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Tyson Summers expects the Buffs' defense to be more multiple and more aggressive in 2020

Henry Chisholm

June 15, 2020

BOULDER — Colorado’s defense went through a rough patch: For 14-consecutive games, from October 2018 through November 2019, the Colorado defense allowed at least 30 points to its opponent.

Tyson Summers took over as defensive coordinator prior to the 2019 season, which means he oversaw nine of those games.

“One of the biggest things that jumped out to me watching film as the season progressed, we really tried to continue to never lose our focus or fundamentals,” Summers told reporters last week. “We had a lot of moving parts, I would say that. A lot of that came because we had a lot of moving parts within our roster, particularly in the secondary. At the end of the season, we were playing the majority of our downs with three true freshmen and that can have its set of challenges.”

But then, in early November, Summers’ defense held Stanford to 13 points, the fewest points allowed by Colorado since the Buffs played Texas St. in September 2017. Then, the next week, the Buffs held Washington to 14.

So what changed?

“We went through the year and we never took a step back from trying to figure out what is going to be best for this group: What coverage is going to be best? What pressures are going to be best? What can we be most successful with here at Colorado in 2019?” Summers said. “As we progressed, we figured out what that was. And now we are going to continue that progress in a lot of the same directions as we move into 2020.”

What the Buffs’ defense did in that two-game stretch in November will be the cornerstone of the defense moving forward.

“I think you are going to see a more similar style to what we adapted to the last three or four games of the season last year,” Summers said. “What you’ll see moving forward is us continuing to be more multiple, especially with our fronts. I think you are going to see us more attacking and we feel like that is what gave us our edge in the latter part of the year. We certainly feel like that is what gives our players the best chance to be successful.”

The Buffs dialed up the pressure against Stanford and quarterback K.J. Costello — a pro prospect — was neutralized. Stanford typically produces one of the best offensive lines in the question, making this feat even more impressive.

The key was the multiple defensive fronts the Buffs used, which kept the Cardinal linemen from getting into a rhythm because CU was applying pressure from different players and in different numbers on every snap.

While running multiple fronts can be mentally taxing for players, the Buffs’ defense is actually getting easier to learn; Summers said that about 40 percent of the defensive playbook has been removed since the beginning of last season

“A lot of that is because we want to play with fundamentals and focus and we want to be really good at our base defense,” Summers said of the decision to cut the playbook. “Where we are continuing to move in the direction we talked about earlier, of being multiple and attacking, is being able to make sure we are creating challenging positions for offensive lines and quarterbacks.”

There was no guarantee that Summer would be back in Boulder for the 2020 season. After Mel Tucker left town to take another head job at Michigan State, the future of each of the Buffs’ assistant coaches was up in the air. Tucker could invite them out to East Lansing, new head coach Karl Dorrell could offer them a job on the new staff, or they could be looking for a job somewhere else.

Obviously, Dorrell extended an invitation to Summers.

“I can remember calling (my wife) Beth and talking to the boys as soon as I came out of my meeting with Coach Dorrell, when he informed me I would be able to be retained,” Summers said. “They were jumping up and down, just so excited. We don’t go out to eat as a family much but that was worthy of us all going out to eat for the night. It is an important piece for me. I am really excited to see where we can take our defense in year two.”

Summers didn’t want to leave his team.

“I am very relationship driven when it comes to our players, first, and to our staff next, so it was important to me to be able to feel like I could be here to help these young me,” he said. “I am very close with them.”