How Ryan Grubb is preparing the Alabama offense for new Florida State defense

Photo By Kent Gidley - Alabama Athletics

Alabama football is gearing up for a new-look Florida State team that overhauled its entire offense and defense from a schematic standpoint by bringing in Gus Malzahn from UCF and Tony White from Nebraska.

Malzahn is no stranger to Alabama, and defensive coordinator Kane Wommack knows him very well, but perhaps the biggest preparation priority is diving into what White has done over the past few seasons after implementing his 3-3-5 scheme at each stop in his career as a defensive coordinator.

The 3-3-5 swaps a defensive lineman and uses a third safety in the middle of the field, which is referred to as the Rover. This position is viewed as a box player in White’s system that has to play the run from depth but has some coverage responsibilities. The strongside linebacker is called the Jack and has the ability to line up based on what the offense does and shift the defense into different fronts to compensate.

On Monday, Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb talked about Tony White being Florida State’s new defensive coordinator and what he and the Crimson Tide offensive staff have been doing to get players familiar with White’s scheme.

“I think that I’ve been through this process a couple of different times, you know, at different stops, and certainly there’s a lot of moving parts there,” Grubb said. “Coach White’s a great coach. He’s been a lot of different places, a veteran guy, has a lot of presence with his guys and certainly he’s creative with his playing calling. You got to dig. You go to go back to Syracuse; you got to go all the way back and make sure that you’re checking everything out and try to realize how they would utilize different people and personnel sets and put people in different spots. And they were seeing structure and the history of the defense and how it applies to the people they have now. And you put together the best picture you can for the guys, prepare them and understanding you got to have plays that can win versus multiple fronts and multiple coverages.”

Like Grubb mentioned, Syracuse is a great place to look to see what White can bring to Florida State.

Under White in 2022, Syracuse finished 21st nationally in total defense (328.6) and 14th nationally in passing defense (184.8).

In his most recent stop with Nebraska, he guided them to a top 20 defense nationally in rushing defense, total defense and scoring in both of his two seasons there.

GET THE BEST ALABAMA FOOTBALL INSIDER INFORMATION AND RECRUITING COVERAGE TODAY! SIGN UP HERE TO UNLOCK OUR SUBSCRIBER ONLY CONTENT!*