By Dennis Creehan, Head Coach
Alderson Broaddus University
2016 was the fourth year of our football program. We started the program as a club team for one year and then moved to Division II in the fall of 2013. The success of our program has been remarkable for a-start up program. This past fall we had our third straight winning season, finishing 9-2, and winning the GMAC conference.
Much of what we accomplished was due to the outstanding play of our defense. We finished in the top ten in the country in at least six major categories including second in total defense, third in scoring defense, and third in rushing defense.
In order to play this type of defense, we had to establish the philosophy of our defense and then design and build our defensive package to stay within that philosophy. Our defensive philosophy was built around the following three principles:
· Don’t give up big plays
· Stop the run
· Pressure the QB
Our defensive playbook was put together with those principles in mind. We were not a big ‘zero’ blitz team which is generally high risk – high reward. We didn’t use many zero blitzes in order to minimize the risk of giving up a big play. Our defense was designed to always have at least one player deep so that, even if the offense broke the line of scrimmage, there would be someone deep to run it down and keep the gain to a first down rather than a touchdown.
Secondly, we decided that we were not going to allow opponents to run the football against us. We designed a package that would allow us to always have ‘one more’ than our opponents could block. We didn’t care about disguise and we were unashamed to put as many players in the box as was needed to stop the run.
In teaching our package, we decided there are skills that each defensive player must master to play his position and most of them are specific to playing that position. For example, a linebacker must be a good ‘key reader.’ However, there are three qualities that are necessary for all defensive players, regardless of their position. These include:
· Defeating blocks (high and low)
· Sprinting to the football in great pursuit
· Tackling
In every practice from the beginning of spring football to the end of the fall season, we worked hard on those fundamentals including circuits for each of the three. Practice always started with those circuits and fundamentals. As soon as the circuit training was complete, we would go to our individual periods where we would teach the fundamentals specific to each position.
When our defensive backs would break into individual periods, the emphasis on ‘No Big Plays’ would continue to be ingrained into their thought process. We worked tirelessly on playing the deep zones and keeping the ball in front of us. Even if we were playing man to man coverage, we would still keep at least one player in a deep zone to minimize risk.