Built With Purpose. Proven Under Pressure.
The Blackout is a modern defensive system built through decades of experience, designed to install fast, adapt to personnel, and thrive against today’s offenses.
The Origins of the Blackout
The roots of The Blackout trace back to 2009, when Coach Hickman began his first full-time collegiate coaching position at North Greenville University under Head Coach Jamey Chadwell. Chadwell’s vision was to implement a 3–4 defensive system and he granted Defensive Coordinator Chad Staggs full autonomy to build the scheme from the ground up.
Recognizing the success of another Upstate South Carolina program, Staggs and the defensive staff studied and implemented concepts developed at Wofford College under legendary Defensive Coordinator Nate Woody. At NGU, Staggs blended those principles with an aggressive, pressure-based blitz package. The result was one of the most successful stretches in school history, highlighted by an 11-win season and the program’s deepest NCAA Division II playoff run as a quarterfinalist.
Coach Hickman leveraged that success into his first Division I FCS opportunity at nearby Gardner–Webb University. There, he served in multiple roles across offense, defense, and as Special Teams Coordinator. Gardner–Webb also operated out of a 3–4 structure and featured an exotic five-man pressure package—concepts that continue to influence Coach Hickman’s defensive philosophy today.
In 2018, Coach Hickman took over the task of rebuilding the once-proud West Brunswick High School football program. After nearly two decades of struggle, Hickman and his staff transformed the Trojans into one of North Carolina’s premier prep defenses. Across the 2019 season and the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, West Brunswick held 11 opponents to seven points or fewer in just 20 games. The 2019 team recorded the school’s first double-digit win season since 1997, while the 2020 squad advanced to the NCHSAA State Quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years. Hickman left West Brunswick with a 24-17 record….the only coach in the 21st century to leave with a winning ledger.
In 2022, Hickman was hired as Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator by legendary Head Coach Bobby Lamb to help launch the brand-new Anderson University (SC) football program. Alongside fellow AU coaches AJ Jones, Malik Chevry, and Caleb Fuller, the staff worked to establish immediate competitiveness in one of Division II’s strongest conferences, the South Atlantic Conference.
The AU defensive staff built its modern defense entirely from scratch, intentionally avoiding inherited terminology from previous stops. Word association within calls and packages was designed to accelerate learning for a roster expected to be composed primarily of freshmen in 2024. After winning three games in its inaugural 2024 season, Anderson improved to 5–6 in 2025 and finished #19 nationally in Total Defense.
As principal developers of The Blackout Defense System, coaches Hickman, Jones, Chevry, and Fuller are passionate and committed to helping coaches across the country develop their defense into one of the best in their respective areas.
The Blackout System
Know the system
The Blackout is a modern, pressure-driven defensive system built on clear structure, adaptable personnel usage, and efficient teaching, giving programs a fast, physical, and unified defensive identity.
The Blackout Defensive Standard
Defensive football, when played with the right characteristics, is a beautiful blend of violence, cohesion, and fun. When defenses play great together, the entire team is given its best chance to win.
The Blackout strives to put a unit on the field that takes pride in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Those priorities are captured in the acronym E.E.E.T. T.T. By committing to the core fundamentals of Eyes, Effort, Emotional Intensity, Technique, Tackling, and Toughness, our defense positions itself to perform at the highest possible level.
The Blackout Defensive Standard
E - Eyes
You cannot play great defense without eye discipline. Our keys determine pre-snap alignment and guide post-snap execution. Modern offenses thrive on eye violations through RPOs, misdirection, and multiplicity. This defense provides every position with clear, specific keys so players are not distracted by “eye candy” and can play fast, confident, and decisive after the snap.
E - Effort
Effort erases mistakes. Defensive football, at its core, is winning your one-on-one matchup and then getting eleven hats to the football. When effort is relentless and pursuit is non-negotiable, mistakes that inevitably occur over a 60-minute game are minimized. Effort to the ball is our greatest equalizer.
E - Emotional Intensity
Great defenses are emotionally prepared to fight on every snap. Playing with an edge and sustained passion is non-negotiable. Coaches must set the standard, and leaders must reinforce it—both by example and vocally. This unit plays with fire, urgency, and purpose. We are not choir boys.
T - Technique
Football is played from the feet up to the eyes. Proper footwork drives all movement, so every technique we teach begins from the ground up. We demand an athletic posture with correct ankle, knee, and hip flexion, and we emphasize violent, intentional hand usage. The goal is to be the most fundamentally sound unit on the field in stance, footwork, leverage, and block destruction.
T - Tackling
The number one objective of defense: make them snap it again. We strive to be the best tackling unit in America. Tackling is emphasized daily—both in confined spaces and in the open field. There is no great defense without great tackling, and no day goes by without practicing it.
T - Toughness
More than any other unit, great defense demands mental and physical toughness. It begins with being stout at the line of scrimmage against the run and extends to violent, relentless physicality at all three levels. Ultimately, toughness is revealed mentally—how the unit responds after explosive plays, sudden-change situations, and moments of adversity
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
— Tom Landry
The Blackout: Structural Overview
The Blackout is a multiple defensive system that bases out of a 3–4 personnel grouping. While aligned in a 3–4 structure, the outside linebackers are clearly differentiated. The Joker functions as a Nickel/Sam hybrid defender, while the Bandit is a traditional DE/LB hybrid aligned to the short side of the field. The defensive line is compartmentalized into a Nose, Tackle, and End, and the inside linebackers align in a traditional Mike–Will structure. In the secondary, we have the flexibility to play either Field/Boundary or Right/Left corners. The Free Safety aligns to the field, while the Dog serves as our strong safety.
At Anderson University, we have been a base personnel defense approximately 55% of the time. Our additional personnel groupings include Penny (2–5–4), Nickel (5 DBs), Dime (6 DBs), and Rhino (Goal Line).
At its core, The Blackout is an odd-front system built around both Tite fronts (4i–0–4i) and Okie fronts (4–0–4). However, we utilize four-down fronts on roughly 35% of our snaps. Many calls include automatic four-down alignments designed to reduce stress versus inline tight end sets and four-man surfaces.
Pressure Philosophy
Over two seasons at Anderson University, The Blackout has operated as a 41% pressure defense (five or more rushers) across all downs and distances. When including simulated pressures, creepers, and five-man pressures, we are attacking offenses on 59% of all defensive snaps.
Coverage Structure
The Blackout installs multiple versions of Cover 2, Cover 3, and Cover 4, along with a wide variety of rotations and combination coverages derived from those core coverage concepts. Across the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Anderson University played 46% split-field/middle-open coverage and 43% post-safety coverage. Man coverage concepts are incorporated primarily within Nickel and Dime personnel groupings.
Teaching & Terminology
A systematic naming structure is built into The Blackout. The word association tied to each front, coverage, and pressure concept is intentionally designed to accelerate learning—particularly for first-year college players. During the 2024 season, 87% of our defensive roster consisted of freshmen or redshirt freshmen, yet the system allowed for efficient installation and competitive execution.