Setting the Tempo by Attacking and Reacting

By Kevin Cristillo, Defensive Line Coach Kentucky Christian University      My philosophy as a D-line coach is to be aggressive and stop the run.  As a defensive lineman, your main job is to stop the run.  By stopping the run you are dictating the tempo of how the game is going to be played.  Almost every team wants to establish a run game presence so that they can complement that with their passing game.  Stopping a team’s ability to run puts them in a situation where they have to throw the ball.  This makes play calling easier for a defensive coordinator by taking the guessing game out of it.     Every defensive lineman wants to get as many sacks as possible. You can do this by putting the offense in more passing situations.  That is done by playing good defense on first and second downs by stopping the run.  This will force the offense to pass in order to keep the