Landmark or Route Read?

Brophy,

I feel for you... I know you've been dealing with a lot with the coaching situation there. I would agree with you but you would be surprised how many people do not pattern or route read. It's an easy concept but thought of to be difficult. I know Longtigercat and I were talking about how we kinda of stumbled upon pattern reading last year without realizing. Now, that I'm a DC at a new school, we've both been working on suring up our rules for it. My new head coach is very hestitant about it until I put it in during our 7-7 season. Kids picked it up so easily he has bought into it.

I suggest going back to him and making sure there was no miscommunication in the conversation. Make sure he was not refering to Cover 3 where it is alright to eye ball the QB. And if there were no miscommunications, all you can do is break it down into the most simplest terms possible and hope he understands it. If not, just wait your time till the head coach eventually figures things out. If you know little, it will show eventually.

I know you are a young guy like myself and what I've found in my experience is that when working with a hostile or aggressive coaches they think you are trying to out do them or prove them wrong. They do not always realize that you are just trying to make it the best team possible. This may not be the case with you, I'm not sure. But just keep plugging away. Just as Tog and Split50 said in the other forum... the kids know who has their "poop" straight. Just my opinion on the situation.

Hope it helps
JU

quote:

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You say that if #1 breaks down you work an escape. What if #1 runs a 6 yard hitch route that is misread by your CB to a stalk and the #2 receiver runs a flag route over the top of your CB?

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In Cover 3, we want those to keep their cushion (3 yards) as long as possible. We have them aligned 7 - 8 yards deep with inside leverage. If #1 runs a 6 yard hitch, he will essentially never break the cushion - if the CB is not threatened he looks for #2 coming across. That'd be hard, IMO, to read a stalk block when the guy breaks down 3-4 yards in front of the corner - I don't expect him to stop that route (I expect him to be on top of it, but not defend the curl).

In this instance, we're assuming the hitch is shallow and curled inside - that's fine. He's running right to our dropping OLB / SS, who works Curl to flat.

As I teach it, there really isn't a whole lot of "reads" per se. Much like there really aren't a lot of reads on Dline. It's basically determining what your first key does to see if you need to look to another threat.

For instance, in Cover 3. Corner pedals three steps at snap and works to keep his cushion on #1. If No #1 does anything but vertical, he looks to No #2.
So often, corners bite hard on #1 that they either run with him or they get lulled underneath and bit for a big play. Route reading enables us to anticipate the throw by jumping the route (combos).

For instance, if No #1 goes inside, he's leaving our area, so we immediately read #2 on a crossing route (to us) and we work to jump his route. If No #1 goes vertical, we keep our cushion and bail. If No#1 goes out, we maintain our leverage, keep the cushion and look for #2 going vertical.

These reads can be taught to FS, CB, LBs.....it's a pretty simple concept - only three routes can be run (Inside, Outside, Vertical) - know what your move is in each.