Wyomissing has spent years fine-tuning its defensive approach; the success is ‘no accident’

Weeks before Wyomissing won the PIAA Class AA championship in 2012 its perfect season was in peril.

The Spartans found an offense they couldn’t slow down. Schuylkill Valley, using a Spread passing attack, went up and down the field against them. Kyle Beissel threw for a program-record 317 yards, part of a 480-yard total output.

It took a short touchdown run by Alex Anzalone in the closing seconds to save the Spartans, 37-33.

Seven weeks later Wyomissing completed the only 16-0 season in Berks football history.

Not long after Spartans coach Bob Wolfrum went about addressing the problems Schuylkill Valley’s Spread caused. He used a connection at West Point — he son Andy was coaching the Preps team at the time — and huddled with coaches on Army’s defensive staff, picking up tips to stop the Spread.

Wolfrum and his staff have returned many times since, often twice during the offseason, for clinics and private chalk talks to fine-tune their defense and adjust to ever-changing offensive schemes.

“It’s invaluable,” Wyomissing linebackers coach Dave Outland of the tutorials.

When Wolfrum learned his team would be moving to Section 4 of the Lancaster-Lebanon League this season he knew it would face Cocalico, which runs an Option offense — a challenge for any defense to stop. Not long after he and his defensive coaches sat with Army’s defensive coaches to learn how to stop it.

When the teams met for the first time this season the Spartans stuffed the Eagles: The No. 2 rushing team in the league was held to minus-12 rushing yards in the first half. Wyomissing won 38-7, limiting Cocalico to its lowest point total of the season.

The Spartans have allowed fewer points than any of the other 36 teams in the Lancaster-Lebanon League and held seven of their 13 opponents to season scoring lows.

Last week, in a 21-19 win over Danville, they held the Ironmen 28 points below their scoring average. The week before in a 63-7 win over West Perry they held the Mustangs 36 below their average. A week earlier they held the highest-scoring team in Hamburg history 31 points below its average.

Wyomissing capped its perfect run through Section 2 with a 21-0 win over Lampeter-Strasburg, a team that averaged 38.1 points in its other 11 games this season.

The Spartans (13-0) will be challenged again Saturday when they meet Neumann-Goretti (10-3) in a PIAA Class 3A semifinal at the Germantown Super Site at 1.

It would be a surprise if the defensive staff can’t come up with an answer to stop the Saints. They did a year ago in a 42-6 win at this juncture.

Goretti, with its starting quarterback injured, came out in a Wildcat and went down the field for a touchdown on its first possession.

The Wyo defensive staff made a quick adjustment, brought safety Charlie McIntyre into the box for added run support, and the Saints didn’t score again.

Wyomissing, which leads the Lancaster-Lebanon League in scoring and total defense, almost always lines up in a 3-4, a basic defense with three linemen and four linebackers. What makes it so effective is that it has more wrinkles than a Shar Pei puppy.

They’ll change coverages and blitz packages to match up with the offensive scheme and personnel they’re facing but disguise it the best they can. They don’t tip their hand by making personnel adjustments suited for down and distance: The same 11 guys are out there on first-and-10 and fourth-and-inches.

Wolfrum adopted a lot of defensive principles from former Army defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, who encouraged different defensive packages for different offenses: Spread, Option, Wing-T, Read-Option.

Bateman referred to them as “buckets” — alignments, coverages and blitzes that could be applied to each situation.

“With all the different stuff that’s out there now you can’t play a base defense like we used to and stop everything people do,” Wolfrum said. “When we’re playing an Option team, we’re still in a three-man front but it doesn’t look anything like when we’re playing a Wing-T or Spread. We have calls for each. That has made us really tough defensively.”

Indeed. Good as the Spartans were on defense when they won a state title in 2012 they’ve been much better the past three seasons when they’ve gone a combined 37-2.

This year’s defense is allowing fewer points, total yards and rushing yards than the unit that included Anzalone, the Class AA Defensive Player of the Year and current Detroit Lions linebacker, and held the Quips to a season-low 14 points.

It’s hard to say which of the past three defensive units has been Wyomissing’s best. This year’s team, which features Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 4 Linebacker of the Year Matt Kramer and five other all-league picks, is allowing a mere 2.5 points in the first half, fewer than the past two years.

Last year’s defense, which included All-State linebacker Jack Miller and All-State picks Nevin Carter and Amory Thompson at cornerback, allowed the fewest total yards, lowest completion percentage and lowest passing efficiency rating of the past three or the 2012 squad.

The 2020 defense, which featured five All-State picks — Zach Zechman, Darren Brunner, Evan Niedrowski, Steve Olexy and Jordan Auman — allowed the fewest rushing yards, yards per carry and posted five shutouts in 10 games.

The Spartans are so good because they’re so prepared. Wolfrum insists his defensive players are ready for anything they face. All of the defensive “buckets” are put in place long before the pads go on in August.

“Bob wants everything in (in the summer) so they’ve seen it,” said defensive assistant Tom Baldwin. “When we get to it (during the season), they’ll know it.”

“We have a defense (ready) for everything (we’re going to see),” said defensive backs coach Andy Siggins. “If you have a team trying to slam it down your throat, what’s your defensive respone going to be?

If a team is spread out like (Danville) and throwing the ball all over the field, what are your defensive answers?”

Wyomissing’s staff is structured differently than others. There is no Defensive Coordinator. It’s a committee effort that includes Siggins, Baldwin, Outland, Jack Paris, Al Silveri and Steve Brunner — three of them former head coaches.

Baldwin, Paris, Silveri and Wolfrum, combined, have over 200 years of football coaching experience. Think about that for a moment.

“The success is not an accident,” Outland said.

Siggins, a former Muhlenberg quarterback now in his 17th season on staff, breaks down opponent film and has it ready for a staff meeting each Sunday night. He identifies every formation a team uses, how often they use it, which plays they run out of it and the personnel changes that point to specific plays.

Paris writes down each on a huge whiteboard in the coaches room. The staff huddles and talks out how to defend each play. Their answers are posted on another huge whiteboard on the opposite side of the room. When the team meets for its first chalk talk of the week the next day the coaches have their defensive plan of attack in place.

“There are no egos involved,” said Outland. “It’s all about solving problems that the offense sends your way, finding a solution for everything.”

Baldwin, in his 40th season on staff, says Wolfrum allots an equal amount of practice time to defense; that’s key. Most teams, he said, spend more time practicing offense.

By game-time the calls are all rote. The defensive staff knows what coverages and blitzes it will use as soon as the offense lines up.

Baldwin and Paris view the game from up top, in or above the press box. They relay what they see and make suggestions to coaches on the sidelines. Siggins takes input from the other coaches, digests it all, makes a final call and signals in the coverage.

Things don’t always go according to script, such as the District 3 championship game against West Perry. The the Mustangs threw out a formation Wyomissing wasn’t ready for, overloading one side with receivers. They scored on the opening drive — the first team to score in the first quarter against Wyomissing all year.

Siggins and other coaches quickly checked their iPads, reviewed West Perry’s formation and plays, and adjusted on the fly. The Mustangs didn’t score again.

Wyomissing is especially adept at pressuring the quarterback with blitzes or, in Wolfrum’s terminolgy, “pressures.”

“The quarterbacks have gotten so good at finding receivers that if you give ’em too much time they’re gonna find somebody,” Siggins said.

Wyomissing will send a linebacker or cornerback on a blitz at any time — sometimes against an expected running play in order to disrupt blocking. Siggins has a strong of sense of when to call them and where to attack from. Wolfrum’s a believer that a heavy pass rush can make a top quarterback average.

“You can tell how well-coached some of these LL teeams are, because their quarterback or their linemen are looking for our pressures now,” Siggins said. “Once we know we have their attention, it’s fun to play with it. Show that you’re coming, then don’t. That takes your game to a whole new level.”

The Spartans have been at a high level fore a long time, in large part because their defense has managed to stay a step ahead in this constantly evolving game of cat and mouse.

“Defense the last couple of years, that’s been our bread and butter,” Wolfrum said. “We don’t get scored on a lot. It’s (having good) personnel, obviously, but it’s our X’s and O’s, too. I’m really proud of the way our staff has been willing to learn that stuff and the adjustments they make during games.”