by Keith Smitherman

Created on: September 27, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I have grown up watching SEC football. Down here in the South we have a saying, "Defense wins Championships" and it is true. Your team can have an average offense and average special teams, but if the defense is fast and physical your team will walk away victorious nine times out of ten.

Last year was a good example. Ohio State was a scoring machine on offense until they met the speedy defense of the Florida Gators. The linebacker and safety play of the Gators basically shut down the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback of Ohio State. It also helped Florida that they had a quarterback that was 6' 5" and weighed about 230 pounds that ran like a tailback.

Special teams are important as well. The ability to flip the field position on your opponent is very valuable. Surprisingly though, there are a lot of college football programs that do not focus on special teams. Virginia Tech's coach Beamer is probably the only coach in college football that stresses the importance of special teams. I am of the opinion that special teams only need to be average to get the job done. Note that I said average, not bad.

Defense is really the key. If your defense is really good they can create turnovers in key situations of the game. They can make the opposing teams quarterback wish he would have just stayed in bed that morning. When a quarterback has been sacked three or four times during a game it becomes a psychological thing when he gets under the center to snap the ball. It wears on his mind, it makes him get rid of the ball to soon or even fumble the snap. Turnovers are major drive killers and everyone knows that momentum is very important in college football games.

In my opinion, Defense wins football games.

Learn more about this author, Keith Smitherman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.