252cane
All-ACC
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Everyone has been trying to figure out the defense and this is what they are doing.
The standard 3-4, as you can see above, has three down lineman (two defensive ends & a nose tackle) & four linebackers along with a secondary of two safeties & two corners. Groh calls his defense a "Stack Cover 2". First some strategery. The overall defensive philosophy of the Parcells/Belichek 3-4 from one of Saban's LSU playbooks (courtesy of Smart Football):
"[Our] philosophy on first and second down is to stop the run and play good zone pass defense. We will occasionally play man-to-man and blitz in this situation. On third down, we will primarily play man-to-man and mix-in some zone and blitzes. We will rush four or more players versus the pass about ninety-percent of the time.
In all situations, we will defend the inside or middle of the field first - defend inside to outside. Against the run, we will not allow the ball to be run inside. We want to force the ball outside. Against the pass, we will not allow the ball to be thrown deep down the middle or inside. We want to force the ball to be thrown short and/or outside.
… Finally, our job is to take the ball away from the opponents' offense and score or set up good field position for our offense. We must knock the ball loose, force mistakes, and cause turnovers.Turnovers and making big plays win games. We will be alert and aggressive and take advantage of every opportunity to come up with the ball . . . . The trademark of our defense will be effort, toughness, and no mental mistakes regarding score or situation in any game."
Expect Tech's defense next year to adhere to the same mantra. Our goals will be the same: defend from the inside out, focusing on the run first & the pass second. We'll be much more of a "bend but don't break defense", focusing on limiting big plays & forcing opponents into sustained drives where they are more likely to make mistakes. How do we do that? Let's start with our defensive line.
The single most important player in a 3-4 is the nose tackle. It all starts with the big fella' in the middle. In our new scheme, the nose tackle will line up in a "0 technique" (head up directly over the center) or in a "1 technique" (angled in to the outside shoulder of the center). First & foremost, the nose tackle must control the two gaps on either side of the center & demand a double team. That's his most important job. If he can be blocked by a lone center or guard the integrity of the defense falls apart. How do you command a double team? Well, you have to be big. And very strong. The ideal nose tackle in a 3-4 is short by football standards and very heavy (generally a minimum of 300 pounds). A low center of gravity & the ability to hold one's ground are essential traits in a 3-4 nose tackle. Coach Groh also preaches what he calls "violent hands" & begins each practice with a series of drills that focus on our defensive linemen using their hands to keep the offensive line away from their bodies, thus making them harder to block. So who will play nose tackle for us? I expect redshirt freshman J.C. Lanier to start there in the Fall. Lanier has fully recovered from shoulder surgery this fall & possesses good size & strength at 6'2" & 315 pounds. I'm sure mammoth RS sophomore T.J. Barnes (6'7", 340) will get a look at NT but he'll have to work a great deal on keeping his pad level lower if he wants to play there next season. Leverage is key for our NT's. Perhaps the best fit at nose tackle is incoming freshman Shawn Green. While Green will most likely redshirt in order to get bigger & stronger, it wouldn't surprise me if he pushes onto the 2-deep depth chart this Fall. Green has prototype NT size (6'1" 295), a terrific build for the position (low center of gravity, strong base) and a very quick first step. He reminds me of a young Vince Wilfork (ThugU/Patriots) - I expect big things.
One note on coach Groh's philosophy concerning defensive line play. The job of the defensive line in Groh's defense is to keep their pads parallel to the line of scrimmage & occupy blockers, thus allowing the linebackers to make plays. Covering the offensive linemen is the idea - "no creases" is the mantra.
The playmakers in a 3-4 defense are the linebackers. In Groh's 3-4 the outside linebackers are "Jack" & "Sam" while the inside linebackers are "Will" & "Mike". Expect the defense to line up with the "Jack" linebacker on the weak side, followed by "Will", "Mike" & then the other outside linebacker, "Sam", in that order across the field. The "Jack" & "Sam" generally line up one yard outside the offensive tackles on the line of scrimmage. The "Will" & "Mike" or inside linebackers play four yards deep & head up on the outside eye of the offensive guard. One interesting thing to note is that Groh defines the strong side of the offensive formation differently than most defensive coaches. Traditionally the strong side of the offense is the tight end (TE) side as the TE is an extra player on the line of scrimmage. This is the case in Groh's defense unless the offense has a slot receiver (read 2 receivers) on one side of the formation. If that is the case, the two receiver side becomes the strong side. The reason for this is how we scheme pass coverage which I'll get into later but essentially the "Sam" is better in pass coverage & this will allow him to drop into the flat & defend against the hook, curl, or quick slant.
So expect a bend-but-don't break style of defense that is fundamentally sound. Our goal will be to limit big plays & force the offense to earn points through short gains. The more repetitions for an offense, the more chance for an error or for us to make a big play. It's allowing big plays on defense that really hurt us this year. Hopefully this post helps you figure out some of what is going on. A word of caution: be patient. This is a major scheme change. We will need our players to learn the new scheme (takes time...) and we will need to recruit players more specifically suited to play in this scheme. The hiring of Al Groh & switch to the 3-4 will not all of a sudden turn us into the Super Bowl winning defense Groh had with the Giants in 1990. Will we be improved? I guarantee it. But keep the expectations reasonable.
UVA site, one of the LB'ers: "It was just frustrating at times, because 10 guys would all be doing the right thing, and just one guy wouldn't be doing the right thing."
On 413 of the 480 plays on which opponents ran the ball against Virginia last season, they averaged about 3 yards, according to Reid. On the remaining 67 running plays, opponents averaged 21.6 yards. Breakdowns included poor pursuit angles, missed tackles and blown assignments.
"So when we broke down, we broke down dramatically," Reid said. "And that's what we worked on hard this spring. What we need to show is consistent improvement again in the fall."
The standard 3-4, as you can see above, has three down lineman (two defensive ends & a nose tackle) & four linebackers along with a secondary of two safeties & two corners. Groh calls his defense a "Stack Cover 2". First some strategery. The overall defensive philosophy of the Parcells/Belichek 3-4 from one of Saban's LSU playbooks (courtesy of Smart Football):
"[Our] philosophy on first and second down is to stop the run and play good zone pass defense. We will occasionally play man-to-man and blitz in this situation. On third down, we will primarily play man-to-man and mix-in some zone and blitzes. We will rush four or more players versus the pass about ninety-percent of the time.
In all situations, we will defend the inside or middle of the field first - defend inside to outside. Against the run, we will not allow the ball to be run inside. We want to force the ball outside. Against the pass, we will not allow the ball to be thrown deep down the middle or inside. We want to force the ball to be thrown short and/or outside.
… Finally, our job is to take the ball away from the opponents' offense and score or set up good field position for our offense. We must knock the ball loose, force mistakes, and cause turnovers.Turnovers and making big plays win games. We will be alert and aggressive and take advantage of every opportunity to come up with the ball . . . . The trademark of our defense will be effort, toughness, and no mental mistakes regarding score or situation in any game."
Expect Tech's defense next year to adhere to the same mantra. Our goals will be the same: defend from the inside out, focusing on the run first & the pass second. We'll be much more of a "bend but don't break defense", focusing on limiting big plays & forcing opponents into sustained drives where they are more likely to make mistakes. How do we do that? Let's start with our defensive line.
The single most important player in a 3-4 is the nose tackle. It all starts with the big fella' in the middle. In our new scheme, the nose tackle will line up in a "0 technique" (head up directly over the center) or in a "1 technique" (angled in to the outside shoulder of the center). First & foremost, the nose tackle must control the two gaps on either side of the center & demand a double team. That's his most important job. If he can be blocked by a lone center or guard the integrity of the defense falls apart. How do you command a double team? Well, you have to be big. And very strong. The ideal nose tackle in a 3-4 is short by football standards and very heavy (generally a minimum of 300 pounds). A low center of gravity & the ability to hold one's ground are essential traits in a 3-4 nose tackle. Coach Groh also preaches what he calls "violent hands" & begins each practice with a series of drills that focus on our defensive linemen using their hands to keep the offensive line away from their bodies, thus making them harder to block. So who will play nose tackle for us? I expect redshirt freshman J.C. Lanier to start there in the Fall. Lanier has fully recovered from shoulder surgery this fall & possesses good size & strength at 6'2" & 315 pounds. I'm sure mammoth RS sophomore T.J. Barnes (6'7", 340) will get a look at NT but he'll have to work a great deal on keeping his pad level lower if he wants to play there next season. Leverage is key for our NT's. Perhaps the best fit at nose tackle is incoming freshman Shawn Green. While Green will most likely redshirt in order to get bigger & stronger, it wouldn't surprise me if he pushes onto the 2-deep depth chart this Fall. Green has prototype NT size (6'1" 295), a terrific build for the position (low center of gravity, strong base) and a very quick first step. He reminds me of a young Vince Wilfork (ThugU/Patriots) - I expect big things.
One note on coach Groh's philosophy concerning defensive line play. The job of the defensive line in Groh's defense is to keep their pads parallel to the line of scrimmage & occupy blockers, thus allowing the linebackers to make plays. Covering the offensive linemen is the idea - "no creases" is the mantra.
The playmakers in a 3-4 defense are the linebackers. In Groh's 3-4 the outside linebackers are "Jack" & "Sam" while the inside linebackers are "Will" & "Mike". Expect the defense to line up with the "Jack" linebacker on the weak side, followed by "Will", "Mike" & then the other outside linebacker, "Sam", in that order across the field. The "Jack" & "Sam" generally line up one yard outside the offensive tackles on the line of scrimmage. The "Will" & "Mike" or inside linebackers play four yards deep & head up on the outside eye of the offensive guard. One interesting thing to note is that Groh defines the strong side of the offensive formation differently than most defensive coaches. Traditionally the strong side of the offense is the tight end (TE) side as the TE is an extra player on the line of scrimmage. This is the case in Groh's defense unless the offense has a slot receiver (read 2 receivers) on one side of the formation. If that is the case, the two receiver side becomes the strong side. The reason for this is how we scheme pass coverage which I'll get into later but essentially the "Sam" is better in pass coverage & this will allow him to drop into the flat & defend against the hook, curl, or quick slant.
So expect a bend-but-don't break style of defense that is fundamentally sound. Our goal will be to limit big plays & force the offense to earn points through short gains. The more repetitions for an offense, the more chance for an error or for us to make a big play. It's allowing big plays on defense that really hurt us this year. Hopefully this post helps you figure out some of what is going on. A word of caution: be patient. This is a major scheme change. We will need our players to learn the new scheme (takes time...) and we will need to recruit players more specifically suited to play in this scheme. The hiring of Al Groh & switch to the 3-4 will not all of a sudden turn us into the Super Bowl winning defense Groh had with the Giants in 1990. Will we be improved? I guarantee it. But keep the expectations reasonable.
UVA site, one of the LB'ers: "It was just frustrating at times, because 10 guys would all be doing the right thing, and just one guy wouldn't be doing the right thing."
On 413 of the 480 plays on which opponents ran the ball against Virginia last season, they averaged about 3 yards, according to Reid. On the remaining 67 running plays, opponents averaged 21.6 yards. Breakdowns included poor pursuit angles, missed tackles and blown assignments.
"So when we broke down, we broke down dramatically," Reid said. "And that's what we worked on hard this spring. What we need to show is consistent improvement again in the fall."
