By Jeff Long
Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator
Moravian University (PA)
Twitter: @CoachLongMUFB

The bear front has become a staple for our defense over the last 6 years. It started out as our preferred defense for goal line and short yardage situations, but has morphed into a front / pressure that we have incorporated into gameplans on a weekly basis on 3^rd down and base down and distances as well.  Today we are going to look at the bear front and show you three ways we manipulate it to attack opponent pass protections.

Bear front pressure is a tool that allows you to create one on one matchups with your defensive front and the opposing offensive line. In pass protection, it limits the variations of protections that an offense can use.  The 2 most common answers to dealing with a bear front pressure are:

1. Man Protection (Big on Big) – this protection will have the 5 offensive linemen identify and lock on to one of the 5 rushers in their assigned gaps. If the tailback is involved in the protection, then he will sort the 2^nd level threats (rushers not on the LOS) before check releasing once no threat is identified.

2. Slide protection – this protection will be the changeup for an offense if they believe there is a high likelihood of twists from your bear front. Some teams will incorporate a full slide and have the tailback set the edge away from the slide. Some teams will split slide (4-man slide) then the TB will insert B gap away from the slide and keep the backside tackle locked on the edge.

Identifying how the opposing offense will deal with a bear front is imperative to building your pressure plan to attack the protection.  Below, we will show you 3 ways you can attack both of these protections schemes out of the base bear front pressure.

By Mike Kuchar with Wallie Kuchinski
Defensive Coordinator
University of St. Thomas (MN)
Twitter: @kuchinski8

If you’re familiar with the University of St. Thomas (MN) defensive system then you understand how much defensive coordinator Wallie Kuchinski loves to pressure. And if you’re not familiar with Coach Kuchinski’s system you better start learning it. UST has consistently been among the nation’s best defensively – first at the Division 3 level and now at the FCS level. And because the Tommies are reclassifying, its stats aren’t registered at the FCS level. But if they were, they would rank in the following: fourth in total defense (290 ypg), fourth in scoring defense (17.2 ppg), third in 3^rd down efficiency (.29%) and tied for 7^th in team sacks (3.09).

But it’s how Coach Kuchinski and his staff devises pressure that makes it so unique. Previously, Coach Kuchinski has relied more on fire zone concepts the last two seasons, but once he got comfortable in his backend personnel he made the shift to using man pressures for two simple reasons: they attack protections better and are less expensive in coverage. As a consummate studier of football, Coach Kuchinski modeled these pressures after what the University of Wisconsin has used and what Baylor University has used under coaches Jim Leonard and Dave Aranda respectively.

Personnel:

The advent of 11 personnel offenses has caused Coach Kuchinski to play his Odd front, Nickel defense now in over 70% of all downs. But while he calls it “Nickel” personnel, essentially, it’s a two-down structure, field, and boundary defense that utilizes the following personnel:

• 2 Interior Defensive Lineman– Nose and Tackle, who can be interchangeable
• 2 Defensive Ends– These are more linebacker personnel types that will play to the field and boundary on the line of scrimmage in this package.
• 2 Linebackers– Sam (strong-side inside linebacker) and Quick (weak side inside linebacker)
• 2 Corners
• 3 Safeties– The Nickel safety, Free Safety and Strong Safety

Communication:

In the Tommies system, all man pressures are classified by tools but defenders need to be aware of where the insert is coming from. For example, “Wrench” tells the safety he is coming down, while “Drill” is an indicator that they are blitzing the back. There are essentially three types of pressures that Coach Kuchinski uses in his man pressure concepts:

• “Axe” 1 Rat
• “Screw” 1 Rat
• Flush Rush

Axe 1 Rat

Type of Pressure: “Axe” is an “A” gap interior pressure with Sam and Quick linebacker

Best Practice: Use against man protection teams. These are interior A gap pressures, which work very well against man blocking teams because the running back has can’t locate both interior linebackers in time in protection. Often times, it presents a two-on-one against the running back.

Both interior rushes work outside the Tackles for contain, while the Sam and Quick work their rush off the Center. Coach Kuchinski classifies his teaching of these two backers as a “hug” rusher and a “plug” rusher. The hug rusher is the blitzer to the running back who will fit inside him. The plug rusher fits outside the running back.

Both linebackers will be on a “Face of Center” read and cross face if Center comes at him. If the Center doesn’t come at him, he stays inside the running back.

The outside linebacker to the side of the back will work the peel technique on the back, while the outside linebacker away becomes the rat. The coaching point for the Rat is to push one, two steps up-field to draw protection and get offensive tackle to set.

If the back doesn’t flare, it’s built in where the OLB to the side of the back becomes the wrap rusher while the other OLB becomes the rat (or spy) defender.

The intent  is to generate a three-man pass off, which happens when the first rusher works outside the back and the second rusher fits off him. In the image below, the wrap rusher adds into the pressure and gets a sack.

By Mike Kuchar with Adam Clark
Defensive Coordinator
Angelo State University (TX)
Twitter: @CoachAdamClark

As a west coast native, Coach Clark spends most of his off seasons clinicing with former New Mexico State University (and now Syracuse University) defensive coordinator Rocky Long. He says he modeled much of his structure after Coach Long, particularly his man pressure package where a distinction lies in who the blitz/peel defender is based on formation. While most coaches choose to have the outside pressure element be a free rusher- giving the defensive end rush/peel responsibilities- Coach Clark chooses to swap that assignment by putting a first level defender on the  tight end and give the outside rusher the blitz/peel task.

While this job usually falls on the field defensive end, Coach Clark admits it’s feasible considering the ability of tight ends at the Division 2 level. It’s something that could be a challenge with a detached tight end but if the tight end is on the ball it’s a different story. “You can be physical with him and get your hands inside early on,” he said. “We don’t see a ton of freak tight ends that can be a mismatch on an athletic defensive end at the Division 2 level. Some of our defensive ends can in fact be tight ends.”

Coach Clark’s “Auto” pressure is a Double A gap pressure with his two inside linebacker elements on a read rush of the Center. It’s a formation based pressure adjustment which can present itself in several different ways based on formation structure. But at its core, the pressure elements will consist of both inside linebackers and an edge blitzer based off a closed surface. Which means that pressure defender can be an outside linebacker, safety or even corner based on formation structure. Quite simply, if your man is a tight end, you are the outside pressure element.

In 2022, these “Auto” pressure produced the following numbers:

• 23 yards per carry on run
• 35% comp percentage on pass
• 3 sacks on 31 pass attempts
• 6 hurries
• 3 knockdowns

Angelo State Personnel:

Angelo State operates out of 3-3-5 spacing, with the first and second level consisting of the following:

• Nose
• Boundary Tackle
• Field End
• Whip (weak side outside linebacker)
• Mike (stack inside linebacker)
• Sam (strong side outside linebacker)
• Field Overhang (could be Strong Safety or Nickel) depending on call

Most of the time will morph into four-man structures at the first level, either by bringing up the Whip (weak side linebacker) to the weak side of the formation or bringing up the Sam (strong side linebacker) to the strong side of the formation.

Movement Verbiage

In most cases, the strength is set to the field with the ball on the hash. If the ball is in the middle of the field, it’s set to the passing strength. But in Coach Clark’s system, the front will move on over 50% of snaps, more than anyone he’s ever seen. He’ll do it more in early downs than in late downs to confuse blocking schemes and draw offenses off sides. Something he says will happen at least one time per game.

In his base four-down structure he prefers what he calls “heads,” which are two double two techniques and two tight five techniques but who those defenders are will depend on whether or not it’s an open or closed formation. His movement system has a simple verbiage. Anything can be tagged with a “move” call. For example, “Heads Move Tight” tells the front they are aligning in a heads front:

Then move to a “Tight” front with two double five techniques and a Zero technique:

A “Tails” front denotes that the defensive line is sliding weak and the Sam walks up to be the 5-technique on the line of scrimmage.

Angelo State will also show a Bear presentation:

Then shift to the Heads look:

The “Auto” pressure is always run from the Head look above, but how Coach Clark will get there pre-snap lies in all those following presentations above. The linebackers just say “move” (or use a back-up call if refs are on it) and the front expands. If ever the first level gets stuck in a movement, the emphasis is on gap cancellation, not gap integrity. “We just play vertically at that point,” he said. “We cross face of any blocker that is coming at us. For example, if our Zero Nose in Bear that needs to get to the B gap in “Heads” gets caught in the A gap when the ball is snapped. he may need to get a crossover run and prepare him how to adjust if that happens. We just try to play vertical through the backside gap.”