Safety Pressures by the Florida State Seminoles

In 2023, Florida State, led by Adam Fuller defensively, may have run safety pressure more than any other team I’ve ever seen. Today we’re going to break down four of FSU’s biggest games and how they incorporated the safety pressures. Let’s get into it!

Clemson

FSU called safety pressure 14 times against Clemson, but the vast majority of those pressures came in the 2nd half. This includes the double safety pressure Fuller brought twice in the red zone that Saturday, one of which sealed a victory in overtime. 

3rd Qtr | 12:00 | 1st & 10 | 17-17

Clemson motions to a 2x2 formation pre-snap. FSU brings a simulated pressure with the safety from the boundary with cover 3 behind it. The safety comes untouched. With this simulated pressure, the defensive end and tackle will stunt across the tackle and guard’s faces. The Nose has the long stick to set the edge to the field. This edge is shortened when Clemson’s offensive tackle chases the field defensive end when he drops. This is a plus for the Seminoles and helps compress the pocket more. Even though he was rushed, the Clemson QB throws a perfect back shoulder ball to the boundary receiver that is completed in tight coverage for a first down. 

 

3rd Qtr | 6:42 | 1st & 10 | 17-17

On the next drive, FSU brings another simulated boundary safety pressure. This time Clemson has aligned FIB (Formation into the Boundary) and brings the slot to the field in jet motion. Clemson is looking to create flow to the field and throw back to the running back on the rail route. The tight end also runs a delayed crosser back to the boundary as a safety net for the quarterback to work back to. For protection, Clemson runs a play-action gap protection where the center pulls to kick the edge. This is a common play action to complement gap run schemes like counter.  It is designed to get the linebackers to flow towards the puller, which they do here. Typically, a team will rotate the safeties and bring the nickel to create a quicker hitting pressure, but instead FSU has the nickel run with the slot, and the boundary safety comes again. I assume this choice helps the Seminoles keep things simple and play fast – or their nickel is a better coverage guy than the safety. Again, with this simulated pressure, the defensive end and tackle stunt across the tackle and guard’s faces. The Nose has the long stick to set the edge to the field. FSU looks a bit confused here, as the nickel and field defensive end both work towards the jet/swing. I’d assume the field defensive end should drop in the low hole to protect against crossers. FSU struggles to distribute the routes correctly in coverage due to Clemon’s protection action. The rail route is taken by the Will linebacker. The center pulling in protection causes the Mike linebacker to overrun the tight end working back across the field. This is eventually where Clemson’s QB goes with the throw, but because of the pressure in his face from the safety, it’s a poor throw that ends up incomplete. 

4th Qtr | 6:14 | 3rd & 6 | 24-24

Late into the 4th quarter with a tie game, FSU again brings a boundary safety pressure on a critical 3rd and 6. This time, it takes the form of a 5-man pressure with a mugged linebacker. Clemson is aligned in trips and motions to trips bunch with the back strong, creating the threat of a 4-strong concept. Since FSU has a mugged linebacker, it forces Clemson into a “big on big” protection allowing the safety to come untouched. The beauty of this call is how well FSU distributes the 4-strong concept by Clemson. FSU is able to sort the crossing routes with the running back into the flat by banjoing the coverage. The crossers are handled by the nickel, dime, and linebacker that bails after being mugged. The corner waits patiently for the running back working into the flat and Clemson has nowhere to go with the ball. This, along with the safety bearing down hard on the QB, forces Clemson’s QB to go quickly to the 1-on-1 on the backside and underthrow the back shoulder fade/stop.

Miami

1st Qtr | 4:28 | 3rd & 8 | 7-0 FSU

Miami aligns in Trey Off early in the game on 3rd down. Early in the Miami game FSU will use their safety as bait. FSU will walk their weak safety and show pressure. This will cause Miami to slide protect to the safety, opening the A gap to the strong side for the Mike linebacker to blow through sacking the quarterback. I’m not sure why the Miami running back looks to protect to the slide side instead of working to the opposite A gap, but he doesn’t, and it results in a big early sack for the Seminoles. This ends up being a 5-man pressure with Cover 1 behind it. The defensive end to the field will take the tight end and the Will linebacker will trace the running back. By trace, I mean if the back blocks, the Will linebacker will add onto the pressure, and if the back releases, the Will has the back man-to-man. 

 

2nd Qtr | 4:29 | 2nd & 10 | 10-0 FSU

We’ve looked at several instances of safety pressures being successful for FSU; now let’s look at one where defense didn’t execute. Miami aligns in a compressed bunch formation and runs split-zone. FSU brings the weak safety and the Will backer. The safety does not do a good enough job spilling the slice blocker and allows the running back to cut up inside and rip off a big run on 2nd and 10. Since the safety and defensive end are outside of the slice block they have no shot to make the play here. One or the other must spill that block and force the ball to bounce outside to the free hitter. 

3rd Qtr | 14:20 | 1st & 10 | 10-10 

FSU adjusted by bringing the safety pressure to the side of the H-back/sniffer. They do this on 1st and 10 and get an easy TFL (tackle for loss) against the Canes offense. 

3rd Qtr | 5:38 | 3rd & 10 | 20-13 FSU

On a big third down late in the 3rd quarter, the Noles go back to the well and bring the exact same pressure they started the day with. Miami is in an almost identical set, and somehow fails to touch the Mike linebacker again, resulting in immediate pressure on the quarterback. He escapes the pocket and throws to the X receiver, which is broken up by the Seminole cornerback.

Florida

UF game-planned for FSU’s safety blitz better than any team on this list. The Gators always had an H-back ready to slice to the safety, and the running backs were much better in protection than the Canes. Florida State ran it 6 times and hit home once, but since refs are awful, they called  the worst roughing penalty I’ve seen in a very long time. As a result,  this was the only one of the big 4 games down the stretch in which the safety blitz wasn’t an effective tool for Adam Fuller and the Seminole defense. The Seminole defense still  held UF to negative yards in the 4th quarter; we'll talk about why that matters later.

Louisville

Louisville was a huge game for the Florida State defense. This was FSU’s second game without their starting quarterback, but it got even worse when they lost their backup for the night in the previous game. So, was the safety blitz a factor in the ACC Championship? Yes, it was. 

1st Qtr | 7:32 | 3rd & 7 | 0-0

Every third down in this game mattered for the defense. Louisville aligns in 2x2 11 personnel with the back and tight end to the boundary. Louisville runs mesh rail. FSU is in dime personnel with the Mike backer mugged over the center. The Mike backer bails, the defensive line runs a T/E stunt, and the safety comes late. It results in a sack of the QB. Sacks become a common theme, as FSU ended with 7 on the night.

1st Qtr | 1:53 | 1st & 10 | 0-0

On a later drive in the first quarter, Louisville opens on first down with 2x2 11 personnel FIB, and runs zone lock back into the boundary. FSU will bring the boundary safety along with the Will backer into the weak A and B gaps. The running back thinks he has the weak B gap cutback because the safety comes from so deep, but as the running back makes his cutback, the safety is there for a 2-yard gain. 

3rd Qtr | 5:44 | 1st & 10 | 10-3 FSU

For most of the game, FSU has brought the safety on an interior blitz path against Louisville, but on this pressure they allowed the defensive end to cross the face of the tackle for an easy TFL. The defensive end does miss the tackle but holds up the runner long enough that the blitzing safety and Will backer rally to the ball carrier for the TFL. 

3rd Qtr | 1:09 | 1st & 10 | 10-3 FSU

Here’s another example of poor execution on the safety pressure. Louisville runs a popular variation of the triple option: zone left, with the H-back on the arrow. The quarterback can give the zone, pull it, or pull and throw it to the arrow route. On this clip you’ll see a grave error by the blitzing safety. If we break the triple option into the 3 parts stated above, we can see how the safety misses his responsibility. 

• First, the dive. The defensive end is the read key for the dive, he surfs down the line and forces a quarterback pull. He did his job and can now rally to the quarterback. 

• Second, the pitch read. The Mike backer is responsible for the H-back on the arrow off of his gap exchange. He executes this correctly and has the H-back covered. 

• Finally, the Q pull read. The two previous options leave us with the safety, who is responsible for the quarterback.

I always teach my blitzers that they have the outside leg of the nearest back, which in this case is the quarterback. The safety gets excited, looking for a TFL, and overcommits to the back on the zone and blows by the quarterback. The quarterback makes a pull and runs for an easy 8 yards to make it 2nd and short. 

FSU runs a safety pressure 10 times in this game and really only gets burned once on a well-designed screen by the Cardinals. 

“Over the past two games, the Florida State defense has a combined 13 sacks -- and held its past two opponents to zero or negative yards in the fourth quarter.” -Andrea Adelson, ESPN

Conclusion

I don’t know if anyone has the stats, but I can’t imagine another defensive coordinator in the country has dialed up a safety pressure more than Adam Fuller in 2023. In just three games, I totaled almost 36 safety pressures. While safety pressures are seen as a riskier call since you lose a defensive back in coverage, Fuller has done a nice job creating different variations and finding creative ways to drop players in the front 7 into key passing lanes on these pressures. It also doesn’t hurt that FSU was an excellent man coverage team and had a top tier defensive line in 2023. Click here to see all of FSU’s safety pressures from these games, including the pressures I didn’t talk about in this article. 

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