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Stifle Your Opponent with a Bruising Defense – Coordinators of two top-ranked college defenses show you how.

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What are the most important ingredients of a stifling defense? Beyond having a sound scheme, what should coaches look for in athletes in an effort to ensure domination of their opponents? To get the answers, AFM talked to the defensive coordinators of two of 2010’s most imposing defensive units – Mount Union of Division III and Boston College of the FBS. While certain defensive fundamentals are to be expected, both Vince Kehres of Mount Union and Bill McGovern of BC provided additional insight into qualities and techniques that can go a long way toward creating smothering defensive units.

Consider the following about the Mount Union defense in 2010. The Purple Raiders led the nation in scoring defense, giving up only 8.9 points per game. In the process, they held five opponents scoreless and, in one stretch, limited the opposition to only 61 points in a 12-week period. Mount Union also finished second in D-III in total yards allowed per game (212) while ending the season first in both turnovers gained (47) and pass efficiency defense. They allowed only 10 rushing touchdowns all year as they limited opponents to only 2.6 yards per carry.

    Defensive coordinator Vince Kehres knows exactly what he wants from his defense, and it doesn’t include overwhelming an opponent with some elaborate scheme or with an abundance of fronts and coverages. Instead, Kehres prefers a simple formula that has helped the Purple Raiders win 10 Division III titles. It starts with three keys – quickness, toughness, and intelligence.

    “We want to be quick at each position,” Kehres explained. “We want our nose tackles to be quick compared to other nose tackles and our boundary corners to be quick compared to other corners. Quickness is our number one priority.”

    Toughness is equally important. “We evaluate toughness through tacking, pursuit and blocking protection,” he said. “We want to be a tough looking defense that pursues, gets off blocks and tackles.”

    Kehres’ third priority for his defense is having smart athletes. “We want to limit our game-plan in terms of the fronts and coverages that we’re going to play so that our players can react quickly to what they see and the keys that they have.” Kehres, on average, includes only two or three fronts and coverages in his game-plans.

    With those three keys in mind, Kehres evaluates his personnel and identifies the type of athlete he wants for each position in his 4-2-5 scheme – his defensive linemen, linebackers, and defensive backs.

Defensive Linemen

    1. Players who can react quickly to blocks.
    2. Players who utilize their hands to escape from blocks.
    3. Players who have the ability to stay on their feet and run the line of         scrimmage, similar to a linebacker.
    4. Players who can get their hips on the edge of an offensive lineman         in pass protection and contribute to the pass rush.
Linebackers

1. The ability to read and react accordingly to an O-lineman key.
2. The ability to press the line of scrimmage and defeat blockers.
“We want our linebackers to play downhill,” he said.
3. Good tacklers, both in tight areas between the tackles and in open     space.
4. The ability to open their hips, dissect a pattern and match on to the appropriate receiver. “We need our linebackers to be able to help us in pass coverage,” Kehres said.
5. Kehres adds that he’s looking for specific attributes from his outside and inside linebackers. “We evaluate if this is a linebacker that can play on the line of scrimmage like a defensive end,” he explained. “Is this a guy that can help us as a pass rusher? We’ve gotten to the point where we’re looking for inside and outside types. Those outside backers can be a pass rusher when you go to a four-man front or three-man front. They’re your 9-technique  if you’re playing someone that is using tight ends and fullbacks.”

Defensive backs

1. Players who are quick with good agility and loose hips.
2. Solid tacklers whether at corner or safety.
3. Versatile pass defenders with the ability to pattern read in zone coverage and play their proper responsibility and also the ability to play man-to-man.

    Kehres’ defenses have excelled at pressuring the quarterback and forcing turnovers. Mount Union is 153-1 since 1990 when winning the turnover battle. On its way to a sixth consecutive Division III title game, Mount Union led the nation in turnovers gained with 47. That’s six more than No. 2 Wisconsin-Whitewater, the team the Purple Raiders faced in the Stagg Bowl. “We teach pass rushers to go for the strip when they have the opportunity to get to the quarterback,” Kehres said. “So we want to get the ball off the quarterback, and we teach that with all our pass rushers.”

    Kehres and his staff also reward players who make an effort to strip the football, even if they don’t get the football out. “If you’re making an effort to get the football out once the tackle is secured and digging at the football, we want to encourage that so we reward players even if they don’t dislodge the ball.”

Pressuring the Quarterback

    Mount Union graduated five senior defensive linemen last year and entered the season with only one experienced D-lineman. That didn’t stop Kehres and his staff from producing a pass rush that finished among the nation’s leaders in sacks with 48. Kehres credits three things for his unit’s ability to pressure the quarterback – identifying the best pass rusher, creating  favorable match-ups and  coverage sacks.

    Kehres spends time looking for his best pass rushers in order to identify the best ones and then puts them in a position to succeed. In trying to create the most favorable possible match-ups, Kehres said, “We want to get our best pass rushers on their weakest pass blockers. A lot of times they’re going to use a back or a tight end in protection. It might be that guy who doesn’t spend as much time working on pass blocking technique.” Kehres doesn’t always change his alignment to create the mismatches, but does have a sideline call to put his best pass rushers in a position to succeed. “For example, our defensive end in certain fronts will play a 3-technique tackle,” he explained. “Instead of being matched up on a tackle, we’ll get him matched up on a guard. Then, we’ll take our hybrid defensive end/linebacker and stunt or blitz to get him in position where a back might have to block him.”

    Kehres says a lot of his team’s sacks this season were a result of a good pass defense. “If your pass defenders are recognizing the routes and defending the routes, that helps a lot,” he said. “Sometimes using substitution packages to be able to play man coverage and get good match-ups where your best cover men are on their best receivers also helps.”

    Kehres was a four-year letter winner at Mount Union as a defensive end. As a player, he was part of the defense in 1997 that led the nation in fewest points allowed (5.6 ppg). He clearly has continued that tradition as first a defensive assistant and, for the last six seasons, as defensive coordinator.
 
Boston College:  #1 In Rushing Defense
 
    Boston College defensive coordinator Bill McGovern orchestrated the nation’s top rushing defense this past fall. Opponents averaged a miniscule 2.66 yards per carry against the Eagles 4-3, fire zone scheme. BC was the only Football Bowl Subdivision team to hold opponents under 1,000 yards for the season (962). They gave up only seven rushing touchdowns all year and held the opposition to 80 yards per game on the ground.

    “We’re going to stress fundamentals and an aggressive approach to the game,” said McGovern. “Our primary goals are stopping the run and controlling the passing game. We want to take away what they do best. We try to let our kids line up and play and play fast. We’re not always going to have the biggest and strongest kids, but we want them to play fast. We don’t want them thinking a great deal, but we do want them anticipating.”

    McGovern says the modern running games, including Wildcat and Pistol packages, test a defense’s gap integrity and force you to be extremely sound in your base scheme. “Your guys on defense have to understand your defense and execute their defense and still be aggressive,” McGovern said. “Executing at a high rate is critical against the modern offense.

    “You can’t sit there and just catch anymore, and you can’t sit there and blitz all the time anymore, because they’ll take advantage of anything you do. You have to be able to play what you’re playing faster and better than what they’re playing. They’re going to know their offense better than you know it. So you need to know your defense better than they know it.”

    You also must have the type of players that fit your scheme. McGovern knows exactly the attributes he’s looking for from the players he recruits. In fact, McGovern is such a good recruiter he doesn’t even need to know the jersey numbers of the players he’s after.

    “When we watch high school tape, we want to identify the best football player,” explained McGovern.

“That doesn’t mean the guy that’s the biggest, strongest and fastest. We want to find the best football player. When you’re looking for that, you don’t need to know the guy’s number. He’s a guy that will show up on tape.”

    McGovern looks for players with the “RH” factor. “Guys that can run and hit,” he said. He’s looking for players who love the game, play with emotion and are versatile. “You just can’t recruit one-dimensional players anymore,” McGovern said. “The offenses these days are too sophisticated. They’ll spot those guys and make them do things that they’re not good at. So you’ve got to have well-rounded players.

    “Along those lines, you also want a guy that can learn the game. Obviously, a great athlete is one thing, but we’re trying to find what we feel is the best football player and a guy that is excited to play the game.

That’s the biggest thing in the recruiting world in my mind. There are so many great players out there, but what separates guys when they get to college is their intangibles, their character, their desire to win and their work ethic. Everyone has plusses and minuses, but it’s the guys who are willing to work that emerge.”


Fundamental Tackling

    At Boston College, McGovern preaches chest-to-chest, body-on-body with eyes up so it keeps a player’s head out of the tackle. “Obviously, you don’t want your head involved at all,” he explained. “We talk about same foot, same shoulder. You put your body on his and bring it chest-to-chest with your feet and your hips coming up and under you.”

    McGovern emphasizes the “same foot, same shoulder” technique. “You have more power when you’re hitting a guy with your same shoulder. If I’m hitting you with my right shoulder and right foot underneath me, I’ve got more power than if I hit you with my right shoulder and my left foot. We want to be as strong and as physical as we can be when going through somebody, and same foot, same shoulder tends to give you much more power when you explode through a player.”

    BC’s stingy defense also helped them in another area – turnovers gained. The Eagles pressure defense resulted in 30 turnovers to tie for fourth in the nation among all FBS teams.

    Quickness, toughness, intelligence, execution, enthusiasm and tackling fundamentals. All qualities exhibited by top defenders and major contributors to the success of stifling defenses like Mount Union and Boston College in 2010.






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