Belichick vs college football
What would have happened if Belichick's mind had been put to the task of defending college-style offenses? We may be about to find out.
One of my favorite “what-ifs” of football strategy is what sort of results you’d get if defensive mastermind Bill Belichick were to face college offenses. Or at the very least, if his overall defensive philosophy was applied at the college level.
Technically he did face a few sophisticated versions of college schemes, with generally positive results, but we never got to see what would have happened had he taken on college offenses regularly with college players.
It wouldn’t have looked like Nick Saban at Alabama, despite both possessing strong organizational skills and a common background together in the NFL, they’re two different guys with different strategic preferences.
However, we may be about to find out. One of the lesser remarked-upon events of the offseason was Washington hiring Jedd Fisch to carry on Kalen DeBoer’s project and Fisch turning around and hiring Steve Belichick to be the new defensive coordinator.
Does Steve have the same mind for strategy or the same schematic and philosophic preferences as his legendary father? I dunno, but I just finished reading “It’s better to be feared,” Seth Wickerham’s chronicling of the Belichick/Tom Brady dynasty in New England and have a lot of thoughts on it, so let’s pretend for a minute that he does…