Loading Up the Box and Playing Man-to-Man Defense

In order for any scheme or technique to be successful your coaches must believe in them, understand them, and be able to properly teach them. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by a group of coaches who do all of the above with passion and excellence!      At Carthage College, our defensive philosophy is to stop the run by “Loading up the Box.” We do this by playing Man-to-Man defense. Our Man-to-Man Package includes bringing maximum pressure or playing Man Free. No matter what formation we see in our Man Free Package we will always have an Over the Top Player, and a Zone Off (See Diagram 1). Diagram 1. The Zone Off can play a variety of different techniques, depending on our opponent and game plan. These techniques include: •    QB Eyes •    Collision Crossers •    Double a WR •    Spy the QB     The first technique is reading the eyes of the