Michigan Football: Coach’s Corner — Scott Shafer (DC) Coach at Michigan

Posted at 6:00am — 1/13/2008

Michigan Football: Coach’s Corner — Scott Shafer (DC) Coach at Michigan

We have seen Coach Scott Shafer talk three times and have visited him for practice also. He was at Northern Illinois at the time. NIU was very successful then (1996-2003) and their coaches were in big demand. The first time we heard his clinic presentation he was DB coach, and last two he was Defense Coordinator.

Everything we are sharing comes from notes at the clinic or what we witnessed at his practice sessions. We have seen hundreds of guys talk over my 20+ years in coaching, and you can tell that many just show up because they have to. But Coach Shafer impressed the HELL out of the entire room. He was really trying to help us. He was very open, a gave out his card and phone number. He talked about same things all three times.

The Fronts:
One thing he said all three times was not to get hung about fronts, 4-3 , 3-4, or whatever. because it was what you did out of fronts that was key. As most of you know by now, Coach Shafer uses what he calls an “Attack 4-3.” But he also used some 3-4 as nickel, and even occasionally some 4-2. The first thing Coach emphasized each time has being fundamentally sound. He spent at least half of each sessions talking about being, drilling, fundamentals. Those fundamentals included sound tackling, proper hustle and pursuit to the ball, and staying in lanes. Next thing he did was turn to the ball and write in big letters HUSTLE. With hustle he talked about getting as many hats to the ball as possible, getting to fumbles, and never quitting on a play.

Basic Principles:
Some of the basic principals about his defense philosophy were attacking or “stressing” the offense. He said he did not want to be in position of sitting back and letting the offense take fight to the defense — because that would give all advantage to offense. He said he felt it was important for the defense to make the offense make mistakes — and that those mistakes had to be forced. With offenses being so multidimensional, they would pick a defense apart if the defense did not attack them aggressively. You could hear in his voice and his mannerisms that he was serious about this “attack” philosophy. Some coaches just keep the same monotone voice throughout, some you can tell are just acting to try and impress you — but Coach Shafer was serious and genuine. He meant every word he said.

Defensive Keys:

He listed a number of keys that he felt were necessary to the defense being successful.

#1 Each time has stop the run, to make offense as one dimensional as possible. We chuckled when we read the press release it was the exact same thing he told us.

#2 Was creating negative plays, especially on early downs.

#3 Was confuse the offense: he talked about mixing fronts, coverages, and blitzes.

#4 Was to create TO’s. He gave us some drills — chase and punch: first guy en wrap the ball carrier, next man go for ball, etc., to create TO’s.

#5 SCORE. Coach Shafer talked about the defense scoring being a momentum switcher and having an unreal effect on a game.

Shafer at Practice:
At practice Coach Shafer was as detail oriented as any coach I have seen. He stopped practice to correct the smallest detail and it seemed like nothing escaped him. He moved DB’s over an inch, and moved their feet small distances. He explained that 1 inch would become 2 and before you knew it the fundamental positioning would be lost. Coach Shafer even coached up other coaches, making sure they knew exactly what he wanted and why. He demanded 100% on every play/rep from his players. What intensity he showed! Every drill, every little thing was just as important as the big stuff. Not sure of the exact quote, but he said something like: a big thing happening well is nothing more than a lot of little things all coming together — sweat the small-stuff. He did even the small details with passion and fire.

From MGoBlue.com:
Quite familiar with the Big Ten and Midwest, Shafer joins the Michigan staff after spending the 2007 season as defensive coordinator at Stanford. Prior to joining the Cardinal program, Shafer was the defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach at Western Michigan (2005-06). He coached the defensive backs at Illinois in 2004 and began his coaching career as a graduate coach for former U-M assistant coach Bill Mallory at Indiana (1991-92). Shafer spent eight seasons at Northern Illinois, coordinating the defense from 2000-03 and served as the defensive backs mentor his entire stint with the Huskies (1996-2003). In addition, Shafer coached the defensive backs at Rhode Island for three seasons (1993-95). Shafer played quarterback at Ohio University in 1985 and then completed his collegiate career at Baldwin-Wallace. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Baldwin-Wallace in 1990 and collected his master’s degree in education from Indiana in 1993. A native of Painesville, Ohio, Shafer and his wife, Missy, have one son, Wolfgang, and a daughter, Elsa.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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