Here is video from when we began using the 42 as an every down defense. In those days, you were essentially talking about a "4-4" defense (its all the same). We borrowed heavily from Augustana College and St. Ambrose University when developing our version of it, which was premised on being an 8-man defense. This is certainly a different flavor than the
2-high TCU brand, but its all relative.
The playbook we developed can be found here: "
42 NICKEL" . You'll find the entire playbook with drills, install calendar, playcalls, signals, wristband templates...the whole works (try unhiding some of the sheets in the workbook). Bear in mind, we distilled everything down to tie the entire defense to the coverage ("3" meant Cover 3 with an over front / "6" was loaded zone from a stacked front) which designated the force players. We worked tags and front games off those absolutes. The whole concept became a thrust to vertically pressure the gaps of the offense without blitzing. After visiting spring ball at Western Illinois when Vince Okruch was the defensive coordinator, we stole his attacking
run-through linebacker philosophy that he used with his situational 3-3 package and applied it to our 8-man front.
