EPISODE 1: WHAT MAKES A GREAT PASS RUSHER?

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The #1 question that I get asked is, "Coach Rolle, how can I be the best pass rusher?". We're breaking down the foundational core of the Pass Rusher.
What's up? Big dawg this is Coach Rolle at Five Star Linemen Academy. I like to say this is my first podcast and I'm excited about it because I get a chance to do what I absolutely have a passion for and my passion is the trenches. I absolutely love to watch my Big Dawgs play in the trenches. I love it. I love analyzing it down to the inches, down to every movement that defensive linemen make. I love to look at the decisions they make. I love to look at the moves they choose to do. I just love watching. My defensive linemen or my outside backers rushing the quarterback. That is my absolute passion and to be able to do this, to do what I love to do is an absolute dream of mine. So, I'm excited about this podcast. The first question that I want to address is a question that I've gotten quite a bit and that question is Big Dawg,

"What makes a great pass rusher?". And man, if it was that simple that we can package that answer, put it in a powder form, mix it with some water, put it in a blender and drink it and there it is. Everything we need to be a great pass rusher. We just consumed it. If only it was that simple, but it's not. It's not an easy answer because to be a great pass rusher starts with you. In my opinion. I've trained a lot of and I continue to train a lot of defensive linemen all over. Professional guys. Collegiate players, high schoolers. Even middle schoolers. I train them all. If you want to get better then I'm here to help you get better. The answer to that question, isn't it a one size fit all answer. I've seen guys 6'5" that are dominant in the nfl, college, high school. 6'7", but I've also seen guys 6'0" and 5'11".

Do great things in the trenches. You know we like to rely on our size. We like to think that just because I have the perfect size or my arms are very long and, my hands are big and I'm fast or I'm very strong, but that's what's gonna make me a successful pass rusher. Okay? That's not true. That's not true at all. None of those things. Nothing guarantees a success as rushers. The only thing that comes remotely to a guarantee is our mentality, your attitude, your appetite. What is your passion? What is that thing in you that drives you to get up in the morning, that makes you try to figure out ways to make yourself great. That's to me is the start to know how to do all of these pass rush moves to be strong and to be fast and to be athletic and have great agility and "know how".

That's the beginning, but we forget sometimes that we have to ignite those things and make those things work for us. When I get asked this question, I like to use the metaphor of a vehicle, a car, a truck, a van, pick one. With these vehicles, they have everything that it needs to function well to be efficient. The job of that vehicle is to move you around to get you from one place to another. Some of those vehicles, responsibilities and jobs are to carry certain things is to carry a load. Some of those jobs have vehicles is to transport other vehicles. Sometimes it is the pulll, another vehicle, or if you're driving across the country and you're, you're carrying your luggage and your carrying your things with you. That vehicle has the power to do that. These vehicles have the ability to do what they have been designed to do.

The only thing is is that none of those vehicles work until you turn on the car until you stick your key in the ignition and you ignite that vehicle. Unless you ignite that vehicle, the vehicle will not move. It will not function until you ignite it. You put the key in the ignition and you turn it on. When guys come to me and they tell me, coach, I'm big and I'm strong and I squat this and I bench pressed that and yes, those things are important. You must be strong to play in the trenches. You must be quick and agile and flexible to play in the trenches. You must have great technique to play in the trenches. There's a lot of things that you must have, but if you don't ignite the "animal" in you, none of those things mean nothing, none of those things can actually help you be productive and successful.

If you don't ignite that "animal" in you, that "dawg" in you. D.A.W.G. driven attitude, wills, greatness. You want to be a great pass rusher. You want to be a great person, a great player, a whatever that might be. You've got to look in the mirror and find that answer because that's where the answer is. The answer is in you, Big Dawg! You got to find that answer. Stop looking for what you don't have and identify what you do have and ignite what you have. I've seen vehicles with three wheels and get the job done. I've seen we see motorcycles with two wheels and get the job done. Everybody does not have to be the same, same size, same height, same speed, same agility. We're seeing players now that are playing with one hand as opposed to two, and we say, that's amazing. That's amazing. Why? Because it takes two hands to play great football, to be a great pass rusher says who?

Of course everybody would like to have all their limbs to be successful. However, does it mean that I can't be successful if I don't have everything that I need? Absolutely not, because the one thing that you need to be great is within you. You have to ignite what you do have. There are some people that have everything that they need but will not or cannot ignite what they have. Their vehicle never turns on because they're forgetting that even though you have everything in place, you have your four wheels, you have your engine, you have your exhaust pipes, you have your steering wheel, you have your gasoline, you have all the functioning pieces that you need to be productive and successful. However you're forgetting one thing Big Dawg. You've got to turn the car on. You have to ignite the vehicle. You've got to ignite the animal and part of that part, of the ability to ignite the animal in you, starts with your attitude. If you take the word attitude and you give it a numerical value, that means you give it a number value for every letter, for example, A is one and B is two and c is three. But you take the word attitude, A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E, and you give each letter a numerical value. I want you to do that and I want you to add all the letters up in the word attitude.

Now some of you know where the ads up to and when you do the map, Big Dawg, you're going to see that attitude. When you give the word a numerical value to the word attitude equals 100. What do you think that means? Some people say it's a coincidence. Some people say, oh, that's just a coincidence. It doesn't mean anything. I don't see it that way. I think that the fact that the word attitude equaling up to a hundred is giving me an answer is telling me something that is just my thoughts, but I believe that attitude plays a 100 percent into what you will and will not become.

Can I be a successful pass rusher in this league, in high school, in college, right now on this play? Check your attitude. Can I be a great player in the trenches, but I'm only 5'11", 5'10", 6'0", 6'2"? Can I be productive with what I have. I can't tell you that answer. Check your attitude. What does your attitude say? Your attitude plays a 100 percent into what you will or will not become. If you don't become a successful pass rusher, It's not because you didn't have the proper technique. It's not because you weren't strong enough, it wasn't fast enough. I guarantee you that the number one reason why you are not a successful pass rusher is because of your attitude. Watch this Big Dawg. You can also switch the word attitude with appetite. What's your appetite? What do you crave? What do you want?

What's your "appe-tude"? What's your appetite? Do you have an appetite to be successful? How bad or how hungry are you really? Have you ever been in a situation where you have really been hungry, where you have not eaten and you want to eat? You're not eating because you don't want to eat, you want to eat, but the problem is it's that you don't have food available to you. That's a different kind of hunger. When you are hungry and you have money in your pocket and you just haven't gone to go get something to eat yet that's a different kind of hunger. That's a different kind of pain that you have. You know that that's the pain that you're going to resolve rather quickly because you actually have the money to go get you something to eat, just a matter of time. But what, what happens when you're hungry and you don't have the money to eat, to go buy you something to eat? Now what? That's a different kind of hunger because now you are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you eat. Well Big Dawg, are you craving success as a pass rusher? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to eat?

See, that's where it starts. I think this generation, they're working a little backwards. They're watching these guys make great plays and do great things on the football field. However, don't know the stories of these young men that are out there playing on TV and knowing where they come from. I don't know if they know the hunger pains these men have had to deal with and if you call one up right now, and say, "Big Dawg, what's your motivation and what is your purpose behind what you do and why are you such a great pass rusher?". They're going to say that they've had great coaches. They're going to say that they have great teammates, but let them talk just a little bit longer and they are going to talk about their childhood. They're going to talk about the things they didn't have. They're going to talk about those moments that they were picked on, where they were considered not good enough and not great enough.

They're going to talk about how they came to a crossroad and how they had to figure out and decide for themselves at that moment what they would become. ATTITUDE. At that moment, their appetite changed. They decided to crave to be great and it wasn't about being perfect. When you're hungry, you don't have to be perfect. To go, to go get something to eat. Matter of fact, it might be the fact that you're imperfect that's causing you to go hungry, but at that moment it does not matter. What's most important is that you eat. Is that you do whatever it takes to eat.

Ask these men. Have conversations with these great pass rushers and I'm willing to bet you that there is a motivation that causes their passion to be great. Which makes what they do great because of their appetite or their attitude. I know that's not the answer that a lot of my Big Dawgs were looking for. They want me to say it was a sweep, is that speed sweep that causes you every time to get a sack. That's not true. Oh, it's that quick swim? The quick swim is what does it every single time against a slow offensive tackle? That's not true. It's not always true that chop club rip gets them every time. That's not always true. It's not necessarily just the move. It's the attitude behind the move. When you have the right attitude and you're driven by your appetite, remember D.A.W.G. means to me, Driven Attitude

Wills Greatness. That you out "will" your opponent. What makes you out "will" your opponent, you're driven attitude. When you have a driven attitude, which wills greatness, a lot of times even if the move wasn't perfect because you had a "will" stronger than the guy across from you, it's enough to get the job done. And sometimes, we'll look at a pass rusher and say, "Look what he did. He, he got the sack because he did a quick swim or because he sweeped them or because he chopped club ripped them or cross chopped him.". That wasn't necessarily the mood. Matter of fact, if you go back and look at a lot of statistics, go back and look at the sacks over the last three years and look at how many of those sacks were clean. Now when I say clean, what I'm saying, look at how many of those sacks happen on the first move.

That percentage, Big Dawg, is small. It's a small percentage. The larger percentage and the kind of sacks that we saw the last three years are the second effort sacks. The first move worked kind of. He's still on me. What do I do? Do I give up and say, Oh man, that move wasn't clean, so I'm gonna. Shut it down. No! They tried the first move and with that first move that offensive linemen was still there. So here comes the second and third move. Oh, so your effort sacks, those sacks where you see guys with great attitudes and they're hungry to eat, to feed their families. They're hungry to continue to get scholarship money over the course of the years. They want better for themselves. The attitude, the attitude you'll see in their effort and you'll see them continue to do whatever it takes for them to do to get to the quarterback.

Anytime. Anytime you say or you see a guy try again and again and again and again. That's, that's attitude. That's his mentality. That's his appetite. That's what makes great players. That's what makes great pass rushers, is the attitude, And you know what, if you actually go back and look at that pass rusher, that defensive lineman or that outside backer and you look at the course of four quarters, you're going to probably see them rush the quarterback probably 20, 30 plus times. Now, that depends on the offense, but quite a bit. How many of those times do they get to the quarterback out of the 20, 30 plus pass rushes they've had over the course of four quarters. If a defensive lineman in the NFL gets one sack a game, that is superb. That's not good. That is superb. What kind of mentality do you have to have to attempt to rush your quarterback over 20 to 30 times, probably more depending on the offense you're going against, and you walk away from that game with one sack which is superb or probably no sack that game.

What kind of attitude do you have to have to keep coming back over and over again without a sack on one? I'll tell you what kind of mentality you have to have. That is a pass rusher, who is hungry. Who has an appetite. Who will not stop until he gets what he wants. That is a patient, mature, advanced, elite pass rusher who understands the art of rushing. We want a sack every single time we put our hands in the dirt and there's nothing wrong with wanting one. It's the want and the will that actually gets us there. But, but we are our attitudes allows us to line ourselves back up and keep coming again and again and again until we get what we want. What makes a great pass rusher? That's that pass rusher that keeps coming back. Every play, every series, every quarter, every game until he gets what he wants. Whatever move he had to do, whatever drills he had to do, exercises, whatever film he had to analyze, it does not matter. It's the attitude. It's the attitude that causes a pass rusher to be great. I'm sorry Big Dawg, but you have to place the attitude before the arsenal. You cannot allow your success to lay in your weapon.

If you use a particular weapon or a pass rush and it doesn't work, does that mean you're not a good pass rusher? No. That's not what that means. That means you have to choose another weapon because you are a great pass rusher and that's why I'm starting this answer with attitude, not with the pass rush move. Not with what's in your arsenal, but with the attitude. Because when you have the right attitude, you'll find the right arsenal. When you have the right attitude, you'll find the right weapon. Why? Because your attitude will not stop searching until it finds the right weapon. It's in your attitude. You will get to the quarterback. You're just trying to figure out which weapon is best, but I'm going to get there one way or another. I'm going to find a way to get there because my trust is not in the move, it's in me.

It's in me. It's in what is in what I want to do. It's in my appetite, it's in my attitude. I'm going to find a way to get there because that's what I want. That's what I crave. To be a successful pass rusher starts with you. Like I said earlier, look in the mirror and that's a great start. Now, once you've done that, now let's talk about the kinds of moves you can do. Now that you know who you are, a little bit more about yourself as opposed to looking across from you and trying to figure out how good you're going to be. What does he have to do with you? As far as I'm concerned Big Dawg, he has nothing to do with what you will or will not become. Remember what you will and will not become what you do and don't do lies in you, not him, not them.

You. When you look within yourself and identify who you are and who you are not, that's the beginning and a very important beginning, might I add. Now, are you stronger? Are you quicker than you are strong? Are you strong and quick? Are you long? Are you not as long? Are you short? Are you wide? Now that you know who you are, let's find out your strength. Listen, it's almost like talking to Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. If I were to have this conversation, a conversation, and I would have, if I were to sit across from these two great boxers that I had the privilege of watching growing up, I didn't see Muhammad Ali a lot in person. I did see a lot of Mike Tyson. I was in the Mike Tyson era. But, I recognize that these are very, very two great boxers in their own right. Mike Tyson is not the tallest, Mohammed Ali is. I don't think Mike Tyson is over six feet, Muhammad Ali is. Obviously, Muhammad Ali has a long wingspan. Mike Tyson does not. Muhammad Ali is longer. I don't know if he's quicker than Mike Tyson, but he's quick, light on his feet.

Mike Tyson has a very strong lower body, huge chest cavity, very powerful and explosive boxer. They're both successful, but they're both different. They're different. Yet, they were both successful. Even if you look at Muhammad Ali's era, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, there are lots of different, uh, boxes during that era, but they were all successful in their own way. Muhammad Ali had a longer reach, a quick jab. Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee. Rumble, young man rumble. That was Muhammad Ali. Mike Tyson got in you. He was the aggressor and if you allowed him to get past your jab, he was going to uppercut you. He was going to dish out blows to your body. His hooks were deadly, but that was his game. What's my point? If you try to take Muhammad Ali and and train Muhammad Ali to fight like Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali would not have been one of the greatest of all time.

If you were to take Mike Tyson and try to train Mike Tyson to fight like Muhammad Ali, he would not have been one of the real heavyweight champions of the world during my era. He would not have been that because that's not him. What's my point? Big Dawg, my point is is that we watched TV. We watch these guys on TV. We watch these youtubes. You watch these videos on these pass rushers and we're looking at what makes them successful and sometimes the danger in that is that we're trying to mimic a Muhammad Ali, but when really we're a Mike Tyson. Or we're Mike Tyson and we're trying to mimic a Muhammad Ali, but, but that's not our. That's not our style. That's not our profile.

Yes, watch these guys, emulate them. They're doing a lot of things right, but if you are a Mike Tyson, then go find a Mike Tyson to emulate. to, to, to look at, to study. They don't become so much of them that you don't know who you are and that's another problem, but who are you first? You can't know who to emulate if you don't even know who you are and what you're good at. If you are Mike, Mike Tyson, or if you're a Muhammed Ali, go find a Muhammad Ali type of player and emulate that and learn from that.

It starts with you. What makes a successful pass rusher? Attitude. Now arsenal. Now arsenal. Now arsenal. Now let's develop our skill. I'm realizing that I'm quicker off the ball than most linemen. I'm realizing that I have a great first step. I'm realizing that I don't have a great first step, but when I make contact, I'm blowing the guy up in front of me. I realized that I have great hand eye coordination. I don't know, maybe it was because I took karate or taekwondo or maybe I played a lot of tennis growing up or whatever it might be. But, for some reason I have great hand eye coordination and I'm able to see the guys hands in front of me and I can attack his hand very well. Who are you?

Now? We start to get into what kind of player you're going to be and you find your niche and you find your craft and then you start creating or you start training yourself to be successful based on your strength and that's where you're on the road to true success and there's something unique about this young man. The way he plays, there's a little bit of Michael Strahan. There's a little bit of John Randle. Gosh, I even see a little bit of Reggie White, the late great Reggie White. There's a little bit of Deacon Jones. You know there's little bit of all of these successful pass rushers, mean Joe Green, that we've had in the past, but it's because you studied these men. However, you are unique in your own way. Now we're on the road to success. Why? Because you know who you are and you get this authentic skilled pass rusher. Now you mix that in with a great trainer, a great coach that's not trying to make you into somebody you are not. He has identified the skills that you have and who you are and he's molding that and he shaping that.

Now all of a sudden you don't have to pretend to be somebody else, but you feel good about who you are and how you're playing because it feels so natural. It's my attitude. It's my appetite. It's my rush. It's my responsibility. They are my responsibility. All of a sudden you've created this vehicle, Big Dawg. All of a sudden, you have all the tools you need to be successful and productive. All of a sudden you're strong and you're fast and you have four wheels. You got an engine and you've got exhaust pipes. All of a sudden you have everything you need and now, now all you need now left. All you need left to do is ignite the animal in you. That's all you need at that point and now you're watching yourself do great things. You're watching yourself make great plays. Watching yourself actually do things you didn't even think you could do.

You're doing things that nobody could have taught you. You know what's teaching you to do what you're doing? Outside of the technique you have been taught. Outside of the foundation that has been laid because you've had a great coach, as I have had great coaches that have guided my life and changed my life. But now, all of a sudden you're taking it to another level and you're doing things that you didn't know you could do. You know what's causing you to do things that you never thought you can do? Your appetite, your attitude. It's making you do what you have to do to eat.

When you asked me, Coach Rolle, "Big Dawg, what does it take to be a successful pass rusher?". Chapter one, your attitude, your appetite. Why are you doing what you do? Why? Why are you working so hard? Why are you playing this game? Why did you choose to put your hands in the dirt? Why are you choosing to put your helmet on and strap up everyday? What's the why behind what you do? Start there. Chapter Two, your arsenal. You found your weapon. One of my favorite movies I've watched called Dr. strange, love the movie. If you haven't watched the movie, I'm not saying you got to go watch it, but it's one of my favorite movies. I like those kinds of movies that make you think, you know what I'm saying? I like those kinds of movies that make you look in yourself and really analyze and really think things through.

I'm a thinker. I love to think, and that's one of the movies that made me do that when I watched it. Probably watched it about three times. But, one of my favorite parts in that movie is when Dr. strange is, is learning the whole idea behind his mentality. How his mentality just wasn't right. He misunderstood a lot of things, very smart man, the doctor to surgeon, very smart, very good at what he did, but his attitude wasn't right. His mentality, the way that he thought through things, um, wasn't necessarily correct or it didn't allow him to, to think on another level. And so he's learning all these different things. And so now that he's starting to figure things out, one day in crisis where he's fighting for his life because he's being attacked by some villains, I don't know what they're called, but he's being attacked and all of a sudden he finds his weapon. Now, there were different weapons in this particular house that he was in, but I'm not sure if house even the right word, but have you seen the movie? You know what I'm talking about?

He finds his weapon. He finds what's his. Though there were different kinds of weapons in there that did not work for him, but he finally finds what's his. And when he finds his weapon, that's when he finds even more so his purpose and his calling and he becomes a man that he has never seen before. He watched this, begins to do things he has never done because his circumstance has brought him to where he is at that moment and crisis has led him to a place where now he's looking for answers and he finds it and the answer was in the mirror. And once he identified who he was, then he found his arsenal or he found rather his weapon. And all of a sudden in the movie, he steps into his identity and he began to do things he never thought he could do actually saves the world. I know it's it's comic stuff and it's not realistic, but the principles are very real.

When you find out who you are and it may come through crisis and may actually come through you not being as successful as you would like to be. Don't put your head down. Don't stick your head in the dirt. This is actually the perfect opportunity for you to actually find the answer crisis at difficulty and trials and tribulations and turbulence that we go through sometimes is the thing that we actually need to seek and find who we are and what we ought to do. It kind of makes us decide for ourselves, do I want to do this? Do I want to continue rushing this quarterback and I not get there.

We need that. We need those rough times because at those moments we dig a little deeper. We search a little harder. We seek a little more and we find the answer we're looking for and I'm telling you, Big Dawg, when you finally find your weapon, you can't be stopped. You can't be stopped. I would be wrong to tell you that the quick swim is a guaranteed move and it's gonna work every time. That's not true. I would be wrong to tell you that the cross chop works every single time. That's wrong. Not True. Does it work? Yes. It works. Absolutely. It works. Does it work every time? No. No. It doesn't. To chop club rip, bull pull, sling shot, long arm, stab, jab, all these great moves that work. Cross club over, stutter, catching the hands, hammer down, wheeling out, escaping, there may be so many different techniques you can do to make you productive and successful, but it's all about pairing those moves with you.

What's your weapon of choice? Who are you and how do you work best? The answer in which you seek lies in you. That's my answer. Make sure you check back in. We're going to continue to talk about the now specifics of rushing the passer. We're going to talk about the art of rushing the passer, the four points of leverage, the three points of attack, all of those different things that are important when it comes to rushing the passer. The practical pieces, the principals as it pertains to rushing a passer. We're going to get into all of those things on our future episodes, but I want to start there. What an absolute fantastic foundation when it comes to being a successful pass rusher. Starts with attitude. Remember, attitude equals 100 because attitude plays 100 percent into what you will or will not become. And to be honest with you Big Dawg, failure is never an option.

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