The linebacker position is more challenging than ever, whether a player is taking on a 320-pound lineman or covering a speedy receiver. In Complete Linebacking, Lou Tepper tells and shows how to excel at one of the game's most demanding positions.
Tepper has coached three Butkus Award winners-Alfred Williams, Dana Howard, and Kevin Hardy-plus one Butkus runner-up and 20 linebackers who have gone on to play in the NFL. In his 30 years of college coaching, Tepper's defenses have consistently been top-ranked nationally.
The book describes in depth and illustrates clearly the fundamentals, pre-snap keys, and techniques used by any inside or outside linebacker in a specific defense. A special teaching section explains how to prepare quality practices and meetings to maximize learning and performance.
Complete Linebacking provides full coverage for coaching and playing the position, including:
- the qualities needed to play linebacker;
- fundamental skills for all linebackers, regardless of the team's scheme;
- keys to look for in an offense for clues about the upcoming play before the ball is snapped;
- tips for teaching the linebacker position in team meetings and practices; and
- a grading system to evaluate performance.
The book also includes four key linebacker ability tests and 33 drills to measure and improve position-specific skills. More than 200 diagrams and photographs illustrate Tepper's detailed explanations.
No other book has ever addressed this subject in such depth.
Complete Linebacking is an essential book for every coach's library.
Lou Tepper is one of football's most widely respected defensive coaches. He has coached 20 linebackers who have gone on to play professional football, including three Butkus Award winners-Alfred Williams, Dana Howard, and Kevin Hardy-and one Butkus Award runner-up. He directed nationally ranked defenses at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Tech, the University of Colorado, and the University of Illinois, the last of which became known as "Linebacker University" during his nine-year stay.
After serving as Illinois' defensive coordinator and as assistant head coach to John Mackovic from 1988 to 1991, Tepper was promoted to head coach. In five seasons he guided the Illini to three bowl appearances, including a 30-0 victory in the 1994 Liberty Bowl. During his tenure as head coach at Illinois, 91 percent of the team's seniors graduated. Tepper also developed a racial harmony policy for which he received a Martin Luther King Jr. Award.
Tepper graduated from Rutgers University, where he was a standout defensive back. He went on to assist Jim Root at the University of New Hampshire and the College of William and Mary from 1968 to 1977, Bill Dooley at Virginia Tech from 1978 to 1982, and Bill McCartney at the University of Colorado from 1983 to 1987.
Tepper was named the 1990 Assistant Coach of the Year in the Big Ten Conference by The Sporting News. He served as chairman of the Big Ten Head Football Coaches organization in 1996. For three years he was a member of the American Football Coaches Association Ethics Committee, headed by American Football Coaches Association executive director, Grant Teaff. A charter member and chairman of the Illinois State Board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), Tepper is an active speaker for FCA and Promise Keepers, an organization headed by his former coaching colleague Bill McCartney.
Tepper and his wife, Karen, have two children, Matthew and Stacy Ann. His favorite leisure activities include reading, jogging, and racquetball.
