One of Nick Saban's adjustments to JFF and A&M's offense in 2012-'13 was the creation of a specific 'spread package'. This was nothing new, RC used to have a 1-4-6 defensive package he'd use to stop Houston's run-n-shoot and Louisiana Tech's spread offense in the pre-Air Raid days. Saban's version of a spread defense package was basically a 4-1-6, or 41 Dime. He then gave clinics on how to stop the inside zone running game using a 5-man front. From observation of his team on the field, it was based around having stud defensive linemen, an All-American like Reggie Ragland as the lone linebacker, and allowed the dime secondary to shut down the passing game. 4 WRs on 6 DBs is a mismatch, not even counting the talent disparity Bama enjoyed over 99% of programs at the time.
D.J. Durkin has his own theories on how to stop the zone running game out of 10 personnel, and we saw some of it against LSU last season.
We came out against LSU showing a 4-1 front versus their 10 personnel.
We show 4 DL and 1 LB in the box, basically baiting them to run because they have a 7-on-5 advantage in the box. We also have Caleb Russell aligned outside between the slot receiver and right tackle, giving us 4 covering their 3 receivers to the field and a 2-on-1 advantage to the boundary. Simple math says run the ball.
At the snap, we have all four linemen stunting. SDE Shemar Turner goes for the B gap while 1-tech McKinnley Jackson goes for the C gap. 3-tech Walter Nolen goes outside for the B gap while WDE LT Overton goes inside to the A gap. The stunts do two things: screw up the zone blocking assignments for LSU and allow Jackson and Turner to execute a scrape exchange.
A scrape exchange is a defensive answer to the inside zone/zone read. Basically, the defense is dictating to the offense what read the QB will make, and assigning players to cover both reads. Normally, a scrape exchange involves a DE and a LB, with the DE crashing to take the running back inside and the LB taking the QB. In this case, we have Turner taking the RB and Jackson taking Jayden Daniels.
We see Turner does a great job crashing down to stop the run, leaving Jackson to play Daniels outside. The RT shadows Daniels and attempts to seal him outside. Overton comes free right down the line off his stunt and cleans up, making the tackle on Daniels for a minimal gain.
A&M showed a 4-1 front, baited LSU, LSU took the bait, and A&M's 4-1 front stuffed their inside zone run play.
D.J. Durkin has his own theories on how to stop the zone running game out of 10 personnel, and we saw some of it against LSU last season.
We came out against LSU showing a 4-1 front versus their 10 personnel.
We show 4 DL and 1 LB in the box, basically baiting them to run because they have a 7-on-5 advantage in the box. We also have Caleb Russell aligned outside between the slot receiver and right tackle, giving us 4 covering their 3 receivers to the field and a 2-on-1 advantage to the boundary. Simple math says run the ball.
At the snap, we have all four linemen stunting. SDE Shemar Turner goes for the B gap while 1-tech McKinnley Jackson goes for the C gap. 3-tech Walter Nolen goes outside for the B gap while WDE LT Overton goes inside to the A gap. The stunts do two things: screw up the zone blocking assignments for LSU and allow Jackson and Turner to execute a scrape exchange.
A scrape exchange is a defensive answer to the inside zone/zone read. Basically, the defense is dictating to the offense what read the QB will make, and assigning players to cover both reads. Normally, a scrape exchange involves a DE and a LB, with the DE crashing to take the running back inside and the LB taking the QB. In this case, we have Turner taking the RB and Jackson taking Jayden Daniels.
Stopping inside zone with a 4-1 front. Dual stunts on the line allow NT and SDE to execute scrape exchange, and WDE comes free down the line to clean up. pic.twitter.com/bZ80fu0MXt
— Sethtevious Smoochie-Wallace (@sethtevious) June 10, 2023
We see Turner does a great job crashing down to stop the run, leaving Jackson to play Daniels outside. The RT shadows Daniels and attempts to seal him outside. Overton comes free right down the line off his stunt and cleans up, making the tackle on Daniels for a minimal gain.
A&M showed a 4-1 front, baited LSU, LSU took the bait, and A&M's 4-1 front stuffed their inside zone run play.
