Jim Leonhard is one of the best defensive minds in college football. His defenses are also very efficient.
2021 #1 defense in the country in yards per play
2021 #4 defense in scoring 16 ppg
2021 #3 defense in 3rd down % 27.8 efficiency
2021 #1 in rushing 1st downs allowed 55, next closest team was 69, and #1 overall in 1st downs allowed
Coach Leonhard did an outstanding job at Wisconsin and has worked with some of the best minds in football.
As a player, Leonard has some of his roots from Rex Ryan, being a standout with Rex with the Jets, Bills and Ravens, as Leonhard seemed to be someone that went with Rex wherever he ended up coaching. Much of his 3-4 comes from the Pettine and Rex Defense with the Ravens and Jets.
As a coach he ended up working with Dave Aranda for 2 years at Wisconsin and Justin Wilcox. Wilcox is not as big a name as Aranda but left after 1 year to take the job at Cal. Both of these guys led great defenses at Wisconsin before moving on. I see various similarities between Leonard and Aranda in their scheme as both love zone 4 man simulated & creeper pressures with often bringing a LB and dropping a Defensive end as part of his base package.
The reason he does this it is a safe way of blitzing. It gives the allusion of more pressure, but often forces an offense to keep a RB in protection. He will not give up coverage on the back end to recklessly blitz and rarely plays cover 0. Most of his pressures are 4 or 5 man for the most part. It has been very effective for Coach Leonhard at Wisconsin.
VS Notre Dame
The score was no where near indicative of the game. Notre Dame struggled offensively throughout the game, only rushing for 3 yards on the day. They scored 21 points in other areas, 2 on defense and 1 on a kickoff return. The Wisconsin defense played very well, giving up 20 points on the day.
Coach Leonhard ran 30/34 pressures vs Notre Dame on Early Downs. That is only on 1st and 2nd down. That is an awful lot of creeper/sim pressures with bringing a LB from depth and dropping DE. But is a big part of what he does and makes him successful. It forced Notre Dame to keep their RB in pass protection as they only released him 4x. That may not seem like a big deal, but it kept the RB in against 7 man coverages which was a key factor in holding Notre Dame and Coen to 5.4 yards per reception and 15/29 passing for 158 yards.
Drew Pyne actually came in was 8/10 and moved the offense efficiently after Coen was injured in the 3rd quarter.
Fronts on Early downs
vs 21/12
You will often see him play a 3-4 on early downs vs 12 personnel. Often from 2 4i's
Here are 2 examples vs Notre Dame vs 12.
The first is vs 12 balanced formation. They play it straight as Notre Dame is balanced with 1 te on each side and are 2x2. They bring the safety down to the passing strength h off and play cover 3.
In example #2, Leonhard goes 3-4 vs Notre Dame but walk one outside LB out vs the twins set. Still no change as they are still 3-4
Here it is again vs 12
Sometimes with 12 you will see them shift the Linebackers. vs 3x1 they will sometime shift the linebackers like they did vs Michigan. Here's the front with a few examples. They bring the safety down and play a stack look. Michigan is in 12 balanced.
In the next example, its 12 personnel with twins opposite the tight end wing.
You can see them slide the lb's to a stack look to the tight end side with the ss playing off #2 to the twins side. They have every gap covered.
They end up bringing the mike linebacker and dropping the de opposite the pressure. The drop end is a flat defender with the ss playing curl. They are in cover 1 with the cb over to the twins side with the safety in run support to the te wing side.
Depending on the call the nose will play a gap either to the side of the play or half man behind vs zone. Here they send the mike to the tight end wing. You can see the olb drop underneath and they play cover 3.
The olb does a nice job getting in the passing lane.
From the endzone view but you see the DE get right in the passing lane on the right.
The qb wants to throw the rpo to #2 but it is defended and he ends up forcing it to #1 and it is nicely defended and incomplete. See it below.
Another example vs Michigan, Michigan goes x over again, this time both wr are eligible. They adjust play man to the 2wr side and bring the cb over again. Nice defensive scheme and alignment is sound. They adjust their lb in the 3-4 to matchup vs certain formations.
On the snap unbalanced zone
Gao responsibilities are solid
Do a great job with the DE boxing it hard and not much run lanes on the front side.
LB keeps leverage for the cutback.
Example #2
vs 11
They will often go nickel and play their 4-2-5 front vs it. They can still play a 3-4 vs it but seem more comfortable in their nickel alignment.
In the picture below
It appears they are single gap with the D Line and 2 gap with the LB.
LDE D Gap. LILB-Ball to-C Gap, ball away, near A, RILB-B gap to, off a way and RDE play C Gap.
vs 11 you see the 4-2 2 shell pre snap.
Simulated Pressures
A simulated pressure is when you send a LB and drop a DE into coverage from a basic defensive front that isn't showing pressure. These are easy to recognize on film vs pass as the DE drops. They are less obvious against the run because the DE won't drop and will play the run.
This is a staple of the Wisconsin Defense. They can play it with zone coverage, man coverage or combination coverage.
2 coverages you will see quite often with the sim 4 man pressures:
3 weak
Only 4 rushers
Mike Coming with the OLB 41 dropping.
Nose beats the Double LB comes clean
3 strong
Becomes 3 under 3 deep
OLB plays the flat
Pressure gets home and forces bad throw. Wheel doesn't get a chance to develop.
Here is the pressure from the endzone view.
Empty check LB weak .Center slides to the nose #91 iin the 2 i.
On 3rd down
You will see a ton of man free and cover 3 with simulated pressures on this down.
We will cover this more in our next segment but here's one example.
they run a sim pressure and lock the backside with the CB on #1, They play cover 3 and send 5. If the back releases the LB would pick him up. He blocks so he adds in.Cb to the single wr side has man on #1. They play zone to the field Cover 3 with the weak safety rolling down.
nice job with the coverage 3 with a solo call backside.
Nice job and execution.
4 man sim pressure bringing both inside LB
3rd and 8
Coverage: 3 weak
Variation: FS/SS are middle hook/curl defender (down and distance)
This time they put the LB over the center send the 4 and play cover 3
Excellent blitz and again a relatively safe coverage call.
Heres how effective the sim pressure is vs the run game.
They run it vs Penn State on 1st down.
Nice job by the blitzing LB coming clean. Both DE engage and play run,
LB comes clean on the run pressure.
Good scheme against a very good offense.
4 man sim pressure with man free coverage
Vs Penn State, you see some man free concepts with the DE and LB acting as rat(underneath zone defenders)They ran the same scheme 2x and got sacks both times. The DE disrupted the throw on both occasions by getting in the throwing lane.
De gets in the throwing lane on the sim pressure.
Film below
2nd time they ran the concept, they got the same result.
This was a key 4th down in the 1st quarter.
Again man/free, mike pressure DE drops to the boundary.
Field pressure with 3 to a side.
DE gets in the slant window. RB plays the hook.
Rat defender does a great job
These are just some of the defenses you will see from when Jim Leonhard was at Wisconsin, a very well coached defensive team.
They were solid in their approach, often bringing simulated pressures but playing safe coverages and being sound behind them.
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