Pass defense was a foreign concept to the CMU football team last season.

Masked by an 8-5 record and two Mid-American Conference losses was a scarring statistic. With 119 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the Chippewas ranked 118th in passing yards against.

And much of the problem dealt with an injury-riddled secondary which lacked continuity from week-to-week, said coach Butch Jones.

“That’s something that we hadn’t had in the last couple years,” he said. “We only had our starting secondary, I believe, intact last year for three games. It was almost like a revolving door each week.”

Starting cornerback Josh Gordy missed two games last year. Opposite of him, the position never settled. Kirkston Edwards started seven games, Tommy Mama started five, Taylor Bradley started two games and LaVarus Williams started one game against Purdue.

At safety, Eric Fraser only started nine games before suffering an ankle injury.

Experience factor
With the 2009 season approaching, there was promise. Three of the penciled-in starters — Gordy and Edwards at corner, and Fraser at free safety — were seniors and healthy.

“Seniors are different creatures,” Jones said. “They either play their best football or their worst football.”

With sophomore Dannie Bolden winning the strong safety position battle in the offseason, CMU suddenly had something it drastically lacked in previous years: depth. Now, Mama, a senior, could be used as a slot corner in nickel or dime packages.

“We just have a different attitude this year,” Mama said. “We’ve got a lot of depth now from previous years. So if someone goes out or someone needs a blow, we got another person to step in. It won’t be a fall-off.”

Juniors Bobby Seay and Vince Agnew, each with starting experience at safety, could be used off the bench, along with sophomore John Carr. And Williams paired with Mama as reserve corners.
Fortunately, his seniors were playing their best football, Jones said.

Opportunity

With health playing a major role, the secondary has changed its image from a year ago.

Last year, the Chippewas gave up 287.2 passing yards per game.

“The numbers were high so, obviously, people were going to be looking at those numbers,” Gordy said. “They’re going to be coming after us. So we look at it as, ‘Hey, we’re going to have opportunities to make plays.’”

This year, the team is giving up 221.8 passing yards per game. The improvement has allowed CMU to leapfrog 56 places to 62nd nationally in pass defense.

And it has allowed CMU to improve its overall defensive ranking to 44th this year from 104th last year.

But yardage is not the only factor — CMU still lies in the bottom half of the Mid-American conference in terms of pass defense (eighth).

The group, led by Gordy and his three interceptions, has made plays at opportune times. Fraser said the message is simple from defensive coordinator Tim Banks.

“If you use your fundamentals, all the other things will kind of work themselves out, and you’ll be in a position to make a play,” he said.

On the island

There was an emphasis to play tighter coverage heading into 2009, and it brought an aggressive mentality to a unit that suffered in the past.

“You got to show us how good you really are,” Gordy said. “We’re not playing soft this year like we were in the past. This year, we’re just locking things down, creating smaller windows and creating more turnovers.”

And that goes hand-in-hand with a fundamental concept for all defensive backs, Gordy said. Often times, they are the last line of defense.

“Playing corner, you got to have a lot of confidence out their on the island. You got to know that you’re going to win your one-on-one matchup,” he said. “It’s one-on-one, all day long. Me against him. May the best man win and, hopefully, more times than not, I’m the winner.”

Each Gordy interception has come at pivotal times, Jones said — especially the ones against Buffalo and Bowling Green.

The tighter coverage and opportune playmaking has CMU ranked 10th nationally defending its red zone — when the ball is inside its 20-yard line.

The opposing team has only converted red-zone opportunities into points on 71 percent of its trips. Even better, the Chippewas have limited teams to field goals instead of touchdowns.
Opponents have scored just 16 touchdowns — seven passing touchdowns through nine games compared to 13 at the same point last year.

“We’ve been extremely opportunistic, especially in the red zone,” Jones said. “That’s what it’s about, is making teams kick field goals and not give up scores.”

The final stretch

CMU has three remaining games on its regular-season schedule, starting this week against the MAC’s best offensive team, Toledo, before it enters postseason play.

Playing a MAC schedule sometime hides a team’s talent in the defensive backfield, Jones said.

“In the Mid-American Conference, you’re playing against most teams that are throw-oriented football teams,” he said. “So your numbers are going to be a little bit off based on the philosophy of the offenses that you’re going to be playing.”

The Broncos and Falcons attempted 66 and 55 passes, respectively, against CMU this year.

“If they’re going to throw up the ball that many times a game, then we got to make plays that many times a game,” Fraser said.

But for the rest of the year, it is just a matter of creating plays and remaining opportunistic.
“More passing, more opportunity,” Gordy said.

E-mail the author: Andrew Stover