Man to Man Tech

We play mostly zone, but use man in different situations. We will be running more man coverage this year than in past years as well. I've never personally run the bail technique you're describing, but I can see it working in 3rd and very long (10+) situations. Let the WR catch that 3-5 yard slant and bury him where he catches it. You don't give up the deep out for the first down or the bomb for a TD. Also, if you hit most high school WRs enough they have a tendency to get alligator arms and he may not catch even the perfectly thrown ball in his chest after getting blasted a couple times. Maybe it's a drop, maybe it's a tip that gets intercepted.

As far as diguising is concerned, having another look that could confuse people is always good as long as you don't confuse your kids as well. Just don't get into a rut with it. Any situation where you'll run that look also run your tight man. Even if it's a 80/20 split they still have to be aware of the tight man being there.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Like I said, I've never run it but I can see how it could work.

I agree with Tiger. If you are going to play man over a blitz, your goal for a defensive backfield should be to throw off timing of any quick routes, and make the QB throw over people or put it in a tight spot in a hurry. Although bump and run is more difficult to teach than the bail technique, it is (in my mind) the best way to cover while blitzing. On the other hand if you are playing some sort of dog coverage, where you have men in deep halves/thirds and are playing man underneath that, then I think a coushion is acceptable since you have another level behind you, but without that--when blitzing you are trying to be agressive, I don't believe you can play man coverage conservatively behind it. I haven't seen a way to be both highly agressive, and "bend but don't break" at the same time. However, I have been wrong before and surely will be again.