Illinois Defense: Fronts and Coverages out of their 3-4 Base defense

The Illinois Defense was one of the best in the country last year. (My full hour analysis and YouTube video is at the bottom)

Heres where they finished under Defensive Coordinator Ryan Walters:

4th Total Defense: 286 yards per game 2nd Points Allowed: 13.8 Points Per Game
9th Rushing Yards Allowed: 102 Per Game 12th Yards Per Rush: 3.4 2nd. 5.6 yards per pass attempt 2nd Opponents yards per play

The unit was impressive all year and very aggressive. They would often crowd the line of scrimmage and play a ton of man coverage. They like to play man free quite a bit and from what i’ve seen bring 5 rushers often when teams throw the football. Again, this ties into their extremely aggressive defensive scheme.

Base Defense-Early Downs 1st and 2nd down

Now, what they do differently is in their fronts.

They are primarily a 3-4 man free team. They play a ton of man to man. I would say more than 50% of their snaps on early downs.

They will play different fronts out of the 3-4 which we will analyze. They are very gap conscious but also very big on trying to get +1 in the run game. They crowd the line of scrimmage what makes it very difficult to run the ball. They slide into an over and under front from their 3-4 personnel

They will be in a 3-4 vs 12 personnel and 21 with a heavy emphasis on man free coverage in the secondary.

Vs 11 personnel you will often see their bear/tite front with man free coverage.

The one I wanted to take a close look at was their change up front. They will often put a LB outside the TE and a SS right in the TE grill vs 12 P and 11 P sets. This front has worked wonders for them in the run game.

Heres the 3-4 base look with the safety up at the line of scrimmage vs 22 personnel. It’s a tight front with a shaded nose.

Here is 12 with the Wing. They slide into a tite front with a shaded nose. . You will see them play this front quite bit. Because they are in man they will often play the LB right in the grill of the TE. That is the player he is responsible to cover.

They easily slide into an tite front or some nmay consider it an under front from their 3-4 personnel. Here it is again as they are in man free vs Michigan. It helps the run game with the change up front.

They also travel with motion as you see the CB go with the WR that goes in motion.

Another picture vs Purdue in double tight 12 personnel.