Tackling

This is not a new football scheme, but I think it is an issue which should be addressed:

I recently read an American Football Monthly article which addressed the issue of poor tackling in football today. Many coaches (myself included) get real excited learning about the newest offenses, blocking schemes, and blitz packages. We will spend time teaching our athletes their assignments for the many plays we run, but spend very little time at practice practicing tackling. We are too afraid of the risk of injury. We don't want one of our players to be injured before game day. In a traditional Power I type offense, a player is able to run through a running back because there is no where else for him to go and he is basically served on a platter to an unblocked linebacker. However, with more and more teams moving to a spread offense, this is no longer the case. Now players get the ball in space and it becomes a one on one for the ball carrier and the defender. This is where a lack of practice really hurts. The result has been a lot of missed tackles, a lot of yards after contact, and a lot of offensive dominance. You will hear coaches after a game say that we lost because of poor tackling, but when was the last time you heard a coach say we lost because of a bad scheme? Tackling is one of the basic fundamentals of football and it needs to practiced and practiced no matter what skill level you are at.

I encourage all coaches to continue to study the latest schemes but do not neglect the basics.