F or the University of Montana coaching

staff I would like to thank the AFCA for

this opportunity to share some of the things
Sacks:
Third Down:
4th Down:
51 1st Big Sky
30% 1st Big Sky
41% 2nd Big Sky
Bear Attack: The Grizzlies’
Front Four
we do with our defensive front. I appreciate For the entire season we had 172 tack-
Head Coach Joe Glenn for asking me to les for a loss, 55 sacks, and 20 fumble
write this article. One year ago after being recoveries.
hired from Northern Colorado, Coach
Glenn organized his staff in the middle of Assets Needed to Play Defensive Line
recruiting season. Our first task was to 1. Aggressiveness, may be the most
secure an outstanding class of recruits. important.
After the national signing day, our defen- 2. Quickness off the ball.
sive staff started to work on our defensive 3. Be physical, dominate your man on
package and to get ready for spring prac- his side of the line of scrimmage.
tice. Our staff consists of Mike Breske 4. Great conditioning.
(coordinator), Dave Doeren (secondary), 5. Use of leverage.
Chris Knutsen (linebackers), and Lance 6. Quick feet.
Robinson (whom I work with on the defen- 7. Get off blocks.
sive line). 8. Use of your hands.
Our defensive philosophy is for 11 play - 9. Stay on your feet.
ers to work as a single unit. Each player 10. Full speed from the snap to the
must carry out his responsibility so the whistle on every play.
entire unit can execute the game plan. We 11. Work hard in practice.
are an aggressive defense, which is based 12. Be a team player.
on HUSTLE and DESIRE. We like to bring We talk about these assets all the time
a lot of pressure with our zone blitzes. Our in practice and drills.
players like this attack tempo and believe in
it. This allows them to play very aggressive, The Basic Fundamentals
make plays and have fun. Stance
There are five things which we feel we Alignment & Responsibility Tom Hauck
need to do to win: 1. Be more physical than Charge and Reaction
our opponent. 2. Be intelligent, know our Escapes Defensive Line Coach
assignments and game situations. 3. Pursuit
Hustle, we are a swarming defense, great Tackling University of Montana
effort on every play. 4. Be mentally tough,
don’t let little things interfere with our focus. Alignments and Gaps Missoula, Mont.
5. Desire for team victory, personal sacri- for Defensive Fronts
fices for team success.
Diagram 1: Alignments & Gaps
Montana Grizzly football for the past 15
years has been known for its explosive
offense. During last year’s spring practice
and this past season we could feel the
excitement and the rise in prominence of
the defensive unit. The media, school,
community, and entire state started to talk
about the Griz “D”. With record-breaking
crowds, our fans became very vocal when
the opponents had the ball and showed
their appreciation with standing ovations Cub Front
when the team came off the field following Diagram 2: Cub Front
a three and out series. All this was very
motivational for our players.
Here are some defensive statistics,
which our team achieved for the regular
season.
Rush Def. 76.6 1st Big Sky/2nd I-AA
Pass Def. 188.4 2nd Big Sky
Scoring Def. 19.3 1st Big Sky
Pass Eff. Def. 107.7 1st Big Sky
Total Def. 265.0 1st/Big Sky/8th-AA

• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •

 Buck five, and nine techniques play the down has the option to drive the man wide and
Alignment: Loose 5 block or inside release with a spill tech- get up field and contain the quarterback by
Technique: 5 nique, by closing the gap and taking on the releasing inside (Diagram 5).
Key: Tackle next blocker with our outside shoulder. We We encourage our pass rushers to
Run To: C Gap then square upfield and spill the ball carri- make plays but if they lose their rush lane
Run Away: Shuffle er. If the play is going away our five or nine leverage, they are wrong. For some gains
Pass: Contain technique ends use a shuffle technique, there are some risks. We talk a lot to our
where they shuffle flat down the line of players about their role and responsibilities,
Tackle scrimmage and check for the hand off or but also give them some freedom to make
Alignment: 3 bootleg. decisions and make big plays.
Technique: 3 When the three tech must contain rush
Diagram 3
Key: Guard on the tight end side, he will move to a 4I
Run To: B Gap alignment and use a jam technique. Now
Run Away: Gap Pursuit he must get across the face of the offensive
Pass: Inside lane tackle and slam the tight end. If the tight
end releases the three tech turns tight
Nose upfield for his contain rush. If the tight end
Alignment: 1 blocks we play him the same way we did
Technique: 1 the offensive tackle in slam tech.
Key: Guard Diagram 6
Run To: A Gap We make a number of tackles on the
Run Away: Gap Pursuit zone play. If bootleg occurs, our end gets
Pass: Inside lane back outside towards the sideline the best
he can. He knows that he has help from the
End Mike linebacker. If our end has a wide
Alignment: Loose 5 alignment called, he now is a chase player
Technique: 5 and has bootleg responsibility first.
Key: Tackle Diagram 4
Run To: C Gap
Run Away: Shuffle When a blitz is rushing the three tech’s
Pass: Contain B gap, he uses the punch and rip tech-
B: Buck end aligns on the open-end nique. Here the tackle steps to and punch-
side. He is our most athletic end who rush- es the offensive guard and then rips the A
es on the edge and is the coverage end on gap. Also he could take a false (bite) step
zone blitzes (Five tech). outside and quick swim to the inside.
E: End is our larger end who plays on Diagram 7
the tight end side (Five tech).
T: Tackle is our quicker, better pass rush In zone blitzes our three technique tack-
tackle, who contain rushes on zone blitzes le has some variations to his normal
(Three tech). charge. He is the contain rusher and uses
N: Nose Tackle is our larger tackle who a slam technique. He attacks the man on
faces more double teams inside (One the other side of his gap. Now he adjusts to
tech). the blocking scheme of the offensive tack-
le. If it is a run scheme he already has his
Techniques for the Front Four head in the B gap. If the offensive tackle
We are a one gap responsible front and pass sets, the three tech attacks his out- Our nose tackle uses a cross face tech-
our alignment tells us what technique we side shoulder and contains rushes the nique on many of our zone blitzes. He will
use. Once we teach a technique it can be quarterback If the offensive tackle sets up align in a shade, then take a lateral jab step
applied to all of our fronts and adjustments. outside to block the Buck, the three tech and get across the face of the center and
We flip our linemen so we can place them Diagram 5 rip up field through the A gap. He now sees
where they match up best against the and feels the offensive guard block. Against
offense and also it reduces the number of the run the nose gets flat down the line of
techniques they must learn. The drawback scrimmage. On pass, he has a two- way
is they must learn both a left and right hand rush on the blocker, but he is the inside
stance. Our three, five, and nine tech- lane rusher on that side (Diagram 8).
niques are very similar in how they play Our five tech end uses a loop technique
blocking schemes. on some blitzes. He will take a short lateral
At Montana we play most blocking step, then a large crossover step. His third
schemes like any other team. Our three, step is a plant step with his foot pointed up

• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •


Diagram 8
field, he then rips the A gap. On run plays
he will react to the block of the offensive
guard.
Diagram 9
The Buck end will take his normal
charge and attack the offensive tackle or
tight end for the run first. If it is pass, he will
drop to his coverage. His angle is toward
the route of the No. 2 receiver, he is the curl
first, then a flat player.
Diagram 10
We use these techniques when a single
or pair of linemen varies their charge. On
our “nut” call, both the nose and the tackle
employ a cross face technique. This ends
up being a gap responsibility exchange
with the linebackers.
Diagram 11
In pass rush techniques we stress get-
ting off the ball and driving up field. Our
ends work from a wide alignment and
speed rush on the edge. We work hard on
defeating the blockers hands. If we don’t
beat the defender by quarterback depth,
we will power rush to the quarterback or
club and rip under to the quarterback. Our
tackles rush the edge of their man and try
to get him out of his pass set. We then work
on the jerk and rip or swim to get by the
defender.
We run our two man line stunts with
three different tempos. 1. Run or quick
tempo, where the linemen exchange
responsibilities on the snap of the ball, ver -
sus run or pass. 2. Pass or set up tempo,
where the first man drives the defender and
sets up the second man’s rush. 3. Easy
tempo, the first man gets up field and
makes his exchange move underneath.
The second man then covers the first
man’s job. On a run play there is no
exchange of responsibilities.
Diagram 12
Practice and Drills
We want our drills to relate to things that
our players will see and do during the game
that week. Each drill should have a start,
execution, finish, and rotation to insure
maximum number of repetitions. We try to
start a drill with a green ball or lineman
movement and finish with a tackle break-
down. The tempo should be quick and
intense. We like to keep a checklist on what
drills and techniques we practiced during
the week so that cover everything. Our
drills should relate to our basic fundamen-
tals and emphasis our asset list.
Sample Practice Schedule
Walk Through: We review insertions
made during position meetings earlier in
the day.
Specialties: Defensive line warms up,
stretches, works on get offs and hand
quickness drills.
Special Teams: This is an extra period
for the defensive line which we used for foot-
work, agilities, and delivering a blow. We
have a low heavy sled with a small rectangu-
lar pad on the front of a large spring. The
players drill a quick hand strike and escape.
We do these drills almost every day.
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2001 •
Circuit Period: We do a tackle circuit or
turnover circuit. Early in the season we
were causing fumbles but not recovering
them. We put a station in our turnover cir-
cuit where we throw a ball in a pile of bags.
A player dives into the pile, finds the ball
and recovers it. It was fun and our fumble
recovery rate improved.
Individual Period: We drill techniques
and work on blocking schemes.
Team Defense: Work on our run fits.
Nine-on-Seven: Work on inside run.
Team Defense: Work on zone blitzes.
Pass Rush: We work on line stunts and
techniques. We work a quarterback scram-
ble and draw play drills. We also go one-
on-one pass rush against our offensive
line.
Team Defense: Work against different
personnel groups and down and distances
I hope this has given you an idea about
what we do and some information you can
use. Our linemen were not very big, but we
stressed quickness and speed. Our front
four were experienced and aggressive. A
lot of our sacks were a credit to good sec-
ondary coverage. Have a good summer
and a great fall.
Double-Dipping
Affects July to
July
Contract
Recommendation
Coaches who are fortunate enough
to have July to July contracts, or
the equivalent, as recommended
by the AFCA, should not abuse the
privilege when moving from one
job to another by accepting
salaries from two institutions dur-
ing the transition.
Be ethically responsible to your pro-
fession by notifying your former insti-
tution’s athletic director immediately
when you are hired by another insti-
tution. Don’t jeopardize the contracts
of many of your fellow coaches by
being selfish.