Offensive Line Drills and Fundamentals

The University of Iowa

by Reese Morgan
excerpt from 2011 Nike Coach of the Year Football Manual by Earl Browning available at
www.coacheschoice.com

It really is an honor to be here. This is your clinic. If you have a question, raise your hand, and I will
give you anything we do. Regardless of what type of team you are, the same fundamentals will apply.
For 26 years, I coached from junior high school through high school. I learned more from making
mistakes and failing just like all good coaches have done over the years. I have a lot of respect and admiration for the job that you do. You guys are the trainer, the strength coach, you mark the field,
you are the father figure, and you do so many things that are positive for young kids. You have a
huge influence on them. More so than anybody at the college level.

I love my job. Can you believe I am paid to work on football all day? I do not have to teach classes,
I do not have to put up with administrators. It is a great job.

My presentation is nuts and bolts and fundamentals for offensive linemen. That is who we are, and
we are interested in player development. We want to take a player and make him better. We are
not going to try to outsmart somebody. We are going to try to outexecute them.

Three people have had an input in my presentation. The first guy is Kirk Ferentz, our head football
coach at The University of Iowa. Kirk was a longtime offensive line coach at The University of Iowa
with Coach Hayden Fry for many years. Then, he went to the NFL and was a line coach for Bill
Belichick while at Cleveland. He was the line coach and assistant head coach with Ted
Marchibroda with the Baltimore Ravens. Then, Coach Ferentz came back to Iowa, where he took
a chance on me. Everything we do trickles down and comes from Kirk Ferentz and from his
background.

The second guy that had an influence is Joe Moore. Many of the young guys may not know who Joe
Moore is. Joe Moore was the line coach at the University of Notre Dame when they won a national championship. He was the line coach at the University of Pittsburgh when they won a national
championship. Joe coached Hall of Earner Russ Grimm, who is now the line coach for the
Phoenix Cardinals. A lot of Coach Ferentz's stuff came from Joe Moore, who was Kirk's high
school coach.

The third person of influence is Joe Philbin. I do not think anyone in here will know who Joe Philbin
is. Joe was the line coach at Iowa during my first two years when I coached the tight ends. He is
now the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.

Those three guys are the coaches all of this comes from. Also, there might be a few things that I
figured out along the way.

I want to explain the how. I want to explain about the why, but we are going to mostly focus on
the how. I am going to cover what we do at Iowa. This is not the only way to do it. You are going
to see some things that you may not agree with. That is okay. It does not mean that it is either
right or wrong. I am going to tell you how we teach it and why we teach it a certain way. I hope
you have an open mind to that.

Let me start with some general comments:
• Coach people, not positions
• Be simple
• Teach what to do
• Teach how to do it
• Few drills, apply to game

We coach people and not positions. It is important that we do that. Not everybody has the same
learning style. Some kids are very visual learners. Other kids have a kinesthetic sense. They
have to go through that skill and move around to get the feel for it. Some people are verbal
learners. You have to be able to react to everyone's learning style. Some kids do not learn
as well as others.

You may have to take a kid in a little earlier and keep him later and spend time with them.
Everybody wants to coach the all-star offensive lineman. Unfortunately, you do not always
have an all-star offensive lineman. We have to take that lineman in high school and make
him the best lineman we can.

Sometimes we spend most of our time working with those good players, and we do not spend
enough time on those other guys that are an important part of our team. If you can find a way
to include them and make their role of value to where they feel they are a significant contributor,
you have become a master coach. They may not make a huge impact on the field, but if you
can make it to where they feel that they are a better man because they played for you in high
school, then you have done something good for them.

The next thing is to be simple. You are probably going to say there is no way they can be that
simple at Iowa. However, we are that simple. I am not very smart. I did get a 30 on the ACT. I
got a 15 on it the first time and a 15 on it the second time. That adds up to 30.

It is important to teach what to do. What to do really amounts to assignments. Anybody can teach assignments. This guy blocks this guy. This other guy will block this other guy. That is important.
We all have to know how to do that. But, that is only a part of it.

The depth of this presentation is going to be teaching how to do it. The how is teaching the
technique, the fundamentals, and the corrections.

I plan to talk about six drills today. We only run four of the drills every day. We do the same drills
from the very first day of camp, when we are in shorts and T-shirts, until the day before the
bowl game. We do the same exact thing on the drill. It will not change because fundamentals
do not change. These drills apply to the game.

I heard a quote this past summer at the Hall of Fame induction of Russ Grimm. Russ Grimm
was with the Washington Redskins and part of the Hogs offensive line. He is now the offensive
line coach for the Arizona Cardinals. To me, this is what football is all about. A quote by the
late Joe Moore about offensive line play is worthy of reviewing.

PRINCIPLES IN RUN BLOCKING
• Stay square
• Keep your feet underneath you
• Chest on chest
• Create muscle memory/repetition

What do we mean by square? We mean staying square to the line of scrimmage. We tell
everybody to be square to the line. We do not want to move off the line. Why do we want
to be square? It is because the running back has two ways to go off the square lineman.
This is what we learned in junior high football.

You do not want to get overextended and you want to keep your feet underneath you. We
want to have our feet, our chest, our knees, and our toes all in the same line, eventually.
When we make contact initially, we are going to have some momentum forward, but we
want to come into balance or in a balanced position.

This is where we may differ from some of you. We want to get chest on chest. In run blocking,
we want to close the distance between us and the defender. We want to get as close to the
defender as we can. We do not teach leading with the hands. I saw some heads pop up on
that one. We teach old- fashioned shoulder blocking. We want to get our pad on his pad.
After a few seconds, we will get our hands more involved.

In pass blocking, it is just the opposite. In pass blocking, we want to have separation. I do
not want him near me. Those of you who coach the defensive line, what do you teach
them to do once they make contact? You teach them to get their hands up and to separate.

We are trying to create muscle memory through repetition. We are trying to get our eyes,
our brain, and our central nervous system to send a message to our muscles in order to
execute a skill. Blocking is the most complex skill in football. You are teaching someone to
do something they do not know much about doing.

What I would like to spend the rest of my time on is talking about our five keys to success.

FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESS
• Eyes on aiming point
• First two steps
• Vertical leverage
• Horizontal leverage
• Backside knee

Our players hear the same things repeatedly in our team meetings and in our practices.
We are just talking about the fundamentals.

What do I mean by eyes on the aiming point? The eye is a muscle. You are going to train your
muscle to pick out different things. The first thing you are going to do is to try to hit a target on
that defender. You may have a narrow focus, where there is one guy on you, or it may be a
wide focus where you are involved in a combination block between you and another player.
You may have multiple targets. You have to have a real detailed focus on that aiming point.
When I say aiming point and target, I use them interchangeably. Once you start your block,
that aiming point may move. It could stay stationary, but it probably will not. We really have
to start with the eyes.

At Iowa, we are a zone team and we run power. We will run the draw a little bit. Our first two
steps are critical. Let's talk about the first two steps of a base block, or a reach block.
My first step is a position step. I am going to take a lateral, and possibly a small forward step.
It should never be backward.

What is that step for? A position step is to enable you to make your block. Our second step
is a power step. What we are trying to do is to drive our knee through the defender's crotch.
We want to get that second foot in the ground as fast as we can. We want to bring our pad
and our knee at the same time.

Some of our kids ask how big of a step they should take. We do not take a four-inch, a
six-inch, or an eight-inch step. It is simple. We take a step big enough to make the block.
It depends on the defender's alignment. Where is he? If he is head-up on me, I am already
there. If I have a reach block, my target is farther away. I have to step accordingly, in order to
get to my target. I am just trying to get to my target. The wider the defender is, the more
you are going to have to get width and depth.

When I talk about vertical leverage, I am talking about the low man wins. Everybody that
has ever played or coached football has heard that. I want to get lower than the defender.
I am going to be underneath him. I want my pads underneath his pads, and I want my pad
underneath his chin. It is simple. You learn that when you are in junior high football.

When I talk about horizontal leverage, I am talking about having inside leverage. We do not
want our elbows out. If you are watching your linemen block from behind, you should never
see their elbows. We want our elbows inside and in tight. Horizontal leverage is where your
strength comes from. A little guy can control a big guy if he has inside leverage.

I have one of those real man's push mowers. It is not a self-propelled mower used by soft
people. We have some real hills in my backyard. When I get a chance to cut the grass, I
enjoy doing it. I think about inside leverage cutting the grass. I am thinking, keep your
elbows in and bring your knees up. It is physics, leverage, and it is fundamentals. That is
all it is.

The last thing I want to talk about on this, you probably have not heard much before. I want
to talk about the backside knee. If you run your backside knee, and get it in the defender's
crotch, you will have a successful block regardless of where you are. If that backside knee
gets weak and stiff, you have nothing. You want to keep that backside knee moving and strong.

STANCE AND STARTS
• Shoulder width
• Toes slightly out–squat
• Toes to instep relationship
• Bend knees, hips, ankles–catcher
• Hand down, balanced, flat back

We start just as you do on the very first day. We talk about the stance and the start. We
want to get our feet shoulder width apart. We start with a toe-to-instep relationship. If you
are in a right-handed stance, you want to have your right toe intersect your left instep.
We point our toes outward slightly, just as we were getting ready to do a squat. Bend
down just as you are going to get into a catcher's stance. Take your right hand and put
it right out in front of you. You want to have a flat back. You want your knees bent at
power- producing angles. You want to have a good bend at the hips and a good bend at
the knees.

Next, I want to go over a few drills. In the first drill, stance and starts, we have our five
offensive linemen lined up in a stance, one behind the other. They are parallel to the
line of scrimmage (Diagram #1). The idea here is we want to get the second step in the
ground as quick as possible. On the snap, the first step will be a position step with the
right foot across a four-inch line to their right. The second step we want to hit the
ground as quickly as possible on their side of the line.

CHALLENGE DRILL
• Come off ball
• Teach leverage: vertical/horizontal
• Strain through block
• Compete/finish

The next drill is the challenge drill. If you like football, you are going to like this drill
(Diagram #2). There is not a lot of coaching involved here. We are not teaching
fundamentals right now, we are teaching the players to come off of the ball. We are
trying to teach leverage, leverage, and leverage. You cannot be comfortable when
run blocking. You have to strain. It is a physical thing. You have to compete and finish.

This is just a 1-on-1 blocking drill. We tell the defensive lineman to get in a four-point
stance and to stay in that stance until contact. Once contact occurs, the defender has
to fight his tail off and not let the offensive guy drive him back.

We tell the offensive lineman to come off of the ball any way he wants to. We do not
really talk about footwork here, but he better come off low, he better fight his tail off,
and he better bring his knees and drive the defender back five yards. It is trying to
move a guy against his will. If the offensive man comes to a standstill, he can reposition
his hands, keep his elbows in tight, and sink his butt to get started again. He must
keep straining and keep fighting.

This is a great drill for us. Our kids want to do the challenge drill. We will film it and
coach it up. Of the days that we are in pads, we will use this drill about 75 percent of
the time. Everyone will get a chance at the challenge drill.

TIGHT REACH DRILL
• Target playside number
• First two steps
• Aim backside pad
• Elbows in
• Hands up and under
• Run knees
• Finish

The tight reach is nothing more than a base block (Diagram #3). In a tight reach block,
my target is the playside or far side number. We already talked about the first two steps.
The first step is a position step and the second step is a power step. We aim at the
backside pad. We want to bring our pad and our knee at the same time and make contact
on the playside target. I want my elbows in and I want my hands up and under.

I do not want to lead with my hands. My hands naturally come up and under my body. We do
not coach hands until we are into the development of the block. We feel that if you lead
with the hands, you will give him bad habits. If you lead with the hands, you will overextend
and you will be reaching and grabbing. We teach technique. If we see a guy holding, we
will jump on his tail. That is something that we will not allow. We are going to run our knees
and we are going to finish.

We tell the defensive lineman to get into a four-point stance. The reason we do that is
so that we can get low and we can get leverage. We think this is better than using sleds
and shoots because we are blocking a real person. This is the way to go. We line up
the defender's crotch on the line to see if our second step is in proper position. We tell
the defender to anchor to the inside. What that means is the defensive lineman is to
stay there until contact and then he will fight through the blocker's head as if he were
trying to get to the ballcarrier. We coach the defensive linemen up a lot so that we can
work on our proper technique.

We are coaching the first step as a position step and eyes at the aiming point. We want
to get the second foot in the ground at the defender's crotch. We are making contact
with our pads. We want to watch the elbows to make sure that they are in tight. We
then want to run the backside knee and finish. At the end of the block, they start
extending and creating separation. We will run one, two, or three players at a time,
in order to be able to coach them on their technique.

TIGHT REACH WITH A BAG
• Target playside number
• First two steps
• Aim backside pad
• Elbows in
• Hands up and under
• Run knees
• Finish

We are going to do the same drill, but we are going to have a bag holder (Diagram #4).
We are not going to hold the bag, as if any of you have ever held the bag. The reason
that we are using the bag is for two things. Number one is we want the guys to get
confidence in coming off the ball, really exploding, and making contact. If you have a
big soft bag there, they will come off and really hit it. They think this is fun, and they
want to really come off and hit that thing. The second thing is we want them to make
contact with that pad.

We have to teach the bag holders how to hold the bag. We have the bag holder turn
his butt at a 45-degree angle toward the boundary. He is going to squat down and take
his outside hand and put it through the straps of the bag. We are going to get low and
make that 6'6" tall guy get down low to about two or three feet. As contact is made,
we give him some resistance and fight through his head.

We coach our offensive lineman to take his right pad and put it right on the aiming point.
He has to keep his eyes on the aiming point because it will probably move. We tell him
to take his right hand, as he is making contact, and put it up and underneath the bag.
We want to put our hand underneath the bag in on the defensive player's chest. By
putting that hand up and under onto the defensive player's chest, it has put him chest
to chest with the defender. We have made contact, we have leverage, and we are inside.
The elbows have to stay in so we maintain leverage. It is important to bring that backside knee.

WIDE REACH DRILL
• Target playside armpit
• First two steps
• Aim backside pad
• Elbows in
• Hips down, playside arm, leverage
• Run knees
• Finish

This drill is for blocking on the perimeter play or outside play (Diagram #5). In this drill,
we have the defender's inside foot lined up with the offensive player's outside foot. With
my first step, I want to gain width and depth. I cannot go lateral because then I would
have to cross over in order to reach my target. I have to gain some ground with my first
step, and I am working to get to his crotch with my second step. I am going to aim my
backside pad with my elbows in. We want to have our hips down, and as we get into
the block, we will extend our playside arm. We are going to shoulder block the defender
for about three seconds. We want to keep our butt down, run our knees, and finish.

Things do not always go as we plan them, or as we drill them. It is not always going
to be clean. There are so many variables in football. If that guy is running, just take
him with his momentum and drive him out of the play. Keep running and keep those knees
moving.

THE BLADE DRILL
• Fundamentals of combo block
• Progression: 2 vs. 1/2 vs. 2
• Pad under chin
• Elbow in/flat back
• Foot to foot/hip to hip
• Drive knees vertical
• Come off for linebacker

The blade drill is nothing more than how we would teach the combination block (Diagram #6).
We will start out with the fundamentals of it. What we are going to do is get our two offensive
players with their hips together and on each side of the line. We have the defender with his
|crotch on the line. We will go from a stance and drive him back 10 or 15 yards down the field.
The next progression is two versus two by adding a linebacker to the mix. We probably will
not put a linebacker into the drill until after the first week of practice because we want to
get movement. We will teach the scoop and slip blocks at a later time in practice. These are
the fundamentals of this block.

The main thing is to keep foot to foot and hip to hip. There should not be any space
between the two offensive players. Our focus is getting the feel of getting hip to hip and
moving the blocker back. We do not want our guys to get their butts separated. We would
like our offensive linemen to both step with their inside foot first. The reason we call it the
blade drill is because it is like the blade of a snowplow.

When we add a linebacker, we have him lined up about five yards from the defensive
lineman. As the double-team gets to about a yard of him, we ask him to take a side. The
offensive lineman to that side will pick him up. This drill is just to get the feel of a
double-team block. We will work on the specific fundamentals of the scoop, slip, and the
sting later in practice. The big problem we have is getting off of the double-team block
too soon. That is why we go 2-on-1 to begin with. There is no one to go off. You want to
get movement.

We were having trouble a couple of years ago of blocking second-level defenders. Our
guys are big, fat guys that like to eat. Now we are asking them to go out and block an athlete.
How do you teach that? I went back and got all of Coach Ferentz's drills when he was the
offensive line coach back in the 1980s. I went through every one of those drills.

I found this drill that Joe Moore had taught him. We have a linebacker block drill, where we
are just going to do a tight reach block with a bag from a distance (Diagram #7). We hold
the bag down low, just as we do in the other bag drill. We are going to be about five yards
away from the defender. We are going to coach technique. We are going to have the
offensive lineman come off the ball, sink his hips, and get there, and then we are going
to aim our pad under his chin. We are going to bend and then just run our knees. The
big thing is to stay balanced. We have done a good job of blocking linebackers in the
past two years. I believe this drill is one of the big reasons.

The blocks drill is a fundamental drill. We are running our number one offense against
our number one defense (Diagram #8). We start out with a tight end, right tackle, and
right guard, and put them on the hash mark. The defense has their Sam linebacker, a
defensive tackle, and defensive end against them. In the middle, we will have a right
guard, a center, and a left guard. They will have their two down tackles and a Mike backer.
On the other hash mark, we will have a left tight end, a left tackle, and another left guard.
They will block a 3 technique, a 6 or 7 technique, and another linebacker.

We have a manager at quarterback and a manager in the tailback position. We will run the
drill on one side, then the middle, and then the other side. You can really work on
fundamentals during this time, because you have good offensive players on good
defensive players. I will make a hole call so they know whom to block and I give them the
cadence. The defense reads the running back and the heads of our offensive linemen.
We are going live on both sides of the ball. Everyone spreads out so nobody gets hurt.
We call it our "blocks drill." We run this for about eight minutes and get 35 to 40 reps
out of it. Each group will have a chance to go a couple of times. The guys just rotate
themselves through.

Everything that I have talked about today is all fundamentals. Ultimately, though, what it
comes down to is effort.

In summary, it has been an honor to be here. We are very humbled at Iowa. If there is
anything that we can do for you, do not hesitate to give us a call. Thank you for your
attention. This has been a lot of fun for me.