Defensive Philosophy and Approach

Defensive Philosophy:







“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”





- Sun Tzu







Boxing and War. The sport of boxing coupled with lessons from war teaches us many things. The greatest universal lesson that both of these things is the lesson of developing tactics. Being a master tactician is a trait, that I feel, must be ascertained by a defensive coordinator. When I first started coaching, one of the first things I learned is that in order to be great I had to actively seek out how to improve not only my defensive knowledge of the game, but methods on how to be a better tactician. I consistently read books from General Patton, Sun Tzu, Carl Von Clausewitz, and Erwin Rommel. I also studied classic historical boxing matches from Ali, Tyson, Marciano, and Dempsey. I still remember the "A-Ha" moment when I watched and analyzed the classic 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" fight in Zaire between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The "rope-a-dope" tactic hit me and made me realize that the same tactic can be utilized, defensively speaking, in football. Coupled with that strategy and the principals I learned from reading books on tactics of war I developed my defensive strategies. I created my belief and defensive philosophy that I call, "The bad seeing eye dog" mentality. Defensively, I would like to win every snap, I incorporated that into my defensive goals. Although from my studies I realized that if we lose the small battles, bend but don't break, we essentially can set up an offense to play right into our hands. Now, I understand that defensively we are already put at a disadvantage as we are calling a defense based of of formation, down and distance, and tendency. An offense has a pre-scroipted paly they are running every down and we must basically take an educated guess on how to gain the tactical advantage to call the right defense to counter the anticipated tendency. But, if step back and view the calls like a game of chess, we can set up our opponent by making a fundamental mistake that we can capitalize on. I literally want to be that guide dog that leads our opponent right off a cliff. Below are the fundamental keys, pillars, and principals that my defense is based on. As the game continues to change and evolve offensively, we must do the same defensively. Being innovative is essential now more than ever. Seeking out the appropriate self improvement through research and educational means is imperative to be successful defensively. We can't be stagnant and rely on old adages and schemes anymore, we must be willing to accept change, risk being creatively innovative, and evolve!





My defense is tough as nails. It is designed to set up and control offenses. I believe in disguising and pressuring the skill positions so that they must play fundamental football. I strongly believe that a great defense needs to be able to set the tone of the game. This is accomplished by playing sound defense with the ability to adjust to the offensive formations because of being fully prepared for our opponent. A great defense must be aggressive and be able to blitz, while being completely sound in doing so. Its crucial that our defense utilizes its strengths in personnel and doesn’t try to play outside of its abilities. A great defense needs to be able to play their techniques with discipline and unselfishness. We must be able to identify every offensive set a team displays and both respect their offensive strengths while taking advantage of their weaknesses. A great defense supports the team's offense but cannot rely on them to win the game. We need to be able to keep our opponent out of the end zone, create turnovers and take advantage of opportunities when they occur. The ability for our defense to recognize and adjust to a different style of offense on the fly is critical. Athletes within this defense will be taught and understand why adjustments are made and what changes in technique are required in order to be successful. A tremendous amount of discipline, focus, and sound fundamentals are required to prevent any let downs. A great defense has a short-term memory and we re-group to learn from any mistakes. A reflection of passion, energy, and trust in this system are the foundational pillars of our defensive success.





Keys to our Success:

- Be a defense that COMMUNICATES

- Be a defense that is TOUGH

- Be able to FLOW, FIGHT, FINISH

- Be able to IMPOSE OUR WILL

- Be able to WIN EVERY DOWN

- Be able to ESTABLISH A NEW LINE OF SCRIMMAGE

- Be able to play with COMPOSURE

- Be able to be CHAMPIONS OF CHARACTER

Keys we must continually focus and build upon:

- Technique: Believe in what you are taught to do.

- Tackling: Aggressive, physical and clean!

- Pursuit: Get to the ball in a bad mood.

- Discipline: Do your job.

- Intensity: Play with emotion and have fun.

- Knowledge: Understand the game plan and execute it accordingly.

- Communication: Everyone’s on the same page.

Our objective is to beat the offense at it’s own game, the diversity will allow us to manipulate offensive play calling. By showing multiple fronts, shifts, and coverage’s we will confuse our opponent; ultimately leading to poor execution. Our multiple fronts allow us to shift from one front to the next without having to change personnel while all our line stunts and blitzes can be used interchangeably. Each front is predicated on gap control, our defense is adaptive and fluid. This allows us to be aggressive with our blitzes and still be sound in our fundamentals. We must understand what our opponent is doing offensively, the offensive side of the ball is literally a game of adjustments. When our opponents adjust, we must be able to identify that and take advantage of the inherent weakness within their adjustments. It is important to understand this when scouting our opponent and during our preplanning. From looking at our defense from the offensive side, I understand that the most effective and most successful defenses don't give you a tell-tale of what they are doing, the check down ratios are literally non-existent. My Defense is based on taking advantage of the opportunities the offense gives us based on strategy and opportunity. My defensive success is based on being dynamic and by being diversified and being able to set up offenses with different looks for all types of situations. My defense is disciplined, as we ensure the little things are always done right, every snap! We will be fully prepared knowing that we are always just one play away from breaking open a game and controlling the outcome of the game. Lastly, our defense embodies explosiveness that will encourage our offense to go out score, as it is our goal to get them the ball back!!!

For our program to be ultimately successful, defensively, we must buy into controlled chaos. In order to navigate through the chaos, we must communicate. In order to master our communication, we must take pride in ensuring that the little things are done right in every aspect of our program. Attention to detail and holding each other accountable will ultimately solidify the core and heartbeat of our defense. Be explosive, be tough, and be resilient. For I am my brother's keeper!!!

- FLOW. FIGHT. FINISH. -



"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win"

- Sun Tzu







Pursuit Drill:

4 Cone Pursuit Drill (Star Drill):

- REPS, REPS, REPS!!!!!!!!!

- Four coaches will stand in zones. (2) in the deep halves, (2) in the flats. (Cones/Zones can always be added and shifted around; this is only the template)

- Defense will be in a base alignment vs cones or scout team offense.

- QB will call a cadence, once ball is snapped, coach will blow one whistle.

- On the first whistle, defense will chop feet.

- On the second whistle, defense will do an up/down.

- QB will throw ball to one of the coaches standing at a cone.

- On the third whistle, qb will throw ball to one of the coaches and defense will rally around that coach.

- Defense will break when coach feels everyone has rallied and swarmed.

- Defense will break down with two claps, then two claps on thigh pads, finish with an “ah ooh”