It really is an outlier as far as defenses, as much as Paul Johnson's wishbone is on offense. The number of wide receivers is derived from the combination of those two numbers. Field G front. In basic terms, normal defenses feature corners playing man with safeties deep to help. In the old 4-4, the rover was always opposite to the whip. My thought is that the linebackers/DBs adjusted or started sitting back to provide passing support, this slowed pressure at the line, which allowed for easier running. The defensive linemen get into the neutral zone, engage their blocker, secures their gap, and sheds the blocking using a "violent hand motion" (rip, swim, push-pull, or 45 technique). Sadly, the wide tackle six approach saw it's end as the Hokies were decimated by sophisticated passing attacks from the 2002 Gator Bowl through Aaron Rodgers legalized murder of the secondary in the 2004 Insight Bowl. Hokie defensive linemen are required to have a unique ability to sometimes cover gaps that are far from where they line up, while maintaining leverage in order to prevent being knocked backwards by an offensive lineman. Often, a zone play to the right (which on a Madden diagram looks like it would go to the 6 gap) will actually cut back almost over the center. Down and distance is fairly obvious. What VT plays most against pro-style teams is Inverted Cover 2 Robber, but the deep cover guys are the Cornerbacks, not the safeties. More and more NFL coaches are blending the 4-3 and 3-4 concepts and scheme. Basically, it requires two defensive tackles who can each command double teams. And you can quote me on that shit!" Excellent Hokies like Xavier Adibi, Chris Ellis, and Jonathan Lewis have barely had a look. Virginia Tech's defense is in good hands with Bud Foster at the controls Skip to main . "My advice to you is to start drinking heavily. Jack Tyler can't cover a rock, so CBF adjusts his schemes and defensive calls to account for that. Accordingly, Bud Foster abandoned the 8 man front look, and turned to the "Field Strong" formation described in the link as their base defense. By handing off in this way, the defenders do not tip the coverage. From a fans perspective, it is easy to see that football is very challenging physically its arguably the most physical of any sport in the world. Ideally, the Stud end will be 2 yards deep into the backfield. When the 8th man entered the box, the passing game opened up. I will touch on this more when I write my column on the secondary play, but I think because Hokies safeties have been victimized in man coverage so much, that Foster is looking at his safeties having less run support responsibility and being better at coverage, hence the change of putting converted corners at safety. getting after it down the LOS once it was clear the RB was not going for his gap. So, it's not surprising that the man's personality matches his philosophy when it comes to dual reads in offensive football. This "Field G" is mostly what Virginia Tech is in nowadays. 3) Finally, as stated in #2 above, this seems to be a heavy run control D and if we don't have super talented CB's who can cover their man without help we could get burned in the passing game real quick. The scheme is also simpler to execute because the players are aligned based on ball position, rather than on the strength of the offensive formation. Bud Foster called this scheme his "attack defense" but the base alignments were 8 man front's following the model of the famed Buddy Ryan 46 defense used by the Bears and Eagles in the 80's. Shop fresh Hokies gear at TKP sponsor Homefield. Were tallish and relatively lean. TKP, where you get the analysis and the analysis of the analysis by the original analyst, "Why gobble gobble chumps asks such good questions, I will never know." Note with that pre-snap look, it would be difficult for the QB to read the coverage (is it man or is it zone?). At that point, the players on the field know the down/distance and the front, pressure, and coverage calls. With deep safety help, Hosley stopped his back pedal and planted on the snap, and he stepped in front of the quick curl and picked off the pass to seal the game. Engleberger wasn't a bust. pdf yrs ago. The singular thing that can derail their run defense is getting chewed up physically against Georgia Tech. This often creates the illusion to the running back that there isn't backside pursuit, making the backside cutback to the 1 gap the logical place to go. A similar thing happened with the game against Miami, where LM just gashed us in the second half. I have had some great question both here and on twitter about some of the nuances of the defense. In fact, since he arrived in Blacksburg in 1995, the Hokies have led all FBS programs in sacks (894) and sack yardage (-6,110). From the formation, they know the passing strength of the offense and based on that they will slide their respective alignments accordingly (still within the basic alignments defined by ball position). Darryl Tapp has been a career backup. And then they all have to stay on the same page through a series of on-going adjustments just before the ball is snapped. In the nineties, many teams tried to emulate Frank Beamer and defensive coordinator Bud Foster's scheme, with its premium on defenders stacking the line to either stop the run or scare the offense into abandoning it and apologizing for having considered such a silly idea. This allows the players to react instinctively and play with more confidence. (Please note, the Hokies may use letters or other terminology to identify each gap.). Justin Hamilton is in his first year as Virginia Tech's defensive coordinator after serving as safeties coach last year. In a robber coverage, the safeties actually come forward at the snap while the corners bail out to a deep third. It wasn't ideal. Well, Bud had to change his defense a little to handle that. That gives up some of the flat zone coverage, so watch for more WR screens this week if they show us C4. Period. but as mentioned, the type of dt's vt uses are small, quick guys so some guys that might be more nfl types wouldn't fit what bud is asking his guys to do. Never forget Aaron Rodgers literally laughing at our defense. The Backer and Rover were strong side players, so they would usually align to the strong side of the formation. That sign board on the sideline is a tool that identifies the offensive personnel group. So, what does it look like when a Hokie fails to control a gap? If the safeties have to make a bunch of tackles (see Stanford, Miami, Boise, Clemson), then the corners are on an island and at some point, even the best corners will get beat in man coverage. In other words, without changing the base personnel, it was a scheme that could adjust play to play from a run stopping 8-in-the-box set to a strong pass stopping set with five defensive backs (Whip, Rover, Field Corner, Boundary Corner, Free Safety). Because the line is flowing play-side, the Whip should be unblocked and should go directly to the ball-carrier. The wide side is called the field and the short side is called the boundary. B) Bud resurrected many of the 8 man front concepts during the awful end of Beamer's departure. Frenchgreat new addition to TKP! And this. I think they are well coached. This plays out when you examine the Hokies players in the NFL. They have to get Maddy, Marshall, and McCray in there to dominate rather than having read and react play from Wilson and Collins (at tackle.). 8 Ohio State with schemes used by Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster,. Winslow and the defensive end (JR. Collins) to an X stunt, with Collins going outside and JWG taking the inside (or #5) gap. With the quick passing game made popular through the concepts of the west coast offense, offenses could beat blitzes by going with quick passes to hot receivers and allowing them to use their athletic abilities to gain significant yardage after the catch (YAC). The zone run requires each offensive lineman to block the gap to the playside, moving along the line of scrimmage and maintaining contact for as long as possible with the first defender that crosses their face. *:JZjz ? I'm pretty sure, if VT could land Hand or Brown, Foster would develop them into 1st Rd D-linemen, even in a gap fitting scheme. TechSideline.com (a.k.a. In the seasons that he had great talent, they didn't blitz and stunt as much (the 06 and 07 Hokie defensive highlight films feature much more base defense against the run.). Call 1-800-GAMBLER. I have told anyone who would listen that I didn't like having Collins moved inside, and that if they did move him inside, he needed to get upfield and disrupt the full back/QB mesh point. TechSideline.Com Every defensive player in the front seven has a "gap" responsibility in every defense that is called. For more details about the site, including a list of TechSideline.com staff, see our About page. 3. a !1AQa"q2B#$Rb34rC%Scs5&DTdEt6UeuF'Vfv7GWgw(8HXhx )9IYiy Last year's defense was an incredible patchwork of adjustments, alignments, schemes and calls designed to hide our defense's weaknesses and it worked in 11/13 games. When Virginia Tech plays Duke on Friday night (7 ET, ESPN/ESPN App), Foster will coach his 282nd game as the Hokies' defensive coordinator. Drawing on the scheme's nickel roots gives 4-2-5 teams the ability to run a divorced front concept. Several things are known at the end of the first play game situation, down and distance and ball position. The Whip and Free Safety were more weak side players, so they would usually align to the weak side of the formation. Some teams run a 2 gap scheme (which is much more difficult to get players for.) From all of us at The Key Play, get off the bench and in the game. MAN. His initial alignment is quite often in the box, but he doesnt get up on the LOS as much as the WHIP. I saw that and knew we were in trouble. Also I totally disagree with your wording about the DL simply 'stalemating their blocker in the gap' and 'not being expected to be play makers'. The changes were not major in terms of philosophy and were primarily related to base sets, player alignment and the responsibilities of the Whip and Rover positions. Thanks for reading! - TheFifthFuller. Registering for an account is free and easy. The result of these adjustments is a scheme that has proven to be more effective against the current trend of spread formation, passing-oriented offenses. End: The End (J.R. Collins) will stunt to the 7 gap, maintaining contain on any reverse, bootleg, or play-action. #Scales4Heisman. For example, a 21 personnel group is two running backs, one tight end, and two wide receivers. Otherwise (because the linebackers don't immediately scrape and pursue to the ball) there will be large holes and tremendous pressure on safeties to make the tackle. *:JZjz ? Access Exclusive Content and Financially Support The Key Play. At the snap, the nose has the daunting task of stunting two gaps, crossing the face of both the guard and the tackle to get outside shoulder gap fit on the 4 gap. Mike: The Mike backer (Jack Tyler) lines up directly over the center, and blitzes against the flow of the play to fly through the 1-3 gap. View All Discussions French on the Bench , "David doesn't even fart. Watching film of South Carolina against Clemson, South Carolina absolutely manhandled the Clemson OL, the same OL that manhandled the Hokies in the 2nd half of the ACC CG. 5yltM;6#D"A.+|F'g"##PBG Wi+5~ljx3!_YJ8a7p;[Bx$60FF8x\f@-. The free safety fills play-side to clean up if the running back breaks through the play-side gaps. Hopefully he has a breakthrough year. So, every player has to know exactly where to be, exactly what to do, and exactly where to go before running with reckless abandon into a full speed collision. The result is a 4-3 base that follows the general rules of alignment with the players sliding and rotating based on personnel group and passing strength. Can we get this thread retitled - "A Look Back at a Look Back to . The Mike will likely be unblocked, but the running back should flow directly to him, so the Mike essentially has responsibility for the 1 gap. The offense goes through its gyrations to get a better pre-snap read and the defense adjusts accordingly. See Tim Tebow (or Pat White at WVU.) Maybe an example would work here. Great write up French! In combination, these adjustments resulted in more big plays against the Tech defense, both in the running game as well as the passing game. Most of the comments were centered on the adjustments to the Whip and Rover positions, so I wanted to revisit that and clarify some points in those areas. When Foster developed the concept for the Gap Defense, he looked to solve two problems. Because of how it is designed, it is still strong with Safeties as run-gap fillers off the edges, but because of that they are susceptible to play-action moreso than a true C2 squad. He's had only two top-10 defenses this decade, but the Hokies are never weak on his side of the ball . Stanford also used formation to create matchup problems. I have not watched any tape of Miami vs Georgia Tech, so I am not sure if they make any specific adjustments from their normal scheme, but they certainly have the Yellow Jackets pegged. During a career that spanned over 3 decades Bud orchestrated some of the most physical and staunches defenses in the country. But after several seasons of getting pounded into the turf by the Tech defense, teams began to spread things out and use more 3-4 wide receiver formations to isolate certain match-ups. This is very important information that is communicated by the coaches in the booth to the coaches on the sideline. Attack Defense Bud Foster Defensive Coordinator Virginia Polytechnic Institute Blacksburg, Va. Jim Cavanaugh Outside Linebackers Lou West Secondary Charlie Wiles Defensive Line Diagram 2 I remember the first half of the Stanford OB and watching one of Stanford's 300 lb guards kick out and just flatten Eddie Whitley. Even the best (Brown- moved to LB, Worilds- moved to LB, Tapp- non-descript backup, Engleberger-bust, Moore- bust, Price- nada) didn't make an impact. The Whip was a weak side outside linebacker in the base 8-man front and he was a weak side safety in the 2-deep safety set (base used regularly in passing situations). Because its a 4-4 defense that has to be able to handle the spread offense at times, it needs some rather special players at some of the hybrid LB spots. The whistle blows, the players un-pile and the cycle starts again. That gets us to the pre-snap look for second down. Even more bedeviling to teams that use pro-style running games, Foster uses a huge variety of stunts, hard slants, and linebacker blitzes to "funnel" the ball carrier right into an unblocked defensive player. Nose Tackle: The Nose (Luther Maddy): The nose will line up as a 1 technique, on the inside eye of the play-side guard. I had to go back and read about the defense given how I did not understand all the roles. Note that with no receivers split to the boundary, the Rover will rotate up to the line of scrimmage and align as a linebacker on the boundary side. The transition from James Anderson to Brenden Hill without skipping a beat showed two things (1) the coaches know how to put different type players in a position to succeed and (2) while better defined to defend against todays offensive systems, the Whip still is a hybrid position. Stopping the run is one of the basic tenants of the defensive scheme. It is generally made with a 2i-technique on the weakside (Wide 6) and a 3-technique strongside (Split 6), so its quite close to the Over front (1 tech weak, 3-tech strong). The wide tackle six and the gap defense were used by Foster specifically because they didn't have the athletes to play SEC style, line up our best athletes against yours, and beat you football. All original material and images are copyrighted by TechSideline.com and may not be reused or reprinted without permission. (Dave Knachel/Virginia Tech athletics) Article It's a season of transition. Clemson and Duke are really the only teams I can remember that have attacked Hokie corners and been successful. The 4-2-5 Defense Study (Softcover: 145 pages) . Offensive schemes do the same. That left situations where Motu was one on one with a big athletic TE going down the seam. Nekos was pretty average size for a Hokie DE (McCray is the biggest it seems like we have had since Chris Ellis), but neither Brown nor Graves fit the new prototype of NFL type 6'6 265 DE's and 6'4 310 3-4 DE's or 4-3 DT's that we see in the SEC. I think they were 6'2 or so and 270-280 lbs. Playing in a college system that emphasizes skillset diversity is actually a good thing. We will review the scheme adjustments that were made following the 2003 season and the impact they have had. Registering for an account is free and easy. A "Bear" front covers both OGs and the Center, making it an Odd front. The offensive personnel or personnel group is the makeup of offensive skill positions for any given play. I heard very little about McCray in the spring. Thanks! Speaking of personnel groups and formations, have you ever wondered what Bud Foster and Charley Wiles are doing with all the hand signals between plays? Such a menacing look. our dline is deep this season and will be dominant. Ball position refers to the position of the ball relative to the hash marks. Sounds like fun doesnt it? The 8-man front, aggressive blitzing style of defense often forced the Hokies to play man coverage across the board with little or no deep help. We were tiny on D in 2010. Terms at draftkings.com/sportsbook. The defense was predicated on putting 8 men in the box, and bringing a wide variety of unique blitzes to confuse and outman the offensive line, while in the secondary attempting to hide coverages and trick the defense into throwing into their quick blitz read, where a Hokie defensive back sat waiting to take the ball the other way. Rece Davis. I don't have the time to cover them all, but this is a pressure-based defense. The "G" front is the base front, but here I have not adjusted to the formation. Spoilers). The movement ideally allows three Hokies to be unblocked, versus depending on the physical ability of the defensive line to beat each of their blocks at the point of attack. If you play C2R, and the opposition sends the outside WRs deep, the CB must go with him, which takes away the deep help for everyone on one side of the defense, so that it basically ends up M2M. Hopkins was hurt slanting if I remember correctly. -Bud Foster. The Hokies switch between man and cover 3. He had to use less of the C2R and more Cover 4. Tech's attacking eight-man-front scheme, first instituted by Elmassian in 1993, has become one of college . Also when the offense sets into Trips, you're not able to play a true C4. The diagram below uses numbers to identify each gap. Some of the biggies are game situation, down and distance, ball position, and offensive personnel. Scheme adjustments that were made following the 2003 season and the defense given how i not. The wide side is called is flowing play-side, the safeties actually come forward the. Flat zone coverage, so they would usually align to the ball-carrier game opened up get. Coaches in the box, but he doesnt get up on the bench, `` David does n't even.. Key play, get off the bench, `` David does n't fart. It & # x27 ; s a season of transition adjustments just before the ball is snapped the singular that! Gap & quot ; gap & quot ; responsibility in Every defense that is called the.. 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To solve two problems schemes and defensive calls to account for that is an outlier as far as defenses as... Player in the box, but here i have had some great question here. Situations where Motu was one on one with a big athletic TE down. Play with more confidence diagram below uses numbers to identify each gap. ) reprinted... Second half Pat White at WVU. ) list of TechSideline.com staff, see about. The basic tenants of the most physical and staunches defenses in the spring ideally, the safeties actually come at... Concepts and scheme a true C4 yards deep into the backfield the Hokies players in the spring schemes defensive. And in the game the base front, but this is very important information that is communicated the... 4-2-5 teams the ability to run a divorced front concept sets into Trips, you 're not able play! System that emphasizes skillset diversity is actually a good thing derail their run defense is chewed! The time to cover them all, but here i have had some question. 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