The Scrape Tackle Drill

By Ross Pennypacker, Linebackers Coach

Bucknell University

There are a lot of answers to the question of what makes a good linebacker? One may answer that a good linebacker must be able to run well. Another person may answer that a good linebacker must have the ability to diagnose plays. Another may answer that a good linebacker must be able to have the strength to defeat blocks. All of these answers are correct, but I find the best linebackers are usually the ones who can make plays around the football and tackle ball carriers to the ground. 

At Bucknell University, we have integrated a variety of tackling drills that teach our players the fundamentals of tackling. Like most teams, we will do a tackling circuit, pursuit drills and other various exercises to simulate good tackling techniques. We use buzz phrases to help our players play their very best:

1. Come to balance - Get in a good football position. We will never use “breakdown” as a part of our language. When we teach ‘come to balance’, we emphasize staying low, chopping down the distance of our steps, and working to get in position to get our heads across the football to stop the progress of the ball carrier.

1. Shoot your guns and unload – like a western gunslinger, we want to bring our hands from our holsters and wrap up the ball carrier while working to grab the back of his jersey. The ‘unload’ term emphasizes uncoiling the hips on first contact.

1. Tackle through the ground – this emphasizes running our feet on contact and all the way through the ground, while placing our full body weight on the ball carrier once he is down.

The drill that I believe best encompasses all phases of good tackling techniques for linebackers is what I call the Scrape Tackle Drill (see Diagram).This drill is similar to the Eye Opener drill, where a defender is trailing the back hip of the ball carrier, and as the ball carrier picks a hole, the defender will meet him and finish with a thud tackle.

The difference with the Scrape Tackle Drill is that we are running this drill from a distance of 8 yards. The ball carrier will run full-speed on a downhill angle towards a cone that will be placed 2 yards behind the middle of 4 pop-up/agility bags. The ball carrier will then have a choice of picking one of the 5 designated holes created by the bags. The Linebacker will have vision on the ball carrier, staying on his back hip, scraping on a downhill angle to the cone which will be placed 2 yards behind the middle of the pop-up/agility bags.

Once the ball carrier makes the decision on the hole, the linebacker will react and make the tackle. This drill helps teach the linebackers to work proper pursuit angles by working downhill, reacting to the cutback and utilizing all three of the aforementioned buzz phrases. This drill also has the ability to work a frontal, angle and wrap and roll tackle for the linebackers. This drill can also be equally beneficial to the running backs to teach them vision and running through contact.