In addition, they know the personnel group and the pre-snap formation. When they play 46 front, its mostly man/man, because its a pressure front like the Under we use. He's had only two top-10 defenses this decade, but the Hokies are never weak on his side of the ball . 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. 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.). 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. The alignment is a disguise, as he has no pass coverage responsibility. When the TE switches sides, usually the Backer flips spots with MIKE to cover him. Jessie has three boys of her. Bare minimum is the stalemate. 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. A similar thing happened with the game against Miami, where LM just gashed us in the second half. This allows the players to react instinctively and play with more confidence. For example, a corner will not follow a motioning receiver across the field, even if it is man coverage. The other two LBs, MIKE and "Backer" play zones over the middle like any other Cover 2 zone. I love that article. Now, he will get a jump start at Ohio State, where he will always have a talent advantage over the best Big Ten schools. MAN. By handing off in this way, the defenders do not tip the coverage. against Stanford in the OB? A student manager then uses the sign board to communicate the personnel group to the players on the field. If healthy, this year's defense is going to be quite different. While he misses the tackle, he allows enough time for the other players to secure their gap and then pursue to tackle the UVA tailback for a marginal gain. What is a Cover-2 and how does it differ from a Cover-3? If you have any questions, I will be sure to answer to answer them in the comments. pretty cool to look back on it from time to time. Kudos to Foster and Co. for making the adjustments. Each player in the front 7 has a certain gap responsibility, but unlike other 4-3 and 3-4 base defenses, the defenders often stunt to a gap and hold their position rather than pursuit to the ball. The DB's align based on secondary alignment rules. At that point, the players on the field know the down/distance and the front, pressure, and coverage calls. It was a very clever scheme because it could be adjusted to a pass oriented defense by slipping the two outside linebackers (the Whip and Rover) into coverage as defensive backs. All original material and images are copyrighted by TechSideline.com and may not be reused or reprinted without permission. The defense slides their individual alignments based on that personnel group and passing strength. 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. Because of their Field/Boundary alignment philosophy, the same defenders do not always get matched on the same offensive players. 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. What VT wants to do to you is show the 8 man front, and force you to go into max-protect blocking, and then peel those extra 2 guys back into Cover 4. "I think one of the biggest reasons actually was Steeles defense. 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. You get what you get with Bud Foster, there isn't much grey area in his persona. The talent of their front just is not what it once was. Instead he will look to plant and dive straight ahead for the inside of the 6 gap or the 4 gap, or he will plant and cut back to the center gap. Note- things I was wrong about when I started this off: A) Backer is to the boundary. '+,,-/4443.4444444444 The entire defensive approach featured a bully mentality and a big play fervor. Tech often checks out of 4 into their version of straight Man, called a Cover 6 package, but it maintains the C4 look. And stopping the run was (and still is) the #1 goal of Bud Fosters defense. The reason why they can adapt to spread offenses reasonably well is because of the player they put at the hybrid position. 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. The primary reason why more teams dont try to run this type of scheme is because of the inability to find the two swing players however, and you need them to play against spread teams. The Hokies used a base 8-man front the majority of the time. couple that with (hopefully) some VERY strong dline recruits panning out, and landing dhand and/or brown next year, and it seems as if our defense is only going to get better and better, French-- in your opinion what position in the front 7 is the most important for a successful tech D. Also fwiw if tyler plays every play like those 2 video plays above its going to be hard to keep him off the field especially against gt. 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. The below diagram lays out a typical Hokie run blitz utilized to stop the zone run to the strong side out of an I formation. 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. What is a zone blitz? "-John Blutarsky, Small, and generally stout defensive tackles certainly seem to be the Bud Foster model. 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. Most college teams are not that good, but if the Hokies want to win a NC we will have to face that caliber of offense. I'd have to double check but I'm fairly certain Wiles even said he is the starter going into August camp because his players don't lose their starting jobs due to injury. Its a bit like a Tampa 2 defense, where the MLB drops back deeper in zone over the middle with 2 safeties behind, except that here youre dropping the FS down instead of backing up the MLB. Following Michael Cole's injury, Foster mostly used the old "46" alignment made famous by Buddy Ryan and the Chicago Bears. In his walked out spot, he is reading the backfield triangle to the #2/#3 receiver and has the flat zone weak. Virginia Tech Hokies football, basketball, athletics blog and forum featuring: unique columns, breaking news, film studies, in-depth analysis, recruiting, videos and jokes. 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. When Foster developed the concept for the Gap Defense, he looked to solve two problems. Where and how they play, and personnel types preferred, are highly scheme dependent. I saw that and knew we were in trouble. They know where to be and they know how to adjust more quickly to formation shifts and motion. 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. A London Fletcher or Brian Urlacher type linebacker would not be a good fit for the Hokies. 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. We were tiny on D in 2010. View All Discussions French on the Bench , "David doesn't even fart. The "nickel" linebackers have almost no pass defense responsibility, and instead are used in a variety of blitz packages designed to outman the offensive line and force the quarterback to make quick throws, where the designed hidden coverages in the secondary await to pick off the pass. I think I understand the step 45 because I believe I saw an example of that when Urban Meyer was analyzing our DL a few years back. I foresee a TON of blitzes on 3rd and long. 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. Also, in goal line and short yardage, the backer and blitz the gap to try to blow the play in the backfield playside. Frenchgreat new addition to TKP! How did you think TCU was able to defeat teams like Wisconsin with their 4-2-5? Exactly like Clemson this year. I think I understand why our defense is used against us in recruiting. 1) I have seen a ton of schemes and I can't remember one that repeatedly asks the defensive tackles to stunt across multiple gaps and still maintain gap fits. The adjustment from one set to the other depends on the alignment of the Rover. 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. 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). Neither would a Pat Williams type DT. 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. Gambling problem? Stanford presents the most unique formula. The Gap Defense is grounded in a simple concept. Combining elements from each scheme is what gives the 4-2-5 its versatility. This plays out when you examine the Hokies players in the NFL. The Backer and Rover were strong side players, so they would usually align to the strong side of the formation. Join the community. It really is an outlier as far as defenses, as much as Paul Johnson's wishbone is on offense. Unlike the old 4-4, I think Foster and Gray want the free and rover to essentially be interchangable with the only exception being that the free makes the defensive secondary calls and audibles. The free safety fills play-side to clean up if the running back breaks through the play-side gaps. Everything I've read has Antoine starting next to his brother this fall. BLACKSBURG Bud Foster's defenses have grown accustomed to carrying Virginia Tech's offenses over the years, so an early conversation the longtime Hokies defensive coordinator had with new . First of all, they had a GREAT offensive line that was able to block at angles which cut off the stunts from Virginia Tech linebackers. Also, against Ace and Doubles sets, the coverage basically changes into 1/4-1/4-1/2 Cover 3. I think they were 6'2 or so and 270-280 lbs. The defensive call in combination with the personnel group establishes the specific pass coverage responsibilities for the defense. Tech makes that difficult because there is a hand off of responsibilities as the offense shifts or motions out from one passing strength to another. 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. Whip is to the passing strength, which is most often to the field but (against teams like Pitt) can be to the boundary. Meanwhile, the defensive linemen must be quick enough and flexible enough to slant heavily (sometimes 2 gaps) each way, which lends itself to short, stocky defensive tackles whocan get to a spot then hold their gap responsibility. Basically, it requires two defensive tackles who can each command double teams. Here's the INT described at the end of the article. Adobe d C Maybe an example would work here. The Rover was a strong side outside linebacker in the 8-man front that would slide out as an additional corner / defensive back against 3-4 wide receiver formations. Will having a healthy and complete team be enough? NIL and the future of the 'student athlete', Liz Kitley is back to back ACC Player Of The Year, 2023 ACC Wrestling Tournament Seedings announced, OT: TKP Winter/Spring 2023 Gamer's Lounge, OT: 700 miles from the Rock through Spain and Portugal, HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: VIRGINIA TECH (16-13, 6-12 ACC) AT LOUISVILLE (4-25, 2-16 ACC) 9PM ACCN, FSU AD floats uneven revenue share for acc & leaving acc. , usually the Backer flips spots with MIKE to Cover him and complete be! With their 4-2-5 's the INT described at the hybrid position ) #! Allows the players on the same defenders do not always get matched the. Ton of blitzes on 3rd and long group to the boundary quite different or so and 270-280.... Here 's the INT described at the end of the Rover defeat teams like Wisconsin with their 4-2-5 blitzes. When Foster developed the concept for the Gap defense is grounded in simple! Combination with the game against Miami, where LM just gashed us recruiting... 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