Yesterday after practice, Jimbo Fisher noted that he expects somewhere between 60% and 70% of the snaps that the Seminole defense will see this year will be against three or four receiver sets. Because of that, 71% of their defensive snaps in 2014 have been with their their Nickel package on the field so far.
"It's funny, when you look at cut-ups now, almost everyone is in three or four wides for 60%-70% of the time. Football is changing."
A reporter then followed up by asking "at what point do you say that the Nickel is your base package then?"
"There's no such thing as 'base'. You say 'base' but you've got to start from the other (4-3 or 4-2-5 packages). Then you can build things in. That's the only way that you can transition and teach conceptually."
"When you start there (Nickel) you miss a lot of base things for lineman and things that go into other packages. You have to start there (4-3 / 3-4 etc.) and then expand out."
Don't expect to see any defensive coordinator worth his salt to start saying their base is the "Nickel" anytime soon. With that said, the experience that Fisher's extra defensive backs have seen this season in the Nickel should certainly help on Saturday against Chad Morris' spread attack at Clemson.