Building a championship football team

by Paul W. Bryant

Figure 90

Figure 91

If we want to be in a balanced defensive alignment, and we know they have a slow offensive lineman, we will line up in a straight 6-2 defense. [Figure 91] illustrates our alignment and hold-up return if we know the offensive center is slow. We merely let him go, and our interior linemen and linebackers hold-up the offensive ends, tackles and guards. Our ends rush the kicker from the outside, making certain he kicks the football. The interior linemen and linebackers use the same techniques our offensive backs use when they are protecting the passer. When they feel they are losing their men, then they will go into a cross body block. Our halfbacks will be the personal protection for the safety man. The safety will field the ball in the air and start upfield. If he sees a hole, he will break for it on our middle return.

OUR KICK-OFF AND ITS COVERAGE

The kick-off is a very important phase of the defensive kicking game because of the number of times it is used in a game. As you know, the kick-off comes at the start of the game, at the beginning of the second half, and after a team has scored. It is a terrific advantage to get a deep kick-off with good coverage, and tackle the ball carrier inside of his 20-yard line. It is important to eliminate the long run on the kick-off return for several reasons. First, a long run has a demoralizing effect on the kicking team, and gives the receiving team both a psychological and a strategical advantage. With respect to the latter point, if the receiving team gets beyond its 30-yard line, it can open up with its entire offensive attack immediately. Conversely, if the kicking team keeps the receiving team deep in its own territory, the receiving team is forced to run a limited offense, punt the ball or gamble in order to get out of its own territory.

Two Types of Kick-Offs

We employ two different kinds of kick-offs, depending upon the particular opponent we are playing. As an illustration, if we know the opposition has two dangerous runners playing deep, we will kick the ball in such a manner that it strikes the ground and bounces around making it difficult for either man to control. This tactic also gives us time to cover the kick properly. On the other hand, if our scouting report reveals the safeties are only fair runners, then we will kick the ball high in the air and end-over-end. Of course, if we had a place kicker who could boot the ball out of the end zone every time, our kick-off strategy would be simple and our problem would be solved. Kickers with such ability are difficult to locate.

I suppose our coverage on the kick-off is like that of most other football teams. We want our men back five yards from the ball in a 3-point stance, all facing toward the football. Our quarterback stands one yard to the side of the ball and a yard off the ball on the 39-yard line with his arms raised ready to give the starting signal to the men watching him. When the kicker approaching the football gets to a point where the men covering the kick-off cannot get off-side, the quarterback will drop his arms as a signal for the men to start forward together. We want everyone but the safeties to cover the kick quickly. Each man is to protect his own area, and then go to the cut-off point. We instruct our ends to be certain no one gets outside of them.

We have two safeties not including the quarterback. If the ball is kicked down the middle, the quarterback is the safety. If the ball is kicked to our right, our quarterback and left halfback will be safeties. If the ball is kicked to our left, the quarterback and our right halfback will be safeties, as illustrated in [Figure 92]. When our safeties drop out, our other men will converge slightly to close the gaps. The safety men cover slowly, and should always be in a position to tackle the ball carrier before he can score.