Coach ,

There are so many great ideas out in the football digital space now, so many that it can cause your brain can spin, and it’s fine to learn all of them, but ultimately you have to have a plan on what you want to accomplish and how that stops the offense.

Dan Lanning’s Breakdown of a Sim to Stop “5 in the Closet”

Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning shared his thought process used while he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia in the National Championship against Alabama. He showed what they saw on film, and then the plan to cover everything up on the backend, especially the two routes Alabama wanted most, the OTB and the Wheel, and how they defeat the protection with a Sim. 

This is an example of how to apply all the knowledge you have gained to defeat something specific. (click on image for video):

Video: Building a Simulated Pressure Plan

Don Brown’s use of a 4 Man Overload Sim

Coach Brown runs an aggressive attacking style of defense.  He likes to blitz 62-65% of the time, thus the Dr. Blitz moniker. 

In being so aggressive, there has to be something that keeps the offense off-balance. A blitz-type of defense becomes easy to attack if you know that the pressure is all you have to prepare for.

Therefore, when facing a Don Brown defense, you can also expect him to bluff the blitz and create confusion with "blitz simulators." He believes this is a concept that can be adopted by any defense to create pressure on the quarterback while remaining sound in coverage.   

A blitz simulator presents a perceived threat to the offense which they have to adjust to even though it never happens.

Here is Coach Brown sharing an example of an overload with a four-man side and a basic four-man rush coverage behind. It gets them what they want (click on image for video):

Video: Blitz Simulator

Doug Belk’s Use of Sims on Run Downs

Doug Belk has a thought process he applies to using Sims on normal down and distance. On these 1st and second down they see a lot of Boot, and he shares how they utilize a Sim to cause problems for the defense (click on image for video):

Video: Simulated Pressure

Like many coaches, you’ve probably learned a ton over the course of the last three off-seasons as we have seen a boom in coaches sharing ideas, especially digitally.  

What to use is a product of knowing what you need to stop and how to accomplish that with the players you have.  These three coaches gave a peek into how they think about using Sims. The thought process is just as useful as the idea they illustrated to get the job done.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski