Cincinnati Bearcats Football DC Nate Woody Updates System Install During 2026 Spring Practices

Spring football is in full swing for new Cincinnati Bearcats defensive coordinator Nate Woody and his unit. The Army turned UC DC caught up with the media on Thursday to give the first update on how his 3-4 blitzing scheme is taking hold.

Woody Working His Magic

Cincinnati Bearcats defensive back Antwan Peek Jr. (46) tackles UCF Knights tight end Dylan Wade (0) in the first quarter of the NCAA football game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and UCF Knights at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati on Oct. 11, 2025. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

He is very pleased with how the whole unit is attacking the spring so far.

"Spring has been outstanding," Woody said to the media. "So far, we've thrown an awful lot of things from alignments and assignments at those guys, and they're eating it up. Are they going to be perfect at it right now? Heck no. Are they giving us effort? You better believe it. And so as long as we can continue to put in the effort, we still have enough practices where we can polish up some things, so guys, you know their intent. You know, in our meetings, they come out to practice, and they want to do well. We just got to coach them up a little bit better, on a few things."

The blitzing has clearly been fun for the new players, but that's the easy part, with more work ahead on the harder parts of this system.

"I think the easiest thing for those guys to do is to blitz," Woody said. "You know, what we have to be able to do is continue to teach the poise, how to understand, how to read flow or plays, and how to look at clues that that offense will give you before the ball is ever snapped, those are all things that will take a little bit of time. Blitzing is easy, you know, just being able to play base and just bring four and drop seven, that's where we got to get some more work."

The veteran coach has a ton of experience implementing this system, and from my view, it's right on schedule with the defense winning the Tuesday and Thursday team sessions.

Check out the full update from Woody below:

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