Pete Kwiatkowski explains Gary Patterson's impact on the defense

When Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski was made available in promotion of the Alamo Bowl against the Washington Huskies, he was asked directly about the role of “special assistant to the head coach” Gary Patterson.

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Close observation of the team on Saturdays revealed the former TCU head coach regularly patrolling the Texas sideline while Texas’ defensive schemes began to more closely resemble the Horned Frog method over scattered and often ineffective methods of 2021.

“One of the things he really helped with was playing match quarters. He’s seen all the issues that teams try to attack you with. He was really good at bringing those to our attention. We’re seeing them in practice before they played the game. Sometimes they showed up and sometimes they didn’t. Guys were seeing all those issues and now they’re able to self-correct because they know what issues and what offenses can do to try to attack pattern-match quarters coverage.”

Pete Kwiatkowski at the Alamo Bowl press conference

I myself wrote throughout the season that Texas had clearly embraced the Patterson-style of match quarters coverage. Match quarters is a two-high coverage system where the safeties align 10-12 yards off the ball but initially stay flat-footed while reading the receivers and line for their assignment keys. When executed well, the flat-footed play of the safeties can allow them to read plays and arrive where needed against run or pass more quickly than if they were racing downhill or backpedaling at the snap.

As you might imagine, the trick of the scheme is training your defenders (particularly the safeties) to all read the same things from the offense and work together. If you think your assignment in the scheme is to cover one route and the safety thinks it’s another, you get costly busts.

Patterson’s many years as a pioneer of playing base nickel defense with quarters coverage, with almost a full decade of that in the Big 12 conference, made him invaluable to Texas in uploading the system. Kwiatkowski had some other interesting notes on the changes and Patterson’s role in implementing the system.

“Before Gary came on, we were moving to more match quarters. When we were able to hire Gary, he obviously has an extensive knowledge of it. He knows all the warts and all the issues that offenses try to attack you with in that. That’s where he was invaluable as far as heading off a lot of potential problems, and getting our guys repped and seeing it. Now, they can self correct and anticipate those types of issues that come up.”

Pete Kwiatkowski at the Alamo Bowl press conference

Texas could clearly be seen playing quarters throughout the 2021 season but often a different variety than what they’ve done in 2022, particularly earlier in the season.

Kwiatkowski had a telling back and forth with Inside Texas’ Joe Cook during the presser on their adjustments and how they helped them.

Joe Cook: Were you more closed middle field at Washington?

(Closed middle field coverage means one deep safety staying on top of post routes)

Pete Kwiatkowski: “We were match third, thirds team for sure. (Then) more of a vision quarters philosophy.”

(A match third team means match 3 coverage, basically a blend of Cover 3 and pure man-free coverage. Both feature a deep post safety and then the nickel and other safety covering inside receivers in match coverage, which is close to man coverage. “Vision quarters” means playing off coverage with two deep safeties and the defensive backs all empowered to play loose man to try to jump routes based off reading the quarterback’s eyes.)

JC: Do you think that’s why last year was a struggle, because you were changing kind of the core coverage?

PK: “Two years ago, we were more vision than match. We weren’t good at it. It was just too loose. Previously, a lot of those guys were already accustomed to a match quarters type structure of a match-third structure, so when we made the change they actually picked it up. There was a lot of recall.”

(Texas had been playing mostly match quarters and match 3 under both Todd Orlando and Chris Ash in previous seasons, so adjusting to Patterson’s brand was much more intuitive than trying to master the very loose and player empowering “vision quarters” scheme.)

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Overall, Texas’ search for a clear identity on the back end of the defense was one of the most important challenges for the Steve Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski era. Jimmy Lake was responsible for much of the approach on the back end for Washington and his preferred Match 3 schemes were not the same as the more quarters-based approaches utilized by Terry Joseph and Blake Gideon in their previous stops.

Texas was already moving to an approach more comfortable for their players and new defensive backs coaches after struggling with the Washington way but Gary Patterson gave proficient and holistic insight into how to structure the back end of the defense to make the most of the Longhorn’s athletes against Big 12 competition. Credit Sark for making the hire, Patterson for bringing his expertise, but also Kwiatkowski for showing once again in his career a high capacity for collaboration and sharing the credit.