KISS Defense with the

Power of Positive Thinking

I t is a tremendous honor to represent
Jacksonville University in the AFCA
Summer Manual. On behalf of our head
Diagram 1: Stack

coach Steve Gilbert and our defensive staff

— Rick Humphreys (linebackers), Shawn
Trent (defensive line), and David Martin
(defensive backs) — I appreciate the oppor-
tunity to share our ideas with you and hope
that you may gain some useful information.
I wish I could tell you that we’ve rein-
vented the wheel and are running some
Diagram 2: G
new-fangled defense, but that wouldn’t be
the truth. As a defensive staff, we took over
about a month before the 2000 season
started and barely had time to learn each
other’s names. Without the benefit of
spring football to install our package, we
needed to develop a comprehensive pack-
age that would handle the many different
offensive systems that we face. We also
needed to keep it simple (KISS), so that the
Diagram 3: Opposite
players and coaches were on the same
page. As coaches, we believe that the bet-
ter our players understand our schemes,
the more successful we will be. After all, it
is not what we know as coaches, it’s our
ability to convey that knowledge to our
players.
Shap Boyd Having said this, let me clarify one thing:
I am not hung up on any particular defen-
Defensive Coordinator sive scheme. The scheme must suit your
Diagram 4: Stack Cover 4
personnel and defensive philosophy. If you
Jacksonville University don’t have the knowledge to make the nec-
essary adjustments in your package,
Jacksonville, Fla. you’re probably in the wrong defense. Run
what you know and what you believe in.
Don’t try to copy a scheme with which you
are not familiar. At JU, we base out of the
4-3 because of the various offenses that
we see. We run quarters coverage with all
of its checks along with man coverage. We
Diagram 5: Stack Cover 4
believe the versatility of our package gives
us the ability to handle all of the different
offensive systems we face without deviat-
ing from our base.
Our three base fronts consist of stack
(Diagram 1), G (Diagram 2), and opposite
(Diagram 3).
Stack: Stack is our base package, play-
ing cover 4 behind it. We want the ability to
get into a 9-man front if people are going to out changing our gap responsibilities. With
get into a 2-back set and try to run the ball our linebackers up in the gaps, the offen-
(Diagrams 4 and 5). sive line is forced to respect their presence.
G: Is a front that we used more fre- This allows our defensive line to get more
quently as the season progressed. In this one-on-one situations. We force the
front we bump our nose guard over to the offense to anticipate pressure, which again
weak guard and walk our linebackers up in forces more one-on-one blocks up front.
their respective gaps. What we gain is the Any time we limit the potential for a double
ability to give the offense a new front with- team, we gain an advantage.

• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •

 Coaching Point: When our linebackers
walk up, they stay on the heels of the defen-
sive linemen so that they have the ability to
scrape. We don’t want to get caught up in
the legs of our defensive linemen.
Opposite: Is a front that we use as a
change-up so that the offense cannot settle
in and get comfortable knowing where our
three technique and nose guard are going
to be positioned. The offense can show you
a formation to get certain defensive tech-
niques in certain positions and we do not
want to let the offense dictate where we
position our players. We want to have the
ability to position our players, as we deem
necessary. In opposite, we align our nose
guard and defensive end to the tight end
side, which would normally be our tackle
and stud side. Our defensive calls are
opposite from what they would normally be,
thus the name opposite.
Diagram 6: Stack Opposite
Diagram 7: Stack Opposite
The advantage we gain by using these
fronts is the ability to show multiple looks
without changing players’ responsibilities.
This method is absolutely consistent with
our KISS philosophy. Our linebackers’ gap
responsibilities remain the same in “flow to”
and “flow away”, for all of these defensive
fronts. We have a limited amount of time in
a practice to work on our linebacker fits, so
we keep as much continuity from one front
to the next to allow for carryover with
increased repetitions. Our linebackers are
coached to understand who their first threat
is based on flow. Pre-snap the linebackers
must know how they are going to attack
their respective blocker based on their fill
responsibility.
Once our players understand their fits in
each of these respective fronts, we install
our line movements. In teaching this to our
players we refer to our movements as gap
exchanges. We have single-man line
movements as well as tandem movements.
We also have whole line movements. The
first thing that our linebackers must know is
when a movement affects their gap or
when they have a gap exchange.
Diagram 8: Echo
Echo: Is a gap exchange for our defen-
sive end and our Will linebacker. We like to
run this line movement to help with strong-
side runs. We feel that we have a chance to
get an extra player to the strong side of the
ball. We will also run this to help on any
strong side isolation that might cut back to
the weak side. It can also be effective
against the weak isolation play by forcing it
to bounce outside.
Diagram 9: FB
FB: Is a gap exchange between our
Stud and our Sam linebacker. We like to
run this to help defend against the strong
off-tackle run game whether it is an isola-
tion or power game. We also feel this helps
against the weak side run.
We now have a chance to get an extra
player to the point of attack. In particular
this helps with the weak isolation play that
wants to cut back to the strong “A” gap.
Diagram 10: Nail (Weak)
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •
Nail: Is a tandem movement for our
nose guard and our defensive end. We
have a gap exchange for both our nose
guard and Mike as well as our end and Will.
We would run this stunt to fortify our strong-
side and help control the cutback lanes.
Diagram 11: Hammer (Strong)
Hammer: Is a tandem movement for our
tackle and our stud. We run this stunt to
help with the weakside run game and to
disrupt offensive blocking schemes.
These are our main defensive line
movements. We have two additional line
movements that we like to employ. These
become whole line movements:
Diagram 12: Over
Over: Is whole line movement that is a
gap exchange for all of our linebackers.
This gives us the ability to slant into an
eagle front on the snap of the ball as
opposed to lining up in an eagle front. We
can also bring our Will linebacker off the
edge with this movement. This movement
has been effective against both run and
pass.
Diagram 13: Under
Under: Is a whole line movement that is a
gap exchange for all of our linebackers. This is
another way to slant our line to the weak side
while also giving us the ability to bring our Sam
linebacker off the edge. Again this has been
effective against both the run game and pass.
 Coaching Point: On all of these line
movements it is important that our linemen
take a flat step and get a hard rip up field
so that they do not get washed down. This
is crucial if you are going to utilize move-
ment in your defensive front.
One constant concern for 4-3 teams is
how to handle the two tight end formation.
We have three ways that we handle the two
tight end formation.
The first is to check to a “Loose” call.
This is one of our base adjustments and
has been a good adjustment for us. We
prefer this adjustment to walking our Will
linebacker up on the line of scrimmage.
Two additional checks that we employ are
our buster check, and our buster double “I”
check. These last two checks help us
remove one or more of the bubbles that
offenses try to create. All three checks have
been valuable and have served their
intended purposes.
The most important component to our
defense is the power of positive thinking.
There is absolutely nothing more important
to success than believing in what you are
doing. If you demonstrate that belief daily,
Diagram 14: Loose
Diagram 15: Buster
your players will believe in what you are
doing. It all starts with YOU, and how you
present your package to your players. Be
passionate and clear about the system that
you are teaching and your players will also
become passionate and confident. If you
are “wishy-washy” your players will be
Diagram 16: Buster
“wishy-washy.” It all begins with a belief, if
you believe they will believe. Players will
give you exactly what you expect, nothing
more, nothing less. Make sure you expect
enough!!
Again, on behalf of our head coach
Steve Gilbert and the rest of the
Jacksonville University football staff, we
would like to thank the AFCAfor the oppor-
tunity to contribute to this year’s Summer
Manual. On a personal note, I would like to
thank all of the coaches I have worked with
in the past. If not for their expertise and
years of tutelage, I might not have had this
opportunity. We hope this article will be of
some benefit to you and your program, and
good luck in the 2001 season.

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• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •