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Exclusive: Inside Mickey Andrews\' Florida State Defense

by: Terry Jacoby
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Great college football teams are designed to STOP great college football teams. And when you play the kind of brutal and challenging schedule Florida State University lines up against each fall, you better be prepared to STOP great college football teams. Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, who has been at the school for 22 years, is the architect behind the strategy, philosophy, instruction, motivation and guidance of one of the game’s stingiest defenses. Throughout his career at Florida State, Andrews’ defense has earned a reputation as being one of the stingiest in the country. And how can you argue with a resume that includes two National Titles, 11 ACC Championships and countless All-Americans.

The Florida State way

    Attack. Attack. And attack some more.

    The Florida State defense starts with a base 4-3, which consists of four down lineman, three linebackers and four defensive backs. Andrews is not a laid back coach and doesn’t teach a laid back defense. With an attacking style up front, FSU is usually among the best in the nation at wreaking havoc in the opponent’s backfield. For example, last season the Seminoles’ defense was seventh in the nation in sacks and third in tackles for loss. Andrews also is a big believer in creating depth and often uses as many as 40 players in a game.

     “While our base is a 4-3, last year part of our package included a 3-4 with a three-man front and four linebackers,” Andrews said. “We did that because we didn’t have as many interior defensive linemen. We lost one of our starters in the summer for academic reasons and we got one or two other kids hurt, and all of a sudden we are short numbers wise. And on top of that we had more good players at linebacker than we did up front.

    “So we incorporated the 3-4 into our scheme and it really helped us against both the run and the pass. We had to better utilize our personnel and get the best 11 players on the field according to the situation as well as the personnel groupings we were facing.” Florida State also puts a great deal of responsibility on its corners because the Seminoles like to load up in the box, blitz and stunt – and that means the defensive backs need to be reliable.

    Andrews believes speed kills – and wins football games.

    “If we have to sacrifice some size and strength to pick up quickness and speed then we will do that,” Andrews said. “We can build the size and strength later. We have done this for years with our defensive ends. We sign a big linebacker and he will grow into a defensive end and then we have a guy who can really run. We do the same thing with big safeties by turning them into linebackers. When we recruit a player, we look for size, speed and strength with speed being the priority.”

    Andrews also loves players that can hit people. “We have never tried to intentionally tried to hurt a player, but if we can convince a player that it’s better to be on the sidelines than to be on the field, then we won’t hold back on that . . . we will let them take themselves out of the game,” he said. Hitting is important. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t be wearing pads.”

    The ideal Florida State player? “We want runners and hitters and people who know how to swarm to the football and finish a play,” Andrews said.

    “We want players that are tough. Toughness is essential. We want people who believe that winning is important because if winning is important to a player then they will take care of the preparation that is needed to win.”

Corner stones of the defense

    “Cornerback is our most important position because our defensive backs are stuck out on an island so to speak,” Andrews said. “We try to maximize the number in the box. If they’re playing with a 21 personal, we’re going to try and have eight people in the box and that means our corners are stuck out on wideout and the majority of the time that means they are stuck out there in man-to-man coverage with the only help they will get is on the inside coverage, whether it be shallow or deep.”

    Even when the Seminoles line up in a zone, the corners must produce.

    “There are times when we just can’t give them much help, so because of this, the emphasis is placed on this position,” Andrews said. “It’s the most critical because if you can’t hold up out there and limit the offense from throwing the ball to the wideouts, then you can’t play the defense you want to play. The better you are out at the corners, the more you can do to load up and take away what the other team is trying to beat you with.”

Specialty situations

    Andrews talked about a number of ways to defend certain situations and how to D up at different spots on the field. In his own words, here is how he broke some of them down:

    Third and long: “We are going to get personal match-ups we like. And it depends on whether we are trying to defend the pass with minimal rush and maximum coverage or whether we are going to maximize the rush where we are going to blitz, stunt and put more pressure on the quarterback and rush five or six. This will put a little more pressure on your coverage people rather than just the rush people with the idea that the ball is going to come out of there a little bit quicker so you don’t have to defend quite as long.”

    Red zone: “You have less field to defend vertically and of course you have the same amount horizontally. You don’t have to defend the deep throw, so you are going to see a different type of passing attack as far as depth of routes. What we want to do is maintain our push on the quarterback and then mix up our coverages enough and jump certain routes and take away the things we have seen that they like to use and have had success down in that area. You might want to create a little more pressure down there than you do in other parts of the field. You want to disguise the coverages and fronts that might create a little confusion for their linemen and quarterback and even their wide receivers. But at the same time you want to concentrate on getting the match-ups you want. You better play your heart out because you are running out of real estate down there.” 

    Keys to stopping the two-minute offense: “Again, stopping the two-minute offense depends a great deal on getting the match-ups you want. I can’t emphasize this enough. Are they using four wides, three wides, five wides? How many are in the backfield? How many are they protecting with? If there was a key to stopping the two-minute offense it would be to not panic. You need to keep your poise. You have time. We don’t have huddle calls. We signal our calls from the sidelines. So we want our players to get the call, get lined up right and concentrate on the ball. Don’t give up the long plays and just execute the defense. We lost a ballgame down in the Orange Bowl (in January to Penn State) because we gave up a touchdown pass with 13 seconds to go in the half. If we just give up a field goal, we win the football game. We don’t go to overtime. We will call a time out to slow them down. Sometimes the players need you to look them in the eye and reinforce in them that you believe in them and have confidence in them. Sometimes you just need to call a time out and remind everyone to play as a unit. The rest might help a little bit but what it really does is unify the effort.”

    Scripting plays: “We don’t script our defenses at the start of the game or the second half. We don’t know the kind of personnel groupings they are going to put out there. We don’t know the situation we are going to be facing. When you script plays you do have the opportunity to break tendencies, but we want to defend each play based on what personnel group we are facing and what the situation dictates. We might need pressure or we might need maximum coverage. We certainly go into a game with an idea of what we are going emphasize and feature as far as blitzes and stunts, but we don’t script plays.”                

    Checking plays on the field: “We will chart each call as we signal it in and we will have a way to chart the formation and the play it was run against it so we can see the number of calls and check it against run, pass or whatever. We try to look at this in between series and the people in the booth will keep us alert about it as well. We try to get a feel of what we’re calling against what we’re getting in terms of formations and plays, run or pass.”

    Play calls between the fronts and coverages: “We make a front call first and it will be the first thing we call. A stunt or blitz will be the second thing we call. The coverage will be the third call. They know what checks and adjustments to make based on what they’re getting in terms of formations or back sets or whatever.”

 Stopping the spread

    Andrews has seen his fare share of spread offenses. And he sees more and more of it each year and different variations of it each year.

    “What the spread offense does is force you to make plays in space a little bit more than some offenses do,” Andrews said. “All they’ve done is through a period of time they have developed it and created new plays to take advantage of what your defense is showing.”

    Andrews and his Florida State defense does a good job of disguising what they want to do and not giving away too much before the ball is snapped. But Andrews does have some tips on defending the spread offense and admitted you have to approach it a little differently in some ways than other offenses.

    “You have to be prepared to treat the quarterback as one of the component’s of the offense as far as defending the run as well as the play action stuff,” he said. “What it looks like they’re trying to do to us is trying to create a one back alignment, but by shifting or motion get back to a way in which they can make it a two-back offense.”

    Stopping the option is at the top of your to-do list against the spread.

    “You have to be sound against the option and be solid against the dive back and the quarterback, and you have to take care of the pitch,” Andrews said. “What they try to do is read the box and see how many you have to defend the run and what you are going to commit to the passing game. They try to locate your defenders and call the play based on your alignment.”

    Andrews said the offense is always going to try and make the defense show its alignment and then adjust their play based on what you are showing. The defense is more successful if the offense is making its final decision on the fly instead of before the ball is snapped.

    “It’s always going to involve some degree of a pre-snap alignment and try and give them a look and do something after the snap or just prior to the snap. We try to force the QB to make his reads on the run.”

The Emphasis

    It didn’t matter what the topic was. If it was studying in the film room, preparing in the off-season, defending the red zone or trying to create winning match-ups. Andrews would always make the point about effort.

    And effort is what more times than not decides college football games at this level. There really isn’t much difference in talent level between Florida State and Florida and Oklahoma and Nebraska and Michigan and Ohio State and Miami and USC and Notre Dame. It’s one team’s group of high school All-Americans lining up against another team’s group of high school All-Americans.

    The play, the series, the quarter and the game usually comes down to which teams wants it more. And not necessarily which team wants it more on that particular day. Effort doesn’t start when the zebra blows the whistle. It starts in the weight room, in the film room, on the practice field . . . and most importantly, it starts in the person’s heart.

    “If you want something bad enough, it’s amazing what you can do,” Andrews said. “Effort is a non-compromising area at Florida State. If you’re not going to give maximum effort, you’re not going to play football at Florida State.

    “Effort is something we take great pride in and it’s something we look for in our players.”

    Andrews gives all the credit in the world to his players for making FSU the dominant defense it has become over the years. But talent and skill are only part of the mix that make up a great player. “Ability alone doesn’t make it in this game,” Andrews said. “You have to have the kind of player that is willing to prepare and I am not talking about the week leading up to the game, but during the off-season as well. Championships are won in the off-season. If you prepare and put in the effort in the off-season, then the game is just going out there and taking care of business.”

Going to the Movies

    You can’t be a successful football team without studying game film. You will find more than one cot in the film room of most college football programs. Andrews and his staff have a long check list to work on when watching film.

    “We try to study the people, the personnel that they are trying to utilize and get the ball to on third down,” Andrews said. “We look at their protection to see if there is something we can take advantage of with certain stunts or blitzes. We try to identify the best receiver that we will want to double-cover and who is the weakest protection guy. Can we mismatch him? So much about football is match-ups and getting the kind of match-ups you want offensively or defensively. Once you do that, it comes to execution and how much you want to win that down.”

    The check list continues.
    “We want to identify their best players,” he said. “We want to know how they are trying to win the ballgame. What their philosophy is. Are they primarily a throwing team? Do they like to throw screens or do they like to run? We want to identify what plays we need to stop in order to win the game. Who the best players are. What tendencies show up in terms of what they might do based on down and distance and field situation. These things seem to change a lot.”

    Andrews said that FSU goes into a ballgame with an idea of what it wants to do, but often times what they have seen on film isn’t what they are seeing on the field. “They will attack us differently than they attacked someone else,” he said. “They won’t attack us the same way they attacked a 3-4 team. We try to look at these things and know as much about the coaches as we can.

    “We get the information, put it together and try to adjust for any changes they make such as new formations or new plays designed to confuse our players or get us out of our rhythm.”

Sales Pitch

    The competition for the high school All-American football player is fierce. Playing on Saturday is nothing compared to walking into a young man’s living room and trying to convince him that your school is where he belongs.

    Florida State is often going after the same player as Miami, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, etc. Separating yourself from the field isn’t always easy to do.

    Andrews, however, has plenty of caveats to put on the table.

    “The first thing we talk about is that you are going to play for the greatest football coach in college football in Bobby Bowden,” Andrews said.

    Of course, no other school can offer up Bobby Bowden.

    “Then we tell them that they are going to get a chance to play in a program that will compete for a championship,” Andrews said, mentioning that Florida State has won 12 of the last 14 ACC championships. “You are going to have the opportunity to play in a New Year’s Day bowl. You are going to have an opportunity to play for one of the top defensive programs in the country. You are going to get individual development as far as your techniques and fundamentals that will prepare you for professional football if you are fortunate enough to play at the next level.”

    Many young men want to hear their name and the NFL in the same sentence. Of course, Florida State has plenty of examples of players who have traveled through Tallahassee and landed in professional football.

    “The techniques, the schemes, the coverages, the things that we are doing are things that the pros are doing,” Andrews said. “And foremost, you are going to have the opportunity to play for someone that cares about you and will treat you like a son.”





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