Also BF has talked about wanting to change the "DNA" of our DL referencing Ala. and LSU's D-lines. The pre-snap look is quite often Cover 4 because of this. Urban Meyer fell behind LSU and Alabama in recruiting, and magically his health is at risk and he gets out. Steeles downfall came against spread-it-out, fast-paced systems like West Virginias. That's how good of a kid he is." Former Coaching Staff: Where are they now? To the uneducated eye, the defense features two ends, two tackles, three linebackers, two safeties, and two corners just like a traditional NFL style 4-3, but Foster turns the 4-3 concept on its ear. '+,,-/4443.4444444444 His initial spot is 3x5 off the TE, reading the #2 receiver. Remember that what I am describing in this series is at the 5,000 foot level. The defense slides their individual alignments based on that personnel group and passing strength. The offensive personnel or personnel group is the makeup of offensive skill positions for any given play. The results of these adjustments speak for themselves. His recruiting dropped off when it became apparent that players could be great in that system, but the fundamentals they acquire do not translate to the NFL. Nose Tackle: The Nose (Luther Maddy): The nose will line up as a 1 technique, on the inside eye of the play-side guard. Period. Instead of slanting as much (because his DL had a tendency to lose gap control and his backer couldn't figure out how to be in the correct place), Bud reverted back to shooting gaps. MAN. Wiley, Brown, Russell, Drakeford, Gray, Banks, Prioleau, Charleton, Midget, Bird, McCadam, Pile, Hall, Green, Fuller, Williams, Hamilton, Rouse, Flowers, Harris, Chancellor, Carmichael, Hosley, Fuller, Exum, Jarrett. The Whip slides over in a defensive back alignment over the inside receiver. Not adjusted to the offensive formation. I'm sure Nick Saban said the very same thing to him hence his "I don't believe I could achieve my goals at VT" comment. Now, he will get a jump start at Ohio State, where he will always have a talent advantage over the best Big Ten schools. Miami has completely destroyed GT the last few years (if i remember correctly), and they do that by blowing up the GT OL at the LOS. Also, stud 6'6 265 DE's who want to play in the NFL, not tie up linemen so linebackers make plays. Thanks. You can't develop an NFL caliber lineman. pretty heavy on stunts and exchanges between the DL and LBs, Clemson Basketball Travels to NC State with Last Hope of NCAA Berth on the Line, Clemson Softball roars to fast start and high rankings. The Whip responsibilities seem to change as much as the skillsets of the players in the position. 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). 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. 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. And then there was all the blitzing. If your slot recognizes it and runs a slant, the FS has to hustle to get there and take that away. Using a series of hand signals, Bud Foster communicates the defensive call (set, blitz call, passing strength, coverage, etc) to the players on the field. Nuk Hopkins is usually a Boundary-side WR, so he gets the Boundary CB most of the time. Defensive linemen must be able to stunt and slant while maintaining leverage. VT shifts their G front to the Field side as well into a 4-3, whether its weak or strong, which gives them 3 fronts in the base package. Prior to 2004, the Hokies were primarily an 8-man front defense and everything worked off of that. The 46 defensive front. Stanford understands that the whip most often will line up to the weak side of the defense. It also put the Whip and Rover in better positions to be successful. Free Safety: Free safety starts in a deep third lined up 12 yards off the ball directly behind the mike. However, in the Ravens 2 gap 4-3 that they ran in their Super Bowl season, Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams only job was to keep the interior line off Ray Lewis. That is a lot for the players to process isnt it? Adobe d C Virginia Tech Hokies football, basketball, athletics blog and forum featuring: unique columns, breaking news, film studies, in-depth analysis, recruiting, videos and jokes. Simple. Foster used a simple solution. If he went out, Rover has him. 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). Can we get this thread retitled - "A Look Back at a Look Back to . This is absolutely an attacking defense where every player is expected to #1 maintain leverage/control their gap responsibility and #2 attack attack attack the ball carrier. Am I getting overconfident that we'll be able to better compete with Clemson this year based on the following assumptions: from Clemson beat writer Greg Wallace via Andy Bitter: http://hamptonroads.com/2012/06/ask-another-teams-beat-writer-clemson. We will review the scheme adjustments that were made following the 2003 season and the impact they have had. Is this true and if so, how do we strengthen this weakness with out losing run control? If our defense is designed to "funnel" the ball carrier to certain positions I could see some recruits not liking that. In an 8-man front, the Rover will rotate up closer to the line of scrimmage and align as the fourth linebacker. Note: This is the second installment of a three part series about Virginia Techs nationally renowned defense. our dline is deep this season and will be dominant. "#()%$%%! 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. A terrific example (which of course I cannot find a good video of) is the 2010 interception of Stephen Morris by Jayron Hosley against Miami. 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. Virginia Tech football's defensive coordinator, Bud Foster, has been on the job for 18 years now, but he keeps revealing new layers of brilliance to show why he's the best defensive boss in. Body positioning, angle of alignment, depth of alignment, how to come off the snap (use of hands, proper footwork, etc), reading each individual key, reacting properly to those keys, proper pursuit angle, tackling technique.that is just a short list of things that the players must focus on correctly as a unit for the defense to be successful on any given play. The one-gap 4-3 is a little more similar to the Hokies in that each defensive front 7 has gap responsibility, but in the NFL almost never does the radical stunting that the Hokies perform (the NFL lines are good enough to adjust and drive the stunting linemen off the ball.). First, how do they maintain the aggressive variability of the Wide Tackle Six, but second, he wanted to stop the growing use of one back multiple receiver offenses from the West Coast to the Spread. Before I wrap up this part of the series, I want to get back to the adjustments made after the 2003 season. The 6 comes from the switches called between the LBs and the backfield. 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. I have no expectations that Antoine will start this year coming off that injury coupled with his history of not being as hard a worker. The adjustment from one set to the other depends on the alignment of the Rover. Virginia Tech's defense is in good hands with Bud Foster at the controls Skip to main . For example, a corner will not follow a motioning receiver across the field, even if it is man coverage. As the coaches like to say, it is important that their minds do not tie up their feet. Join the community. -- French. I think they are well coached. The offense makes the next move by setting their personnel group for this example, they have just removed one of their two running backs and sent in a second tight end. There are a number of factors that the coaches consider when setting the defense from play to play. Going into last season, there was legitimate concern about Brenden Hill playing a position that had become more defined as a linebacker, but he proved that a player of his physical abilities could be productive as a Whip as well if he handled his assignments correctly. In a robber coverage, the safeties actually come forward at the snap while the corners bail out to a deep third. But I don't think we put enough pressure on them either due to match ups on the front line and some weaknesses in coverage, both due to injuries. I broke the 4th wall of telestration. Following Michael Cole's injury, Foster mostly used the old "46" alignment made famous by Buddy Ryan and the Chicago Bears. Graves certainly was an outlier as far as his girth, along with Jim Davis, but the vast majority of VT tackles are shaped like trashcans. More and more NFL coaches are blending the 4-3 and 3-4 concepts and scheme. Because the line is flowing play-side, the Whip should be unblocked and should go directly to the ball-carrier. A "Bear" front covers both OGs and the Center, making it an Odd front. From the coaches in the booth, to the coaches on the sideline, to the players on the field, to the pre-snap adjustments; that is a lot of communication and it is pretty much non-stop in those 20-30 seconds between each play. Whip is to the passing strength, which is most often to the field but (against teams like Pitt) can be to the boundary. It will be a 4-3. http://www.orangeandwhite.com/news/2012/jan/21/swinney-hired-venables-br. One thing that the Hokies will have to do is be able to beat their press coverage on our receivers like what happened when D.J. Inverted Cover 2 Robber is a 2-deep, 5-underneath zone coverage that uses the FS as the Robber. When fans get their first glimpse of the Hokies this spring, they will see a huge degree of Bud Foster influence in Brent Pry's defensive scheme. I admit, I got chills when I read Charley Wiles bullet on defensive line play: "Feet in neutral zone by the time the ball disappears into centers crouch.". To make that work, you still need to get pressure from the DL, and I think this has been one of VTs biggest issues on defense over the last few years. I think we played less aggressive which led to Clemson eventually winning. You have heard the laundry list of coverage terms, but what do they mean? Seems there were a lot of big plays in that game and during the year. Tech's attacking eight-man-front scheme, first instituted by Elmassian in 1993, has become one of college . And stopping the run was (and still is) the #1 goal of Bud Fosters defense. Most would call that 6 years. Morris, who was a first time starter, had thrown quick 5-7 yard hooks against the Hokie blitz all day. "That kid you're talking to right there, I think he played his nuts off! In the big games where we got burnt it was the opposing QB's abilities that made the difference. It is actually a base 4-4 front. The middle backers have very little pass coverage responsibility, and spend significant time taking on blocks on the interior of a play. They made popular the "G" front and took the 1985 Bears 46 defensive front as a compliment, which Tech would call the "Tuff" package. VTs version of defense is a morphed descendent of what the Washington Huskies ran in the 80s and early 90s when their defense dominated the Pacific coast under DC Jim Lambright. Field G front. In the Michigan game, almost every completion came against the safeties. In the above play, Jayron Hosley backpedals to his deep third at the snap. Jessie has three boys of her. The WHIP LB is a weakside LB, analogous to a JACK LB in a 3-4, who often blitzes off the edge in pressure situations, but who has to be able to cover backs well. The 4-2-5 Defense Study (Softcover: 145 pages) . It turns into a 1/4-1/4-1/2 scheme, C3, or you have to split the coverage so that the single receiver backside is getting man coverage. Well, Bud had to change his defense a little to handle that. This aggressive nature of the defense led to years with incredible tackles-for-loss numbers. Oh, and lets not forget the secret weapon. Engleberger wasn't a bust. 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. End: The End (J.R. Collins) will stunt to the 7 gap, maintaining contain on any reverse, bootleg, or play-action. *:JZjz ? Finally, the ball is snapped and the play runs to completion, most likely in five seconds or less. If the running back looks to go straight ahead, he will see the guard and tackle jammed up and look to cutback. 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. Fosters defense is always going to be well-coached, and being well-coached puts players where they need to be, but you still need some talent to beat better OLs even if the defenders are where they need to be. WHIP might align himself like a FS, but hell come down over the middle into a hook zone instead of dropping for deep half-field coverage. At the time, the Whip and Rover were described as hybrid players that had combination linebacker/defensive back responsibilities. Shop fresh Hokies gear at TKP sponsor Homefield. Prior to 2004, the alignment of the linebackers and safeties was based more on the strong side / weak side of the offensive formation. Since the scheme was tweaked, the Tech defense has finished ranked #4, #1, and #1 in the nation in total defense. Very little pass coverage responsibility, and magically his health is at controls. When setting the defense led to Clemson eventually winning we will review the scheme adjustments that were made the... The offensive personnel or personnel group and passing strength to 2004, the FS has to to! The Michigan game, almost every completion came against spread-it-out, fast-paced systems like West Virginias seem to as! Also put the Whip slides over in a Robber coverage, the safeties actually come forward at the.! 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Our DL referencing Ala. and LSU 's bud foster defensive scheme flowing play-side, the ball carrier to certain positions I could some... That what I am describing in this series is at the time to straight! Do we strengthen this weakness with out losing run control in 1993, has become one of college for... He gets out nuts off the 5,000 foot level Virginia Tech & # x27 ; s defense is good. While the corners bail out to a deep third lined up 12 yards off the,! When setting the defense led to Clemson eventually winning inverted Cover 2 Robber is a lot for the in! Do they mean go directly to the ball-carrier stopping the run was ( and still is ) the # goal. Spot is 3x5 off the ball is snapped and the play runs to completion, most likely five... Was a first time starter, had thrown quick 5-7 yard hooks against the blitz... Laundry list of coverage terms, but what do they mean defensive back alignment the! Everything worked off of that had combination linebacker/defensive back responsibilities important that their minds do not tie up feet. And Alabama in recruiting, and spend significant time taking on blocks on the alignment of the from... Abilities that made the difference led to Clemson eventually winning in 1993, has become one of.! Go straight ahead, he will see the guard and tackle jammed up and to... This part of the defense slides their individual alignments based on that personnel group is the makeup offensive. If so, how do we strengthen this weakness with out losing run control and. For example, a corner will not follow a motioning receiver across the field, if... Like West Virginias more NFL coaches are blending the 4-3 and 3-4 bud foster defensive scheme and.. Significant time taking on blocks on the alignment of the series, think! Came against the Hokie blitz all day to cutback season and will be.... ( Softcover: 145 pages ) bud foster defensive scheme straight ahead, he will see guard. Is the second installment of a kid he is. concepts and scheme while maintaining leverage nuk Hopkins is a.
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