Stemming has become a popular term in the football coaching world, as teams like the University Of Georgia have mastered the art of movement before the snap. Similar to how offensive coordinators use motions and shifts, defensive coordinators will use stemming. Why do teams stem their defensive front, and what are its benefits?
We’re going to show you everything you need to know about stemming and how you can install it into your defense.
What Is Stemming In Football?
Stemming in football is when the defensive line will move to a different position before the ball is snapped. They will line up in one front, and as the quarterback begins his cadence, they will move to another front.
This is mainly done to cause confusion for the offensive line in hopes of messing up their blocking schemes.
Why Do Teams Stem Their Defensive Front?
Defensive coordinators will stem their defensive front for two reasons: To cause confusion and to get the offensive line to jump offsides.
Cause Confusion For The Offensive Line
When the offensive line gets into their stance, based on their rules, they know exactly who they are blocking. However, when the defensive line moves, it forces the offensive line to think on the fly. This means their blocking rules change, and they must adjust.
If the offensive line has their head down or isn’t keen to make a quick adjustment, they will miss their block, and a defensive lineman will get free.
Cause A False Starts
On short yardage plays, the offensive line is trying to move the defensive line off the football. This means they are loaded up often in a heavy 3-point stance or even a 4-point stance.
However, if the defensive line stems, the offensive line may get thrown off-guard and slightly move, causing a false start. This is a great way for the defensive coordinator to steal 5 yards from the offense, turning short-yardage situations into medium situations.
How To Stem Your Defensive Front
To install stemming into your defense, you’ll need to implement a communication system.
The easiest way to do this is to add a “move to” tag to your play call. This tells the defensive line to start in one call, then when they hear the word “MOVE,” they will go to the second called front.
For example, if you have a front that is called TITE and another called OKIE, it would be called like this:
TITE Move To OKIE [Coverage] [Blitz].
The defensive line knows that they will start in the TITE front, then move to Okie when they hear a “move” call from the linebacker.
Linebacker Move Call
To move the defensive line to the next call, we recommend having the linebacker make a “MOVE” or “SLIDE” call.
Whatever word you use, make sure that it isn’t “GO” or any word the offense may use. This will get you flagged.
The linebacker should make the “MOVE” call when the quarterback begins his cadence. It’s important as the defensive coordinator to practice the opponent’s cadence so you know exactly when to move the defensive front.
We always like to move the front in the middle of the quarterback’s cadence. If you do it too soon, the offense can adjust. If you do it too late, your players will be out of position.
The general rule is earlier is always better than later.
Create One Word Stem Calls
Once your players have gotten the hang of the “Move To” call, you can transition to one-word calls.
This allows you to be a lot more flexible if teams try to hurry you up.
To install one word calls, find word relations that can tie into your system. Using the example above, if we want to move from a TITE front to an OKIE front, we could use word that sound close to each other.
TITE + OKIE = TOKEN
So now we can just yell out “TOKEN,” and the players will know we are going from TITE to OKIE. It helps to eliminate wordy play calls, especially if the offense moves quickly.
Learn More About Stem Calls
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