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Defensive Philosophy



I focus every practice on the fundamentals and embracing an attitude of aggression, physical play and relentless pursuit of perfection. I know my players will make mistakes but heaven help them if they fail while giving less than their best.



My philosophy is pretty simple in that I believe that I set the tone for how we play. As a coach I am very demanding, I am rarely satisfied but I also know what it means to be a young adult so I am also very patient. I do not yell but I am direct with what I say and how I say it.



Fundamentals



We will be the best tacklers in the state. We will tackle every day.



We will be the best communicators in the state. We will communicate in an effective way every day



We will be the most prepared defense in the state. We will study more ferociously than our opponent. We will apply this knowledge to our practices and games.



We will be the best-conditioned team in the state. We will give a focused effort to condition properly.



Scheme



We expect our players to understand our philosophy, alignment, and assignment with such passion that they will thirst for success. Our scheme is simple but we expect our players to exceed their personal expectations in their commitment to what it emphasizes; discipline, effort, communication, and team.



Game



Do not get beat around the edge



Do not get beat deep



Do not walk



If all else fails, knock the "crap" out of someone!







Daily Pursuit Drill



I really like the famous pursuit drill! I think it is great for teaching angles, effort, discipline, and communication. As it looks like most of the discussion post have revolved around this drill, I will talk about another pursuit drill that I like.



It is similar to the pursuit drill but it involves the passing game. I don't have a name for it (I'm sure someone, somewhere, does) but I started to realize that football schemes were starting to be more pass oriented. I found that, although having a "rabbit" run around the end is great for run plays, it wasn't helping my teams against those that pass.



Since I am at a fairly large school (we have about 150 kids in the program, 50 for each level) I am able to dive my team into at least 4 different "teams" of defenses. We will start with the starters and then the next team will be the backups, the third team will be third string and so forth.



Team one will start out on the field while the other teams line up behind the QB, which is always me because I like to do it and I want to see specific things. When I say "hike" the entire defense executes a burpee; this will give me time to either do a drop back pass, roll out, fumble, swing pass or QB sneak. I do not wait for my players to get up before I move, I want them to learn to find the ball.



If it is a pass, I will throw the ball fairly high which will, again, require the boys to find the ball while yelling out what they recognized (pass, ball, oskie). Once the ball is secure, everyone must run to where the ball is and start to pound their feet. They will continue until I let them stop. If they worked hard, the feet pounding is short. If they were lazy, they pound it until I get tired.



Upon completion of the drill, team one will SPRINT off while team two will SPRINT onto the field so that I can repeat the procedure. I love this drill because it is high intensity, high communication and it is a lot of fun. It usually takes about 20 minutes to set up the first time but after that, I feel like we can get a good drill for about 10 minutes.