Mike, Sam and Will. Jack, too???

How ’bout we talk a little Defense and come up to date on the “announcer slang speak” as we approach this 2nd weekend of college football. We’ll keep it simple at this point, okay?

In a “4-3″ Defense we have 4 down lineman (1 or both hands on the ground) and 3 Linebackers behind them. The 4 down lineman are on the line of scrimmage and the linebackers are in back of this line. In this way, their position title actually makes sense-Yippee!! Nicknames have been given to these 3 linebackers according to the positions they take on a particular play. The one in the middle is called “Mike” as a nickname using the “M” for “middle”.

The side of the Offense where the Tight End lines up is called the strong side, in other words… the side where most players are concentrated on Offense.  On Defense, the strong side linebacker (SLB) is nicknamed, “Sam” taking the “S” from the SLB term. “Sam” lines up on the side where the Offensive tight end plays, i.e. the strong side. “Will” is the nickname for the weak side linebacker (WLB), taking the “W” from the WLB term. The ”Will” linebacker  lines up on the side that has fewer Offensive guys, i.e. the weak side.

Now in a “3-4″ Defense, there are 3 down linemen and 4 Linebackers. This means IN GENERAL that there are 2 outside linebackers and 2 inside linebackers. Here, the outside Strongside Linebacker is still called the “Sam”. The inside Strongside Linebacker is called the “Mike” and the inside Weakside linebacker is called the “Will”. This leaves the 4th outside linebacker on the weak side without a name, so they called him, “Jack”. I’m not kidding. “Jack” is kind of a blend- maybe a linebacker/Defensive End combo. Therefore, perhaps the “Jack of all trades”!