How do you compete in this day and age with small defensive linemen? It seems to be a luxury to have even one 6-2, 250 pound D-lineman. Even then you may have to build around him which means going from a four-man front to possibly a 3-5-3. Competing against your opponents with a small defensive front could be a nightmare. It’s an issue every defensive coach can relate to.

Enter Jamie Grime, Head Coach at Delta High School in Ohio. Beginning his coaching career in 1999, Delta had been 0-10 the year before. Realizing that some creative thinking was necessary to shore up some defensive weaknesses, Coach Grime came up with an angle 50 defense to take advantage of smaller, but quick defensive linemen. The objective of the angle 50 defense is to avoid blocks and take advantage of the defense’s quickness. The keys to making it work:

1. Competitors: “Since you can’t coach size, we want tough D-linemen that are passionate competitors. Our wrestling program is just that and we have used wrestlers as defensive linemen. No matter what the size of the athlete, we want him to be fearless.”

2. Intelligent: “We want our D-linemen to be smart and intelligent. They have to be able to read blocking schemes and have good instincts. We teach our offensive linemen to watch the O-lineman’s hand rather than the ball. We feel it’s a better and faster way of getting off the snap.”

3. Responsibilities: “ In our system, the backside tackle is called the ‘blood’ tackle and needs to be free to make tackles; the front side tackle takes on blockers so the ‘blood’ tackle can make plays; and the nose guard will shoot the gap low to the strength of the formation and then read the guard and the blocking scheme to make plays.”

Coach Grime includes more points on the subject as well as practical drills you can use on page 8. We hope you enjoy this issue of Gridiron Strategies.

Respectfully,

Rex Lardner
rlardner@lcclark.com
800.537.4271 (ext. 329)