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Having a Dominant Defense at the Point of Attack – URI uses a four word progression every snap to maximize the play of their defensive line.by: Joe ConiglioDefensive Line Coach, University of Rhode Island © More from this issue URI uses a four word progression every snap to maximize the play of their defensive line. Coaching a defensive line to be dominant is based on consistency in coaching. The players standard of performance begins and ends with their coach. We believe if players don’t understand their assignments, we need to change the way they are taught. Consequently, if drills aren’t showing up on tape, the drill needs to be adjusted. There is no such thing as “dumb players”, just different types of learners. It is our job as a football coach to get them to reach their potential. Most players know where they want to go, but don’t know how to get there. That is what we are for. The defensive line is the most physically demanding position group in football. Therefore, we must train our players in a high intensity, focused environment. Every player in our group must be willing to hold one another accountable, and have the aptitude to coach one another. As a graduate assistant coach, I was taught the “learn, understand, teach” circular flow diagram. These three words are critical to the ability of our defensive line as a whole to obtain goals and create chemistry. We will forever be a unit that is only as strong as our weakest link. This will create great pride in our position group. We are a four down attacking front. We teach our defensive line to play with what we call “knock em’ back.” This is the term we used when talking about playing on the opponents’ side of the ball. The only way we can play “knock em’ back” is with tremendous pad level, attacking hands, and vertical get off. This is a critical part of our defensive structure and is integrated through simplistic teaching methods that are understood universally throughout our unit. The word we like to use with our defensive line is process. That begins with our pre-snap awareness, and concludes at the end of each football play. Every play should finish with the entire defensive line unblocked and at the ball carrier. Having a great defensive line starts with pre-snap awareness. Our defensive line will first understand the information they can gather before looking to the sideline. We need to know the field and boundary positions as well as down and distance. These two things can indicate run/pass tendencies and can help us get aligned in field-based fronts. The next piece of information we gather is offensive personnel. This can clue us into formational awareness, blocking schemes and play tendencies. All of this will dictate our alignment, technique, and assignment. In turn, it increases our ability to anticipate offensive play calling. Our defensive line will alert tendencies of various formations from the week’s game plan. We will use code words when recognizing offensive schemes (pull, run, pass, formational play tendencies, etc.). An incredible amount of information can be acquired before the football is snapped, giving the defensive line an edge. To have success on the defensive line, we also must use violence and physicality. These two qualities are universal when identifying any dominant defensive line, at any level, across the country. Defensive linemen cannot play violent and physical without great eye control. When I began my career as a defensive line coach, I taught my players to react off their visual key while maintaining peripheral vision of the football. As I have grown as a coach, I believe it is asking too much of our players to read two separate keys prior to the ball being snapped. Therefore, we put together a four word progression for every snap. The first word in the progression is target (See Diagram 1). When our defensive line thinks of the word target it creates a bulls eye on their aiming point before the snap. Therefore, we will not have peripheral vision of the football, but instead react off the movement of our target. Before the snap, we burn a hole in our target with our eyes. To do this we use a numbering system that defines where our hands should be when our target moves. Consequently, our players know if their hands are placed properly when they strike an offensive player. In passing situations we tell our defensive line to key the first thing that moves. For example, our target in long yardage situations could be the offensive player’s near knee. Players will come out of their hips and explode through the target with their thumbs up with eye control through their gap to the football. Coaching points we use with our players are “first significant touch” and “winning the chest.” Once a player launches his pads, he must understand how to defeat the block that he is defending. Our players must be able to recite how to defeat all blocks. When a defensive lineman recognizes a blocking scheme, he must execute the proper block destruction to win the snap. Block destruction techniques are listed below (Diagram 2).
The last step in our progression is go. Once we have defeated a block with proper block destruction, we must track the near hip of the ball carrier. Our defensive line is expected to finish on the ball every play. This type of effort is critical if we are a defensive line that makes plays we “are not supposed to make.” We believe in having an athletic front that can run. The only way to accentuate those abilities is to make maximum effort our standard of performance. This progression is one that we have used throughout our first year. It provides our players confidence through simplicity, giving them the opportunity to use words that help them understand football in a more fundamental way. These words resonate with our players and help them play fast. This is how our defensive staff uses football language to intertwine communication between our coaches and players. |
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