University of South Dakota Athletics

Spring football practices are filled with projects that will ultimately play a role in defining the upcoming season.
 
For the University of South Dakota, that opening game at the DakotaDome against Montana on Aug. 31 will arrive with many in the crowd curious about the direction of a defense that is now under the guidance of Travis Johansen, whose reputation as an innovator in getting offenses off the field has been recognized nationally.
 
It was January when head coach Bob Nielson announced he was going to turn over the defense to Johansen, whose previous experience had come at his alma mater, Concordia University in St. Paul, and then at Grand View University in Iowa.
 
But based on what he was able to do at Grand View, it was likely his next coaching job was going to involve a significant jump. In his six years at the school, the Vikings went 61-11 with five conference championships, six NAIA playoff appearances and a 2013 national title.
 
Sports fans were introduced to Johansen's work when it was featured in a November of 2018 Sports Illustrated in-depth article addressing the evolving collection of challenges confronting defensive football. Within the business, though, fellow coaches have been aware of and admired his work much longer than that.
 
"Coach Johansen is a bright and innovative defensive mind," said Nielson at the time of Johansen's hiring. "His defensive units have performed at a consistently high level, and he has played a significant role in multiple conference and national championships."
 
It has been referred to as a "position-less" defense, though that's probably an over-simplification for the kinds of schemes being installed at spring practices. Much of what the Coyotes will be trying to accomplish will not be revolutionary.
 
"When you're trying to do something a little different, people might think it's some wild and crazy defense that is going to look a lot different," Johansen said. "It's really not. It's not like we're going to be moving people all over the place, though at times we will. We still want to play a fundamentally sound, schematically sound brand of football that might just look a little different."
 
Summarizing, not all the players are going to be used in the same place the same way on every play.

"Kids' skill sets are under-utilized," Johansen said. "They can be pigeon-holed in a certain position where they do just one thing. That's the only difference in what we're going to do."
 
Johansen has taken a one-step-at-a-time approach to installing the new schemes. He'll admit to there being some difficulties involved in taking on this project within a program that employs a well-established up-tempo offense, but all that hurrying up will benefit the defense in the long run.
 
"Coach Johansen is a very knowledgeable guy," said linebacker Jack Cochrane, whose versatility will make him well-suited for Johansen's system. "He's won national titles, and it takes some schematic knowledge to be that successful. But schematics aside, his presence and leadership have been awesome."
 
Johansen did not introduce his system to his players with coach-speak about an underlying philosophy. He has found that players take it in more quickly if you just start at the beginning and move forward.
 
"It just takes time," the coach said. "As competitive as we all are, and as results-driven as we want to be this profession, we're still going to have to be patient; let the kids figure out the right way without getting too far ahead."
 
Players to this point have been internalizing the new schemes at a satisfactory rate, Johansen said. As they advance, light bulbs go on and players develop a feel for how the defense will go about accomplishing its goals.
 
"Before, a lot of what we were doing was pre-snap with all our decision-making and calls," said junior safety Phillip Powell. "Now it's going to be post-snap decision-making and calls. We're going to have to buy in to it and trust everything that's being coached and taught. We're going to have to bring the effort, too. If the mistakes we make happen at a hundred miles an hour, it's probably not going to cost us too often."
 
Conventionally, defenses react to what the offenses are trying to do. There is no system in the world where that part of the structure of the game can be completely washed away. There are ways of evening the scales a little, though. That will definitely be one of Johansen's priorities as spring practice gives way to preparing for actual opponents next fall.
 
"One of the things Coach Johansen told us is that we're going to make the offenses adjust to us," said Darin Greenfield, a two-time All-America defensive end who will be entering his senior season as one of the Missouri Valley's top defensive players. "Normally, you would try to adjust to the offense, but we're going to come out and try to deliver the first blow; make the offense realize they're going to have to change something to score rather us having to say we're going to have to change something to stop them from scoring."
 
Ultimately, the numbers at the end of the 2019 season will tell the tale of how well the Coyotes are going to be able to deliver within a new system for a new coach.
 
"We're going to try to stop the run first," Johansen said, reducing the Coyotes' challenges to the basics. "We're going to bring as many bodies as we need to do that. And sometimes the way we do that is going to look a little different."
 
The Coyotes are holding a practice open to the public at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on the outdoor practice field located directly north of the DakotaDome.