Making an Offense One Dimensional: Strategies for Developing an Effective Run De

Stop the Run: It’s the number one objective for any defensive coordinator at any level; in fact it’s Defensive Football 101. You can’t play defense without first stopping the run. Rushing yardage is also the first statistical category offense will use to measure its performance. Teams that know how to control the clock by running the football win games. In fact, the two go hand in hand. If you look at successful teams from Pop Warner right up through the NFL – chances are they have two distinct advantages that make them win; they know how to run the ball, and they know how to stop the run.     So, the apparent question is how do you effectively stop the run? We’ve talked to four defense coaches at different levels to get their philosophies and the staples that make good defense great and great defenses dominant- Ron Roberts, defensive coordinator at Delta State University