Our first day of defensive position drills was very productive. I felt that we had many players that improved throughout the course of practice and improved their tackling from Monday.

Defensive Backs coach Kevin Crutchfield worked the following with his group:

-stance and read step mechanics

-basic movement drills

-technique for defeating stalk blocks

-run support drills and angles

-basic run keys and reaction out of our base coverage

Coach Crutchfield said that newcomer Elijah Lane showed some potential at the CB position. We do not have many of our DB’s in spring practice due to participation in other spring sports. Returning DB’s RJ Lasoya and Tyler Ray are working in spring drills after both starting as Freshmen last season.

Defensive Line Coach Stephen Brogli worked the following with his group:

-stance and takeoffs

-drills involving shooting of the hands and hand placement during takeoffs

-basic push-pull technique from a ‘head up’ alignment position

-redirection off of a push-pull to work into flow away from gap responsibility

-reads/protection vs. drive and down blocks

Sophomore-to-be John Shoemaker and Senior-to-be Josh Gibson looked very good with their upper body mechanics while executing their push-pull technique. They must continue to work on getting their feet where they need to be in order to be dominant linemen. They both certainly have the size and strength to be able to produce for us. Also, Justin Saylor and newcomer Dale Lay showed potential of being able to work their way into getting some reps on the defensive line.

Defensive Coordinator and LB coach Chris Cooper worked the following with his group:

-stance and read steps

-basic movement drills

-keys and block protection

-pursuit angles vs. running game

This is our thinnest group on the defensive side of the ball. Not just in spring; but it will be in the fall, also. Chris Hendrix and Daniel Slone both got plenty of work in drills yesterday.

Defensive Ends coach Brian Hodge worked the following with his group:

-stance and read step

-hand placement and jam technique vs. TE

-keys/reaction vs. reach blocks

-keys/reaction vs. drive blocks

-multiple reaction drill vs. reach and drive blocks

We have decided to look at Sophomore-to-be John Gillespie at DE for now. John started at OLB some for us last season and led our Freshmen starters in tackles along with DT Tyler Perkins. The DE positions are two of the most wide open positions on our team entering the upcoming season. There will be alot of competition for those jobs.

Following our group work we spent the next 16 minutes working through the same tackling circuit that we had on Monday. We then finished practice with our goalline tackling drill. I chose to finish with this drill over the other tackling drills in order to put our guys in a position to where they would better be able to use the basic tackling techniques that were being emphasized in the circuit. We looked much better in this drill than we did on Monday. DE Cash Staley, LB Chris Hendrix, LB Daniel Slone, NG Dale Lay, and DE Brandon Smith all had good hits in this drill and showed good improvement.

One key now is being able to take this technique and use it in more of an open field tackling environment where we must chase down ball carriers. A wise college coach once told me that the key to having a great defense was to have players that could do two things–run well and hit well. That is what we are after on the defensive side of the ball.

Thursday we will finish up the week with offensive group drills. The weather was wonderful on Wednesday and should even be better today. In the past, it has been so nasty that I have had to cancel some practices in the spring. It feels good to be able know that we will get four full days in during our first week. We are certainly off to a good start.