News

No play has annoyed and frustrated defensive coordinators more in the past decade than the run-pass option (RPO). The ability of the offense to seemingly always have an answer no matter what is one thing that a lot of coaches have struggled to find solutions for on the defensive side of the ball. Jacob Gill is the defensive coordinator at Shiloh Christian School in Arkansas, where the team has had a lot of success on defense, and as a team.  In this article we're going to be exploring concepts from Coach Gill's presentation on the 3-Safety Defense HERE. Watch the...

Ever since Tiger Ellison invented the Run and Shoot offense, coaches have been obsessed with using the pass game to find open space in the defense.  A key feature of the run and shoot over the years has been all the different option routes or "choice" routes in the scheme that are designed to make the defender wrong no matter what. For those of you curious about the Art Briles offensive system and old Baylor passing game that lit up defenses in the early-to-mid 2010s, those playbooks featured lots of choice routes that caused opposing defensive coordinators nightmares. Still, for...

Bring pressure on defense is good. Bringing "smart" pressure is even better. The "read blitz" from the three high safety defense is a great way to attack an offense, because it adapts to what happens both before and after the snap of the ball. This can be an effective way to create pressure and disrupt the timing of the offense. Additionally, it can also be a way to surprise the offense and take them out of their comfort zone. Coaches who are looking to add another weapon to their defensive arsenal should consider using a read blitz from the three...

Coach Gill and Shiloh Christian had an issue. The Saints had suffered a loss, a state championship loss. “We ran out of bullets,” he commented, “We were a 4 down, 2 high, middle of the field open, even spacing type of team.” Shiloh Christian, even with the loss, has won 8 football state titles. Their most recent title coming in 2020, so if they felt the need to adapt and look inward, I’m here to listen. This is just a small segment from a great video series Coach Gill put together on this whole process. See more video clips from...

One of your most important jobs as a coach is to make sure you're getting the most out of your players, and you can't do that if you're installing a scheme that asks them to do things they're not naturally good at. This is the problem that Coach Jacob Gill was facing when he was evaluating his own personnel at Shiloh Christian in Arkansas. He wanted the ability to add a 3rd safety to the field and create some different looks with a dime defense on third down, but wasn't sure about the best way to do it.  In this...