Figure 3
One point I failed to mention, if we are playing a 4-spoke defense, which will be explained and illustrated shortly, we assign one defender to play “head on” the offensive center, and he does not figure in any of the calls. He lines up the same every time, as is illustrated in [Figure 4].
Figure 4
When we play a 5-spoke defense, which will also be explained shortly, the two linebackers assign one player to the area inside the offensive guards. As an example, if we are playing a 5-spoke defense and the call on the right side is 59, the call on the left side must be a one as the first digit, such as, 17, 16, 15. [Figure 5] illustrates a 59 call on the right, and a 17 call on the left, with one man playing a 1 technique in order to keep from having a large gap between the two guards.
Figure 5
You can quickly observe that by having our players learn only a few numbers and their accompanying techniques, we can line up in numerous defensive alignments merely by calling two numbers. Figures [6] and [7] are examples of 59 and 39 defensive calls, which are 4-spoke defenses with a man in a 0 technique, and are commonly referred to as the Oklahoma and Eagle defenses, respectively.
