Summer Project: End Of Discussion
For safeties, getting at the right level is what summer is about
Mike Brohard
Coaches, like parents, reach a limit. They talk about something until they’re blue in the face and they don’t want to talk about it anymore. They want it handled. End of conversation.
Colorado State defensive coordinator Freddie Banks – who oversees the safeties – is no different. When fall camp starts, he’d like a specific subject off the table.
Pad level.
“You really have to train it over and over, and they have videos of drills they can do that we do every day when we’re not in town. Once we get to fall camp, it’s too late,” Banks said. “We want to train it into them so we’re just correcting in fall camp. You see some guys that may do it sometimes, but when you’re good at it and it’s a part of you, there’s more times you do it than not. We were the opposite. When we talked about it, we had good pad level. When we didn’t, they didn’t have great pad level and you weren’t efficient with your feet.
“It's so it becomes second nature, that’s why we’re training it this summer. I don’t want to have to talk about it very much from here on out. You want to train it, so what I always talk about is it’s a part of them. We can teach them, but if it’s not part of them, then you have to keep reminding them. We want it to be part of them when they walk out on the football field.”
The players get it. Pad level is not a cookie-cutter formula, either. It is different for each and every one of the safeties, based on their body types and height, but all of them need a certain level of forward lean. For Henry Blackburn, who is taller, he may stand a little higher. Jack Howell really needs to learn forward, Banks said, and neither formula works for Tywan Francis, who is lower to the ground.
They all know what they need, and just as important, they all know what the others need. When Banks isn’t on the field, as is the case in the summer, they have to rely on each other.
“The things I notice are Henry is a little taller, so by nature, mine’s going to be lower than his,” Francis said. “How we play, I may be comfortable playing a little lower because I’m shorter and I won’t take false steps. It allows me to be more precise in my movements. It’s a conditioning plan. It’s practice and load. Once you’re tired and you can mentally lock into your pad level, it’s a mental thing, a pre-snap read, before every drill, every rep, you want to take a deep breath and think am I low enough, am I comfortable. It may be uncomfortable at first, but the more you rep it being low, it gets easier all the time.”
Francis said he’s not sure any defensive back will ever have it down perfectly 100 percent of the time, but they still strive to reach the goal. The more they work on it, the more it becomes like muscle memory, and they can reach the point Banks spoke of, where it is just part of what they do.
It is something they can all work on by themselves, and some of the tools to correct issues come during s strength and conditioning work. But Blackburn said the most beneficial sessions are during captain’s practices when they are all together and can critique each other. They keep a watchful eye out for what their teammates are doing so they can stop a bad habit before it become ingrained.
Those two things make a DB a lot better player, and those are two things guys in the NFL work on and guys in Pee Wee work on and we work on at Colorado State, is having eyes in the right place and having the pad level low to get out of a break quicker.Henry Blackburn
“When we do our DB drills, we’re always focused on keeping our pad level low, whether that’s in and out of our breaks, transitioning or sliding into the box,” Blackburn said. “He wants us to keep our pad level low, so some of the things we’ve been working on is our flexibility with Coach Hope Nepstad and our full range conditioning with coach Dan Hislop. Pretty much, we’re trying to be as flexible as we can to the point we can maintain that pad level, not just throughout the play, but throughout the entire game and not see a raise in or pad level. We want to be fast in and out of our breaks. The low man always wins in football, so what want to do is implement that in our brains in the summer so when the season comes, we’re trained on that.
“We work on it all the time, and one way we track it is through each other. We hold each other accountable. In the middle of a rep, you can’t feel yourself raise, but your teammates will see it. Other safeties and DBs on the team will tell us to get down. We’re going to be constantly reminding each other of our coaching points. At captain’s practices, there are no coaches out there, so that will just be us, so we have to make sure to hold each other accountable and focus on that and each other.”
Banks has told his group that if they catch every ball thrown to them by the opposition, they’ll rank in the top three in the conference. But if they can make plays because they have good pad level, they’ll lead the Mountain West.
It’s a heck of a carrot to dangle in front of them, and it’s something they can correct on their own if they pay due diligence. The base is pretty much the same, telling them all to get into a basketball stance, which he says most everyone can do. Then it’s pulling the feet in tighter and getting the arms at a 90-degree angle. Boom, that’s pad level, and they can scrap the old-school way of telling players to drag their arms on the ground.
Like he was taught. His action plan was for them all to have it down by the time fall camp starts on Aug. 5.
“The goal is to be there sooner. It’s one of those things you never just lock down for real, because if you look at defensive backs at the NFL level, some of them are pretty high in their pad level,” Francis said. “It’s a constant progression. I’m not sure it’s something you’re ever going to lock down. It’s like a backpedal, you want to make sure it’s precise year later year, start at the top of the foundation and get to the bottom.
“If you’re disciplined enough to keep your pad level, you’ll be disciplined enough to keep your eyes. They coincide; it’s not hand-in-hand, but if you can do one right, you can do the other right.”
So as a group, they’ve somewhat made it a joint pursuit and a group project. Come back with correct pad level and have their eyes right. They know the assignment and the day it is due.
Because it requires constant training, the goal is to work on it daily. And the football field is the perfect place to set checks and balances as the goal is to do whatever they can do to make the teacher happy.
“Two things every DB at every level focuses on is pad level and their eyes being in the right place,” Blackburn said. “Those two things make a DB a lot better player, and those are two things guys in the NFL work on and guys in Pee Wee work on and we work on at Colorado State, is having eyes in the right place and having the pad level low to get out of a break quicker.”
The last thing they want to hear in August is Banks telling them their pad level is wrong. And the more he has to say it, the madder he’s going to get. Fall camp is hard enough as it is without having to deal on a coach who is fed up with repeating himself.