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Here are two of my favorite [tag]football practice drills[/tag].   The first one is a [tag]fumble recovery drill[/tag].   The second is a defensive [tag]football drill[/tag] to help my players handle fakes and reverses.

Fumble Recovery Drill
I set players up by defensive position.   Linemen with linemen, backers, strong safeties and drop ends together, corners and free safeties together.   I lay tackling dummies length-wise about four or five feet apart.   One man is the defender and must find the ball (which is set behind the offensive player).   The offensive player must protect the [tag]football[/tag].   His objective is to block until the whistle or turn the defender out of the play (topple him over the dummy).

This football drill really gives the boys a sense of having a nose for the football.   They get aggressive attacking the football (on defense) and protecting the football (on offense).

As the defense coordinator for a team that plays in a league where fakes, draws, and reverses happens almost every down, I grew tired of watching my teams get sucked into the fakes and reverses.

I started this drill I call the “Easter Egg Hunt.” I set my defense up against a red shirt offense that runs plays scouted from our opponent for the week. The “hunt” is that the offense plays with an imaginary ball that is handed off and faked. I do this to teach my players to plug holes and make tackles on all the players that have a potential to carry the ball.

It also help keep my players focused on their defensive assignments and not get pulled into a fake.

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