Defense travels. And Ross Hodge certainly understands that from experience.
As does West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker who was in the same post at North Texas from 2016-22. Hodge has been named the head coach in Morgantown.
Hodge, who had been the head coach of North Texas for the past two seasons, has become known for his defensive acumen on the bench.
The de-facto defensive coordinator for the Mean Green for six seasons under Grant McCasland prior to becoming the leader of the program.
North Texas uses the defensive system that Mark Adams utilized during his time at Texas Tech. McCasland directed Hodge to learn the defense in order to help bring another level of edge to the program on that end.
The pair had gone against Adams and knew what that felt like, so the decision was made to learn the style. Hodge then traveled to Lubbock to learn the defense and was responsible for installing it.
“It’s going to be your baby,” he recalled McCasland telling him in a previous interview.
The scheme is designed to keep the ball out of the paint and middle of the floor. It requires long, athletic players that will often switch and be required to guard multiple positions on the floor while remaining aware.
The goal is to essentially lock opposing offenses to one side of the floor and keep you from running offense. There is a baseline foundation with core components, but there are definitely adjustments to opponents.
That defense became one of the nation’s best. In both 2021-22 and in 2022-23 North Texas had the nation's No. 1 scoring defense holding opponents to 55.7 and 55.8 points per game, respectively. They are Conference USA's top two single season scoring defenses in league history.
That has spilled over into Hodge’s time as the head coach. During his two seasons leading the program, his North Texas teams have held opponents to 63.8 points per game in his first year, good for 12th nationally, and that total is just at 59.9 or third nationally this season.
The Mean Green have held teams to 41.3-percent over the past two years, perched inside the top 50.
That tough defense and deliberate tempo has led to plenty of success for North Texas and Baker, who is plenty familiar given his time in Denton, has seen McCasland have success at Texas Tech.
Now, it’s time to see if it can work in Morgantown, too.
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