hope tho.

 

Nobody feared the Duck D the last few years. Or the O for that matter. I will give credit to all the redzone stops last year and It will be fun to watch if it comes through. Nothing better than watching great D. 

[Mudslide]

On 4/26/2022 at 2:46 PM, Log Haulin said:

Baited breath, we have heard this before. Even Allioti had some bend don't break approach.  Lanning's D last year and what I saw in the spring game gives me hope tho.

 

Nobody feared the Duck D the last few years. Or the O for that matter. I will give credit to all the redzone stops last year and It will be fun to watch if it comes through. Nothing better than watching great D. 

Wasn't Allioti all about the bend-don't-break D?  I thought he advocated the style. 

[Log Haulin]

On 4/26/2022 at 4:20 PM, Mudslide said:

Wasn't Allioti all about the bend-don't-break D?  I thought he advocated the style. 

I think thats right but I wasn't willing to fully commit.  My memory isn't what it used to be. Lol

[Mudslide]

On 4/26/2022 at 4:32 PM, Log Haulin said:

I think thats right but I wasn't willing to fully commit.  My memory isn't what it used to be. Lol

Nor is mine...ultra grey beard, here.  Uh...what were we talking about? 

[30Duck]

On 4/26/2022 at 2:46 PM, Log Haulin said:

Nothing better than watching great D. 

I agree with this so much. A great defense can be just as exciting to watch and utterly sap the spirit out of the opponent even more than does a great offense. Sacks, hurries, 3 and outs, TO's. The other QB gets set, looks out, and his knees start to wobble. He knows he has to get the ball, but he doesn't want it. What play did I call, he asks himself? He looks at the RB behind, he's quivering, the WR won't even look at him, and the defense? They're all smiling, grinning, right at him. 

[Nevada Dawg]

Good to hear that Lupoi  wants his guys to be confrontational--Lanning's style exactly. I'd love to see the body language among Duck defenders that characterized Georgia last year-one  screaming "You can't move the ball on us"! Back that attitude up with clean aggressive play and no trash talk is ever necessary. 

[SmithRiverDuck]

Nick Allioti's great strength was changing the D to match his personnel.  The bend but don't break I think most of you are referring to was during the Chip era when the D was spending so much time on the field because we took approximately 38 seconds to score the last touchdown. The key component to that D was the clamp down in the red zone. And it worked. I don't think we could've kicked more A in that compressed space than any other D I can think of.

 

At other times with an over-achieving linebacker corps the blitz became the weapon of choice. With a ball hawking secondary we had some of our best run stopping ever. 

 

At the time it may have been easy to call him Allow-alot-i. But with hindsight I've been more than impressed with how he upcoached 2 and 3 stars into 4 stars or better and designed his products with what he had to work with instead of trying to mold pieces that didn't fit together into his perfect vision of a defense.

[Just Ducky]

Much rather watch a defense that gives up 14 points per game than one that gives up 28. My goal is the defense getting off the field in a timely manner to avoid being exhausted by the 4th Qtr. and less chance of injury. Passive defensive teams have trouble surviving the season.