Buffs Defense Has Answered The Bell This Season

BOULDER — Coming into the season, the Colorado Buffaloes believed their defense would have to take another significant step forward if they were going to make headway in the Pac-12 standings.

Two-thirds of the way through the season, it's safe to say defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt's group is living up to its end of the bargain.

Heading into this weekend's play (the No. 23 Buffs have the weekend off), Colorado is ranked among the nation's top 30 teams in virtually every key defensive category, including the one that counts most: scoring defense.

After eight games, the Buffs are yielding an average of just 18.1 points per game, 18th in the nation and second in the Pac-12 only to undefeated Washington (14.6).

Understand that giving up just 18 points per game in a day and age of high-scoring, up-tempo offenses is a solid accomplishment by any standard.

But given where the Buffs were just two seasons ago, it's almost mind boggling.

Two years ago, the Buffs finished the 2014 season 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, giving up 39 points per game. After that season, head coach Mike MacIntyre brought Leavitt and safeties coach Joe Tumpkin — who had been a defensive coordinator at Central Michigan — to Boulder to address the issue.

The result was immediate. In their first year with the Buffs, CU's defense cut roughly 12 points off that 2014 average.

Now, two-third of the way through Leavitt's and Tumpkin's second year at Colorado, the Buffaloes have cut that 2014 number more than in half. Colorado has shaved three touchdowns — 21 points worth — from opponents' average point production of just two years ago.

"I interviewed a ton of people," MacIntyre said of the coaching search that brought Leavitt in as his defensive coordinator. "I ended up liking Jim, what we wanted to do. I wanted to be a 3-4 type defense because I knew with the spread offenses it helps you. … I knew we had really good young talent. I sold him on that and he saw it when he got here and realized we had good talent. That makes you a good coach."

Indeed, while CU's switch to a 3-4 scheme has no doubt been a big boost, it hasn't hurt that those young players who were being baptized by fire two years ago are now experienced veterans who have honed their playmaking abilities.

"It's talent, and it's experienced talent that's gotten bigger and stronger," MacIntyre said. "That's how you win. Our coaching staff has done an excellent job of coaching them and getting them in the right spots and they're going a great job of listening. Those young men have stuck with us and kept working and kept fighting. We've done a heck of a job of recruiting, even though some of the recruiting sources said we didn't, and we did."

CU's defense is dominated by upperclassmen who have at least a year of starting experience under their belts, and in many cases two. The list includes players such as Chidobe Awuzie, Tedric Thompson and Ahkello Witherspoon in the secondary; linebackers Kenneth Olugbode, Jimmie Gilbert and Addison Gillam; and defensive linemen Josh Tupou, Samson Kafovalu and Jordan Carrell.

Those upperclassmen (all but Gillam are seniors) have helped the Buffs improve in all facets of their defense.

A year ago, Colorado gave up nearly 200 yards per game on the ground. This year, they've cut that down to just 129.1 per game, fourth-best in the Pac-12 and No. 29 in the nation. Only one team — Oregon — has surpassed 200 yards on the ground against the Buffs this year. Last season, seven teams hit that mark.

Meanwhile, CU's pass defense, expected to be a strength coming into the season, hasn't disappointed. A veteran secondary has limited opponents to less than 180 yards per game through the air, with only two teams — Oregon and USC — surpassing the 200-yard mark. While the Buffs' pass defense in yards per game is a healthy 15th in the nation, more telling is CU's pass efficiency defense rating, which factors in yardage, completion percentage, interceptions and touchdowns. In that category, CU is sixth in the nation — Colorado's highest ranking in any major statistical category, offensively or defensively.

Those numbers are why Colorado leads the Pac-12 in total defense, yielding just 307.8 yards per game (11th-best in the nation) — a vast improvement over last year, when the Buffs gave up nearly 400 yards per game.

No doubt, Leavitt's influence has been large. But, as MacIntyre noted, it's been a strong effort from the entire defensive staff.

"He (Leavitt) has done a good job with our scheme and forming it to what we want to do," MacIntyre said. "Our guys have responded well, all of our defensive coaching staff. We have an excellent staff. (Defensive line coach) Jim Jeffcoat is a 15-year NFL vet, coached in the NFL. Joe Tumpkin has been a defensive coordinator at many stops, so he brings a ton of expertise to the table. Charles (Clark, cornerbacks coach) has been with me my entire career and understands what we want, as you can tell with the corners, what he's done with them."

Indeed, each position coach's players have performed well. Leavitt is in charge of linebackers, where Olugbode, Gillam, Gilbert and Rick Gamboa have developed into quality Pac-12 players. At corner, Awuzie and Witherspoon are having banner years; Jeffcoat's defensive linemen have been rocks against the run; and Tumpkin has helped turn Thompson into one of the conference's premier big-play safeties.

"Jim brings his expertise with all his years as a coordinator and then the NFL experience," MacIntyre said. All four of those guys gelling together have been what I'd call a phenomenal staff."

Another big difference in this year's defense has been attitude. Now in their second year in Leavitt's scheme, the Buffs are playing with confidence. In years past, a bad break turned into a back-breaker. This year, Colorado's defense is making its own breaks — witness the four takeaways in last weekend's win over Stanford in a game that CU's offense struggled to produce points and the game-saving interception by Witherspoon in Oregon.

"Their competitive spirit, they don't blink anymore," MacIntyre said. "They just go play and I think that's important. You have bad things happen to you and they just shrug it off and go play. They understand you just keep playing."

Heading into the weekend, the Buffs were tied with Utah for the Pac-12 South lead. The Utes play host to Washington on Saturday and visit Colorado for the Nov. 26 regular season finale.

Also still ahead for the Buffs is next Thursday's date with UCLA (7 p.m., Fox Sports 1), a team that just scored 45 points on Utah, along with a trip to Arizona and a Nov. 19 home game with Washington State — currently the No. 3 passing offense in the nation.

"They've played well and played hard and they have to keep it up," MacIntyre said. "Every week we play really good players."

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu