The Tackling Crisis

Why Proper Tackling has Deteriorated with Time
by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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As coaches, we spend countless hours and plenty of dollars sitting in clinic talks on the zone option or the odd-stack defense. These scheme-driven talks seem to motivate us more than anything. We shell out bucks on DVD’s about the most innovative offensive scheme or blitz-busting defense. After a loss, it’s never the scheme that bears the brunt of the loss – it’s fundamentals. “We didn’t tackle well.” If all of football comes down to blocking and tackling, then why are offenses doing a better job of blocking and defenses a poorer job of tackling? We already know how important tackling is, yet when it comes to pure teaching time during the season, it’s the scheme that usually captures most of our attention. It is a problem, and one that needs to be addressed not just in the regular season, but in spring ball and winter workouts as well. We seem to neglect tackling for fear of injury or because there are other more important things to cover like working on our cover three beaters.

To say more games are won and lost on tackling is to state the obvious. So why are we not spending more time on it? Or why are we not recognizing that it may be a problem within our programs? If you don’t – chances are you’re in denial. If you do, you’re just like many other coaches at major levels of football that have openly admitted that, above all else, it’s tackling that has been neglected and is now a major concern. Instead of turning a blind eye to it, we’ve addressed the issue with some pretty prestigious coaches whose accounts follow. If the first component of solving is admission, then we have a few sources that feel that tackling is an issue worth addressing. It’s one in a three-part series on the tackling crisis. And it’s now in the forefront.

The Highlight Reel Tackle
The scenario is all too familiar. A string-bean, lanky type wide receiver crosses the defense on a mesh pattern and gets pounded by a 6-3, 245 lb. Mike LB. The form of the tackle may not be perfect, but the collision rings through the stadium and is on constant rotation in Sports Center’s Top Ten the following Monday. It’s Steve Sabol, NFL Films material, and our kids see it all the time. Sure, it may drum out the ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ during the film session, but more often than not, the only drums sounding when those types of tackles are attempted is our opponent’s band.

Certainly there are plenty of times during a course of a game when a player makes a textbook tackle – he comes to balance, strikes upwards on the ball carrier, and keeps his feet live. But, too often, it is those types of tackles that go unnoticed and unlearned by younger players who would rather make the big time collision than the sure handed tackle.

“I definitely think it’s the NFL that seems to glorify the big hit in tackling,” says Chuck Clemens, the co-defensive coordinator at Division II University of Central Missouri. “Kids are kids and they watch football on TV thinking that the proper way to tackle is to stick your helmet into an opponent’s chest as hard as humanly possible, and that’s certainly not the case. Our kids get so excited when they see those big hits one play, then on the next play you may see a perfect form tackle and nobody says a word. As coaches we need to do a better job of glorifying those types of tackles and explain that those common tackles are more important than those collision-type blows you see on TV.”

Spread Offenses
Since the spread offense infiltrated the football landscape, the technique of tackling had to be altered. Offenses knew that in order to be successful, they needed to spread defenses out and make plays in space. They recruited better athletes and shiftier ball carriers and the short passing game allows them to get the ball in space and let their athletes run with it. Now defenses are forced to cover the entire field, often matching up heavier linebackers with speedier backs with plenty of grass in between. With so many teams moving to open personnel looks with one or no tight ends in the ball game, defenses are no longer getting “kill” shots on running backs or having help from backside pursuit. According to defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani at Boston College, these things have all contributed to the monumental task that defensive coaches have in teaching tackling.

“I’m not sure that tackling has gotten completely worse, but I do know that it looks extremely worse because of what offenses are doing,” says Spaziani. “It’s always been a problem among defensive coaches, but now I think the problem has grown. I remember watching TV the other day and hearing the announcers talk about what a great job of tackling a particular defense was doing. All the team was running offensively was power football. They would run iso, power and the counter trey. Sure it looks like a great job of tackling because you got so many guys both offensively and defensively at the point of attack. It becomes almost like a rugby match. Teams are rarely doing that on a consistent basis.”

Sure, it may be just the case of offenses wagging the tail of the defense. But the truth is the offense has the upper hand because of their scheme. Along with running three and four wide, more offenses have even gone to a no-huddle system, where they are putting defenses in compromising positions before the ball is snapped, then deciding where the point of attack should be based on a mismatch or leverage. Some coordinators like Will Muschamp at Texas have gone to a no-huddle defense just to combat the speed of the spread. Sure it may put their players in the best position to make a play, but it doesn’t necessarily guarantee them making the tackle. “Offenses now create mismatches just by alignment alone,” says Muschamp. “They will try to out-leverage you pre-snap by motioning and shifting. So it becomes the open field tackle that needs to be addressed and practiced with more consistency. We spend countless hours on the practice field during the season on just focal tackling – knowing who our force player is, who our cutback player is and where our help is coming from. They all have to know their angles to meet the ball carrier. It’s no longer about just breaking down and running through a ball carrier. These athletes are so quick and agile, as a defensive coach you have to train your guys to know where they are getting help.”

Teaching Renovations
Where are tacklers getting help? “Help” was never a word uttered a generation ago when players were taught to stick their facemask as hard as they can through the ball carriers chest. I’m sure many of us can remember the days when our coaches would preach to drive our helmet under the chin of our opponent as hard as we possibly can. Everybody was looking for the big hit, and although that may excite the crowd, it wasn’t necessarily the fundamental way to tackle someone. And while some players are still looking for the big hit, it’s their coaches that preach proper technique before anything else. “I remember working with Spike Dykes in the early 1980’s and everything was about just getting that player to the ground as quickly as possible,” says Ron West, the linebacker coach at Clemson. “We used to talk about ‘raking the screws’ in our cleats meaning coming full speed to attack a ball carrier. But we don’t use that term anymore. Now it’s about coming with your chest and your hips because the NCAA has changed rules in tackling with the head.

“Nowadays, we always teach chest tackling, no matter how small our player may be, because it is a safe progression. Years ago we used to teach to dive to make a tackle if it is in an act of desperation but we don’t even talk about that anymore. The athletes these days are too good. When you tackle like that your eyes and your hips are down and you’re not using the most important aspect of tackling. That’s how Chucky Mullins got hurt at Ole Miss – that is the majority of causes as to why some other players suffer major injuries when tackling. We even get our corners who are 5’8’ to come in with their chest up and explode on a ball carrier with their hips. We don’t teach a roll tackle or even a tackle where they are cutting out somebody’s legs. It’s just too dangerous.”

According to coaches, not only does the actual teaching progression of tackling need to change, personnel issues need to be addressed as well. According to Mark Stoops, Defensive Coordinator and Secondary Coach at Arizona, not only do we need to teach tackling correctly, we need to teach it correctly to everyone. “You take open field tackling for example. Years ago it was all about teaching defensive backs how to tackle in space. It was about how I can get a receiver to the ground as quickly as possible. That could mean cutting thigh boards down, roll tackling or shoe string tackling. Now, because of the speed of the game, you need to take linebackers and work them on open field tackling. Tackling drills used to be so compartmentalized where DL was doing one type of drill, LB’s working on another, and DB’s doing something else. Now with the way the game is, you may have a nose-tackle who is dropping on a zone blitz having to tackle a tailback in the open field. You may have a linebacker having to square up on grass with a receiver. It happens often now. So we emphasize open field techniques now more than ever with everyone because they get put in compromising situations with the spread offense. We want to attack with leverage, throttle down, come to balance and take a flat step with our cleats in the ground and run through the ball carrier. You can’t over-coach tackling, you can only under-coach it. It’s something that you need to get better with all the time, especially these days.”

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