50 Adjustments to Spread/Shutgun 4 Wide, etc.

The folks you have heard make the remark are CORRECT. Remember coach, any 30 front is nothing more than the old 50 fronts with a few harder angles to block and are a bit more mobile. Other than that, if you understand the 50 defense, your philosophy is not going to change much. Some yes, but not much.

Coach Easton-TIGER ONE

We run a 2 x 2 shotgun offense. We throw the ball 90% of the time.
We see teams completely change their defenses to play us. They run a totally different front and completely different coverages.

We only played 1 spread team this year. It came in the semi finals.

We played our base defense the entire game. We taught their route combinations and tendencies. We put in 1 or 2 stunts for specific plays. We held them to 1 offensive touchdown (and it was on a gosh darned missed tackle) (we scored 7). We ran the same defense in the championship game against a power I team and held them to 13 points. (we scored 46)

I think we've learned that when teams completely change their defenses to play us we may not know what defense we're going to see but the kids on the opposing defense don't know what they're going to do either.

If you run a 50 all year, then run a 50 against every team you play. Teach your kids the route combinations and try to break down their protection so you can scheme a blitz or two to that beats their protection. You can draw up some incredible things on the chalk board but if your kids don't know it then it is useless.

Coach that was basically what we did

Base coverage= Double Robber
Safeties and OLB's combo #2
He goes flat he belongs to OLB and Safety robs the post/curl/etc. or flies up in run support.
He goes vertical OLB carries and then breaks off to flat

We send 1 blitzer= 4 under 3

We send 2 blitzer= 3 under 3
seam player, middle player, seam player

that's all we had the whole season.

Trips adjustment was a cover 3 slide
We were really worried about 4 verticals in trips one week so we basically played a double robber slide where the slid over safety read the seam player.

The other thing you have to think about is how do you play the inside run with only 5 in the box. I know that a lot of teams will just count the box. If you have 5 (your olb's are walked out) the will try to hit you inside. Make sure you have your gaps handled. We tried to spill everything outside with our ILB's gap exchanging.

If you play a cover 4 rather than a cover 2 you also want to think about your approach to 3 step. Teams are going to look at the cushion and try to hitch you to death. You want to have a plan for that.


Man, I love this thread!! I can't wait until the summer!

We have the capability to eagle and double eagle. Our base front is a head up nose with two 4I techniques. We play around with the alignment of the ends (4I or 5 tech) but they are just about always on the tackles. Sometimes we'll shade the nose as well. we name our front by the alignment of the ends.

44, 55, 54, 45, 35, 33, etc. Our nose knows how to align based on the call. Our backers are always aligned over the guards. Our OLB's align based on the formation and coverage.

Coaches,

Thanks for your replies. We seem to be on the same page. These are definitely what I'm looking to do. The short route(hitch) stuff did kill us two years ago. A team saw that sort opening and was hitting it to death. We'll adjust and work on the coverages.

Thanks,

Coach Tinglof

If you are a 50 team you dont have to change much against the spread.

For us we are a Cov.2 team that will zone pressure a ton (3 under 3 deep, 5 man pressure) This equates easily against any team.

For our zone pressures we disguise as best as possible until we get tipped off by something we see based on game plan. For instance most of the time we hide our intentions until the QB raises his knee to indicate to the center he is ready for the snap. Once that happens our defense is moving.

The two stunts I like best against the spread are...
A. A stunt we call slide, its probably the most basic zone pressure their is today its designed to send one inside the back and one outside the back, so either way hes wrong. We accomplish this off game plan to see whcih way they slide out of what formations.

B. Is a stunt that we run against single back gun teams that run the zone read. We send a linebacker off the edge away from the back flat down the line of scrimage, his only job in life is to tackle the zone. We then send a LB off the edge to the side of the back straight at the QB this is an automatic give read to the QB. It has worked great to date.

Personally I try and stay out of quarters because ussually people are in the spread because they have serious speed at slot and I dont like matching my Safeties on Slots on Verts when they are standing at ten yards as the force player.

This is why I prefer 2, we line our deep safetys at 13-14 and let them ball hawk, they play pass first always. We have no problem with smash and other combos like that because our corner does not sit in the flat he squats, jams, and works back to the hole (18 yards deep in H.S.) The theory is he can rally to any ball checked down late for a minimal gain as long as he makes the tackle and he will have help from the OLB. This is how all colleges run it and to many high schools fail to play their corners this way that is why people have trouble in 2.

We have tried running zone defense under and our kids would just get too confused with who they have etc. and we would give up plays to teams that really weren't as good as us, since we swithced to always playing man our pass defense has gotten 100% better. We just don't have enough time in practice to try to teach zone and man techniques and also route packages to expect and when to pass a reciver off and when to run with him. At least in man there are no excuses.

How about this vs a 3x2:

.............F............................$

C..........................M......................C
...................B...3...0...3..B..................S
X....................T.G.C.G.T..............Y
..........F.................................H............Z
.............................Q

CBs and safeties play cover two vs #1 and 2 weak and #2 and 3 strong just as they would vs 2x2. One LB (or a nickle) comes out to play bump and run with inside leverage on #1 strong.

MLB and OLBs will blitz or drop based on call.

Any thoughts?

Thanks. That is my first thought too. Coach Mountjoy (whose advice I take very seriously) has opined that is good to be able to bring max pressure and max coverage but make it look the same pre-snap. So I tried to do that here.

Another point was something I got from the DC at Kansas at a clinic. He said there stats show throws to the #1 on the trips side of 3x2 are unusual. They will play cover 4 and, if they get outnumbered deep, that is the guy they don't cover. I am not ready to stop covering anyone, but I might be willing to put a LB on him, especially with a deep 1/2 defender behind him.

Anyone else?