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After coming off of a historic breaking 2018 football season, which lead to the Army Black Knights being ranked No. 23 in the country ... one could surely say that a large part of that season’s success was predicated on the Black Knights’ defense lead by defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. However, Bateman would take his talents to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and join the Tar Heels staff as their Co-DC.
This would lead to to the promotion of then safety coach John Loose to become Army’s new DC. But as we fast forward to and thru the 2019 football campaign, the Black Knights defensive performance saw a drop-off, albeit different on-the-field personnel, along with a couple of key injuries.
However the vibe was that something had to change and only one month at the conclusion of the season (January 2nd to be exact), it was announced that Loose would no longer be the team’s DC and that 29-year coaching veteran Nate Woody was being brought in to take over the helm.
GoBlackKnights.com had a chance to catch up with Woody for a quick Q&A, as he is coming off of his 1st NSD experience as a Black Knights’ coach, along with being in the middle of recruiting season, as well as getting ready for spring ball, which is right around the corner.
GBK: Since Head Coach Jeff Monken took over the program 7-years ago, and under the direction of former defensive coordinators Jay Bateman and his successor John Loose, the Black Knights have run a 3-4-4 defense. You are now able to put your imprint and design on the style of defense you would like to run at Army. That being said, what type of defense should the Army fans expect to see from Nate Woody?
Woody: I think the one thing that will be consistent is that we will stay with the 3-4 front. There will be some packages that we will use to help us in different situations, whether it be down my the goal-line or short yardage or some passing downs. I think when you talk about personnel, you’re talking the guys who may put their hand on the ground and the guys that can stand up. The secondary will stay the same, either with four or five guys back there as far as the base goes. So what we will do is based out of 3-man front, we’ll have an outside backer who is generally a little bit better versus the pass rush and one that is a little bit better in coverage. And that outside linebacker may be a mix of a couple of different guys, but generally he is going to have better pass coverage skills.
Ultimately what I’m looking to do is just get the 11 best on the field and help myself in situations that dictate that I need to do so. You may see some with 4-guys with their hands down on passing situations, but generally like I said, the base defense is going to be 3 defensive linemen and 4 linebackers
GBK: That is a good segue into our next question. I am sure that you via film study and your conversations with Coach Monken, maybe Loose and other members of the defensive coaching staff, you have had an opportunity to assess the returning defensive personnel. Have any players already caught your attention through the aforementioned process and if so, who are they?
Woody: I don’t think right now that it would be fair to make those predication right now on whose going to be those guys who are going to stand out to me. And the reason is that I want to come in with an open mind for guys to show me what that got. There are some guys that got a little bit more playing time than others last year, but there’s a variety of reason that guys can get better from one year to the next and step up and go from a back-up to a two-deep guy or to a starter ... All-Conference or All-American.
So what I’m doing right now ... I am looking at film, looking at some of those guys that had that opportunity to play. But also looking at the morning workouts that we do and to see how the guys cut through some of the drills we have going on and see how they move in agilities and so forth, and we’ve only had one of those. As we progress forward, I’ll have a better idea of who impresses me. I just want to make sure that everyone has an open slate before start off.
GBK: Based on your experience and what you have assessed based on the Black Knights’ 2019 defensive performance, what do you think you can do to make the defense better in 2020?
Woody: I think over the years is to stay consistent what has worked with thee 3-4 defense. There are some things from an experience standpoint that didn’t work as much as other things. As I go forward and what I want to do is make sure that the guys are clear about what they do, how to do it and to make sure that they do it to the very best of their ability.
It seems like we’ve always gotten a pretty good pass rush for the most part in our 3-4 defense. There were some times that we didn’t get as much pressure maybe in that first year that I was at a program, but I don’t anticipate that being a problem here. I think that we have some guys that can move around pretty good and get to the quarterback.
I also think that we did a nice job in getting our eyes on the indicator and getting interceptions. When I was a Wofford, Appalachian State and Georgia Tech, we were always getting to the ball and getting some take-aways in the air and in today’s game, that is incredibly important to get the turnovers and help the offense in field position.
Some of things we do leans itself to us getting interceptions and takeaways. Though we’ve had success at each of the schools that I’ve been at, and I hope that it continues here.
GBK: It’s still early relative to your transition as a coach at the United States Military Academy at West Point. That being said, what if any are some of the things that you would say have been your biggest adjustments thus far?
Woody: I think the kids have a lot on their plates and extra time for them is not something that they have a lot of. So we have to do a great job in finding ways to get the information for the defense to them in a concise and efficient way. There are different ways to do that, and these guys are really good at picking up at what you tell them and the short period of time that they may be with us, they do retain an awful lot of what you give them. You are just not with them as much here as other places that I’ve been.
GBK: Final question. What are your expectations going into spring ball?
Woody: I think that the one thing that I always want to do is make sure that the guys understand assignment and understand how to play hard. That’s a huge deal in order to compete during the spring. If you are still trying to learn assignments, a lot of times you’re not playing hard because you are trying to learn how to do something.
Once you understand what you are suppose to do, how to do it and what effects that assignment, that is when you can get into playing your very hardest and your very best.
So, keeping things simple early is not a lot of times what you want to do as a defensive coordinator because you want to get your whole package in, and yet, I want to do a great evaluation on our kids ... on who can get off blocks, who can run to the football, who does a great job of pass rushing and coverage. And keeping things simple early on to allow them to show me their talents and their abilities is something that I found that is the best way to go forward during spring ball. Teaching fundamentals and a diverse set of techniques and schemes
We thank Coach Woody for his enlightening responses to our Q&A
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