Post by Coach Campbell on Jul 3, 2014 23:24:26 GMT
Grant Pippert
Defensive Philosophy:
I know it is overused but it is certainly underutilized, our defense keeps it simple. The first thing the head coach told me when I was hired was to "keep it simple stupid". I am a 4-3 guy at heart, but because of our personel we moved into a 3-4 defense a few years ago and it has worked quite well. The first thing that we look at on our defense is to make sure that we are 'gap sound' and every gap has a player responsible for it. We try to keep our gap responsiblity minimal per player, we like to have most of our players have one gap responsibility. Sometimes we are forced to have a player have a two gap responsibility, but we like to keep it at a minimal. Obviously in a 3-4 scheme there are more blitz packages than in a 4-3, however, we keep those pretty simple and generally only run a few each week (depending on the scouting report). There are some stunts that forces us to gap exchange, but once again we try to avoid that when possible. We have specific things we look for in each position and since I am a DB's coach I will tell you what we look for in each position. Our CB's are good athletes (not always our best) but they are great cover guys and great tacklers. We have to have discpline corners that maintain the edge, cap routes, and can open field tackle. Our FS is a player that is smart/savvy, a leader, and disciplined. The FS does not have to be the most gifted athlete (although it helps) but he does have to be able to get us into the right formation and communicate that. Our SS is a special position for us, he is usually our best athlete and is the best tackler on the team. Our defense is set up to put our SS in the best position possbile. If it is a two back formation our SS will move into a nested position between our two MLB's and has no responsibility other than to find the football. 99% of the time he is unblocked on run plays and because of this led the confernce in tackles (and big hits!). Our coverage is 100% dictated by the formation of the offense and can change week by week. Our base coverage is read 1/4's. If there are doubles we call it "Key" and we read the #2 reciver and coverage is dictated by his route. Sometimes depending on how far the #2 reciever is from #1 we simply play man coverage. If it is a trips look we run quarter coverage to that side and have our SS buzz the flats with man coverage to the otherside, unless they have a freak reciever and we adjust to that with an underneathe help. We believe that by keeping the scheme simple it allows our athletes to react as opposed to think and because of this we have fearless defenders flying to the football. Our main point of emphasis on defense is to be so physical and dominant that not only does our opponent lose the game against us, but the following week as well. We want impose our will physically so that the opponent is defeated mentally and it carries over the following week!
Pursuit Drills:
1) The team pursuit is used by most defenses across the nation, but for obvious reasons. Each program adds their own little twist to the drill to make it unique and fit their style of play. I saw a post on here by coach Hanson that I will incorporate into our drill where they make it as game like as possible, I loved that idea! What we do at times is that when we blow the whistle during the drill each player will freeze and make sure that each is in proper position gap sound with front seven, edge players, alley players, and ambush players. We will also incorporate strip drills by the ambush player coming from the back side.
2) I was at a clinic and had the priveledge to listen to the LB coaches from the University of Iowa (Coach Woods and Coach Reid). They do a drill that includes all three of their LB's which might be alot like the triangle drill that I read on another post. The whole purpose of this drill is simple to be fundamentally sound on open field tackling, with each LB have a specific responsibility. The MLB would always be the alley player (head up on the ball carrier) the play side outside LB would be square to the ball carrier to his outside maintaining contain, while the back side OLB would be at a 45 degree angle waiting for the cutback. The ball carrier would zig-zag and dance to force the OLBers to change responsibility. They did this drill nearly every day, filmed it, and broke the film down after practice. We began doing this last year and as simple as it sounds it did wonders for our open field fundamentals and prevented big plays from the run and passing game. This drill can also be use with DB's with the S being alley player and CB's being contain or cutback.
Defensive Philosophy:
I know it is overused but it is certainly underutilized, our defense keeps it simple. The first thing the head coach told me when I was hired was to "keep it simple stupid". I am a 4-3 guy at heart, but because of our personel we moved into a 3-4 defense a few years ago and it has worked quite well. The first thing that we look at on our defense is to make sure that we are 'gap sound' and every gap has a player responsible for it. We try to keep our gap responsiblity minimal per player, we like to have most of our players have one gap responsibility. Sometimes we are forced to have a player have a two gap responsibility, but we like to keep it at a minimal. Obviously in a 3-4 scheme there are more blitz packages than in a 4-3, however, we keep those pretty simple and generally only run a few each week (depending on the scouting report). There are some stunts that forces us to gap exchange, but once again we try to avoid that when possible. We have specific things we look for in each position and since I am a DB's coach I will tell you what we look for in each position. Our CB's are good athletes (not always our best) but they are great cover guys and great tacklers. We have to have discpline corners that maintain the edge, cap routes, and can open field tackle. Our FS is a player that is smart/savvy, a leader, and disciplined. The FS does not have to be the most gifted athlete (although it helps) but he does have to be able to get us into the right formation and communicate that. Our SS is a special position for us, he is usually our best athlete and is the best tackler on the team. Our defense is set up to put our SS in the best position possbile. If it is a two back formation our SS will move into a nested position between our two MLB's and has no responsibility other than to find the football. 99% of the time he is unblocked on run plays and because of this led the confernce in tackles (and big hits!). Our coverage is 100% dictated by the formation of the offense and can change week by week. Our base coverage is read 1/4's. If there are doubles we call it "Key" and we read the #2 reciver and coverage is dictated by his route. Sometimes depending on how far the #2 reciever is from #1 we simply play man coverage. If it is a trips look we run quarter coverage to that side and have our SS buzz the flats with man coverage to the otherside, unless they have a freak reciever and we adjust to that with an underneathe help. We believe that by keeping the scheme simple it allows our athletes to react as opposed to think and because of this we have fearless defenders flying to the football. Our main point of emphasis on defense is to be so physical and dominant that not only does our opponent lose the game against us, but the following week as well. We want impose our will physically so that the opponent is defeated mentally and it carries over the following week!
Pursuit Drills:
1) The team pursuit is used by most defenses across the nation, but for obvious reasons. Each program adds their own little twist to the drill to make it unique and fit their style of play. I saw a post on here by coach Hanson that I will incorporate into our drill where they make it as game like as possible, I loved that idea! What we do at times is that when we blow the whistle during the drill each player will freeze and make sure that each is in proper position gap sound with front seven, edge players, alley players, and ambush players. We will also incorporate strip drills by the ambush player coming from the back side.
2) I was at a clinic and had the priveledge to listen to the LB coaches from the University of Iowa (Coach Woods and Coach Reid). They do a drill that includes all three of their LB's which might be alot like the triangle drill that I read on another post. The whole purpose of this drill is simple to be fundamentally sound on open field tackling, with each LB have a specific responsibility. The MLB would always be the alley player (head up on the ball carrier) the play side outside LB would be square to the ball carrier to his outside maintaining contain, while the back side OLB would be at a 45 degree angle waiting for the cutback. The ball carrier would zig-zag and dance to force the OLBers to change responsibility. They did this drill nearly every day, filmed it, and broke the film down after practice. We began doing this last year and as simple as it sounds it did wonders for our open field fundamentals and prevented big plays from the run and passing game. This drill can also be use with DB's with the S being alley player and CB's being contain or cutback.