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AFM Magazine


30-Stack Pressure Defense

by: Jim Girard
Head Coach, Dover-Sherborn High School (MA)
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When we went to the 30-Stack defense as our base defense, we did so for a few reasons. First, it suited our personnel. Traditionally, we are a school that does not have great size, but we were fortunate to have athletes who could run. This defense allowed us to feature our greatest asset: team speed.

Second, we liked the idea of being in a defense where we could show a lot of different looks to opposing offenses in terms of fronts and coverages without having to change personnel. The 30-Stack offered us this versatility and flexibility.

But what our staff and our players liked most was the fact that it was a pressure defense. It is a “fast-break.” A lot of kids get the chance to make plays due to its blitzing capabilities. So playing it and watching it is fun and exciting.

As offenses continue to grow more complex, we feel it is important to play a defense that is simple for our kids to understand but also one that allows us to initiate play as opposed to being more reactive. Giving kids too many “reads” or things to think about pre-snap often takes away from their aggression. They become tentative and worried about making mistakes. With this defense, we simplify everything, including our blitz package.

We are a defense that applies pressure (in both run and pass situations) about 65% of the time. In the 30-Stack, we bring pressure from all angles and positions with 4, 5, 6 and 7-man combinations. Because it is such a big part of what we do, it is critical that our kids understand some key points to blitzing.

Three Key Points:
timing, attacking a 1/2 man and balance.


The first is timing. As we know, timing can make or break a stunt. It is rare that we will blitz during the first several plays of the game. One thing we ask our kids to focus on is the rhythm of the cadence early in the game. Once they get this down, we feel we have a distinct advantage with our speed and then we will start attacking.

Second, we feel it is important to have our kids understand that they will likely encounter a collision as they are blitzing. So, instead of asking our kids to attack gaps, we have their aiming points be at half of the man they anticipate will pick up their blitz, as shown in Diagram 1. Here, our WILL LB is executing an X stunt with the defensive end. His responsibility, in this case, is the B-gap. His aiming point, however, is going to be the outside shoulder of the guard. As he approaches, he should anticipate a collision. We noticed when our kids did not anticipate a collision (especially with stunts coming from the inside) they would get washed by an offensive lineman. By attacking a 1/2 man, we have found that our kids are in a much better position to make a play or at least be able to recover if they are picked up on a stunt. We also saw an increase in the number of times a blitzing linebacker would disrupt a play just by colliding with a lineman and putting him in the backfield or knocking off a pulling guard and causing a breakdown in the play.

Diagram 1

Third, balance is also a key component to blitz technique. We have seen a player on numerous occasions get in clean on a stunt only to run by the ball because his body was out of control and he lacked balance. The ability to set and gather one’s feet and re-direct his path to the football is something we work on every day in practice. A blitzing linebacker who does not cause some type of havoc is a wasted player and puts us at a disadvantage.

Warrior Stunt vs. Twins Formation
One stunt that we have had a lot of success with has been a six-man pressure that we call our Warrior stunt. In this stunt, our goal is to bring pressure in the face of the quarterback on the Twin’s side.

First, it begins with our nose-guard and defensive end getting a hard rush up-field in the A and B-gap away from the Twin’s side. Our Mike LB and Sam LB execute a twist in the A and B-gaps to the twin’s side – we let them decide who goes first (See Diagram 2). This provides a nice inside pass rush. Our OLB on the twin’s side cheats his way down from a zone coverage look during the cadence; bringing outside pressure on the QB. The defensive end on the twin’s side is responsible for the #3 receiver – this is usually a running back who may swing. So, his job is to engage the offensive tackle for one count and release parallel to the line of scrimmage, anticipating anything out of the backfield. Reminder: our defensive ends are really linebacker-type kids so it is not unrealistic for us to assign them this type of responsibility.

Diagram 2

We will also determine which LB – in this case our WILL LB or our back-side OLB – will be the 6th man bringing pressure. In diagram 3, we have tagged it as Warrior/Lightning, which signifies that the pressure will come from the OLB. In Diagram 4, it is tagged as Warrior/Will, which means we will bring more pressure inside. In either case, whichever backside LB is not stunting is responsible for the #2 receiver away from the twin’s side, which is usually a running back, and he must also be thinking about screen or draw.

Diagram 3

In terms of coverage, we are in a cover-3 look pre-snap and walk to cover-0 during the cadence. Our C away from twins is locked on #1 and our C and F man-up on twins. We also let the C and F determine whether to play true 0 or a match-up zone based on their preference.

This six-man pressure has been a very effective part of our blitz package versus a twins formation. Due to our pre-snap movements, our heavy inside rush and applying pressure in the face of the QB on the twins side, we have been able to cause confusion with o-line blocking assignments and force the QB into making a quick decision.

Diagram 4

Having implemented the 30-Stack Defense at two schools now, we have enjoyed a lot of success from a statistical standpoint. However, more importantly, our players are having more fun with this defense because it is pressure oriented and gives everybody the chance to make big plays.






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