A question about Hybrid Defensive players in Football?

Question

I recently read a article in Yahoo's College football blog about Virginia Tech's Defense. They use "Whip" and "Rover" linebackers. I did some further research and Georgia Tech employs a "Wolf" Linebacker and Bama uses a "Jack" linebacker? Is there a difference in the players or do they all have the same responsibilties?

Answer 1

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The have the same responsibilities, here is an answer I found.

It is not usually referred to as the Rover anymore, as defenses have evolved. In past years (several decades ago) a rover was a strong safety in a 5 scheme ( 5 man line) -- which made him a hybrid linebacker/defensive back.

For example, in a 5-2 Monster Defense, the rover was the "monster". You had a 5 man line and 2 LBs, and the rover/strong safety/monster (or "The Wolfman" as he was known in Joe Paterno's defense of the late 60's/early 70's at Penn State) might line up on the offense's strong side, or on the wide side of the field, or in a position to "key" on the offenses top performer and go wherever he went.

In an older version of the 4-3 defense, the Rover was generally a defensive back who would rotate in a zone to come up and support on runing plays and cover the flats on passing plays.

However, in the 4-3, while the rover was a DB, the Monster was the Middle Linebacker.

You can still find a "rover" at the high school & small-college level, but not much any longer in major colleges.

Source(s):

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind…

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Thanks, Very informative.

Answer 2

what the heck happened to the mike, sam, and will linebackers.

wtf is a whip, rover,wolf, jack LB

Answer 3

some teams use different names for positions like most people think that there is Sam Mike Will as linebackers but you can call them whatever you want really like the defense my high school runs we have strong side and weak side names for every position. ( example the defensive line is usually LE DT DT RE but we use a strong side and weak side being the strong sides are the Defensive End and Nose Tackle and the weak side is the Defensive Tackle and the Rush End