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DEFENSE CONTINUITY SEQUENCE

DEFENSE The late General R.R. Neyland, when coaching at Tennessee, had a sign in the lockerroom which read: "There are more ways to score on defense than there are on offense." And none of his players disagreed. How could they? It's tough enough having to fall in line for the head football coach, let alone an Army General. Players learned to agree with everything he said. Besides, he was most always right. His Tennessee teams did score by re¬turning fumbles, intercepting passes, blocking kicks, returning punts, and scor¬ing safeties. They did capitalize on his West Point military training by benefitting from philosophies like General Sheridan's Civil War mandate to "Get there first with the most." It was an exhortation that inspired the Union troops in the Shenandooah Valley Campaigns and, in essence, has become the battle cry of the contemporary attack defenses that cause sleepless nights for so many offen¬sive coaches. The evolution of defensive football, as reflected in the relatively recent growth of attack defenses, has underscored the importance of continuity, sequence, and integration in the development of the defense as well as the offense. Years ago, football teams aligned their defenses in a single set, dug in, and slugged it out with the offense. Players moved around a little but generally preferred to protect their pieces of turf. They forced offensive players to root them out of their bunkers in order to gain yardage. As such, the battle plans of earlier defensive players focused more on trench warfare than strategic mobility, which is the primary characteristic of today's defenses—and which requires more sophisticated skills of the players. The con¬tinuity, sequence, and integration of the total defensive program, therefore, are critically important if defensive personnel are to be strategically mobile by the time they reach the varsity. CONTINUITY The sophomore team, therefore, should not be learning to slug it out in a tra¬ditional 52 set when the varsity uses an attack 43. Continuity of player skills suffers considerably when varsity players have to relearn fundamental skills and become acquainted with substantively different responsibilities. Inside lineback¬ers in the 52 must read different offensive keys and play their positions differently from middle linebackers in the 61 or 43 defenses. As illustrated in figures 4-20 and 4-21, the keys and range of responsi¬bilities are different for 52 and 61 inside/middle linebackers. The inside backers in a 52 set are expected to help each other versus both run and pass action. Middle linebackers have more expected of them and require more experience to learn their positions. Even the keys tend to be more complicated for middle backers. Backers in the 52 normally key through the guard to the near halfback, whereas middle backers in a even front usually key the "triangle." A similar situation is true of the down tackles in an even defense versus the noseman in an odd. Their responsibilities are substantively different, de¬pending upon the team's preferred strategies. Nosemen must have the quickness to penetrate either gap between center and guard and still have the strength to muscle the center on certain plays. Some high schools use a small, quick noseman and slant him one way or the other on every play. While this may be solid strategy for a patterned 52 stunting defense, it is devastating to the school's total program if it is done at a lower level and something else is done on the varsity. The principle of continuity, therefore, dictates that one defensive scheme prevail throughout the entire program. This is not to say that teams should not use multiple defensive sets and stunts to confuse offensive blocking schemes, particularly if they are blessed with talented personnel. But they should not surrender the principle of continuity to an attempt at diversity that could result in players becoming "Jacks of all trades, masters of none." SEQUENCE In addition, without a solid and continuing base of defensive strategies and fundamentals, football players have nothing to build upon. Again, consider the middle linebacker as an example. During his first year in that position, he learns the proper stance, how to meet and defeat the center's block, how to key the fullback, and how and where to drop in pass coverage. During his second year he may learn a few defensive stunts and begin to read "the triangle," the pattern of movements of the fullback, the center, and the two guards. As he gains more experience with the varsity, the middle backer learns to read the triangle (See Figure 4-22), drop to pass coverage while locating all possible receivers, execute a variety of stunts, call the defensive signals, and provide the kind of leadership the defense needs to develop as a unit. It's im¬portant to remember that all these skills are acquired incidentally; they are refined with each passing year. As such, they must start with a solid foundation. Certainly, there are blocking schemes in addition to those diagrammed in figure 4-22. Offensive teams have a variety of inside blocking schemes based upon the sophistication of their total attack. The point is, middle backers must learn to read such schemes in order to make quick decisions about the offense's point of attack. If their early experiences in football are with 52 or 44 defenses, they are denied the kinds of sequential experiences they need to develop into outstanding players. Even if the team emphasizes a primary defensive scheme within every level of competition, players must still develop refined skills. As indicated already, middle linebackers don't learn to read the triangle overnight. Such knowledge comes with sequential steps. The same is true of the ability of linemen to "swim" past blockers and of defensive backs to execute multiple coverages. Some programs emphasize the sequential nature of fundamental football skills by using checklists that do two things. First, as illustrated in figure 4-23, they list the skills that players must have to play a certain position. In essence, they describe for lower-level coaches the fundamental skills that players must have before reaching the varsity and then, for the varsity, the skills that players must have to play that particular position successfully. Expectations, therefore, are clarified for players as well as coaches. The second advantage of such lists is that they enable coaches to talk to players at the end of the season or during the off-season and point out the skills they need to work on. Successful coaches learned a long time ago that exhortations of "Get out there and play football" may be moderately inspirational, but they don't communicate to players exactly what is expected of them. A careful review of the appropriate list with each player—perhaps even giving him a personal copy—lets him know exactly what he has to do by next year if he wants to be an accomplished player in that position. During the off¬season, he might be encouraged to read books, watch video tapes, attend camps, or set up his own individual practice plan. Whatever he does, it will involve purposeful activity which responds to the information on the skills form. Coaches are advised to reproduce several copies of the form provided in figure 4-24, give them to their assistants to make preliminary input, then meet with the entire staff to develop skill lists for every position, offensively and defensively. The process of developing such lists results in two things: one, a focus on an essential sequence of player development and, two, the investment of the coaches in the realization of that development. "Ownership" is an important word in any organization. If coaches identify the skills players must have, they will work that much harder to assure that players develop them. Conversely, once players understand the specifics of what is expected of them, they will be more inclined to work on them. Such an investment on the part of players and coaches helps as well to realize the third necessary characteristic of the organization of a good defense, integration.

 

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