One Defense or Multiple?

Good Question.

We began the season with a 4-3 and ended in the 3-3. Our main purpose of doing this was to get more speed on the field - and quite honestly, we did not have 4 good DL. With this said, it was just a personnel issue for us. DL comes out and a nickel guy goes out. ALL TERMINOLOGY was the same except we called our Nickel back the DOG. so there was really no confusion!

In the 30 Look, we were solid vs the spread. HOWEVER, to ask our OLB's to come up and take on a TE was a demanding chore for our guys - if teams went to a TE set. We did not have the horses to do this. Teams were able to line up and run the ball down our throat. So going back to the 40 would have given us an advantage.

Duke,

I was a firm believer in using your base defense and sticking with it when I first started. But over the years, I have changed to 100% supporting using different looks. We keep everything simple, because we're not very smart before we put the equipment on, and I think those heavy helmets must slow down the blood flow to the brain, and basically use the same stunts & blitzes. We go over the base position we would like to our guys to line up in, and then branch off of that with reps right at the beginning of the season. We see so many different types of offenses on our schedule, and we also want to attack their weaknesses with our best possible players. This year we could line up in a 3-3, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 5-2, 5-3, 6-2, or 6-3 and have our stunt, blitz and coverages to use out of each. Our key was getting guys to understand the keys to each defense just like a QB would be reading it, and what we could not do out of each. It's great to see your guys line up and be able to stem directly to the set they need to counter the offense's adjustments. I truly believe that if our "rocket surgeons" can do it, then anyone can. Hope this helps.

If you run an EVEN scheme (I.E. "4-4" OR "4-3" - you can SHADE one of the DT's giving you an ODD look. This is old stuff, but allows you to have BOTH

Coach Cella -

Very good point. I recently attended a clinic in which the Illinois 2A State Champion head coach talked about his team's 4-4 defense. Instead of coming up with 100 different ways to skin the same cat, the coaches at this school simply utilized very basic core concepts and spent MOST of their time teaching kids how to read keys, defeat blocks, tackle, and cover receivers. The result over the last 20 years has been over 200 wins at this particular school, including a 14-0 season this past year.

In high school, I think that it is a much better approach to spend time on the FUNDAMENTALS of the game rather than on the CONCEPTS of the game. With all other things being equal, a team that is fundamentally sound will probably beat a team that is not.

Defense is all about fundamentals. If your players can't get off blocks, run to the football, and tackle THE BEST SCHEMES IN THE WORLD ARE WORTHLESS! When I go to the Pennsylvania State Championship games every year, and I've been at the state games since 1998, I see teams playing the same front and playing very basic. I have NEVER seen a team from Pennsylvania win a state championship running a blitz-oriented defense. NEVER! CB West used to sit in a 5-2 and play ball. That's exactly how I play defense.

I coached under a guy who played on the defensive line for four years for the Jets under Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, Al Groh, and Eric Mengini and he constantly emphacized how when he played for BILL BELICHICK they did not get complicated. Color commentators make Belichick out to be like this guy who runs 100's of defenses. He doesn't! He makes no more than three adjustments/game! I know this because I coached for a guy who played for him! Watch the Patriots play this season. They play a 3-4, they play a 2-4 for their nickel, they don't zone blitz much, if ever, and they play cover 1 funnel, and cover 2 the majority of the time. On the goal-line they play a 6-2 or a 6-5. Occasionally they play Cover 8 (4 deep, 4 under). However, they never make more than three adjustments/game... and that's a fact!

Hey coach...

How are you - going to the shg clinic again this year?

The best teams I coached or played for/against had the ability to ADJUST into different fronts/looks. Depending on your personnel it is very easy to go from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and vice versa - it becomes a little of an over/under look.

I agree the schemes/fronts can't overload the players but I know from personnel experience at one job that we carried at least 2 defenses into every game - and we'd usually change in crucial situations which REALLY played games with the offense - I've seen several good Ohio and Michigan teams do similar things....

I think the key is that the players have to be fundamentally sound AND you need to be able to do different things on both sides of the ball - and that can be done a VARIETY of ways.

Football is really only a few things:

1)Blocking & Block Protection

2)Tackling

3)Ball Security/Field Position

The rest is all just window dressing - the best teams do those things well - Period.

Hey Go Vertical,

I agree with you and your one sentence about there being a big difference between the two. It is just my contention that making adjustments really constitutes another defense in lots of instances. I am of the opinion that stemming is much more efective after the snap than aligning in any adjustment you can make
in the PSL. Just my opinion as always.

Coach Easton

I have always believed in limiting the techniques you teach. Our interior linemen learn two techniques. We use a 1 technique and a 3 technique. We can use both in 3 techs, both in 1 techs, a 1and 3, or a 3and 1. If you combine this with teaching your ends two or three techniques, you can have multiple fronts but your players only have to learn a limited number of techniques. We combine this with three coverages (1,3,4) and have combined man and zone principles at times. When calling the defense, we call the techniques rather than the front. We do this for two reasons. First the players are thinking technique. Second, it allows us to make minor or major adjustments with out having to come up with different names for every possible front we use. Just our preference in teaching.

I guess I did not explain that very well did I? Sorry.

We deciced that whenever a team we played had a TE in the game we would press him with our SLB. We never saw Double-Tight all year. Pretty crazy, huh? Our SDE would then learn a 4,5 tech with a 9 technique used with no TE passing downs. Our SDT plays a 1 or 3. WDT a 1 or 3. Our WDE 5 or 9. We are not that big so decided against a head-up technique.

We mostly run a Shade 50 (513) SLB-9 with TE, SDT-5, SDT-1,WDT-3,WDE-9. If we wanted to move the SDE to a 4 we call 413. Moving the DTs to a strong 3 and a weak 1 we call 531. Moving both to a 1 we call 511. I know I said you could move both DT's to 3 techniques. I have only done this in one game and called it four times. I wrote without thinking. That call scares me to death. Both ILBs play 10 or 30 techniques depending on the DT alignment.

Hope that was better. Again, sorry for not making it clear. If you want I will leave my e-mailand so we could discuss it futher and answer any other question. I am always open to new ideas and information. That is one of the reasons I joined jcfb.

Multiple 8 man fronts based upon tendencies and formations is what we do. Our base which is actually two fronts is the 3-3-5 and the nickle package both built upon a six man box. Coach CAmpbell