I remember seeing our defensive philosophy torched about ten years ago. Ellington) to take advantage of because all of our LB's are trained to be in gap control and aren't prepared to be in coverage. In passing situations, the Hokies use more defensive backs than the old days, but Foster's mentality hasn't changed. Behind the defense, the Hokies secondary plays a basic robber coverage on this play. 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.). 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. 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. All Hokie, All the Time. Welcome to Bud Foster's Lunch Pail D. This site is dedicated to blue collar, hard nosed defense like those run by Bud Foster during his years as the Defensive Coordinator for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Terms at draftkings.com/sportsbook. 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. 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. It is mostly combined with Man coverage and is pretty heavy on stunts and exchanges between the DL and LBs. *U# N)qQ/y(H"hVt kf@^L;,R?P0;|v44 JFC=zYh AWEBYl5I[.X@v6UQV@_msY)Ng1KhZ/Y)va+XsM =_ewrr\|2Q)/zN]N}q_r{f-wvw)1,Z )$fy86g8@ZtqI,dX& ^twn*g$b{xoa.WwDWZflk1g,JIEfPO[h-H( ,AdYp[fuNP&SuhZs`um%?HSpQ1Y. I played in the pre-2004 VT defense in HS at Westfield which was also a popular defense with Oakton/Robinson and I guess now South County which has Bendorf. Maybe an example would work here. In fact, since he arrived in Blacksburg in 1995, the Hokies have led all FBS programs in sacks (894) and sack yardage (-6,110). MAN. 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. Sounds like fun doesnt it? Playing in a college system that emphasizes skillset diversity is actually a good thing. Most of the time, there is a safety/LB hybrid that is dropped into the box to create a true 8 man front. -- French. BLACKSBURG, Va. Even in retirement, Bud Foster casts a long shadow over the Virginia Tech football program. When they face 21/22/12 personnel, theyll set up in the G front or Bear front most of the time. Urban Meyer fell behind LSU and Alabama in recruiting, and magically his health is at risk and he gets out. 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. HT-T5632U0 BcD\^}O##|^ endstream endobj 13 0 obj 45 endobj 10 0 obj << /Type /XObject /Subtype /Image /Name /I22 /Filter /DCTDecode /Width 32 /Height 3 /BitsPerComponent 8 /ColorSpace /DeviceGray /Length 11 0 R >> stream In the Michigan game, almost every completion came against the safeties. It is fascinating stuff and beautiful to watch when it produces the type of results that we have seen over the years from Bud Fosters bunch. The opinions of the author(s) on this site are independent and no way reflect the opinions of the Virginia Tech administrators, coaches, staff, or athletes. The 6 comes from the switches called between the LBs and the backfield. When the TE switches sides, usually the Backer flips spots with MIKE to cover him. Based on the film that I have watched, either Bud Foster calls more middle linebacker run blitzes than any coach in the country, or the mike backer has almost zero pass responsibility. He retained the terminology and many of the blitz schemes of the Attack Defense, and then moved the rover position back to that of a traditional strong safety. 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. Through the first half, Andre Ellington was averaging like 1.3 yards a carry with 23 yards total. In the above play, Jayron Hosley backpedals to his deep third at the snap. Well, Hosley was disguising his true intention. When he isn't rushing for 2000 yards next year, Martin Scales will be the Hokies 3rd down pass rusher and get 10 sacks. Every defensive player in the front seven has a "gap" responsibility in every defense that is called. Also, against Ace and Doubles sets, the coverage basically changes into 1/4-1/4-1/2 Cover 3. 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. I think they are well coached. See Tim Tebow (or Pat White at WVU.) Antone Exum is moving forward at the snap, and both Exum and Hosley end up making the tackle along with Luther Maddy. Darryl Tapp has been a career backup. If they can get Brown and Hand, I think Foster will figure out a way to take their skills and make it work, but I can GUARENTEE you, every recruiter that visits Brown and Hand will tell them that there has not been a Hokie defensive lineman since Foster was hired that has been a productive multi-year NFL starter. Virginia Tech uses both their base look (which features each lineman and linebacker having gap responsibility for the gap in front of them) or a more radical stunting approach based on the talent Foster has available. The wide side is called the field and the short side is called the boundary. It is actually not a 4-3 base, as its introduced on your TV sets, but is a 4-4 front that has morphed into using 4-3 personnel. Oh, and lets not forget the secret weapon. 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. In these cases why couldn't we stop the run? It kicks off by detailing the inner workings of the Bud Foster Gap Defense that has baffled most of the ACC over the last 8 years. VT couldn't stop the run against Stanford. What does that mean? This allows the players to react instinctively and play with more confidence. I saw that and knew we were in trouble. Gap fit means when the defensive player hits the assigned gap, he must hold that gap maintaining the proper leverage in order to get off a block and make a tackle. A "gap" is an area of space on the field that the defensive player is responsible to "control." 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. Normally, it will be one of the linebackers that will communicate any adjustments to the defensive front call or blitz call. Hosley was excellent enough to execute the design up there with the very best ball hawk the Hokies have had. Oh well. The defensive call in combination with the personnel group establishes the specific pass coverage responsibilities for the defense. In the diagram, Whitley (who the coaches called "the rover" last year) is lined up to the twins side, and he motions back to the middle of the field while Exum (who was the "free safety" last year) rotates up towards the line with the motion. Virginia Techs defense is a unique one in major college football in that it is very much an older style of defense descended from the Gap 8 and Wide Tackle 6. I don't know recall the plays that Taylor and JWG got hurt, so I am not really sure. The defensive calls will be different on 2nd and three versus 3rd and nine. Stanford also used formation to create matchup problems. 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. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). The running back will see that the Stud has contain, and will not look to pull a "David Wilson" and make a break for the 8 gap. In this installment of the series, we will cover the general concepts of Bud Fosters defensive scheme, including how offensive personnel and formation impact defensive alignments and responsibilities. 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. Often, in interviews with Bud Foster and other defensive coaches, you hear the term "gap fit" thrown around. When Fuller took over whip, it seemed like that balance flipped, with the Whip finishing on more blitzes and the Mike not filling up the pass-rush stat column as much. Quarterbacks, seeing the odd space develop, are often easily baited into throwing seam routes against this coverage. 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. In terms of positions, the Stud, Whip, Mike, Field Corner and Free Safety always align toward the wide side of the field. He's as genuine as they come. (Please note, the Hokies may use letters or other terminology to identify each gap.). Stanford understands that the whip most often will line up to the weak side of the defense. Frenchgreat new addition to TKP! Check Fantastic furniture Catalogue and Freedom furniture Catalogue. Join the community. And you can quote me on that shit!" 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. They have to have the frame and natural instinct. In combination, these adjustments resulted in more big plays against the Tech defense, both in the running game as well as the passing game. The same thing happens for Mike and Whip. I find it interesting how you compare our defense to being as unique as GT's offense. The Hokie Gap defense rose from the ashes of the famed "Hokie Attack" 8 man front of the 1990's. The Hokies defense requires the DL to essentially "tie up" blockers and hold gaps. That's probably the reason we lost Korren Kirven. 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. The players also aligned differently. 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. On the other side, teams could get favorable running game match-ups by running to the boundary. So, I don't think having our DL being smallish gives us a good advantage to counter the GT offense (a la moving our DE in as a DT and then replacing the DE with T. Wilson), since Miami has prototypical NFL DT's and absolutely mauled them at the LOS. An example are the Virginia Tech teams of Frank Beamer and Justin Fuente, with Bud Foster serving as defensive coordinator under both. The Chargers' defense ranked last in third-down conversion percentage (49.54%), 30th in rushing yards allowed per game (138.9), 30th in points allowed per game (27.0) and 23rd in yards allowed . He was on a roll at the start of last season and his recovery is going really well. The nose tackle is a 1 technique, the tackle is a 3 technique. What may not be as obvious is that football is equally challenging mentally. For that reason, some teams found success by running weak side out of those spread formations. I love that article. After that Boyd was able to find quick check downs due to loose coverage. From what I've heard, a lot of the negative recruiting emphasizes that in Tech's defense a DE or OLB (Whip), for example, isn't a traditional NFL DE or OLB. TSL) is an independent publication that is in no way affiliated with or sponsored by Virginia Tech or the Virginia Tech Athletic Department. Thekeyplay.com is not affiliated with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Other teams began to use a lot of quick passes and/or maximum protection blocking schemes to counter Techs blitz tendencies. The S must loop hard play-side, crossing the face of the tight end without allowing himself to get his outside shoulder blocked by the tight end. Excellent Hokies like Xavier Adibi, Chris Ellis, and Jonathan Lewis have barely had a look. 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. The players have to be extremely strong, tough and physical and they have to enjoy full force contact against other guys that are just as big, just as strong, and just as tough. The idea is the front 6 align based on front alignment rules. Guys like Acree don't fit, and I do not think for a second that the "four defensive end" alignment that we heard about in the spring will be used at any time other than on passing down and distance plays.Guys like Zach McCray and JR Collins, while big enough to play DT in a pinch, are too long to really be effective on those interior stunts (that is one of the reasons that Nick Acree was never a favorite of Charley Wiles.). MIKE is the same type of player as MIKE in a 4-3 defense, but Backer is more like a SAM LB in a 4-3, and often gets the RB or TE to the passing strength. While the nose sometimes gets unblocked and can get upfield, more often than not he will make contact with the guard and tackle. 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. Likewise, by no longer asking the Rover to man up against speedy slot receivers to the wide side of the field allows linebacker / safety type athletes like Aaron Rouse to be successful at that position. I broke the 4th wall of telestration. So, it's not surprising that the man's personality matches his philosophy when it comes to dual reads in offensive football. Hopefully Logan will have improved his accuracy to be able to make them pay for it. The Tigers first-half offensive struggles were too much to overcome in a 64-57 loss. When the WR's sets up to run block (the WR's total lack of effort is a complete "UVA move"), he immediately comes up in run support. With two CBs outside you basically have 6 ways it can work without changing the call. I think they use the same DE rotation as last year, with Wilson and McCray playing every 4th series and Marshall getting some snaps at tackle and end. The Whip slides over in a defensive back alignment over the inside receiver. There are two inside linebackers in the 4-4 scheme sometimes known as the Mike and Buck linebackers. H332U(W5RR-T56 )onl ${* Everyone, especially play side, must at least stalemate their blocker in their gap. Also, because of the rather shorter depth of the Safeties, you can attack their run reads directly with a vertical route directly at them, like a Post or Go route up the seam. The one-gap 4-3 is a little more similar to the Hokies in that each defensive front 7 has gap responsibility, but in the NFL almost never does the radical stunting that the Hokies perform (the NFL lines are good enough to adjust and drive the stunting linemen off the ball.). "My advice to you is to start drinking heavily. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use. Maddy is going to have to really step it up to be the starter. Tech's attacking eight-man-front scheme, first instituted by Elmassian in 1993, has become one of college . a !1AQa"q2B#$Rb34rC%Scs5&DTdEt6UeuF'Vfv7GWgw(8HXhx )9IYiy As covered in Part 1, the Tech defense aligns based on ball position relative to the hash marks. 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. The Hokies used a base 8-man front the majority of the time. Boise and Stanford both targeted the safeties. Next Up: All of those confusing pass coverages. If the blitz didnt get to the QB quickly, then the defense was at risk for a big play. I love it anyway! That gives up some of the flat zone coverage, so watch for more WR screens this week if they show us C4. 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 whistle blows, the players un-pile and the cycle starts again. Nuk Hopkins is usually a Boundary-side WR, so he gets the Boundary CB most of the time. (He finished with well over 100 yards.) . The DEs aligned much like they do today with the Stud always to the wide side and the End always to the boundary. Stopping the run is one of the basic tenants of the defensive scheme. The diagram below uses numbers to identify each gap. 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. 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." I understand explaining that might as well be another post but it would be facinating stuff. 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. There is an extensive blitz package in VTs scheme. What is a zone blitz? Presented by, Click here to access all three parts of the Hokie Defense series by Raleigh Hokie. 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. 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. 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. Following Michael Cole's injury, Foster mostly used the old "46" alignment made famous by Buddy Ryan and the Chicago Bears. Keeping the Whip closer to the line of scrimmage allows him to play more like a true linebacker, which helped an athlete like James Anderson flourish at the position. Remember getting gashed repeatedly by just about everybody we played? He can have a SS build and sometimes aligns deeper, like the FS. So, what does it look like when a Hokie fails to control a gap? That would have been tough duty for a guy like Rouse, who was much better suited for the current responsibilities assigned to the Rover (1) back as a deep safety to the boundary side or (2) up at the line of scrimmage as an outside linebacker playing boundary run containment or picking up a tight end in man coverage. The Corners cheat deeper in this coverage at 7-9 yds, so they can rarely show Press man pre-snap when 2-Robber is the call. French on the Bench is a new series of posts that will take a closer look at the theory, fundamentals, and scheme of Tech's offense and defense. The boundary, field, and rover all have pass coverage. The first number reflects the number of running backs and the second number reflects the number of tight ends. Meanwhile, passing downs allow the Hokies to easily switch the whip for a nickel back. Basically, it requires two defensive tackles who can each command double teams. They are looking at the QB and reading his actions without letting the #1 outside WR get past. Yet, unlike most stunts and blitzes where the defensive player is trying to shake loose to make a play, the Foster gap defense still requires the players who were stunting to maintain responsibility for their assigned gap. against Stanford in the OB? The primary adjustments were to go to a base 2-high safety set (as discussed earlier), with the Whip up as a linebacker full time and the Rover back as a safety in most alignments. I think we see the Hokies playing a ton of 4-4G man this year, with next to no pass coverage responsibility by the mike and backer. . 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 talent of their front just is not what it once was. Cover 6 goes well with the pressure fronts they like to show. Williams and Harris pretty much flamed out. 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. It was a pro-style system and designed to work against pro-style offenses, which is precisely what the Hokies system is. 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. 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. Why are we sometimes successful (last year 2nd half) and sometimes not so successful (09 second half)? From all of us at The Key Play, get off the bench and in the game. Winslow and the defensive end (JR. Collins) to an X stunt, with Collins going outside and JWG taking the inside (or #5) gap. 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. They recruit nimble, short tackles, which you don't see in the NFL. That was generally the wide side of the field as well, so the Backer or Rover had to cover a faster, quicker player out in open space. ]~ .O}_JG7mn0 1.Wvn;m,Fv i>TFis endstream endobj 11 0 obj 433 endobj 17 0 obj << /Length 18 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> stream f endstream endobj 9 0 obj 55 endobj 6 0 obj << /Type /XObject /Subtype /Image /Name /I1 /Filter /DCTDecode /Width 32 /Height 27 /BitsPerComponent 8 /ColorSpace /DeviceGray /Length 7 0 R >> stream Thanks. At that point, the players on the field know the down/distance and the front, pressure, and coverage calls.

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