The Nutcracker Drill In Camp.

[Raider Pride]

Does anyone remember the Nutcracker Drill?

Has any Packer coach run it since Vince did? I like it. It is old school football.


From the raider camp yesterday.....

In the glory days of the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi, they called it "The Nutcracker."

To Oakland Raiders coach Art Shell, it's "The Pit Drill," and it livened up training camp Thursday morning with its simplicity and brutality.

It was football at it's most basic — a quarterback hands the ball to a running back behind a single blocker, with the runner navigating a narrow gap between all of team standing in two rows, and attempting to beat a single defender in the gab.

"That's one of the toughest drills there is in football because the defense knows you're coming downhill at them," Shell said. "The offense knows that the defense is going to hunker down and make it tough to block them."

 

[net]

I won my job on the offensive line one year after defeating an All-State lineman we had in the nutcracker. It helped that the guy carrying the ball was an All-State running back.

Forrest Gregg made a real point out of it. Most of the Packers coaches have used it, but not extensively.

The players hate it. It does reveal a player who is technically flawed. The running backs hate it because they often get creamed.