Mike Hankwitz Northwestern 6 man Fire Zone run blitzes

 Let's take a look at one of my favorite defensive coordinators, Coach Mike Hankwitz, now retired but still one of the greatest of all time. He led one of the most solid defenses in college football for years!

Dealing with power football teams is no easy task. Wisconsin loves to line up in 12, 22 and other personnel groupings and play power football. 

One of the ways that Northwestern slowed down Wisconsin's power running game in 2020 was to bring numerous fire zone pressures under Coach Mike Hankwitz. They did this with a great defensive plan, defeating Wisconsin 17-7. They also played some man on early downs with the LB's playing run against some of the condensed formations wisconsin likes to run. But, this article looks at the fire zone pressures. 

They held Wisconsin to 40 carries and 136 yards rushing. Under 4 yards for a team that normally averaged. That is 3.4 yards per carry. That is way off their 165 yards rushing per game and more importantly a team that averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

Wisconsin Fire zone pressures
They ran many fire zones vs Wisconsin, especially when in 12/22 personnel. They loved to bring their safeties with their pressure packages. They would often bring a safety with a linebacker in the blitz.

One of the ways they did it was with some fire zone concepts designed as run blitzes on early downs. Often they involved a safety and a LB. If it was run the DE would play run. If pass he dropped and it became a 3 under 3 deep.

1st play of the game. Send the FS and Will right up the middle. Nice design.

vs 12 personnel

1st and 10 

Run it with the will and Free coming. On run the DE won't drop, just play run. In this case they get pass so he drops. They get great pressure and a sack.

See the safety start to blitz on pass in this defense the de drops making it a 5 man pressure

nice scheme by Northwestern.

vs 12 personnel

Similar concept They send the LB and Safety right in the A and B gap. The DT plays C and the DE plays D gap.

See it start to unfold with the LB and safety.

Nice pressure and design

See the blitz develop.

Dt may have gone wring way.

Heres another variation where the safety goes B and the LB goes off A. This allows the playside Mike to fold back inside to make the play in the run game.

2 blitzers are picked up but the LB folds back unblocked. 

The design opens it up for LB.

Good scheme

and execution.

These are just 4 blitzes they ran vs Wisconsin to disrupt the power run game and 12

Here's 1 more clip and an additional pressure. Overall a great design in the run blitzes to disrupt the Ohio State run game!

Great design by Northwestern in 2020 and they did an excellent job defending the run. 

They also ran some nice run blitzes vs Michigan State in 2020.

Below they run a game from their 4-2 front.

They send the NG and DT away from the strength and bring the safety down to play the b gap to the strong side. 

They also bring the safety with the LB on the play

Again they are moving with the safety on the left coming to the b gap.

Nice job by the LB scraping over the top

They have 1 blocker for the LB and safety. 

LB forced to cut it back the other way

Lb shuffles back to make the play.

A similar scheme in the Michigan State game:

When Michigan went bunch 12, the Northwestern defense brought the safety and the lb weak. Nice scheme which was sound. 1st time, poor gap fill led to a 5 yard gain. They had the LB blitz B with the safety A gap. 

Again yo usee the 6 man pressure lb and safety

Every gap is covered

2 SERIES LATER

2ND AND 10 they run a similar concept with the safety and will blitzing both a gaps. Every gap is covered and it allows the mike to be a c gap player. Nice design for a 3 yard loss. 

similar pressure with the safety and LB

Nice movement and stunt as you see the LB and FS coming!

Safety is untouched as they get the +1 in the run game. 

Great job by the Northwestern Defense

These were just some of the run blitzes vs Wisconsin and Michigan State in 2020. There was a reason Northwestern was a top defense in 2020 under Coach Mike.

Here are some others vs Notre Dame in 2018 against a very good Notre Dame team.

Nice job by the safety timing it.

Saf

Safety is at the Line of Scrimmage.

Good scheme and again great timing on the pressure.

Another example where they bring the safety and it disrupts the pin and pull. Notre Dame loses 2 yards on the play.

Safety comes disrupts the scheme off the edge

Pin and pull is disrupted by the blitz from Hankwitz

Here is another example vs Maryland.

The Safety goes A gap and the will Lb blitzes the off side A gap. He goes to the h back side. Both DT line up in 2i but stunt to the b gap. The excellent design causes the safety to go unblocked.

Coach Mike is one of the best at using the safety in the run game to bring pressure on early downs. A great coordinator and asset to the game of football.

Again they are moving A and B with the LB and safety

Which frees up #42

#42 or the safety will be free.

They force the cut back into the A gap safety who is unblocked.

Thes are some of Mike Hanwitz's defense when he was a finalist for the Broyles award in 2020. 
Film to follow!