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run f t. peop fo tba t~;am" Our defensive ends are
b a] 1 because the defense is 1n pa s rush people. occasion we would
f r nt s o p g t run. 1s take a Cla Dolman and drop h:i m o f in
aster to hand the ball off and run ov In h b school
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Personally
football

0 e nd •
yards. In this defense our defensive
end is going to work up field. 1r?e are
not coordinated to stop the ball run
in to that area. We are not fore ing the
b a 11 to the free man. The front has to
be coordinated to the secondary. When
we read run weak, we get the SLAM call.
This gives the eagle tackle and end
i n s i d e s 1 an t s t o the A an d ..!!_ gaps •
The defensive end is going to get
hooked and we will give them that
block. The Will LBer takes the
fullback's block on from the inside
out. This forces the running back in to
the unblocked free safety.
0 play-action pass because he is the HOLE
The next thing a good offensive
coach is going to do is read the force
and crack block with"the split
receiver • The corner is going to read
the crack and come up to play the run.
We always keep someone in what we
call the HOLE. That simply means the
middle of the field or middle third. I f
we rot ate strong the free safety is in
the hole. If we rotate weak the strong
safety is in the middle. The weakness
of this scheme is to the strong side
because we don't have a strong safety
force. We are in 4 coverage with a
SLAM call on the weak side. We are
going to make up for our weakness to
the strong side with a call. We are
going to stunt to the strong side. The
134
Sam LBer can't get hooked by the tight
call.
We g i v e a S TUN T , REX , o r GAP
That gives our nose tackle and
defensive end direction calls. If we
give those stunt calls, the center wi 11
block the Mike LBer on runs weak, but
we don't care. I am not going to ask
Studwell to whip the center who is
scooping weak with our nose tackle
stunting strong. He is going to do the
best he can to get across the center or
come under him. Remember that center
is paid to block him and he should get
him. The block the center can never
make is the reach on the stunting
tackle into the strong side. Even an
average tackle should beat the center
if he is stunting in to the gap. The
Sam LBer lines up toe to toe. That
means the LBer's inside foot should be
on the tight end's outside foot. If he
is an all-pro tight end, we get wider.
The better blocker the tight end is the
more outside we are going to play. The
strong safety lines up on the tight end
to disguise the coverage. At the snap
of the ball he gets into the middle
third looking for the drop back or
play-action pass. If the ball is run
at him, he stays back. We don't want
to get beat with a flanker post on a
player. We should not need the strong
safety on the run.
On run plays to the tight end side
the stack LBer or Will LBer is going to
make most of the tackles. Everyone to
the tight end side is working like hell
not to get hooked. They are turning
the ball back inside. The Will LBer
does not hav-e to be big or strong. He
has to be able to run and hit. We
cover him up so no one can get to him.
You can get by with a guy who loves to
play and can hit.
It is easier to stop the running
game in pro ball than it is in high
"l
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and f the [

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If you c
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 Everyone to the strong side plays
the same as 4 coverage. If the tight
end releases, the strong safety has
deep third. Don't ask the strong
safety to come up and play the pitch.
Don 1 t try to roll up to the flat on key
coverage. If you are playing key
coverage, you are asking guys to do
something they can't do. The free
safety is in the hole. He doesn't have
to run over and cover behind the strong
safety. He is in the hole to help on
the slot post.
0 0
{)0 lJO()
E. ,.. T E tight ends. We are beginning to see it
M W
c.
If the offense comes up in a wide
s 1 o t formation and mot ions back in to a
balanced set, we go back to the huddle
call of 4 cover. You can do that easy.
The next thing I want to cover is
the OVER FRONT. We start out in an
UNDER. We stem and move into the OVER
FRONT. In college, high school, and
the pros, if you move your people it
will confuse the offensive blocking
scheme. It is so simple that you can
put the UNDER in the morning practice
and the OVER in the evening practice.
In the OVER the eagle tackle and
nose tackle stem to the tight end, the
eagle tackle shades to the split end
side. The Mike LBer becomes the stack
LB e r. The Will LBer becomes the bubble
LBer. The strong safety is going into
the hole and the free safety is going
to force as in the UNDER cover 4.
This defense makes it tough to run
to the tight end side. They can't pull
the guard. If they base block the
guard, they can't get to the Mike LBer.
0 then we don't have 5 any more but they
()Q()[]Q(}
.S E T T E
w
FS
/ the answers.
136
The offense has to get all hook blocks
on the defensive front. They might try
to beat the defense in the strong side
A gap. That takes a lot of patients
by the offensive coordinator.
I f t he o f f e n s e r u n s weak again s t
the OVER the Mike LBer becomes the free
man. The eagle end plays the hook
block. The Will LBer plays the hook
block of the guard. The eagle tackle
is shaded to the s p 1 i t end side and
shouldn't be hooked. The free safety
forces from outside in. If the FB
comes to block the free safety, the
Mike LBer has to make the play.
0 In high school you see a lot of two
more. Anytime the pros can run the
ba 11, it helps their passing game. Our
philosophy is if you want to put in a
G second tight end and take out a 4.4 or
4.5 receiver, that is fine with us. We
would rather play against a fat-ass
tight end than that fast guy. We are
not going to stay back and play pass in
a 7-man front against two tight ends.
With the split end we played SKY
coverage. That will bring the free
safety into the run support to the
split end. With the second tight end
we bring the corner up tight and give a
BUCK call. The BUCK call brings the
Eagle end down hard into the C gap.
The Eagle tackle slants into -the A
gap. The corner is on the line and
comes down tough.
To the strong side we run some type
of stunt to get help into the strong
side. If we run STUNT, the nose tackle
and strong end slant outside into the
A and C gaps. We can't count on
the Mik;- LBer to help on weak side run
because he is cheated to the strong
side. The offense will be able to
scoop our nose tackle and Mike LBer.
That leaves them with guard, tackle,
end, and fullback to block. We have
our tackle, end, Will LBer, corner, and
free safety. That is 5 to 4, and we
wtn. If they release their tight end,
don't have the extra blocker now.
Gentlemen, my time is up. I hope
you have gotten something from this
lecture. Again, I do not have all of
I learned this defense
from a lot of people. Hopefully, you
got some new ideas today. Thank you.