Broyles History

The Broyles Award is an annual trophy awarded to the most outstanding assistant coach in college football. Not only is it considered one of the more prestigious honors in the coaching world, we usually find the next crop of big time head coaches from the recipient list. Recent winners include the likes of Kirby Smart, Lincoln Riley, Brent Venables, & Gus Malzahn. Founded in 1996, the award is named after former Arkansas head coach turned athletic director Frank Broyles. It’s a relatively new honor which makes the rise to prominence rather impressive.

The award is selected by a special committee consisting of some of the most respected coaches and administrators in the sport. Current committee members consists of legendary names such as Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Lou Holtz, Barry Switzer, Steve Spurrier, Mark Richt, John Robinson, & Bill Snyder. While most years there’s inevitably contention about who should actually win the award, you truly couldn’t ask for a Broyles committee with more expertise and grasp of the coaching landscape.

Overall, there’s been 27 winners. 15 have come from the offensive coordinator position, and 12 from the defensive coordinator position. However, since 2010, only four defensive coordinators have won the coveted Broyles Award – last being in 2016 when former Clemson defensive coordinator, and now Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables took home the bronze coach.

Why is that? The short answer is that we’re in the highest scoring era of college football and have been for the last 8-10 years. The term “innovator” or “genius” is typical synonymous with whomever the current & youngest OC in the game is. In most cases I believe the offensive coaches that are up for the Broyles Award are more than deserving. However, you could make the argument that offensive coordinators get more credit than they should due to the way the sport is currently officiated.

Stricter enforcement of defensive pass interference, holding, & illegal contact have certainly impacted the ability of defenders to play with aggression and physicality. Newer rules such as targeting have not only impacted that aforementioned style of play, but have impacted depth of defenses as the player who commits targeting is disqualified from continuing the contest. If that player gets a confirmed targeting foul in the 2nd half, he’s also required to sit out the first half of the next contest.

Whether the new rules of the game are being implemented to reduce injury and long term effects of playing or not, they’ve certainly made it harder for defenses to play the game. That said, it’s all the more impressive to me when the best defensive coordinators in the game find ways to neutralize the best offenses in the country. Keeping that in mind, there’s almost no viable option for an offensive coach to win the award this year in my opnion.

Sure, points are at an all time high and it’s harder than ever to play defense, but that’s precisely why a defensive coordinator should win the Broyles Award this year. Here’s my favorites to win the award.

 

Utah DC Morgan Scalley:

There’s teams with more gaudy stats, far better talent top to bottom, and there’s more complex schemes out there in college football. However, you can’t supplement what the Utes do on defense with anything but a specific type of player & belief in the system. The Utes are primarily in a 4-3 base look, but are multiple in what they can run schematically. “Scheme doesn’t win you football games. Behavior does,” Scalley said during Utah’s spring practice. When you watch Utah play, you’ll see exactly what he means by that. The words physicality, discipline, & toughness get thrown out a lot, but that’s exactly what the Utes bring to the table. As it stands, Utah is at 11th in scoring defense, 14th in total defense, 4th in total sacks, & 10th in turnover margin after playing 4 of the top 50 and 3 of the top 30 offenses in the country. Factor in the fact that Utah sits at 98th in the country in total offense and are sitting at 6-1, Scalley is pretty comfortably my front runner.

 

Alabama DC Kevin Steele:

After returning to Alabama for his 3rd stint under Nick Saban with the Tide, he was tasked with arguably the most difficult assignment in the country. The task? Restoring the vaunted Alabama defense to its glory days where they dominated games. It’s almost humorous how herculean the expectations are considering his predecessor led the Tide to a top 10 in total defense last season, but that’s another story for another time. While Alabama currently sits at 15th in both scoring defense & total defense, they also sit at 7th in sacks, 7th in defensive TD’s, & 7th in blocked kicks. What makes those number so impressive is that they’ve played 2 of the top 15, 3 of the top 33, & 5 of the top 69 offenses in the country. In those game, they’ve only given up 18.2 points per game. This is largely due to the fact that Steele is a great in-game adjuster. In the 2nd half of the Texas,  Ole Miss, Texas A&M, & Tennessee games, Steele’s defense has only given up a total of 27 points. 6 points if you remove the Texas game. Alabama is 79th in total offense, & 48th in scoring offense after playing 3 top 17 nationally ranked teams. At 7-1, the Crimson Tide largely has Steele and those 2nd half adjustments to thank for sitting atop the SEC West. A Broyles-worthy body of work if the trends continue.

 

Georgia DC Glenn Schumann:

Schumann should honestly probably have a Broyles under his belt already. The defensive coordinator for the back to back National Champion Georgia Bulldogs has been the driving force behind UGA’s incredible run. Georgia’s defense doesn’t have to deal with the struggles of the previously mentioned teams as their offense sits at 3rd in total offense & 7th in scoring offense, but it doesn’t make their defensive dominance any less impressive. Recruiting is a huge part of coaching whether people love to admit it or not. You’d be hard pressed to find a better recruiter at coordinator in the country. Georgia is more talented than almost every school in the country and they play to that standard every week. The Bulldogs are 6th in total defense, 7th in scoring defense, 1st in 3rd down defense, 9th in rushing defense, 10th in passing yards allowed, and more. Couple those numbers with the multiplicity of coverages, arguably the best blitz packages in the country, and the deepest linebacker & secondary rooms in the country, you get UGA dominance once again. Schumann would be third on my Broyles ballot.