Question for Hawkoption

Big Chief,
Good to here from you. The video's are done both in the classroom and then on the field, there is no one in the classroom but me and the camera man. The video is great for the 4-2-5 because it goes over all the different stunts and games a lot of people use in this defense. I have studied the 4-2-5 and really like all the things you can do out of it. It seems a lot of college either run it or going to it. San Jose State came by and they are going to it. If I can help in any way let me know.
PGolla

Coach,
Making plays video goes over the slants. The first video goes over all of our drills. The second video goes over the stimulus response which is the answer to the offensive blocks. If you click on tools and go under video, you can preview the tapes. I just got the video myself, they came out great. If you want to talk about stants that would be a great topic.
PGOLLA

Coach Campbell,
Skinny in the whole is a term that we use a lot. We talk a lot about not giving the offensive blockers a surface to block us. By getting skinny we can really cause offensive blockers problems because they don't have an area to grab. A good drill we do is we get old broom sticks, we have the linebackers and d-line put it on their neck and arm hold the end. we the have them jog around stand up bags and point one of the ends to the ground, if the end of the stick is pointed at the ground he is skinny. If the stick hits a bag he is not skinny enough and giving an offensive blocker a surface area. We do this drill with all of our defensive players because every player on defense for us will have to rip.
PGOLLA

Coach, do you use that technique on all slants or do you also step flat and then into the LOS? I've read where some slant teams attack with 45 degree step.

Do you make a huddle call to indicate the type of slant you want or is it game planned for particular teams? We have slanted to the v of the neck with a 45 degree step and reacted to the blockers "on the run".

Coach Max Q,
Thank-you so much for your compliment. I get fired up about the D-line. This year was my first time I watched the draft, it was interesting because of all of the d-linemen chosen in the draft. I really believe that the d-line is just like the O-line, you build around and you will be fine.
If I can help you in any way let me know:
Golla

Coach,
I understand the different techniques of slanting, but when you have d line man slanting to the v of the o linemen and then only penetrating 1 yrd upfield, do you feel this takes away the agressivness of your dline. Is this a technique an average high school d lineman can do, or do you think that if you just tell you lineman to get skinny and get upfield causing penetration would be an easier technique. One they can still be very agressive with too.

Coach,
Sorry I have not been getting back sooner we are in the middle of spring football. We mirror step for a few reasons. Number one we had 3 out of 4 of our d-lineman get scholarships. They were big good kids. This year we are small and quick. I felt that we will utilize our talents at the d-line if we could be on the move using our quickness. I just do not feel the kids we have this year can sit in a gap and lock out bigger stronger kids. By aligning head up and mirror stepping we feel we are quick enough to beat a bigger stronger man. It also puts in perfect position to slant. I do not feel iso gives us a problem. We mirror step but still have our stimulus response = double we get skinny and split it. etc....
Slanting a to the V of the neck has to be extremely aggressive we tell our kids you slant to beat the man over you not the man you are slanting to. We are also reacting to blocking schemes of offensive blockers so we do not just fly up field. We do have calls for our d-lineman to fly up field. We slant to stop plays not to just slant. In my video I go over slant technique of both up-field and V of neck slant. I hope this helps.
PGolla