When Berry College shut down Trinity — one of the nation’s top Division III offenses — and held them to just six points, it wasn’t a fluke or a one-off performance. It was the result of a self-scout defense football system built on awareness, balance, and anticipation.
For Defensive Coordinator Joel Elliott, success starts with reflection. His philosophy centers on defensive self-scouting — not just studying opponents, but studying himself.
“We’re always trying to keep up with self-scout — what am I calling in all these situations?” Elliott said. “If I’m calling a ton of coverage on second and long, I have to figure that out, because a good offense will notice it and run the ball when I’m light in the box.”
That constant self-evaluation is how Berry’s defense stays one move ahead. Elliott’s self-scout defense football process builds balance into every game plan. He tracks every call by down, distance, and field position, then reviews whether his play-calling leans too heavily toward one structure. “I’m constantly looking at middle-field closed versus middle-field open,” he said. “I try to stay as close to 50-50 as possible.”
Elliott’s attention to patterns doesn’t stop with his own calls. After four years at Berry, he knows the habits of every offensive coordinator in the league — how they think, how they adapt, and what they’re likely to do when they see a specific look. Through football defensive self-scouting, he’s able to turn that familiarity into an advantage.
“I know what these guys do, I know what they’ve done to us in the past, and I can use that tendency to break it later,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll put things on film on purpose, knowing I can flip that call when we play them again.”
That long-range approach defines Berry’s defensive identity. The unit doesn’t just react week to week — it plants seeds for future games. Every blitz, every coverage shell, every pre-snap look has purpose. Opponents who think they’ve decoded Berry’s film often discover too late that the Vikings’ self-scout defense has already evolved.
Against Trinity, that preparation was on full display. Berry disguised its coverages, changed the picture post-snap, and forced the offense to hesitate just long enough for the pass rush to win. The Vikings’ defense wasn’t just sound — it was deceptive, the mark of a well-practiced self-scouting defense.
“I don’t want the offense to ever be able to dictate to us,” Elliott said. “We make everything look the same pre-snap so they have to react to us.”
That philosophy extends to how the staff handles the unexpected. In a league full of creative offenses, Elliott’s group has seen everything from muddle huddles to unbalanced sets that hadn’t appeared on film since fall camp. Instead of panicking, his players rely on rules and structure — a foundation strengthened by self-scouting in football.
“If it’s something completely out of the ordinary, we just play the call,” he explained. “Our guys know their rules — two attached, two removed, three attached, three removed. I don’t want to live in a world where the offense knows exactly what check we’ll make. That’s how explosive plays happen.”
It’s a simple message: control what you can control. Berry doesn’t chase tendencies — it manages them. Elliott’s self-scout defense football model is built to remain flexible, grounded in teaching, and resilient in the face of chaos. That balance allows his players to play fast and confidently, even when opponents throw something unexpected at them.
Football, he says, is a chess game — and the fun is in staying a move ahead. “That’s the awesome part of it,” Elliott said. “They’re trying to take advantage of us, and we’re trying to make sure they can’t.”
For coaches, his approach offers a clear takeaway:
- Self-scout first. Know your own patterns before opponents do.
- Stay balanced. Build variety into your call sheet so you can’t be predicted.
- Plan ahead. Use today’s film to shape tomorrow’s opportunities.
Berry’s defense didn’t just beat Trinity because it was more physical or faster. It won because it was smarter — a unit that thinks like its opponents, but prepares like no one else.
When the game becomes a chess match, awareness becomes a weapon. And at Berry College, Joel Elliott’s self-scout defense football philosophy keeps the Vikings one move ahead — breaking tendencies before anyone else can see them forming.
Related:
The Think Tank- Creating a Defensive Structure- Grant Caserta, Mike Fox, Eric Kasperowicz
Defensive Installations – Joel Elliot, Defensive Coordinator, Berry College
More on Coach Joel Elliott
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Podcast transcript
John Snell (00:01)
Next up, we go to Berry College where the defense took center stage. Coordinator Joel Elliott’s unit dominated Trinity, a top program nationally holding them to just six points. Joel, congratulations on a great win. And that defense obviously did a great job in this past week’s game. And we look forward to hearing from you and ⁓ recognizing your staff.
Joel Elliott (00:27)
Appreciate it and yeah, definitely ⁓ more than just the defense, great team win and ⁓ special teams did a good job. Our kickoff team was great and we got them starting inside the 25 on all of our kickoffs and doing a great job of playing the field position game and forcing some punts to set up some short fields for our offense. then ⁓ we talk a lot about playing ⁓ team football here, complimentary football and our offensive coordinator.
John Socorra, like John does a really good job. ⁓ And we started out the second half with a six minute and three second drive. We played six snaps of defense in the third quarter. We just bled the clock with our offense and it’s really easy to play good defense when our guys are sitting on the sideline drinking Gatorade. So just a great, great team win all around and a lot of credit to our guys too. We did some different stuff with them and just.
Taking the coaching all week and putting a good week of prep in and coming out and just playing with relentless effort. Just overall great, great team win and just really proud of our guys and how they bought in and went out and performed on Saturday.
John Snell (01:36)
Well, we’re happy for you guys. As you know, we give a little coaching tip as part of this that you can share with your listeners. You mentioned something about self-scout and breaking tendencies. How about you share that with our listeners?
Joel Elliott (01:51)
Yeah, ⁓ it’s something we’re always trying to keep up with on both offense and defense here is self scout of like, okay, hey, what am I calling in all these situations? Hey, for example, if it’s second and long, am I? ⁓
Am I playing a ton of coverage stuff on second and long, right? Well, I gotta figure that out at some point because, ⁓ if an offense is doing a good job, they’re gonna try to run the ball. And if I’m playing cover two and I’m short in the box, then I can’t be caught off guard when they hand it off on second and ten and they get us because we’re short in the run fit. So it’s just try to do a really good job of-
I’m trying to really stay on top of like, all right, middle field closed, middle field open. How much am I balancing these calls out and trying to stay as close to 50-50 as possible? And then also looking at it like, hey, I really, I know, and thankfully in our league at least, there’s been a lot of…
a lot of carryover between the staffs in the league. Like we haven’t had a ton of coordinator changes. So now being my fourth year at Barry, I kind of know what I’m going to get from all these other coaches. So it’s like, try to use that to my advantage to set things up for later in the year. Like, I want to put all this stuff on film because I know what these guys do. I know what they’ve done to us in the past. I know how they think. And then I can use that tendency to break it later against them. So just trying to do a good job of being balanced in our calls, but then also intentionally
setting things up ⁓ so that we can use it against them and what teams have done to us in the past.
John Snell (03:27)
Have you seen Joel, where do you get a sense that there’s offenses that are trying to do that for you as well, against you as well, throwing in a formation or a play that they don’t typically run just to force you to practice against it? Have you seen that from the offenses that you’re playing?
Joel Elliott (03:47)
⁓ Yes and no, know, I think… ⁓
It really just depends on the team, right? So there’s kind of two schools of thought that, and we end up getting both in our league, is we will see teams like Trinity that we just played, they do a good job of, Trinity will set stuff up and then use it to break their tendencies against us. Other teams we play, they will not show anything and then they’ll come out with, we’ll get like muddle huddle in the middle of the field. Just like stuff that, hey, we haven’t practiced since fall camp. And it’s like, hey, it’s week six.
like our guys need to be on it and remember all this stuff. And of course, we’re not practicing that during the week, especially when they don’t put it on film. So there’s kind of like two schools of thought and we end up, we got good offensive coaches in our league and we always end up getting a little bit of both of where it’s like, hey, we’re setting this up and this personnel grouping and this play and this formation. And then we’re gonna come back and run something else to the compliment off of it. Or it’s just like, hey, some teams I think feel like we’re playing Barry, we gotta do something a little crazy, something a little different to catch them off guard.
We end up with something completely new that we gotta fix on the fly when we’re out there.
John Snell (04:57)
And I don’t want to get too deep or give away too much, Joel, but in that situation where some, offense comes out with something that is, you know, completely out of the ordinary, something that you were not prepared for at all, do you have, because we used to do this, we used to have a call that defensively we could go to that is kind of a base thing that would put us in a situation to handle any kind of crazy thing. Do you have that?
Joel Elliott (05:24)
depends how crazy it is, right? So like, for example, I used, you know, how you get muddle huddle in the middle of the field. Well, we have, you know, our muddle huddle rules of when they displace offensive linemen. All right. Hey, you know, depending on how many guys are where it’s a count system of like, all right, hey, they got, you know, three offensive linemen out here. Well, we need two defensive linemen to go out there to cover down those guys like that type of thing.
But ⁓ if it’s something that’s just like, you know, a normal formation or ⁓ anything like that, like we just play the call and, know, just from the standpoint of like, don’t. ⁓
For the most part, play a lot of our stuff. We have very few checks ⁓ and I don’t ever want to get locked into something. So, you I know some teams will do it like, this is our FIB check, right? This is our, hey, this is our trips check. This is our two by two check, whatever it is. It’s like, I don’t want to do that. Like our defense is built where it’s like, whatever the call is, we’re just going to play it. And you know, our guys know what their rules are based off. Hey, it’s two attached, it’s two removed. It’s three attached, it’s three removed. Because I don’t want the offense to ever be able to dictate to us
where it’s like, hey, we line up in this formation, we know exactly what we’re gonna get. So ⁓ I don’t want the offense to ever dictate that to us. And ⁓ we try to do a really good job with our disguise of playing too high and doing everything to react post snap and try to make it all look the same pre snap so that. ⁓
We’re making them react to us instead of just getting locked into certain calls. And ⁓ that’s That’s when offenses can get really explosive plays. Like, yeah, I know they’re gonna be in quarters when we line up like this. Like, let’s get our quarters beaters out of this. It’s like, I don’t wanna live in that world. It’s not very fun. try to make it all look the same and dictate the terms.
John Snell (07:08)
Kind of a chess game out there, isn’t it Joel? Trying to figure out, they try to take advantage of you and you’re trying to make sure that they don’t take advantage of you. That’s the beauty of football, the strategy and the… Yeah, exactly. And that’s the awesome part of it. well, great insight. Really appreciate you sharing. Good luck the rest of the season and we appreciate your time.
Joel Elliott (07:19)
The game was a game.
Absolutely appreciate you guys having me on.