CHAMPAIGN — Roger Cooper lived by a different defensive doctrine before he accepted a job on Bobby Hauck's staff at Montana. As linebackers coach and eventually defensive coordinator at Idaho State, Cooper mostly deployed a 3-4 defense that focused on a very structured, assignment-sound approach.
"This is where you belong on this play … your hat's here, your hat's here, your hat's here, picket fence; this is where you belong in every play," Cooper said.
So transitioning to Hauck's aggressive — sometimes, even chaotic — system of stunts, blitzes and deception was a bit like switching religions.
"I was the exact opposite," Cooper said. "So when I learned the defense — I did four years ago what the coaches [at Illinois] are doing here now — it's like, 'Wait, what a second? What's going on?'"
But a few years later, consider Cooper completely converted.
Now, the former Montana State All-American linebacker is a full-out 3-3-5 defense zealot, and his job now is preach and teach what he's learned during the last four seasons in Missoula (Mont.) to a new crop of players and coaches at Illinois — as well as Illini head coach Bret Bielema.
In time, he thinks there will be plenty of buy-in.
"You adapt to it," Cooper said. "Once you go voodoo, you don't go back. Once it's in you, man, once you get the feel for it, it's tough to go away from it because it is so exciting.
"We always say, you just can't dip your toe into the (3-3-5) world. If you dip your toe into the world, you're going to get fired. You got to be all-in."
Last month, Bielema hired Hauck — who retired after two successful stints at Montana, citing fatigue with all the non-football responsibilities required of a Division-I head football coach in the pay-for-play era — to give a facelift to an Illini defense that had grown increasingly ineffective in three seasons under Aaron Henry, who left to become the Notre Dame secondary coach.
Five years after creating a defense from scratch along with then-defensive coordinator Ryan Walters — and three seasons removed from the Illini defense ranking No. 1 in the country in scoring defense — Bielema felt his defense had become too predictable and too replicated across the Big Ten. So he desired to bring in a defense with which he'd long been enamored, a defense that would be far different than anything else in the Big Ten.
He tabbed Hauck, one of the most successful disciples of a 3-3-5 defense credited to Joe Lee Dunn, who had great success at Mississippi State and Memphis. Hauck learned the scheme during a three-year run (2015-17) as special teams coordinator at San Diego State under Rocky Long.