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Three Pillars of Defensive Prep

by: Jeff McDonald
Linebackers Coach • Wesleyan University
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Three important items in game planning include practicing proper tackling, studying your opponent’s big plays and those your defense has given up, and focusing on turnovers.

We are always looking for a defensive edge on game day. However, with the unpredictability that game day brings, it is very difficult to predict or prepare for every scenario that might present itself. That is why it is important to use Monday through Friday to put the odds of victory as much as possible in our favor.

So, what can we do during game week to increase our odds of being successful on Friday or Saturday? I have three ideas that will help you increase your odds of finding victory on Friday or Saturday.

First, focus on eliminating big plays by emphasizing tackling every day and having a tackling system that all of the position groups follow. Every day there must be a point where tackling is worked on in practice. In film sessions leading up to game day, proper tackling must be pointed out and stressed. It is important that all defensive positions have the same “tackling system”. 
For example, we stress three important points:

1. Head and eyes up. This is for obvious safety reasons.

2. Two hard uppercuts. This gets the triple extension of the ankles, knees and hips, when your body is at it’s most powerful. It also increases your chances of punching the ball out and forcing a turnover.

3. Five hard steps. It is always important to run through the contact on a tackle. The first one that does, defender or ball carrier, will usually push the other back. 
 
What if you can’t get two hard uppercuts? In this case, we teach the wrap and roll. Wrap the waist and squeeze as you “log roll” to prevent shoulder injury on impacting the ground.

So, have a tackling system, a system that all the defensive coaches are using and teaching. Then make sure to drill some form of it everyday in practice to help eliminate those big play situations.

Another way to eliminate big offensive plays and increase your chances of victory is to study your opponent’s past big plays as well as the big plays your defense has given up.

Most all of us now have access to video editing systems. Use yours to categorize and watch the biggest plays your opposing offense has had in the past. These plays are most likely what they will use when struggling to make something happen offensively.

Also analyze the big plays that your defense has given up to assess your vulnerabilities. Put some of these plays in your practice scripts just in case the opposing offense decides to use them.

Next, use personnel and formation study during game week to help increase your chances of calling the right defenses. You are preparing your defenders for the high percentage plays out of formations and personnel groupings. 


We set up “The Board” on a white board in our conference room (Diagram 1). On the board we put up personnel groups in columns, with formations underneath. Anything that is 60% run is in a red marker, anything that is 60% pass goes in blue. All else (50/50) goes up in black marker.  This really helps us see where the different colors are and get a feel for who they are by personnel or formation and in specific situations.

Look at Diagram 1 and the example under 21 personnel. Overall, the personnel grouping is 50/50, indicating that the offense does self-scout and works hard  not to give away a tendency.  However a closer look shows that the offensive team is running out of Pro (labeled in red) and passing out of Twins (labeled in blue). So although 21 personnel is 50/50 (in black) a quick glance will tell you that, when in this personnel, they run the football more often in Pro and pass the ball more often in Twins. This is important information to communicate to your players and remember as the play caller on game day.

As you fill in the rest of the board by formations and personnel groupings, other tendencies and insights will be revealed. This will only help you increase the odds of success on Friday or Saturday.

Once the board is set up, find the tendencies, watch the cutups of each grouping and formation, then underneath write in your favorite defensive calls. Do that for all of the different personnel groupings or formations.

In the far column are situations such as goal line, short yardage, red zone, etc. Set those up the same way with color coding and put your favorite defensive calls underneath.

As you prepare to script your team periods during practices that week, use the board to help you script. After practice add or subtract calls based on the practice film. At the end of the week when it is time for you to write a call sheet for the game, all you’ll need to do is copy down the calls you have on the board with all of the run/pass percentages.

Although unforeseen situations will develop on game day, teams do not randomly change. Play the percentages of what the offense has shown in the past based on “The Board”. You may need to adjust when they go away from a tendency, but playing the percentages will help increase your odds of success.

Finally, focus on turnovers. Creating turnovers will significantly increase your chances to win. The more time you can emphasize turnovers during game week, the better the chances you will have of creating turnovers on Friday or Saturday. Constantly remind your players that for every turnover they cause, their chance of winning increases substantially. They need to understand and buy into this concept.  Whether you do a study of your league and the percentage of teams winning the turnover battle and winning the game, or if you reference a previous game where your defense won or lost the game based on turnovers, make sure your players understand the importance of turnovers.

The best way is to give the defense a “number” to shoot for before practice. Tell them at the beginning of practice they must create three turnovers in team periods during that particular practice. Make sure they understand that for every number short of that they will run one “gasser” after practice. Then, stand back and watch how they start getting hungrier and hungrier for turnovers. Watch their mindset change as they look to create turnovers, not treating them as an afterthought.

The best time to practice creating turnovers is during pre-season or spring football and not vs. a scout team during game week. However, you can carry this over to the actual season by giving them a number of turnovers to reach on game day.

Just like tackling, this needs to be emphasized every day in practice. Diagram 2 includes some of our favorite turnover drills. There are other drills, but we find these unique and they help us make the drills more movement-specific.



Something else we do is use the Jugs machine after practice. The rule is the defensive players cannot leave the field until they catch five balls from the Jugs machine. For every one they drop, they do 10 pushups. We found that there is never enough time for them to do ball drills with limited individual time in practice, so we use the Jugs machine to help them get used to catching the football. As the saying goes, “If you caught every interception you dropped in a season, your defense would lead the league in interceptions every year.”

Use game week to increase your defense’s odds of success on game day. Do this by emphasizing tackling and studying the opponent’s big play success to eliminate their long yardage plays. Put together your own “Board” to easily show  the opponents’ tendencies regarding formations, personnel groupings, etc. This will allow your players to have a better feel for what plays to anticipate and help the defensive play caller better match defenses to the offensive sets. Finally, make the concerted effort to cause turnovers. Work it every day and talk about it all the time in practice and find more and more ways for your defense to catch, recover, and strip footballs. We can’t win all our games, but by doing these three things, we can definitely increase our odds. p

About the Author: Jeff McDonald returns for his fifth season this fall on the Wesleyan University staff. He coaches linebackers and special teams and also serves as the recruiting coordinator. McDonald previously coached at Towson as the defensive coordinator. He has also coached at Yale, Central Connecticut State, New Hampshire and Quincy University. McDonald is at 1995 graduate of the University of South Florida. He recently completed a series of DVDs on defensive play available at AFMvideos.com.

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