ILB Coaching Progression

1. Shuffle drills.
2. Shuffle and sprint to ball.
3. Taking on a base block.
4. Taking on an iso.
5. Pass drops.

This is what I do. I am looking for suggestions as well. Coaches, there are 3,000 of you out there. Help us.

Key the guard, find the ball, tackle the man w/ the ball. We're only concerned w/ the guard and the ballcarrier. If there's a better way to teach it, let me know. I wonder sometimes if I'm too basic.

If there's one thing I feel uncomfortable with going into this season it's our LBs. It is probably the toughest position to really play well, especially at the small school level. We are going away from keying guard right away because we had a heck of a time last season doing it, especially when the guard came out to base the LB or cut him off. It got to the point where we would get frustrated with the kids, and then look at the tape and realize that sometimes the guard was pretty dang confusing to read and be super aggressive. (Also, I'm not sure we repped it as much as I would have liked in practice.) Anyway, we are going to a combination read of near back (or fullback) to play side guard to see if we can get our LBs being more aggressive in attacking the LOS. The LBs will have a flow to / flow away gap to take care of. For example, in basic where the guards are uncovered the tackles would have C gaps, DEs have D gaps / contain, Nose has playside / both A gaps. The LBs have their B gap on flow to and the back side A on flow away. Suppose I'm the Left backer and the fullback steps to the opposite a gap (ex: dive), the LB would shoot his eyes to the opposite guard and make a beeline to fill his A gap. If the guard does anything but pull, he will continue and plug his hole. If the guard pulls, he will redirect and follow. We will always fit/ take on the blocker so we have leverage toward our gap. I'm sure you've probably heard of this before. What do you think?