Roll Call at the Ball

C.W Post’s philosophy to attack, pursue and tackle at the football stifles rushers at the point of attack
by: Bryan Collins
Head Coach, C.W. Post College, Brooksville, N.Y
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In order to have a great defense, you must have great pursuit and gang tackling. In order to have great pursuit, you must emphasize running to the football throughout the entire practice. This includes the time spent in our individual and team periods. You must grade the effort of your players everyday.

We’ve had outstanding defenses the past few seasons. In 2000, we finished first in the nation in total defense and rushing defense and fourth in scoring defense. In 2001, we finished first in rushing defense again, giving up 211 yards in 12 games (17 yds. per game, 0.6 per carry). I think this success has been attributed to the philosophy of our defense – pursue the football and tackle the football.

PURSUIT

Pursuit is the most significant part of dominating defensive football. Pursuit eliminates long touchdowns. Pursuit discourages your opponent. Pursuit is first a mental process. Our players must visualize pursuing and making great plays. Physical conditioning is necessary so you can have great pursuit on each play. We condition our players with a purpose. “Groove” period is how we condition each day. “ Groove” will be a pursuit drill for the defense at the end of practice. We will use one of the following drills to conclude practice with:

FOUR CONE PURSUIT DRILL(Diagram 1)

SET UP
A. Place four cones on each side of the
field five yards apart. Place five cans
to represent an offensive line.
B. Coaches are assigned to the sidelines
to ensure effort and to make sure players at cones run their feet until the coach blows the final whistle.

DRILL
1. Coach will give directions. DL’s take the gaps. All four will run to cone #1.
2. OLB to flow goes to cone #1. OLB away goes to cone #4.
3. ILB to flow goes to cone #2. ILB away goes to cone #3.
4. FS goes to cone #2.
5. Corner to flow goes to cone #3. Corner away goes to cone #4.
6. All players run their feet until whistle blows.

SIDELINE PURSUIT (Diagram 2)

SET UP
A. Place five cans to represent OL. Place 2 cones 5 yards back from the line of scrimmage and on hash marks.
B. Coaches are assigned to the sidelines to ensure effort and to make sure all players will touch the hip of the running back as he runs hash, number, and sideline.

DRILL
1. On the snap of the ball, coach will fake toss in either direction.
2. The RB will run 3/4 speed, from hash, number, and sideline.
3. Players will run to touch hip and stay in hit position.
Drill should finish with a picket fence of defenders in the hit position with feet running until the whistle blows.

MIDLINE CONVERGE (Diagram 3)

SET UP
A. Place five cans to represent OL.
B. Place four cones seven yards deep from the line of scrimmage.
C. Place one cone five yards behind the
center with the running back.

DRILL
1. On the snap of the ball, DL will make
a move off of the ball and sprint to
designated cones. DL will touch the cone and retrace his steps back to the line of scrimmage and tap the RB, who is
assimilating a draw.
2. LB’s and DB’s will take coverage drops; on “draw” signal, they will execute an up/down and converge with their proper leverage on the RB.
3. RB should simulate draw steps and run 3/4 speed up the middle of the field.

PASS PURSUIT (Diagram 4)

SET UP
A. Place five cans to represent OL.
B. Coaches at 15 yards deep. Two coaches on the numbers, two coaches on the hash marks.

DRILL
1. Coach will execute snap and fake a throw to one of the other coaches.
2. DL will make a move upfield, turn and run downfield to the designated coach.
3. LB’s and DB’s will execute an up/down and rally to the designated coach.
4. Players will huddle around coach and run feet until final whistle is blown. At times we will huddle up and get off three reps to simulate a series.

CAGE DRILL (Diagram 5)

SET UP
A. We start with five linemen in the endzone behind cones. OLB’s and cornerbacks align behind the cones on the numbers. DE’s and ILB’s are behind the cones on hashmarks. DT’s and FS’s are behind cones at the goalpost.
B. There is an RB behind a cone in middle of the field, downfield at 40 yards from the line of scrimmage. This player is the rabbit.

DRILL
1. On the whistle the first five head down field. They will breakdown five yards from the RB.
2. On the whistle the RB (rabbit) begins to run toward the goal line. He wants to try to out flank the defensive leverage. This must be coached up. The rabbit must have shake to get the best effort from the defensive players.
3. Defenders must keep proper leverage depending on their technique.
4. Drill continues until players begin to gas and ends on the whistle. The next line of defenders and rabbit begin on next whistle.

SCOOP AND SCORE (Diagram 6)

SET UP
A. Four linemen start on the 20 -yard line. Defenders have their backs turned to the endzone and the coaches are holding bags.
B. The coaches hold dummies: three of one color, one of another. Coaches are
scattered about downfield. Another
coach has a ball.

DRILL
1. On the whistle, the coach holding the ball will simulate a fumble. Defenders will turn around and find the loose ball.
2. Coaches will move with the bags. As a defender recovers the ball, the remaining three will proceed downfield to block the three like colored bags. The defender with the ball will score. We will not block the odd colored bag. Our players are instructed not to block 60’s and 70’s on offense, since we should be able to avoid these linemen on a turnover. We will block RB’s and receivers.

TACKLING
Tackling follows pursuit. Consistency in our tackling is key to having a great defense. We will practice the different situations involved when tackling a ball carrier:

• One-on-one
• First man after defeating blocker
• Second or third man in pursuit
• Back running high
• Receiver catching the ball in the air
• Back catching the ball out of the backfield
• Catching a man from behind
• Stripping the football from the ballcarrier

We will practice the above types of tackles daily, with the greatest emphasis being on the open field tackle. As with pursuit, we must emphasize tackling in both our individual and team periods. The most significant goal on our defensive goal sheet is we must have less than five missed tackles for the game. Less than five missed tackles results in our team winning the game.

During the majority of our practices we will run our defense through a tackling/ turnover circuit. This tackling circuit takes place after stretch and before individual periods. At times we will include the whole team and call it “Post time.” All of our players (offensive personnel included) will learn how to execute the different types of tackles, how to go up for a tipped ball and how to strip a ball. If we don’t do this as a unit, then we must cover tackling in our individual period. An example of our circuit would be as follows:

1. Open field tackle
2. Scoop and score
3. Secure and strip
4. Tip drill
5. Fumble recovery shuttle

There are certainly other factors that contribute to our success on defense. The recruiting process has been very good to us. We evaluate defensive personnel in relation to how well they run, how well they stay on their feet and how fast they get up if they are on the ground.

Our practices are structured so we are constantly working as a staff on how we can get our 1’s to go against each other as much as possible. There is no tackling in our work against each other. We want our players to stay on their feet. We feel that in practice, it is more important to emphasize getting in the proper position to make a tackle, rather than executing the tackle itself.

If we are in a team period against our scout team, we will practice with two whistles. The first whistle is blown when we have thudded the ball carrier. All defenders must continue to run to the ball. The second whistle blows when all eleven players have rallied to the ball. We want to be able to stop a play on film and see all eleven defenders in the picture. We call this “Roll call at the ball!”

While many things contribute to a successful team defense, by far the most important is for all defensive players to be fundamentally sound in the techniques of their individual position. Each player must constantly strive to improve the individual techniques he must perform. A team generally plays the way it practices. Each practice should be a challenge for self-improvement in some phase of defensive technique.

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