One of the hardest things to teach a defense to do is to play assignment football. When we are faced with this problem, we do some things to help out players to play their assignments and slow down the option offense. Each player must understand what assignment they have in our base defense, blitz defense and adjustment defenses. We begin this process in the summer when preparing for camp and then early in the pre-season workouts.That enables the players to get repetitions and not be surprised when teams, who normally do not option, try to option on us. Of course, the emphasis shifts when we know we are playing an option team, but it is hard to replicate the option as is, so these might help.
BASE Defense Assignments
Position Assignment
Interior line (Nose, Tackle) Dive- (pinball)
Ends QB
Interior Linebackers (Sam, Mike) Dive to QB
Outside LBs (Bandit, Rover) QB to Pitch
Free Safety QB to pitch
Corners Pitch
In the pre-season, we will have an option day. We will teach our base defense, blitz and adjustment defenses through individual work. Individual position areas will use drills that apply to option assignments. We then will come together for groups, pairing different individual positions to work on the option. For example, interior run will have inside linebackers and inside down players working on their assignments. Edge players, ends and defensive backs will be put together for their group period. We will run all our defenses vs. all options we see.
Drilling Option Assignments:
The key to doing these drills is not to use a football when practicing option defense. Each defender should go to their respective assignment and put a form tackle on each runner. The individual coach can do this half-speed or full speed. When we move to group, we again do not use a football to drill option work. Each simulated runner is in play. We can do this rapidly without the worry of fumbled pitches or bad reads by the scout team offense. Each coach comes up with option drills that apply to their individual position.
As the defensive line coach, we run spill drills with the interior line (in the pit). Interior defensive linemen have dive. As the option develops, we found it very hard to defend what I call the quarterback follow. He fakes to the dive back, then pulls the ball and “follows” the running back. We have come up with a technique in this case where interior linemen will “pinball” to the QB follow. This technique allows for the interior linemen to do their assignment, dive, and then help us on the follow. They will wrap up the dive back and feel for the ball. If it is there, they stay on the dive back. Ifit isn’t, they “pinball” to the QB. For alll of you 70’s guys, the concept of pin-ballling is not foreign, but this generation doesn’t often see pinball machines and you may have to explain pinball to them. We practice both in the pit. We will first practice tackling the dive, and then we will pinball on the second time through.
Team:
When we enter into a team session, we will begin option work without using a ball. We will check that each position is going to their assignment in the first few option plays. We then add a twist; we place a football in each of the possible ball carriers hands and play option with each ball carrier having a ball. Now we can work on forcing turnovers as we form tackle. We end the team session playing with one football adding the passing aspect, option pitch passes and tricks from the option.
Conclusion:
One of the harder things to do when playing option is to keep your defenders from rallying to the ball. This is a major problem when playing option. Rallying to the ball puts you out of position to defend it. Option teams want you to rally to the ball so they can fool you. We will teach running to the football at the end of the session, but we are making sure they are doing their assignments first. Each defense has consistent rules based on position. Some blitz situations switch rules. For example, when we run a blitz where the end and the outside linebacker switch assignments, they are repping this during our blitz session. We change assignments for outside LB’s the most. Depending on the path of the blitz, we will place the outside LB on their assignment now! For example, we “sink” or “feather” in base defense with the outside LBs on the QB. When blitzing them, depending on the blitz, they are on the QB or pitch now. If it is a contain blitz, we will put them on the pitch now, forcing the QB to keep the ball. If it is a spill stunt, they will be on the QB now, forcing them to pitch the ball. By doing this, we will change the pace of the option and dictate who would carry the ball on the edges.
I hope this will help you to better prepare for option offenses in the future.