Arizona pulled out a joker to handle San Diego State’s run-heavy offense, but to beat Mike Leach’s air attack it’s going to need a whole deck of wild cards.
Defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen regularly used five defensive linemen in the season opener, part of a package called “Joker” that was meant to plug up run lanes and stifle SDSU’s mobile quarterback. Don’t expect to see much of that in Saturday’s home opener against a Mississippi State offense that threw for 450 yards in its first game.
“When you go against (Leach’s) offense you got to try to match him for their personnel,” Nansen said, indicating that more defensive backs are likely going to be the solution.