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AFM Magazine


Q&A with Lou Tepper

by: Mike Kuchar
Senior Writer, American Football Monthly
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The name Lou Tepper has been synonymous with defensive football. Considered one of the original gurus of linebacker play, Tepper has coached over 20 professional linebackers including the likes of Dick Butkus Awards winners and NFL standouts Kevin Hardy, Dana Howard and Simeon Rice while he was the head coach at the University of Illinois.

Since being named head coach in 2006 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Tepper is enjoying a resurgence at the Division II level. The Crimson Hawks defense finished last season among the top five nationally in three separate categories- rushing defense (76.1 ypg), total defense (235.70 ypg) and scoring defense (11.4 ppg).

You can’t play linebacker for Lou Tepper without knowing how to tackle. He’s spent his thirty-plus years of coaching shaping and honing his ability to teach the most important fundamentals of defensive football and he was able to share some of his insight on how his defenses have been so productive.

Q: You have over 30 years of coaching experience at all levels of college football. What has been the most significant change in the game?

A: Well, for one the way coaches mold their defenses. Nobody is really two-gapping anything any more. We’re all looking for speed instead of size because that’s how to match up with the spread game offensively. We were probably the most undersized defense in the entire league this year but that’s something that I’ve learned to accept. I’d much rather be small and fast than big and slow.

Q: AFM has spent the last couple of months researching different ways of tackling. In your opinion, has teaching tackling changed over the years?

A: I have a very strong philosophy on this. I think that the fundamentals of the actual tackle itself haven’t changed, but the atmosphere in which we teach them certainly has. If you look at films from top high school programs to top college programs the fundamentals are all similar. The difference is how we drill them. I used to be a heavy drill guy with my LB’s tackling other LB’s in individual drills where we would do things like butt-up and tackle each other or hit the popsicle sled for a while. But I don’t believe that you improve tackling that way anymore. It is not really relevant. LB’s don’t tackle LB’s during the course of the game.


Q: Before we get into your teaching methods, what are the specific fundamentals of tackling that have been consistent over the years?

A: As far as fundamental tackling goes, we always make sure we execute the following six aspects of the tackle.
1. We get our vision on the numbers of the ball carrier.
2. We get our facemask on the ball.
3. We get our weight forward and get our balance underneath us.
4. We club violently upward.
5. We grab cloth.
6. We run our feet.
During pre-season camp and the beginning of the season, when we do our circuits we have every coach rotate through different ones so that they can see each kid tackle. We usually have 9 or 10 drills that we’ll work. But each of them will emphasize those main aspects of the tackle.

Q: How have you been successful teaching it?

A: I believe there is no question that we have become better with the philosophy that when we are in 9 and 7 or inside run drills or on 7-on-7 (pass skelly) drills we want to front everyone up. Fronting up means moving our feet to butt ball carriers up and grab cloth. We don’t take anyone to the ground, but we teach getting our feet in position to make plays. During these drills, if one of our kids doesn’t get their feet to the ball carrier we get all over them. We make sure everybody sprints to the ball. The number one tackler fronts up and the number two player begins to strip while the WR tries to make a legitimate move. You can’t get those types of reactions in a positional drill.

Q: Is this as much about a philosophy of aggressiveness as it is about the fundamentals of tackling?

A: No question. We all know that playing defense is as much about attitude as it is about execution. A lot of what I learned defensively came from when I worked with (legendary head coach) Bill McCartney when he was building those defenses at Iowa State and Colorado. He used to say don’t ever let anyone run through your defense, even in practice. It is a mindset or a culture that your defense must possess. When I watch TV, I notice a ton of programs work these “fly-by” tackles where they are just touching ball carriers as they run past. I don’t think it is that effective. It mainly happens in the NFL. If you did a case study of college and NFL players and their tackling abilities, you would see that the NFL is not great at perimeter tackling. I think it’s because a lot of them focus too much of their time on developing scheme rather than drilling the fundamentals of tackling.

Q: It seems that perimeter tackling is something that continues to be an area that needs to be addressed. How do you drill it?

A: We always teach in concepts. When you think about it, there will always be certain types of tackles that we will see during the course of the game. You will have an inside confined tackle, an open space tackle and a perimeter tackle. When it comes to perimeter tackling, we always stress three yard separation between the tackler and the running back. We always emphasize the closing of the tackle - how I can cover enough ground to suffocate the running back. If I start to engage further than three yards from the ball carrier, he will have enough time to cut-back. That’s where the problem lies because the backside linebackers will not have enough time to pursue. I see it so many times that the longest running plays are cutback plays because of over pursue. I don’t think speed is an issue on defense. Everybody nowadays builds their defenses around speed so the problem is the cut-back.

Q: How about the confined tackle that you mentioned? How do you rep those types of tackles?

A: On the confined tackle, we tell the inside player he needs to stay a yard behind the ball, and track the backside hip of the ball carrier. Like a good linebacker will do, he needs to shuffle and stay one yard behind the ball and look for an opening or crease in the offense to blitz. We are an aggressive style defense, so we look for creases or seams in the defense to exploit. We get so good at seeing it because of the reps we put into it. I’ve had opposing coaches tell me that, while watching film, their teams often think we are blitzing, but we’re not. We’ll get through that opening before the ball carrier actually does. The ball carrier is taught to look for daylight but I’m not waiting for that. We want to get there immediately by tracking in a hip position. We just press the seams.






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