Developing a High School Defense-The Blitz Package

Developing a High School Defense-The Blitz Package: Oh boy, the blitz package!  This is the part of the series on Developing a High School Defense most coaches are going to flock to.  Blitzes are sexy, they are stylish, they make you the coordinator look so in vogue.  Well, I've got a little news for you.  If you really have a dominant defense and have done your homework scouting and breaking down your opponent, you shouldn't have to blitz to defend them.  I hate to burst everyone's bubble, and while we are going to get to some blitzes, you'll first have to hear my sermon on blitzing.

Blitz Philosophy

First off, I'm just like everyone else.  I absolutely love when a good pressure hits home.  There's nothing like seeing the offense completely decimated by a pressure you've designed hit its mark.  I'll be the first to admit, I probably blitz too much.  I'm also guilty of blitzing to keep my players appeased too (we all know kids would rather blitz than read).  I think if you've done your homework, studied your opponent, and have a solid game plan, blitzing should just be the icing on the cake.  I remember when the 3-3 stack became the craze several years ago.  I get it, we all like to blitz, but the 3-3 took the football coaching world by storm because most packages were based on pressure.  I can tell you this, I've torched many a 3-3 as an OC in my time because their coaches were simply guessing and trying to throw anything against the wall to see if it stuck.  That's not sound defensive football, no matter what defense you run.  Several years back, when I was still an OC, we faced a 3-3 team like I'd never faced.  They rarely blitzed.  What?!  They stunted quite a bit, but didn't blitz.  Let me tell you this, they cooked our goose that night.  Why?  They were well prepared and played excellent run fits.  I really didn't have an answer for them.  I'd never seen a 3-3 Stack defense set up quite like that.  Well come to find out that DC is now a multi-state championship winning head coach now, doing the exact same thing he did when I faced him.  He's coaching sound defensive fundamentals.



I was told years ago if you don't run a single blitz all night and win, that's a good night.  I remember hearing that thinking "What the hell?".  However, a coach that ended up being a mentor for me was right.  It was early in the season, and we were struggling to blitz.  Our kids just didn't "get it" for some reason.  This coach made this comment and then stated that he thought our guys were too nervous for blitzing.  We did have some guys that were nerve wracked and always full of "if-this-then-that" questions.  So we eased back on the blitzing and noticed we actually started playing better.  We got really well at reading and reacting to blocks and our run fits became solid.  Well, end of that season we were in the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years.  Our first three games we blitzed almost 50 percent of the snaps.  That number dropped to an astonishing 11 percent of snaps over our last three games.  I took four of our better front seven defenders and asked them about blitzing and all of them were universal in that it made them nervous.  We didn't try to fit a round peg in a square hole and backed off with the pressure packages.  What I saw was we became better defenders all around.  We tackled better, we covered better.  Yes we still ran stunts and movements but not as much as we had prior.



Now I know what many are thinking here and listen, my blitz percentages since that season have been much higher (almost 70 percent in 2014), but what I realized is you need to teach kids to be sound defensively in your base stuff before you ever turn them loose to blitz.  Get good at what you do without blitzing.  You can't blitz every snap and have it be effective.  Sure, it might work in a game or two, but there are going to be games where pressuring is not the answer.



Another part of my blitz philosophy is field zone.  I don't pressure much in my opponent's end of the field.  I'll give you some stats from this past season based on field zone so you can see what I'm talking about:

• Backed Up (Opp GL to -6 yard line): 0 blitzes
• Coming Out (-7 yard line to -25 yard line): Blitzed 16% of the snaps
• Green Zone (-26 yard line to 50 yard line): Blitzed 25% of the snaps
• Yellow Zone (49 yard line to 26 yard line): Blitzed 37% of the snaps
• Red Zone (25 yard line to the 7 yard line): Blitzed 39% of the snaps
• Goalline (6 yard to our GL): Blitzed 61% of the snaps

My philosophy on pressure is based on what I have in the secondary.  I don't zone blitz (at least not in the traditional sense of having a 3x3 zone or 2x4 zone behind it, I'll get into that later), so we are usually in man or voiding a zone when we do it.  I've coached where I'm at now, off and on, for almost 20 years.  I've rarely had a secondary anyone would brag about.  Serviceable guys, but I've never had a defensive back (DB) go any higher than a Division III player.  That's not to say we don't have some decent DB's, it's just not often that we do.  Well, when you're not a very good cover guy, having to cover 80 yards can be very difficult in single coverage.  However, covering 40 yards, or less isn't too bad.  Even the worst of the DB's I've had can usually handle that.  So, as you can see the need to pressure in an opponent's end of the field isn't as high.  Also, the average high school drive lasts about seven to eight snaps before things begin to break down (penalties, fumbles, mistakes etc.).  It is in my opinion if we can get our opponent to this eighth or ninth snap, the defense begins to have an advantage.  For the first seven snaps we play our base stuff, perhaps altering a coverage here or there and throwing in the occasional stunt.  Once we start getting over eight snaps, I begin to turn up the heat on the offense a bit more.  Remember, if you're making them get to that many snaps you are beginning to frustrate the high school mind.  The added pressure exacerbates the mistakes being made by the offense, leading to more negative plays.  It is a win-win philosophy in my opinion.  I don't have to cover huge chunks of the field in man to man coverage and we are being very simple with our approach to defending the offense by staying in our base checks.

I know, sounds all too much like bend-but-don't-break defense, and quite Frankly that's what it is!  See aggression is nice and all, till that stud wide receiver (WR) hauls in a 65 yard bomb and your opponent's band is blaring their fight song.  It is also demoralizing to give up a big play.  I know you hear all the time about DB's having to have short memories, but let's face it, these guys are 15-19 year-old high school kids.  Some may have a short memory, but many don't.  I also understand it's demoralizing to give up a 12 play 80 yard drive as well.  Hence, the increase in blitz percentage as you cross the 50 yard line.  The more my back is against the wall, the more I'm trying to land a hay maker on you to stop you.  Again, that's just my two pennies worth of blitz philosophy, that's really taken about 15 years to develop (remember, in my beginnings I was probably close to twice those percentages listed above).

Blitz Types

Within the defense there are different types of blitzes.  We have single linebacker blitzes, multiple inside linebacker blitzes, overload blitzes, outside blitzes and secondary blitzes.  For the single blitzes, which includes blitzing a single defensive back, we may simply vacate a zone in our zone coverage.  I know, you just said out loud "Oh my God, WHAT?!".  I don't really zone blitz much anymore.  In my experience most high school quarterbacks are too flustered to find a hot receiver or the open window to throw to in the face of the blitz.  That's not to say I won't zone blitz, but they are not a part of the main blitz package we put together and install with our players.



On the note of coverage, if we can simply void a zone and play zone in our single pressures, then we will do it. It's the simplest of all the blitzes to install and keeps the back end the same.  For our multiple inside linebacker blitzes, I typically like to run man free, but sometimes the offense will dictate that you have to be in pure man.  Our outside blitzes and most of secondary blitzes will also require the defense to be in Cover Zero.  We also can have a combination of man and zone as well based on the offensive structure that we are blitzing.



Obviously vacating a zone is a low risk, low reward blitz because most of the time, from a four down front, this is a single LB blitz.  Our man free blitzes tend to get a bit more exotic as we are usually bringing six and covering with five.  The outside blitzes are high risk, but also high reward (see the section below on outside blitzes).  The risk is you are in man coverage and if they pop you, it could go the distance because the DB's have little time to react to defending the run as they are covering WR's.



Single Linebacker Blitzes

I'll start first with the Mike, or middle LB.  The first blitz I teach the Mike is a blitz we call "Mack".  Mack tells the MLB to blitz the gap he's assigned.  This gap can change based on the front we are in.  Two of our most popular Mack blitzes are shown below.  The first one we call Nose Mack.  If we remember from our post on fronts, Nose tells the weak side DT to align in a zero technique over the center.  With a strong three technique and a zero, the center cannot see the MLB blitzing.  The second Mack we like to run is called Pinch Strong Mack.  Pinch Strong tells the strong DT to stunt from a three to a one, thereby taking the A gap, while the MLB blitzes the B gap (if I would've just called Pinch Strong the Mike's gap is the strong B gap, so by tagging the pressure "Mack" it is still telling the Mike to blitz the gap he has based on the front and stunt).



If I want the Mike to go to the weak A gap I call "Maw" (Mike A Weak).  I will also usually couple this with a Nose call as well to keep the MLB hidden from the center.  If I want to put the MLB in the weak B gap, then I call Mob.  Finally if I want to blitz the MLB into the C gap, I call Mach (like the razor).  Mach can be strong, weak, field, boundary, to or away from the running back (RB).  All of these blitzes are single pressures that involve the MLB only.

Mack

Maw, Mob, Mach

For the Sam and Will, I name the gaps on either side of the formation so they know what gaps to blitz.  Gaps on the strong side of the formation are names that begin with that letter of the alphabet.  The names and gaps are as follows:

• Abil = Strong A
• Baker = Strong B
• Charlie = Strong C
• Dog = Strong D

To the weak side the gaps also have names, however the gap names start with the letter "W" to indicate they are on the weak side of the formation.  The names are as follows:

• Wally = Weak A
• Wilbur = Weak B
• Wacko = Weak C

So an example of one of our single outside LB blitzes would be if I wanted to send the Sam to the strong C gap, I would simply call the front and then tag it "Charlie".  This would put the Sam blitzing the C gap to the strong side.  The same could be said if I wanted to send the weak side LB to the weak  B gap.  I would simply call the front and then "Wilbur" to send the Will LB.



Now some of you may not like the naming convention, but that's fine, there's other way to name blitz gaps.  I've named them cities before (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Detroit) or body parts(Arm, Breasts (what 16 year old doesn't get that?), Chin, and uh...I won't tell you what we labeled the D gap, this is a censored blog) and tagged them strong and weak.  We've done numerous things over the years as well as car names, states and capitols etc.  However you choose to name your gaps you want to blitz, I would definitely recommend having the gap names in the pressure.  Otherwise why do you teach the gap names in the first place?



I've had defenses where the names of the blitz had nothing to do with the gaps.  For instance, one time we ran a blitz called "College" and that was the good old NCAA blitz (some folks also call it America's blitz because it is run so frequently).  College really told our kids nothing about where they were attacking though.  It was a memorization that they had to learn.  As I progressed in my coaching career and learned Gary Paterson's TCU blitz package I really loved the way he compartmentalized the blitzes and then combined them to create a nice blitz package.  Not being a three safety defense, led to the creation of the blitzes I'm showing you now.  A 4-2-5 has to get either two linebackers (LB's), two safeties, or a combo of LB and safety to blitz.  The 4-3 is a bit different in that you can blitz a combination of one, two or three LB's as well as the safeties.

Multiple Inside Linebacker Blitzes, and Overload Blitzes

Multiple inside LB blitzes are two LB's blitzing either an inside gap on one side of the center or on either side of the center.  An overload blitz is an inside blitz by one LB and an outside blitz by another LB.  Usually this is done with the MLB being the inside blitzer, and either the Sam or Will being the outside blitzer (although this past season we did this with the Will blitzing inside and the corner coming off the edge).  Combination blitzes in this defense are simply what gap names are called.  If I want double A gap pressure I simply call Abil-Wally.  Double B gap?  No problem, Baker-Wilbur.  Very simple.  I usually run these from our 42 front with two, two techniques so the offense doesn't know where the defensive tackles (DT's) and the LB's are going. 

A side note about the defense is that the MLB always replaces the LB out of the box when blitzing.  For us, the box is tackle to tackle.  This means that if a LB has to align in a nine technique, or is out of the box in coverage, then he cannot blitz.  The MLB always replaces whoever leaves the box.  So in the example above of Abil-Wally and Baker-Wilbur the MLB becomes the strong side blitzer.  

If I don't want to change both of the defensive linemen's (DL's) technique, then I can run something like Nose Mack Wilbur, or Nose Mack Wacko for instance.  These are both very good weak side overload blitzes.  

To the strong side a good two LB blitz is Pinch Strong Mack Dog, or Nose Mack Dog.  Either one of these get you a strong side overload. 

Multiple LB blitzes

Multiple LB Blitzes

Another side note about the defense is flare rule.  Flare rule is what some guys call "peel".  Our defensive ends are taught on any or our two LB blitzes that have a LB blitzing inside of them they have flare rule, meaning if the running back (RB) releases to their side they have to cover him.  It's a simple rule that we spend maybe five minutes per week early in the season working on.  Rarely if ever will I have a LB execute flare rule.  I want blitzers blitzing, not worrying about coverage.

I also rarely, if ever, read out of a blitz.  We are usually gap sound enough with our blitzes, and they are not so exotic where we have the need to read out.  I have taught how to read out, but reading out is not a basic skill we teach our players.  I figure I can cross that bridge when I need to during the season.

Outside Blitzes

The outside blitz in this defense is the home run hitter for us.  Our outside blitz is simply labeled "Outside Charge" (OSC).  OS Charge is our staple for the defense.  We feel we can run this and really get the tackle for loss (TFL) we are needing.  It is a blitz, that brings six, with the MLB being the free hitter in the middle.  We have a way to also run this as an overload blitz by the way we set the front.  Let me explain.

The initial way we teach this blitz is from our 42 front.  This has the DT's in two techniques, and they are responsible for the A gap (their normal assignment from a two technique).  The DE's are taught, on OSC  that if the gap inside is open, I take it.  So both DE's are going to stunt into the B gap (this stunt would be run "fast" if you remember from the Stunt Article earlier in the series).

Outside Charge

To set this blitz up as an overload blitz, you need to run it with a three and five technique to the strong side.  Now, the DE, seeing that the gap inside him is occupied, will simply be a regular five technique.  This is great against turn back protection sprint out, slide protection or speed option (set the three technique to the back when doing this).  The defense is getting two outside rushers attacking the RB in both the sprint out and slide protection example.  Here the defenders simply split the back and whoever doesn't get blocked, sacks the QB.  Against speed option, the DE takes the QB and the OLB has the pitch.  

Outside Charge as an overload blitz

The part about this blitz that makes it so hard to defend is how the outside linebackers (OLB's) attack the line of scrimmage (LOS).  We teach this blitz, initially from the offense being in a 2x2 look with both OLB's out of the box looking like they are in their normal Cover Two alignment.  The LB is taught to come to the LOS and then run down it, at full speed reading the offensive tackle (OT).  On movement, the LB "spikes" upfield and attacks his aiming point in the backfield.  The aiming point if the QB is alone in the backfield (Empty or under center drop back) is the near shoulder of the QB.  If the QB is in the gun with a RB, then the LB to the RB side attacks behind the RB (for QB keep on Zone Read), and the opposite LB attacks in front of the QB (for the give on Zone Read).  The result is an OT that can't handle the speed coming off the edge coming at him and usually a TFL or a sack.  Even if the OLB aligns in the box vs. a certain look, we ask that he move outside and get a running start.  This blitz, run from a static look gets nowhere near the pressure it does as when run from full speed.  

A variant of this blitz, is one I call "Inside Charge" (IC).  IC can only be run from our 42 front, as the LB's are now assigned to blitz the B gap.  All that changes on IC to OSC is that the DE and LB switch assignments.  The LB's attack just like OSC, but go inside the DE once the ball is snapped.  The DE, bolts up the field and contains.  This is a great blitz against OT's that kick step really hard opening up the B gap.  The two techniques crash down inside, pulling the guards with them and the sprinting OLB's clean up the B gaps to either side.

Inside Charge

A seven man pressure that can be created by simply tagging OSC with "Abil" or "Mack" to bring the MLB.  This is a very risky blitz as there is nobody to account for the RB flare, and there's nobody to account for a missed tackle.  We did not run this blitz last season.  We tagged this blitz "sellout" as that's exactly what we are doing.  We've put all our chips in the middle of the table with the hopes that when the dealer turns the cards they are in our favor.

Sellout

Secondary Blitzes

I blitz the secondary in the following manner:

• The Strong Safety
• The Free Safety
• Boundary Corner

When I bring a safety I simply bring him off the edge.  The technique for the safeties is the exact same as the OLB when running our OSC blitz (see above).  Against two back teams bringing the weak or free safety (FS) on that weak side is a great way to overload weak side iso.  Against wing-t you can bring the strong safety (SS) to the wing side as well as the OLB and overwhelm buck sweep or keep pass.

SS Blitz

FS Blitz

The blitz I really like, is that of the boundary corner.  Most spread teams will rarely but their formation into the sideline (FSL), so you usually end up against 3x1 teams with a corner in man or bracket coverage to the boundary.  Here I like to send that boundary corner.  It's a great change up and allows you to play a different style of coverage to the three receiver side if you like (we usually just play a coverage similar to TCU's Roll Coverage to the three receiver side when bringing a corner).  You can also bring the FS to this side to add another wrinkle to the mix.  Again the technique of the blitzer is to hit the line running at full speed rather than being static (exactly how we teach the OLB in our OSC blitz above).

Corner Blitz

We also have a call in our defense that brings a safety into the box as a LB and we can run him through all the blitzes mentioned above.  This allows us to get into a 5-3 or a 4-4 look.  The 5-3 is something very similar to what Charlie Strong ran at Florida under Urban Meyer (They packaged it with man free coverage and it made one heck of a run stopping defense).

Conclusion

While blitzing is a part of what a defense does, I don't feel it should define a defense.  In my opinion blitzing just to blitz is not a good plan.  I had an old coach once tell me that if you can stay in your base defense and beat your opponent you really should just do that.  I tend to agree with that, but that doesn't mean I don't like me a good pressure every now and then.

Ok, so with my next post we'll discuss playing check defense and why this allows your players to play fast against sets they may not have practiced for that week.  Sorry it's taken so long, but with my workload the blog has taken a backseat these days.  I'll try to get better about getting these posts out faster.  Take care and be safe.

Duece