4.2.5 Mechanics

Dempsey Quinn  


My defensive philosophy is a very aggressive one centered around putting pressure on the defense and forcing turnovers. The defense I am most comfortable in is a 4-2-5. By bring blitz pressure on the majority of downs, we try to force the offense to play on their heels and have to make a lot of post-snap adjustments to our alignments. Our aggressive style allows us to get our guys moving and playing downhill on defense and creates a fun identity for our players to fulfill. We are a bend but don't defense that relies on big plays and and a relentless pursue of the ball.

We put our guys through a tackling and take away circuit three times a week to focus on the fundamentals of tackling and to emphasize how important tackling and take aways are to our team. The pursuit drill that we do throughout the course of the week is a team pursuit drill from the 25 yard line. Our goal is to get all 11 guys sprinting to the all. We use the back pylon of the end-zone as out landmark and try to emphasize good pursuit angles. We do not use a rabbit or a dummy ball carrier. When the ball is snapped the coach points the ball to the right or the left. The defensive line gets off the ball and then hits the ground. They pop up and take off for the pylon with good angles. At the same time the ball in snapped, the linebackers and defensive backs begin to run their feet in place. When the last DL has past all of the LBs, the LBs turn and run through the back pylon. When the last LB has cleared all of the defensive backs, the DBs turn and pursue through the back corner. This is an all-out sprint and all 11 guys must give their best effort or we come back and do it again. On Thursday we like to mix things up and we end with a live ball, either thrown or fumbled, that the defense must secure and convey into the end-zone for a defensive touchdown.

I am an Offensive Coordinator, but love to study the defensive side of things as well so I can better understand what a defense is trying to do to my offense in order to best stop it. If I were to be in charge of a defense at some point in my career, I would take some things from Greg Schiano, as I see him as one of the best defensive minded coaches in football.



1. Stop the Run



2. Limit Big Plays



3. Create Takeaways



Those would be our core values and philosophies as a defensive unit. We would run a 4-4 Swarm defense with a Cover 3 shell over top. I have coached on teams that have utilized this defensive scheme in the past, and I am a big fan of it. The two outside linebackers must be the most sure tacklers on your team, because they are the ones responsible for setting the edge, and making things come back inside. They must be able to tackle in space.



The Team Pursuit Drill I like to use the most, is for our defensive unit to understand pursuit, but to also utlize conditioning in a game like situation rather than just running them to be running them. There will be 10 cones set up on both sidelines, and our first team defense on the field. There will be "Rabbits" on both the left and right sideline. On "Hit", a coach will throw the ball out to the rabbit, the outside LB closest to the throw will then sprint up to the Receiver and buzz his feet right beside him, the rest of the defense will sprint to the 10 cones, meaning only one defender per cone. In all reality, no one should be following each other, as well are all taking angles in order to make a play. The backside corner is always aiming for the last cone set up down the sideline. We spread the cones five yards apart. It has been a good drill, and one we utilize quite a bit during the season.