DEFENSIVE BLUEPRINT - Lehigh's 11 Keys to a Championship Defense

We have 11 priorities for building a championship defense: staff, personnel, multiplicity, coaching the little things, getting what you coach, swarm, passion, and finish, self-scouting, game planning, and maintaining the integrity of your defense. Developing each one is critical to building your defense.
 
Staff - It’s hard to be a championship defense if you don’t have a championship staff. In order to develop your staff, everyone must be on the same page and be an expert in their area. On a daily basis, the staff must be able to function as one unit just as you want the defense to function as one unit.
 
Personnel - Here are the characteristics you want at each position:
 
STUD LB - Plays over the TE, edge pass rusher, quality spot dropper.
 
WILL LB - Weakside rusher out of the 3-4, converted safety, must be able to cover slot and WRs man-to-man.
 
MIKE LB - Run stopper, can work to the high hole.
 
SAM LB - Fast and athletic, converted RB type.
 
STRONG SAFETY - Recruited as a big cornerback.
 
DEFENSIVE LINE – Need to be stout in the run game and have the
ability to become transitional pass rushers.
 
NOSE TACKLE - 375 lb. bench presser, powerful through his hips.
 
CORNERBACKS - High school point guards and/or option QBs.
 
Multiplicity - We have the ability to play our base 3-4 as a formation or as a hash defense. We use man blitzes, zone blitzes, personnel, fronts and coverages to keep the offense guessing. We have also developed a no-huddle fast-tempo system which allows us to adjust and play fast. Our concepts allow us to dictate to the offense, which in today’s game can be very difficult.
Coach the Little Things - At Lehigh, we teach and drill certain skills which every defender can use. For example, every player will learn how to “Chop-Dip.” This is a skill that is applicable no matter what position you play. It’s a pass rush or block escape move in which the defender chops down on the hands of the blocker and then executes a dip-rip move to get by the blocker.
 
Get What You Coach - I learned very early that you are either coaching it or allowing it to happen. We work very hard to make sure what we discuss and decide to do shows up on film. Sometimes it is a personnel move and other times we try to examine if what we are asking our players to do is realistic.
 
Swarm, Passion, Finish - This is the basis of how we play defense at Lehigh. After every game and major scrimmage, we acknowledge the players for their performance. Swarm is the person who is flying around the field making things happen. Passion usually goes to the player who may not have the stats but is doing things that allows the defense to be successful Finish goes to the player who causes a turnover, a sack, or a tackle for loss.
 
Self-Scout - One of the hardest things to do is to look at one’s self objectively. We try to look at what has hurt us on a weekly basis and spend time discussing how to solve the problem. We strongly feel that if the situation is not addressed, it will fester like an open wound.
 
Game Plan - Each week during the season we base our game plan on being able to stop the opponents’ top concepts. We like to look at down and distance by personnel and by formation. There will be a number of pre-determined field zones examined along with looking closely at special circumstances where we feel the offense may change what they do. We try not to create a new defense each week. There should be no new defenses on Thursday of game week.
 
Don’t Panic, Maintain the Integrity of the Defense - When you are playing at a very high level, teams will work extra hard to break tendencies, create new plays and/or add trick plays to their package. We feel that when you panic, bad things happen. So it is our stance that you have to play by your rules and keep playing them. You have to keep coaching the players and have them feed off of your energy.  If you are stressed, or can’t handle the moment, it will reflect in the performance of your players.
 
fter 22 years of coaching at the college level, working with countless quality coaches, most of what we do at Lehigh is a compilation of learned experiences. The ultimate goal is to put our defense in the best possible position to be successful. We thoroughly believe that an offense can never match the intensity of the defense. p
 
About the Author: Gerard Wilcher completed his tenth season as defensive backs coach and his second season as co-defensive coordinator last fall at Lehigh University. Over the last 22 seasons, he has also coached at Cornell University, University of Massachusetts, Boston College, Cheyney University, and Morehouse College. Wilcher is a 1992 graduate of Morehouse College with a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration.