Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
Phil Elmassian's Virginia Tech defense has been choking opponents with ease this season.
Getting the Hokies' defensive coordinator to explain how he built that beast is much more difficult.
Elmassian's most recent former boss, Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni, said the secret of Tech's defense is that Elmassian has the ``right guys in the right positions,'' and Tech head coach Frank Beamer agrees, but how has Elmassian done it?
``It would take too long to explain,'' Elmassian said.
Give it a shot.
``You'd have to spend three straight weeks with me every hour of every day to appreciate it and to begin to explain it,'' he said.
Well, a couple of phrases can describe it: ``personnel evaluation'' and ``knowing the defense'' - which skills are required for each position. What goes into that? ``I could do a five-hour clinic,'' Elmassian said.
Told Pasqualoni's opinion of why Tech is ranked second nationally in total defense, Elmassian said, ``He's 100 percent correct.''
And is evaluation the most important of Elmassian's tasks? It is, he says, ``for any organization, I don't care where you're at.''
``Look at Jimmy Johnson and the Cowboys.''
Johnson's lust for speed and his eye for players who would fit his system took the NFL's Dallas Cowboys from nowhere to back-to-back Super Bowl championships. Since Elmassian arrived in Blacksburg, Tech is 13-3 and has won 10 of its past 11 games. The defense's late-season maturation in '93 had a lot to do with that, and it's had almost everything to do with the Hokies' No.14 ranking and 4-0 start this year.
Simmered to its base, Elmassian's theory is to look for speed first and dependability second. Some guys are sent to some positions based on what the position demands.
For example, whip linebacker (or ``drop end'') doesn't have deep pass-coverage responsibilities. That's why a guy like DeWayne Knight fit there last year; Knight's replacement, Brandon Semones, can cover deep if necessary.
``Here's a liability that's been minimized and his assets have been maximized,'' Elmassian said.
Player evaluation was Elmassian's most important and time-consuming task from the day he was hired at Tech last year, he said. And it never stops. For him, recruiting is a matter of finding not just good players but the right kind of players, and players still are being switched.
Freshman Tony Morrison entered the program as a defensive back, and at one time Elmassian swore Morrison would get playing time there. Morrison is playing - but as Semones' backup, in part because he doesn't have a defensive back's speed.
Few of Tech's defenders are playing the same positions they were a year or two ago. Inside linebacker Ken Brown used to be on the outside. Semones used to be a defensive back. Tackle J.C. Price used to be an end. Ends Hank Coleman and Lawrence Lewis used to be outside linebackers.
It all gets back to that five-letter word: speed.
``We've always believed in speed and quickness,'' Beamer said. ``As much as we believed in it, Coach Elmassian probably believes in it more.
``Everyone's just kind of moved down a notch [to a new position].''
Elmassian doesn't swallow 40-yard dash times and regurgitate a two-deep roster, although his judgment isn't all intuitive, either. He won't admit he's a talented judge of talent, but does speculate on what makes him able to tell he wants a career defensive end such as Jim Baron to play defensive tackle - a position from which Baron has four sacks, second on the team.
Since graduating from William and Mary in 1974, Elmassian has coached at W&M, Richmond, Ferrum Junior College, East Carolina, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Syracuse and Tech again. Former Ferrum coach Hank Norton, Elmassian said, could take a freshman class of players he'd never seen on tape and in two weeks figure out where they'd play.
``Moving around has helped,'' Elmassian said. ``You do all that moving around, you're in a constant evaluation. All the job changes I've had, and the JUCO experience, has been a help.''
That doesn't mean it's as easy as pressing ``play'' on the videotape machine. Price opened eyes as a freshman defensive end in 1992. In Elmassian's first spring, Price pinballed between end and tackle as it appeared Tech couldn't decide where the 6-foot-3, 283-pound lineman was more effective. Tech still listed Price as an end until the fall of '93, when he bounced back to tackle.
``[Beamer] had some concerns about size,'' Elmassian said. ``I can appreciate that. He felt J.C. was better out there [at end]; I felt he was better inside. We needed information, so we left him out there. At the end of the spring game, [I said end] Bernard [Basham] and [Price], they're going inside. We wanted the speed.''
Elmassian already knew '93 recruit Cornell Brown - a linebacker in high school - was going to play defensive end, and that Lewis and Coleman were moving there, too.
The emphasis on speed (and, Elmassian says, ``change of direction'') has led to a defense that plays eight or nine people near or on the line of scrimmage, features a lot of man-to-man pass coverage, can play sideline-to-sideline and can put unholy pressure on a quarterback.
Tech's quickness received wide notice in the Independence Bowl against large but slow-footed Indiana. A similar team, West Virginia, left Lane Stadium on Sept.22 a 34-6 loser after giving up eight sacks and 15 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
``You can feel other teams getting a little discouraged and limited in what they can do,'' Baron said. ``Speed kills. Size is overrated. You get a guy that's maybe not as big, but is quicker and gets good leverage, he'll get you every time. That's pretty much the story.''
by CNB