Playing Aggressive 4-3 Defense

by: Richard Scott
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Q&A with Iowa State’s defensive coordinator Wayne Bolt

If you could ask any defensive coach specific questions about strategy and X’s and O’s, Wayne Bolt would be on the short list. His reputation as a collegiate defensive coordinator is unquestioned. One of the first phone calls made by new Iowa State head coach Gene Chizik was to Bolt. The two had coached together over the years although Bolt had been out of football for a season. Bolt had previously worked as the DC at Alabama-Birmingham while Chizik was the DC at Texas. We caught up with Coach Bolt and talked with him about defense and, more specifically, his Iowa State defense.

Q. With two defensive-minded coaches now at Iowa State, do you share the same ideas and strategy?

A. Gene and I had always talked about working together. I think this is a good opportunity. We both believe in the base 4-3 defense and have run the same things through the years. We’ve got the same philosophy. I think Gene was more man coverage at Texas because of the athletes he had in the secondary. They were as good or better than the people they played against. Even when he was at Auburn (prior to Texas) he played a lot of man coverage. You have to be able to play both but Gene used man more at Texas.

Q. What packages – zone and man – do you plan to run at Iowa State?

A. The players told me they played a lot of zone here last year but in our package we have whatever is needed to get the job done. It could be man or zone. We’re also a cover-2 defense, a lot like the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you can play man coverage and get a safety down in the box, that’s what you’d like to do. This also enables you to blitz more. Either way, in starting, you’ve got to have a good mix of both man and zone.

Q. What about your defensive front four? What kind of strategy will you have to dominate the line of scrimmage?

We want our defensive front to penetrate and disrupt what the offensive line is doing. We want an attacking style of defense up front. Our first priority is to stop the run with six or seven in the box, depending on the formation, and then drop a safety into the box when need be. We want the D-linemen to control the gaps. Our nose tackle will be shaded over the center to control the middle of the interior line.

We’ll also try to have an anchor end and what we call a weakside end. Then, let them go up field and make plays. We at least need our defensive linemen to get off the ball and hold on to those big 300-pounders so somebody else can get there and make a play.

Q. How do your linebackers mesh with the line to maximize your defensive rush?

A. We want the line solid enough to hold its ground. You’d like to be able to blitz and disrupt the front with linebackers and safeties. We’ve got man blitzes and zone blitzes, but it all starts with holding up on the corners. We’ll choose speed over size and we want our linebackers who can run sideline to sideline. We’ll sacrifice some size to be able to get it. We may turn a few high school safeties into linebackers and line them up to give them the best chance to make plays.

But we’re also in gap control with our linebackers so they’ve got to be able to handle their gap and still be able to run and make plays. Speed is essential to what we’re doing. Speed overcomes coaching.

Q. What is your general defensive strategy on third down plays?

A. If we can stop the run and get teams in obvious passing situations, we’ll blitz by trying to overload one side or the other to gain a numbers advantage. We’re trying to create an open man on third and long situations. When you’ve got them in that situation, you’ve got a choice: you can either defend or go get ‘em and we believe you’ve got to have a mixture of the two.

Q. What about coverage in your secondary? How will your corners and safeties line up?

A. We’ll run a lot of cover 2 but we’ll also go with a lot of quarters along with the man stuff. We have some zone blitz packages out of the two-deep and three-deep coverages, but we’ll start with cover 2 and quarters and then work our way to the man stuff.

Q. As a defensive coordinator, what specific advice would you give to defensive coaches during the course of a game?

A. You have to be able to disguise what we’re doing. Being able to disguise what you do in the secondary is very, very important. If you can disguise and not let the quarterback read what defense you’re in prior to the snap, you’ve got a chance. You want him guessing and make him read it as the play develops. There are also times when you’ve got to line up, show it and then say, ‘screw it’: this is what we are and we’ve got to show it to stop you. But, we’d prefer to line up in two-deep and roll into coverages.

Q. Many schools – college and high school – seem torn between an aggressive pressure defense and the so-called ‘bend but don’t break’ theory. Where do you side?

A. I don’t like the term ‘bend but don’t break’ because I don’t like to bend. I think you’ve got to make the offense earn it. Offenses these days are hunting for the quick play and the big play. The more you make them try to earn it and drive it down the field, the better off you are. The longer they’re out there the more likely they are to screw it up. They’ve still got to have 11 guys all on the same page to get it done.

I tend to be more conservative because I don’t like putting the corners out there on an island. But there’s a fine line between making the offense drive it, getting off the field and getting your offense the football. Because of the new clock rules, you’re not playing as many plays as you did in the past although that might be changed. But still, I think you’ve got to make the offense earn it.

GAP CONTROL FOR BASE 4-3 LINEBACKERS

Iowa State defensive coordinator Wayne Bolt got his coaching education under some solid, fundamental coaches at East Carolina, Auburn and Clemson so he’s not much into trends that come and go. “Gimmicks don’t last,” Bolt said.

That’s why he doesn’t rely on a lot of bells and whistles with his 4-3 defense. One of the solid, fundamental essentials of his base defense is the ability of the front seven to control gaps. That’s not just a job for the defensive line, but for the linebackers as well as the safeties.

“It’s good, sound football,” Bolt said. “Everybody’s got a rule. Everybody’s got a gap. There’s no confusion. When something breaks down you know what happened by gap control.”

The way linebackers control their gaps in the base 4-3 depends a lot on the coverage, whether it’s man-to-man or zone. In man-to-man coverage against a two back set, Bolt brings the safety down strong. The linebackers are taught both the full-flow strong and full-flow weak techniques.

Against an iso weak, the Will linebacker lines up in the B gap and becomes a box player to the Mike. The Mike is quick to the B gap and the strong safety, coming down strong, is the A gap cut back player. The Sam is outside playing the D gap, with the end playing a 6 technique head up on the tight end.

Against an iso strong, the Will is a cut back B gap player and the Mike lines up in the A gap and becomes a spill player to the strong safety while the Sam is outside and playing the D gap, with the end playing a 6 technique head up on the tight end. When the free safety comes down weak the gap responsibilities change for the two inside linebackers.

Now against iso weak, the Will linebacker is a spill player in the B gap with the fullback taking on the free safety and the Mike becomes the A gap cutback linebacker. Against iso strong, the Mike becomes the box player to the Will, who is quick to A and the free safety becomes the cutback B player “The run fits are the same for the Mike and the Will when you bring the strong safety down strong,” Bolt said. “Where they change is when you bring the free safety.”

Things change in zone coverage. In base cover 2, the Sam now lines up in the C gap with the Mike in the A gap and the Will in the B gap with no immediate safety help in the box. Against iso weak in cover-2, nothing changes for the Mike and Will. The Will is still a box player to the Mike while the Sam plays the cutback A. Against iso strong in cover-2, the Mike is a spill player to the Sam, the Will is a cutback B player.

Technique is vital for linebackers in gap control. “We basically tell them to stay outside leverage or inside leverage,” Bolt said.

The linebackers take outside leverage against first level linemen, staying outside of any first level linemen. The linebackers become either box players or spill players to the second level blockers, such as a fullback or a tight end or H-back in motion.

“It depends on where the safety is coming down, weak or strong, but basically you’re outside against all first level blocks,” Bolt said. Establishing this foundation allows Bolt to add more levels. “From there you can get into all sorts of slants and all that stuff,” Bolt said, “but that’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. Basic gap control out of the base 4-3, that’s what defense is based on.”

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