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Nicholls football coach Charlie Stubbs takes pride in being known as an offensive guy. The veteran coach has called plays for several machine-like units in his storied career. Stubbs’ knowledge base runs so deep that he’s written three books in his career – all focused on scoring points and football playmaking ability.
But while all of the offense is nice, Stubbs knows that it’s all for naught if a team can’t field a serviceable defense to complement its playmakers.
So it’s for that reason that the veteran coach has revamped his staff this offseason, employing more coaches to guide Nicholls’ defense.
The Colonels ranked near the bottom of the Southland Conference a year ago on that side of the ball – something that everyone worked to turn around in 2014’s spring practices, which wrapped up on Monday afternoon in Thibodaux.
With the new coaches on board, everyone involved touts progress as Nicholls grinds its gears to prepare for the 2014 season.
“In all of my years, I’ve been blessed to be a part of a lot of championships,” Stubbs said. “But to win championships, you have to play solid defense. That’s the one thing all of those teams had in common. So we shifted some things around and put an additional coach on that side of the ball. We wanted to make sure we had enough guys there so that we could really monitor everything, even the little things, so we could really help these guys.”
For the Colonels, the changes started at the top of the defense.
Nicholls’ 2013 defensive coordinator Jeremy Atwell left the team midway through the offseason to become the head football coach at Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma.
As he departed, Stubbs hired from within, naming Steve Adams as his defensive coordinator. Adams coached Nicholls’ special teams and safeties last season.
Because Adams was with the Colonels’ program last season, players tout that there isn’t much of a change in the way the team’s defense is run.
But the players also believe that Adams is doing a great job motivating everyone to get better – something they believe will lead to improvement.
“He knows all of our personnel – you can tell that he’s really done his homework, because he knows everyone’s strengths and weaknesses,” rising sophomore linebacker Ronnie Walker said. “He knows exactly what we should be doing, how we should be playing and what we need to do to win. He knows everything. He has us moving in the right direction – definitely.”
“I think we’re going to be ready to compete a lot more this year,” rising senior linebacker Nick LeBlanc added in agreement. “I think we have a great new defensive coordinator. We’re not changing too much, but we’re definitely tweaking here and there. I think Coach Adams has been great. And I think that for us, we’re ready to get after it.”
In addition to Adams’ promotion, Stubbs also supplied the coordinator with some help, shifting the team’s staff to overload defensive coaches.
Stubbs shifted 2013 tight ends coach Brandon Nowlin to his new position as Nicholls’ defensive line coach.
From there, Nicholls also hired Jake Olsen and Charles Boyd to work with the team’s linebackers.
In total, the Colonels now have five assistant coaches on the defensive side of the ball, including a position coach for every position on the depth chart.
“We have more coaches total – every position has its own coach, so that’s pretty great,” rising senior defensive back Byron Cobb said. “I think all of the new coaches are doing great, and we’re learning from everyone involved and just getting valuable knowledge.”
“They are helping us tremendously,” Walker agreed. “We have someone to turn to at all times now – both on and off the field. The transition has been great.”
The reason for all of the moves is because of how ineffective the Colonels were last season.
Nicholls ranked seventh in the eight-team Southland Conference last season in both scoring defense and total defense, allowing 43.3 points and 494 yards per game.
The Colonels’ rushing defense was the team’s biggest sore spot in 2013. Nicholls allowed 270.8 rushing yards per game last season, a mark that was last in the Southland Conference by more than 60 yards per game.
So far in spring practices, the team has been better in that respect, according to Stubbs.
It has to be if the team expects to break through and find success in the 2014 season.
“We’re working hard on stopping the run,” LeBlanc said. “We have to find a way to be better in that respect. Because you just can’t expect to win if you let the other team run the ball down your throat and control the clock.”
“It’s been better,” Stubbs agreed. “We’re working hard and we’re making progress. We have a lot of competition. We have a lot of guys competing for spots. Anytime you get that, you know that guys are going to be working to better themselves, which helps the team out. It’s a good mix.”
Nicholls quarterback Tuskani Figaro fires a pass in traffic this past week. The Colonels are looking to its defense for improvement in the 2014 season.
