DEFENSIVE LINE FUNDAMENTALS
Fundamentals can be taught in three steps. Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin told me several years ago that whatever the fundamental concept…
Topic
Defense
128 articles
DEFENSIVE PURSUIT DRILLS
Practicing three pursuit drills – passing, running and turnover drills – will improve your teams’ overall defense. Having been a defensive coordinato…
Defending the Spread Offense
To defend the spread offense, the first thing you have to do is understand WHAT the offense is trying to accomplish and HOW they are trying to accomp…
Effective Blitz Packages
When ‘Killer Red’ is called, any one of nine different players can rush the quarterback. Over the past few years we have leaned heavily on one call o…
Eight Daily Areas of Defensive Emphasis
Ideally, coaches want their defensive players to be smart, fast, and physical. I was hired in February, 2013 by first year Head Coach, Joshua Eargle.…
The Six-Step Program to Becoming a Better Defensive Lineman
To be fundamentally sound, proper technique and repetition can improve the skills of your defensive linemen. I teach defensive linemen to be technici…
CREATING TURNOVERS
Here are two drills specifically designed to help your team cause a turnover. There is no faster method for changing the momentum of a football game…
Defending the Air Raid Offense
Having the right front and coverage is critical to defending the four-verticals package. The increasingly popular air raid offense presents a predomi…
GAMEPLANNING FOR TODAY'S HIGH OCTANE OFFENSES
Trying to stop today’s explosive offenses has become an enormous challenge for defensive coaches. Having to defend the spread option, power run game,…
Tracking Practice Data Will Improve Your Defense
Having a practice results board that details effort, busts, turnovers, sacks, three and outs and big plays should motivate your team. After spring pr…
Blitz Building
Blitz Building The 3-3 stack defense with multiple blitz packages can cause confusion for any offense. Last fall, Bates College finished #1 in the co…
THE CASE FOR THE 4-4 DEFENSE
This defense gives you more time to stem during pre-snap and makes blitzing more effective. Recently, many high schools have relied heavily on a 5-3-…
Teaching Tackling Technique
Proper tackling can be taught through four simple phases. Teaching proper tackling technique is more important today than in recent years, especially…
Defensive Pursuit Drills
Long time UW-La Crosse Defensive Coordinator Roland Christensen preached the 3 P’s for many years to his defensive players: pride, poise, and pursuit…
Effectively Implementing the 4-2-5 Defense
Each defender needs to possess specific attributes to maximize the effectiveness of this defense. When designing any style of defense, it is importan…
Defensive Pursuit Drills
The ability of a defense to pursue to the ball is their lifeblood. Pursue is defined as: to follow in order to overtake, capture, or defeat. Every de…
Importance of the Proper Defensive Line Technique
At the high school level, the successful athletes are able to use their natural ability to dominate a football game. But at the collegiate level, eve…
ODD OR EVEN -- The Don’t Gamble Defense
From many years of experience we found that we could combine two defenses by using the same terms and rules to run our stunt package, coverages and…