Clemson’s Brent Venables is the country’s best defensive coordinator. Who’s No. 2?

Points win games, quarterbacks score points, and offensive coaches who develop great quarterbacks tend to get most of the attention in the coaching world.

However, coordinators-turned-head coaches sometimes struggle to structure their programs to suit the other side of the ball, and the most important hire an offensive head coach makes is his defensive coordinator. A defensive coordinator who can run a dominant unit while coexisting under an offensive-minded head coach is worth his weight in gold.

The following five coaches have demonstrated the ability to run elite units without a great deal of oversight. Coordinators whose systems clearly come down from the head coach (such as Alabama’s under Nick Saban) were disqualified, perhaps unfairly, but the guys on this list have proved they can produce elite defenses without that adjunct.

The only knock on Kwiatkowski’s resume is that it’s all come under Petersen’s management. Petersen is a legendary details man and the first head coach to translate Boise State’s culture to another location. Kwiatkowski’s produced four top-10 defenses per S&P+, including two at Boise State and two in a row at Washington.

The 2016 Huskies’ brilliant defense gave them opportunities to win their two high-profile losses, to USC and Alabama, while shutting down Christian McCaffrey and the rest of the Pac-12. It only took Kwiatkowski three years to build this unit, and they’ve yet to field a defense in Seattle that featured many seniors.

At Boise State, his defenses were pioneers of the 4-2-5 defense and quarters coverage that allowed them to gang up on rushing attacks with speedy athletes. Now in Washington, they are defined by an amorphous, 3-4 base defense, generally aligned in a 2-4-5 Over front with DL and LBs shifting roles.

The common threads are dominant DL play and the ability to control the line of scrimmage and bring pressure with only four pass-rushers. They had creative ways to do this at Boise, but the 2-4 structure serves them well today.

Foster has been at Virginia Tech for 30 years and has been the coordinator for 12 seasons. He’s had only two top-10 defenses this decade, but the Hokies are never weak on his side of the ball.

He’s worked under Frank Beamer for nearly that entire period and inherited his 4-4 defense, which Foster then slowly transitioned into a 4-2-5.

It probably came in a previous decade, but of the seasons listed above, I think perhaps the 2014 defense was the most impressive. They beat down the eventual national champion Ohio State Buckeyes with seven sacks and later produced this famous goose egg:

The offense wasn’t very good in 2014 and set up the defense for some difficult situations, so their top-10 finish in that context was quite impressive. That season also featured a departure from their normal schemes as they adjusted to the spread offenses invading the ACC.

Foster’s defenses are probably best known for their “robber” coverages that ask the cornerbacks to defend the deep field while the safeties sit on underneath routes and run plays. His “cover 2 robber” scheme turns both the running game and the middle of the field into dangerous areas, dooming most college offenses.

They play it these days from a 4-2-5 that features a nickel in the old “whip” position, a strong safety in the “robber” spot, and a rangy free safety in the middle of the field. They like to handle the flats and inside receivers with the nickel and whip, play the corners over the top, and loose the free safety to play downhill or “rob” based on what the offense does. The effect is that the free safety often makes plays when he’s unaccounted for.

There was a lot of philosophic overlap between Aranda and Gary Andersen, but Aranda had some impressive success at Hawaii while working with an explosive, run-and-shoot offense.

Chryst made sure to retain Aranda, and Orgeron made doing the same a big part of his pitch to the LSU admin. Aranda’s successes as a DC have now come working with the run and shoot spread, the spread-option, and some “pro-style,” run-centric systems.

Building a top-40 unit in Hawaii opposite a spread passing game is no small feat, but Aranda’s 2016 was impressive on a deeper level. Aranda inherited a roster loaded with upperclassmen who were likely to become pros after one season, and he kept them on that trajectory.

What was impressive was how he did it. After years of crafting complex schemes to make the most of overachieving players, he focused on teaching precise execution of a few base schemes.

His resume now includes the ability to draw up schemes to achieve chalkboard supremacy and the ability to teach execution of base scheme. From year to year, his defenses have often looked different based on his personnel, but they’re always fantastic. If he repeats in 2017 with another young LSU squad, he could find himself disqualified off this list by landing a head coaching job.

Bringing disguised, inside-backer blitzes from 3-4 or 2-4 defenses while dropping outside linebackers and playing conservative quarters coverages might be Aranda’s favorite thing. “What’s that, you’re going to set your protection to handle my edge rushers? Surprise!”

In 2016, Aranda usually brought Arden Key off the edge like anyone would, but against Lamar Jackson, he brought out one of those deceptive beauties to inflict a crushing sack. If the Tigers can teach their outside-backers to make these coverage drops in 2017, they’re not going to be fun to face on third-and-long.

The Big Ten moving into the Northeast by absorbing Maryland and Rutgers means an even bigger chance for programs like Michigan to poach defensive recruits out of that region. Brown has been crafting shockingly great defenses with Northeastern kids for a long time, and he seems more than happy to do so at a major school.

It’s kind of strange that Brown built strong units at places like Maryland and Boston College for so long before getting snapped up by a bigger program. Finishing top-40 six times out of seven at lesser programs is no small feat, and he’s proved his methods can also translate at a blue blood.

The 2015 Boston College Eagles were horrible ... on offense. Yet Boston College was competitive in almost every game of a winless conference season. They had a fantastic defense, which Brown had been piecing together since arriving, and as a reward he finally got a chance at a big-time job, inheriting a top-five unit that he molded into what might have been the nation’s best.

Brown has a massive playbook with a ton of blitzes and features, but much of his success stems from embracing two extremes in his personnel choices and in his complicated coverages that allow his defenses to aggressively smother routes.

His favorite front is a 3-4 Over set that features bigger DL aligned to the strong side of the formation with a DE/OLB on the weak side. That allows them to protect their linebackers, particularly the Sam or “viper” linebacker, who’s a sort of nickel/hybrid and gets to have a lot of fun in this scheme.

On the back end, Brown plays safeties who can handle matching up deep or underneath in man coverage. His adjustable coverages often require that they be able to do both and determine which based on route distribution after the snap. At Boston College, he typically used converted cornerbacks to master these techniques.

With extra size up front and extra range and coverage in the back, Brown’s defenses are poised to attack opponents in different ways. Like with this blitz that combines an overload to one side with cover 2 on the opposite end of the field:

Venables has two decades of cranking out some of the best defenses in all of football, but his split from Stoops and the Sooners has catapulted his career. Oklahoma pushed him out to make room for Mike Stoops’ return, after Oklahoma’s 2011 defeats to Texas Tech (a 41-38 loss that ended OU’s 39-game home winning streak) and Baylor (a 45-38 loss that sealed RG3’s Heisman) made it easier to sell it to fans and boosters.

Venables then turned Clemson into a perennial top defense.

Shutting out an Urban Meyer offense in a Playoff game was no small feat, but the greater context of 2016 was amazing. It’s worth looking back to 2015, when the Tigers had to replace five starters, all to the NFL, and still produced a brilliant season. It was enough at the time to lead me to ask whether Venables was the finest DC in the land.

Well, in 2016, the Tigers lost another eight starters, with several more early departures to the NFL across their secondary, and produced yet another top-10 defense that helped them win a national title. The Tigers have only lost nine games in five years since Venables came aboard, and his ability to reload every year is a key factor ... and Deshaun Watson probably helped as well.

The major concern in Oklahoma over Venables’ defenses were how complicated they were and how much the secondary had to master. It seems, though, that his defenses usually confuse offenses much more than they confuse themselves.

The Tigers always have a variety of blitzes dialed up to attack what you want to do. They’re always on the attack, looking to get offenses on their heels, and looking to surprise. The only time you should expect Venables to hold off on blitzes is when you expect him to bring the house.

To this end, Venables’ playbook is similar to Brown’s in that it features virtually every popular school of blitz. They fire zone like most teams, but they mix in man/zone combos. They even brought out a three-deep, two-under, double A-gap Pat Narduzzi blitz out against the Buckeyes:

In a game played by 18-to-24-year-olds under intense scrutiny, it pays to be both tough and aggressive. Venables is always aggressive and playing mind games with his opponents, and the results speak for themselves. He’s the top dog in the country.