Texas A&M defensive coordinator John Chavis plays a lot of man coverage in the secondary although it’s more complicated than what it appears on the surface with different rules depending on the routes of the individual receivers.

A&M's defensive fronts make it easier for players like Alonzo Williams to make plays on the other side of the line of scrimmage

The same is true of Chavis’ fronts in his four man fronts that he’s been using going back to his days at Tennessee 20 years ago. He does ask his defensive linemen to get upfield and make plays but he uses their alignments to stop various plays based on the formations that they are seeing.

Before we get into any of the fronts, understand that Chavis does not flip his ends or tackles between strong and weak or field or boundary. They play the left and right side. Thus, the defensive linemen play all of the techniques the same way regardless of where they are aligned so they can play either strong/weak or field/boundary. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll refer to the three technique tackle as an under tackle because they may line up outside the three technique in some alignments.

Chavis’ defenses tend to play more of an outside shade (outside shoulder of the offensive lineman) as opposed to the inside shoulder of that lineman. For example, in the Wide front, the two ends are aligned outside the tackles on either side (hence the term wide). The under tackle is actually on the inside eye of the tackle as opposed to the outside shoulder of the guard.The linebackers can be in an up call which means that they are on the heels of the defensive linemen and the secondary can play any number of coverages behind this front. A&M can run any number of stunts and blitzes out of this front and the secondary can re-align itself after the snap to fill gaps when the stunts change up the front. You’ll see this front in passing situations because the ends come off the ball in space. In addition, A&M can run a stunt with the Will backer going inside and the safeties rotating over to the weak side that effectively gives them an eight man front. The free safety become responsible for the outside and the and the strong safety rotates to the middle of the field.

In the Base front, the weak side end tightens down to the outside eye of the tackle and the under tackle is on the outside shoulder of the guard. Because the defensive linemen are aligned on inside techniques, this is a better front to stop inside zone and inside power.

In the G defense, Chavis takes the base defense and moves the nosetackle from a shade on the center to a inside shade on the guard (hence the term “G” since both defensive tackles are essentially aligned on the guards). By moving the nosetackle from the center to the weakside guard, the defense gains the ability to stop plays to the weak side. This makes combo blocks (where the center and guard double a tackle initially and then one of them moves off to the second level for a linebacker) because the tackles are protecting the inside linebackers.

Finally, A&M will play the Bear front and the Aggies will stem in and out of this front. The nosetackle is basically head up on the center, the under tackle is basically in the gap between the guard and tackle on the strong side, the weakside end moves down onto the outside shoulder of the guard, and the strong side end moves outside. The safeties replace linebackers on or near the line of scrimmage and it’s essentially an eight man front that A&M will play man coverage behind. In addition, with so many people on the line of scrimmage, the Aggies can play three man stunts as opposed to two man stunts.

Overall, Chavis’ fronts are designed to stop certain types of plays depending on an opponent’s tendencies and down/distance situations. However, Chavis’ fronts aren’t just standalone concepts….they are used in combination with stunts to ensure that the defensive linemen are always on the move and attacking upfield. Texas A&M's run defense is already better off than they have been the past few seasons because of these concepts and Arizona State's offense will have a difficult time dealing with them just like the Aggies' offense has throughout fall camp.

