Ward's Whiteboard: Sun Devils defense a tale of two halves against BYU

Just shortly before the Sun Devils kicked off a pivotal game against 14th ranked BYU, it was announced that Arizona State had agreed to contract extensions for each of their coordinators in the wake of a stellar season that has surpassed all expectations. Defensive coordinator Brian Ward was given a three-year extension that will pay him just over $1 million a year.

Ward is in his second season in Tempe and has earned rave reviews for the job he's done in turning this defense around. Born and raised in Glendale, Arizona, Ward played college ball for an NAIA school in Kansas, but one of his first stops as a coach came at his high school alma mater. The Arizona native has repeatedly stated a desire to continue coaching for his hometown Sun Devils, echoing a sentiment from fellow Arizona native and head coach Kenny Dillingham.

Ward's second season has seen major improvements on the field. He's welcomed in a whole host of new transfer players, including cornerback Javan Robinson, who played for Ward in his previous stop running the defense at Washington State. Coming into this game, the Sun Devils ranked 50th in points per game, 44th in yards per game, and 36th in takeaways. All of those figures were meaningful improvements over last year's squad.

BYU posed an interesting challenge, though. Transfer quarterback Jake Retzlaff has been something of a gunslinger all year, with the seventh-highest average depth of target in the nation and posting a nearly identical rate of big time throws and turnover worthy plays. While Retzlaff ranks just areound the top 25 of quarterbacks in metrics like passing yards, touchdowns, and yards per attempt, his 58.5% completion rate ranks 75th in the nation. That offers a good idea of how hot and cold this quarterback can be.

Making matters worse for BYU's offense has been an unstable running game, which entered Tempe on Saturday ranked 71st in rushing yards per game. Still, their running back tandem of LJ Martin and Hinckley Ropati has proven capable of big plays here and there, as the two have combined for 31 runs of 10+ yards on the season. Like Retzlaff, the run game has been prone to variance all year, evident in the fact that they've had two games with 200+ rushing yards and two games under 100 rushing yards.

One aspect of this offense that's been consistent all year is that they never go away. BYU has made a habit of doing just enough to keep themselves in the game, rarely getting shut down entirely. Ward's challenge coming into this game was to do what few have done before and give his offense a shot at running up the score. He did exactly that, at least in the first half.

Ward came into the game with a game plan designed around confusing Retzlaff and encouraging his gunslinger tendencies. Ward's scheme generally relies on a lot of zone coverage with the middle of the field closed off, but he utilized a ton of coverage disguises early in the game. Safeties frequently rotated in or out of the box when the ball was snapped, making it hard for Retzlaff to diagnose after the snap.

Ward, who isn't much of a blitzing coordinator, has a deep toolbox of simulated pressure looks. However, he started the game off blitzing more than normal, which forced Retzlaff to get the ball out faster than normal. BYU's first drive of the game ended on a failed fourth down attempt that saw a cornerback blitz get to Retzlaff just as he threw, with the pass falling well short of his intended receiver.

Once Ward had established a willingness to blitz, he dropped back into his usual tendencies of only rushing four but keeping it unclear which four would be rushing. Ward dialed up plenty of double mug fronts - where both linebackers are aligned in the A gap to threaten an all-out blitz - but dropped defenders back into zone coverage. This forced Retzlaff to hold the ball a little longer, which in turn helped Arizona State's pass rushers win their matchups.

This approach worked wonders in the first half, with Retzlaff completing just 57.1% of his passes for 89 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Most of his production came on the final drive of the first half, when BYU was operating the hurry up drill, and BYU managed to hit a long field goal. Still, the Cougars entered the halftime break with just three points. Ward's game plan was working perfectly.

Things changed in the second half, though. The offensive line started to get a feel for how Ward was scheming up pressures, which allowed Retzlaff to focus more on finding the open man. The quarterback racked up 157 passing yards on BYU's first three drives in the second half, each of them ending in touchdowns. Ward seemed content to sit back in soft zones and count on the quarterback making another mistake, but he was locked in.

It wasn't until that fourth drive, with Arizona State hanging on to a 28-23 lead, that Retzlaff finally made a mistake. On the seventh play of the drive, after Retzlaff had connected on two straight passes and a defensive penalty had moved the ball to the Arizona State 39-yard line, Retzlaff simply sailed a quick slant and the ball landed right in the hands of Javan Robinson, who had been dropping back into another deep zone.

Maybe it was exactly how Ward drew it up. After all, his entire game plan from the start seemed designed to encourage Retzlaff into playing hero ball, where he's been erratic all year. But Retzlaff's hero ball also led BYU to a 9-0 start and very nearly pulled off an incredible comeback in Mountain America Stadium.

The first half was an example of why Ward earned his contract extension. He's proven to be one of the better defensive strategists in college football, and his unit is taking off now that he's developed some talent. But Ward's lack of adjustments in the second half very nearly gave away the game. You'd like to have seen some changes once BYU got hot in the third quarter, and perhaps this will be a bit of a learning moment for Ward as he prepares to face an Arizona offense that has been similarly hot and cold, though not with the results BYU has seen.