It's no secret in our profession that there is a direct correlation between winning the turnover battle and winning football games.
While every defensive staff comes up with drills and situations to create turnovers in some way, shape, or form, at the end of the year there's still a defense that ranks #1 and a defense that ranks dead last.
At the end of the 2022 season the Penn State defense, led by new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, ranked 7th nationally in turnovers gained, and the program ranked 4th nationally in turnover margin during their 11-2 campaign last fall.
During a recent conversation with former Penn State and UMass tight end-turned-media personality Adam Breneman and his Next Up interview series with coaches, Diaz was asked how they effectively practice something like turnovers in an era where defensive players aren't allowed to do things in practice like touch the quarterback.
Diaz's answered by saying they do a ball disruption period like every program in the country does, but then peeled back the curtain on some in-game strategy behind turnovers.
"The way we look at the game, in terms of the game strategy, is more turnover happen on 3rd-and-long than any other down and distance...so what creates 3rd down and longs?"
"Well, we were outstanding last year in completion percentage against, so forcing a lot of incomplete passes and zero yard gains. We were top five in TFLs, so again, you're putting people behind the chains."
"So if you marry those things together, you're going to end up with a lot of 3rd and 8 or 7 plusses. When you do that, you've got an ability to get around the quarterback."
"You try to do some things schematically, that even though you can't hit that guy in practice, they [pass rushers] can see how it's going to come together."
Hear more from Diaz in the clip.