Dave Aranda Ron Roberts Baylor Football Defense Pressure Package

 Dave Aranda-The innovator of 4 man simulated pressures

Dave Aranda is well known throughout the college ranks for his simulated pressure package. This is a package that involves bringing a LB as a 4th rusher and dropping a defensive lineman into coverage. It's a term used to bring a 2nd level defender yet drop a defensive lineman to replace him at the next level. The nice thing about it is you can bring the defender and still have all your coverage responsibilities taken care of with 7 players playing zone concepts on the back end.

They run a ton of split field concepts with the pressures and have various coverage checks, which I don't have all the answers to but if you study them you will see several variations and concepts in which they check coverages with what looks like different tags depending on formation. 

Coach Aranda will utilize simulated pressure concepts both when playing zone and also in man free situations. In man situations he will use the DE to cover a running back or play a zone underneath while everyone else is in man.

He will also run some what is called creeper pressures. A creeper or what I call a show pressure is basically a mug look with either 2 or 1 LB showing pressure. From here, you will get some type of pressure with a LB or Safety that isn't aligned on the line of scrimmage. 

That is really the major difference between a creeper and simulated pressure. Coach Hoover gives a good breakdown here. 

Let's look at some of the concepts as he runs them from both his tite front and 4-2 package:

Tite Front:

Baylor plays it a few ways:
One is standard with 2 4i's with Pitre to the field.

Adjustment #1

They can adjust either side and play an eagle look as demonstrated below on the right hand side.

Adjustment #2 

Bear  Adjustment

vs. Oklahoma State, Baylor played some snaps of Bear front.

 Also, they can play a base 4-2-5 and run their pressures out of this look. Often they play it with  3 technique and a shade NG.

4-2 front

4-2

Part 1 Zone Coverage Concepts

Coach Aranda will play a ton of zone coverages with simulated pressures. They will bring 4 rushers drop a defensive end into coverage quite often. Coach Aranda wants to be solid on the back end so this system has been effective. You will rarely see a flat out cover 0 pressure from Coach Aranda.

Zone 4 man Simulated Pressures with zone coverage:

Front:4-2

The first one we will look at is a cover 2, 4 man pressure.  

The DE to the boundary drops and plays the curl as the will LB plays the middle hook.

The Mike is on the pressure to the field.

Mike blitzes de usually drops opposite. 

De drops to the weakside opposite the pressure.

Here are 2 clips of the coverage below:

They run the same coverage vs Kansas. 
Front 4-2. Bring the sam and play the de to the boundary as a curl defender. The LB's play it with mike pushing to the curl and will pushing to the hook.

Sam blitzes de drops opposite to the flat. 

You can see the mike pushing to the curl and the will pushing to the hook.

Another 4 man pressure with a safe cover 2 behind it. 

Front:Tite Front

Blitz #2 is brining the sam linebacker and dropping the defensive end to the boundary.

The coverage is a cover 3. If they run the ball, then the DE will play the run. 

They run this from their tight front as that's what Aranda likes to run vs 12 personnel formations.

Sam comes the OLB drops opposite. 

The OLB forces the give and then comes underneath.

Nice job of forcing the give as the c gap player then ripping underneath to make the play.

Here is a 2nd version of the blitz vs Iowa State. They guess right and the DE is there to make the play in the flat.

Front:4-2 show

Vs. Kansas State-they bring the same Sam pressure concept and play cover 3 on a few occasions.

2nd and 15, Mike showing so technically a mug/creeper pressure. But the 2nd example they bring the sam from depth without showing. 

Here comes the sam off the edge and they drop the De opposite. 

Front:4-2

scenario #2 

They bring the sam from depth and play cover 3. 

The same blitz in the diagram below. Bring the sam and drop a de. 

They play cover 3 and run the sim pressure. 

Nice design and safe blitz concept.

creeper/mug pressure concepts

Front:4-2 nickel

CB Sim Pressure

Creeper and mug pressures are when the defense shows pressure and brings some type of blitz with the show look. Baylor is excellent at this concept.

One of their favorite pressures is bringing the boundary CB.

3rd and 9 Vs Iowa State, they brought the boundary cb and play cover 2..They bring the cb to the b gap and play cover 2 with the defensive end to the field dropping into coverage.

The same concept but with a game. 4 man sim edge pressure but again 7 guys in coverage.

They get a 3 man snag concept

In the next situation, they bring the boundary CB but play cover 3 on 2nd and 10. They have 2 curl defenders and the DE drops to the flat. The De is in good position but misses the tackle on what should have been a short gain. 

Another 4 man concept with the CB. Still a 4 man pressure.

CB comes off the hash ad gets decent pressure.

Both clips are in the videos below:

One last blitz with the CB.

They get 12 personnel with an Ace formation. 2 tight ends on the ball. They bring the CB to the boundary and would be cover 3 if they throw the ball. The cb comes unblocked and makes a nice play on the handoff.

Another blitz to the boundary with the CB

CB makes the tackle on the play.

Nice design and concept.

Man to Man coverage concepts:

Sim pressures with man coverage:

Baylor will also run some of these presssure concepts with man coverage.

Here is an interception vs Kansas State.

They bring the mike LB and play man free with the DE as a rat defender. He disrupts the crossing route here which leads to the interception.

They send the mike and drop both DE into rat coverage. 

good rat principle on the te. The DE is a rat defender with 2 safeties free.

RB stays in to block.

Good defense by Aranda. 

These are just some of the simulated and mug pressure concepts you will see from Dave Aranda at Baylor that has been a huge part of his success.

LSU vs Miami 2018

While at LSU he ran some of the same concepts 

Vs Empty 

He’s in a tite front and brings the mike. 

They play man free with the de/olb as rat defenders.Mike comes clean on the pressure. 

They go tite front and bring the cb to the boundary. They go 3 under 3 deep and get the interception. Miami anticipates man coverage and gets baited into the throw. 

Other Resources about Coach Aranda' Defense:

blitzology notes-tite front, split coverages and more.

http://www.blitzology.com/search/label/Dave%20Aranda

Aranda 2 read  https://throwdeeppublishing.com/blogs/news/one-coverage-that-solves-a-ton-of-problems

https://throwdeeppublishing.com/blogs/news/the-bay-and-the-bayou-justin-wilcox-and-dave-aranda-s-defenses

https://www.andthevalleyshook.com/2018/3/21/17134160/lsu-football-2018-film-room-dave-aranda-defense

https://www.crimsonandcreammachine.com/2021/11/11/22771405/oklahoma-sooners-football-baylor-bears-defense-dave-aranda-jalen-pitre-siaki-ika-matt-rhule

Aranda Youtube video on defending the spread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sWXmFi430o

Aranda vs Oklahoma Offense Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ_okR73kzA

Wisconsin Defense -Jim Leonhard

 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

Nice job playing 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.