Football Implements 4-3 Defense in Spring Practice for Use in 2008 Campaign

On Saturday at the annual Blue and White spring football game, the story on defense was about what was not seen as much as it was about what was seen.

What was not seen on Saturday was the 3-3-5 stack defense that was implemented upon head coach Norries Wilson’s arrival prior to the 2006 football season. Since Wilson has been at Columbia, the stack has been the defense that the Lions have primarily relied on. In 2006, it helped the Light Blue achieve a 5-5 record for the first time in a decade, but in 2007, opposing teams picked it apart—especially on the ground—as the Lions gave up the most rushing yards in the Ivy League.

The defense that both the Blue and White teams played on Saturday had more of a 4-3 look as it was comprised of four down linemen, three linebackers, two corners, and two safeties. This type of defense puts more, bigger players at the point of attack and can be useful for the team in stopping the run next season.

“We played some 4-3 last year, we’re just trying to be more stout against the run,” Wilson said. “We’re trying to put guys in positions that are their strengths. I’m not saying we’re not going to play any stack, we didn’t play any stack this spring because we already know how to play stack and we’re trying to get good at a couple of other fronts.”

However, each of the sides let up a fair amount of rushing yards per carry—the Blue gave up 5.3 yards per carry and the White gave up 4.4. These statistics, however, do not mean that the 4-3 defense won’t be helpful next season. First of all, due to injuries, there were not enough defensive linemen for two teams, so six players went both ways. These players were very fatigued by the end of the game, as they played more minutes and worked harder than they will ever be expected to in a regular season game.

Secondly, the defenses were not allowed to blitz. On most plays, the defense was playing in its base set and each player was focused on fulfilling his assignment and playing smart, disciplined defense. That meant that since a blitz was not called, linebackers were reading their keys and going after the ball carrier, not bursting through an assigned hole on the snap.

“Both sides of the ball were handcuffed,” Wilson said. “We didn’t do any blitzing on defense, we played very little man coverage ... we ran some line twists and that was about it.”

The final reason that the statistics in this game are not indicative of the ways that the 4-3 defense can help the Lions next season is simply the fact that it is a new defense. The spring is the time for returning players to brush up on plays and formations as well as to learn new ones. On Saturday, the Lions were exhibiting a very base, simple form of what will end up being very complex with different zone and man schemes in the secondary and blitzes up front.

In the fall, a strong, working knowledge of multiple fronts and an ability to use them against different opponents will be a major asset for the Lions. Saturday was a learning experience, and the Light Blue will be better because of it in the long run.

“There will always be a base front and there’ll be a change-up front,” Wilson said. “One week the base front may be stack and the change-up front may be 4-3 and we might have them vice versa the next week, just depends on how we’re attacked. ... When we get back in the fall, stack will come back into the package, but we wanted to be able to be sound and solid and have the guys be introduced to running some 4-3 stuff in the spring.”