G.J. Kinne made arguably his biggest change as a head coach after the season when he replaced defensive coordinator Dexter McCoil with South Alabama defensive coordinator Will Windham. Windham was at South Alabama for the last five seasons, serving as defensive coordinator in 2024 and 205. He has experience working with linebackers and safeties as a position coach. Before South Alabama, Windham spent three seasons at Kent State and was a defensive quality control coach at Georgia from 2016-17. 

On the magazine visit, Windham was nice enough to sit down and talk about his defensive philosophy and his plans for the Bobcats. 

Q: What intrigued you about this job and why did you want to come to Texas State? 

Windham: The culture that Coach Kinne has built here was huge and going against them the last three season, you see what kind of offense it is. And as a defensive coach, it is nice when the offense scores a lot of points. I’m a baseball guy – if you go out in the bottom of the first and go three-up, three-down there is more pressure than if you go out there and score three. The familiarity with Coach (Tanner) Burns helped. Just after visiting with Coach Kinne and the vibe and the fact his kids are about the same age as my three kids, so you knew there’d be a great family atmosphere. There were a lot of boxed checked and then going to the PAC-12 was obviously huge. I’ve been in the Sun Belt for five years with South Alabama so the intrigue of going west and into that conference was a big deal. 

Q: How do you describe your defensive philosophy? 

Windham: It’s probably a good mix of what I learned under Coach (Corey) Batoon at South Alabama, who is now at Missouri, and then pulling some things from Coach (Kirby) Smart when I was at Georgia. I believe in the players, so whatever our players can do is what we’re going to do. I think it starts up front. We want to have good D-linemen. Two years ago, we were the No. 1 run defense and the Sun Belt and two of those defensive linemen play for the Seahawks. If your DBs can’t play man-to-man and you play man-to-man, you’re in for a long, long night. SO, I think it is going to be personnel driven. 

We’re a Cover-3 base. That’s what we put in like day one is Cover-3. We believe in front multiplicity and coverage simplicity. We’re trying to mix up fronts to make it confusing for offensive linemen in the run game and in pass pro but keep it very simple (for our players). I tell the DBs all the time that if they mess up, the opponent’s band plays and we don’t like that. So, we keep it as simple as we can on the back end while still manipulating the structure up front. We’re going to attack protections and keep people guessing up front while playing Cover-3, Tampa-2, Quarters, and Man. That’s probably our four coverages. That’s our home base. 

Q: So, you’re not married to a four-man or an odd-man front? 

Windham: No, we’re married to what our guys can do. When we came in as a defensive staff, we had a big need up front with the defensive line. We had some guys leaving and some guys graduating, so that was the area we attacked in the transfer portal and I think we did a great job with that. We brought in some really good defensive tackles and we got some good dudes coming back. That’s going to be huge for us because it does all start up front and when those big guys can make plays, the ball doesn’t go very far. If we can generate some plays with those guys up front, we’re going to be okay. 

Q: When you take over at a new spot, how do you go about integrating yourself into the staff and the roster? 

Windham: I like to think of myself as a chameleon. I can probably fit in anywhere. So, for me, it’s about finding how you best work with guys on the staff and understanding their personalities and that comes with time. I think the players are the same way. You can coach some guys by yelling and all that, and some guys don’t react to that well. We have to find our identity as we go through spring ball. Like, who are we going to be? That’s what we need to figure out. What are we good at? Are we better at three-down? Are we better at four-down? Are we better in Cover-1? Are we better in Tampa-2? That comes with time. But your install is your install. You’re going to teach them the techniques and the verbiage and the coverages and the fronts. 

It’s just like painting. We went through walkthroughs pre-spring camp and that was the first coat of paint. Spring ball is the second coat of paint. Summer is the third coat of paint and fall camp is the fourth coat. And if you’ve ever painted before, by the time that fourth coat is put on, the thing should be looking pretty good. If we can understand the terms and when to apply them and how to apply them, we’re in a good spot. Then it comes down to doing the same thing over and over again. 

Q: How much of spring if identifying who you can build around? 

Windham: That’s exactly it. The same way you’re finding your identity in terms of scheme, you’re finding your identity in terms of personnel. Who can you hang your hat on? Who is going to be the vocal leader in the huddle? If things go sideways, who is going to right the ship for us? That’s what the next few months are for.  

Q: How do you build a defense that can go make big plays?

Windham: Pressure is important, but so is vision. That’s the reason we play Cover-3. You get a lot more vision on the quarterback and you’re in more windows. We believe in simulated pressures, as well. We’re going to bring a backer, but we’ll mix it and be in Cover-2 one time or in Cover-3 another or in some man-to-man. From watching tape of last year, creating more unit pride in terms of how we play and playing hard all the time will help create negative plays. Same with eliminating stuff like jumping offside. So, just instilling some pride and some discipline will go a long way for this defense.

I think part of it is scheme and part of it is building that mentality. Like I tell the guys, football is grown-up game of keep away. They have the ball; we need to go get it. Instilling that mindset and building those habits that show up every day is important. For example, we talk about sacks as selfish plays. If you get a sack, that’s selfish because we need the football. It should be a sack and a fumble. We don’t just want the sack. We want the sack and the ball. If we give this offense the ball, we’re going to score 90,000 points a game. If we can create three or four turnovers a game, we should win a whole lot of football games. 

Q: What are those metrics you use to judge performances on? 

Windham: To me, it is limiting explosive plays. Can we limit explosive plays and can we take the ball away? Those are the biggest things to me. If you can do those two things, you’re probably going to win more than you lose.