TCU's Defensive Scheme

I'm not familiar with TCU's defense.

We feel that Cover 1 handles 3 WR, 4 WR, or Empty teams. Everything else can he handled by our "ROBBER". Cover 1 Man/Free & Robber are easy to check to (from one to the other) & handle ALL the teams we face (if one doesn't - the other will).

Sounds good! Just remember - in High School ball - I don't believe you can teach that MANY coverages.

If you can get REAL GOOD at 1 or 2 coverages in High School - you have done a hell of a job (I coached HS, College, & Semi-Pro). I like the idea that "REAL MEN PLAY MAN". I believe that on ALL levels you have to START OUT in man.

It doesn't matter if you believe in man OR zone - when someone splits a WR way out on you - your corner ends up covering him "1 on 1" anyhow (unless you double cover him - then they run the ball down your throat)!

Coach Mountjoy,
I agree with you 100% on being AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE on the HS level. I've always liked press man/free myselft vs. those teams that chuck it a bunch but I've had to mix it up a lot because I haven't been blessed with super talent by any stretch. However, I thought you might like the concepts of simplicity of alignment/adjustment in that TCU system....but are you saying that you MIGHT mix in some more zone on the college level?

Coach Easton,
I just watched the "Top 10 CB Tandems" on the NFL channel the other day. Deion Sanders + ANYONE YOU WANTED TO PUT OVER THERE was like #7 on the list. I don't want to slight any "old timers" who I never had the privilege to see but in my lifetime there's NO DOUBT, Prime Time is THE BEST in coverage (and maybe returning kicks too)!

Probably true...lots of more "complete" DB's out there. I once saw an interview with Deion where he said someting to the effect of "it's not that I CAN'T tackle, it's just that I DON'T NECESSARILY LIKE to tackle." On this show they quoted him as saying that he "made business decisions" when it came to tackling. You can certainly question his desire to be a physical football player but love him or hate him I don't know of any CB more dangerous to throw at and let's face it, just doing what he did gave his teams a HUGE advantage. But...we digress & go off topic...

In High School - you CAN play man AND zone if you run basically only ONE variation of EACH & keep it simple. It's hard ENOUGH to teach good technique WITHOUT 1 million adjustments.

I have found zone blitzes to be useless in HS ball, & I don't have time to teach fat-ass DLM to drop into coverage!

this is a link to an article on TCU's defense

Too get pressure on the QB use Bills Tigercat package. Always bringing one more then they can block. We love this vs. the run or pass. Usually run it with in the first 3 plays of the game. If they prove to us they can't handle it we won't stop running it.

Caveman,

If you like that type of thing you'd probably like the 46 with it's man-free and "Spy" coverage schemes. If you're not familiar, it's really along the same philosophy - send 5, 6, 7 (or 8 vs. max protection) versus a 21-type of formation, as appropriate - WITHOUT blitz calls. In fact, I'm suprised Coach Mountjoy doesn't use it a lot since it seems to lend itself so well to man-free coverage?

The 46 is a defense that I have really liked a lot but one of the problems you can have with it is it's structure vs. spread teams. For example, versus a 2 WR x 2 WR set you "normally" end-up with 5 DL and only 1 LB in the box. That seems like a decent idea but get that LB to over pursue just a little and you can have some cutback/windback problems. We still use the 46 structure a little but really only if we expect 2 backs.

"EXECUTION ALWAYS BEATS SCHEME"!!! You can do ANYTHING if the kids can execute it well enough. The question always is how much TIME do you have to get enough meaningful reps to get GOOD at something?



When James Madison U. won the Div. IAA National; Championship 2-3 years ago, they quite often played only ONE COVERAGE in a game!

Robber vs. 2 back teams (& SOME 1 back teams with 1 or 2 TE's). Man/Free vs. Spread teams - 4 & 5 WR teams! Like everyone else - they also have a "blitz coverage".

The last year U of Delaware ran the Delaware Wing-T - JMU played ROBBER every snap & won!

This might should have been a whole new topic but it seems related to my original post about the TCU look...if anyone watched college football this weekend, does it seem that EVERYONE (teams that are a 40-front anyway) is pretty much running this look. Really, what choice do you have when facing so many 3 and 4 WR sets? I am seeing MANY 4-2 fronts with an OLB/SS to the passing strength & two high safeties. Even "4-3 base teams" spend the MAJORITY of the time in a 4-2 box with 5 DB's, whether CB's or Safteies, and on occasion, teams will walk that 2nd ILB out a LITTLE vs. a 2 x 2 look. I guess we may be coming to a point in football where that is the most "basic defense" to run, perhaps as the 50 might have been years ago?

Coach Mountjoy,

Could you explain your robber coverage you would use against say two tight end one back sets or two back sets? I completely understand cover 1 but what do you mean by robber?

jsrg

If you look in the ENCLOSED playbook, what THEY call "Cover 6/Free" (page 226 to page 231) is our BASIC Cover 1. What THEY call "Cover 6/Combo" (page 232 to page 236) is OUR "Robber" (which COMES off our Cover 1)!!! These are the ONLY coverages we use (except when we go Cover 0 & MAX/BLITZ). That is ALL we do.

Check out these LINKS (all you need to know about TCU Defense):
www.scribd.com/doc/17482749/TCU425NikeCOY
www.scribd.com/doc/26699479/TCU-Defense

TCU's big "thing" is MAN/BLITZ!!!

TCU BLITZ PACKAGE

4-2-5 PERSONNEL:
1. 4 DLM
2. 2 ILBers
3. 3 SAFETIES (S/S — F/S — W/S)
4. 2 Corners

COVERAGE:
Zero (0) is our term for man coverage. This is the coverage we use when blitzing. We use the terms "bail", "press", and "bump" following 0 to tell us the technique our Corners will use when playing man coverage. The basic count system is as follows, we will count from outside in 1, 2, 3. Only the read side can have a #3. Corners have #1 WR to their side. If there is no WR then he will flip over and count the next available WR (counting outside in). The Strong and Weak Safeties have #2 respectively to their sides. The Linebackers have #3 strong, #2 weak, if #2 is in the backfield. The Free Safety is free at this point with no one blitzing. Alignment for the linebackers is determined by the front call. The Safeties follow their zone alignment rules. The hardest point for the Safeties to learn is that the Free Safety may not be reading to passing strength. He is reading to the blitz side in most cases.

Blitz Terminology:
"Bullets" = Linebackers both blitz.
"Dogs" = Linebacker and Safety from the same side.
"Smokes" = Safety blitz.
"Mob" = Both Linebackers and both Safeties at the same side.
"Lions" = Safety blitz.
"Bullets Thunder" = Both Linbackers and TE side Safety.

"Bullets" tells both Linebackers to blitz. We signify in the call which gap the will run through.

*****************************************************

An interesting thing I read about Patterson's defense is the way he teaches it. This quote comes from an article Patterson published at a Nike Clinic, via DrB:

Our fronts and coverages have nothing to do with each other. The front is called by the use of a wristband. We break down our first 6 or 7 opponents and put the fronts on the player's wristbands. We dont have to teach anything new to our players during the season. The team's may change, but the fronts do not. We do teach during the season, but we dont have to re-teach our fronts.

Also, he divides the secondary down the middle for pass coverages:

"We divide our packages into attack groups. The 4 DL & 2 LB's are one segment of our defense. We align the front 6 and they go one direction. The coverage behind them is what we call a double-quarterback system. We play with 3 safeties on the field. We have a strong, weak and free safety. The free and weak safeties are going to control both halves of the field. They are the quarterbacks and they will make all the calls...

...In our coverage scheme we are going to divide the formation at the center every snap. We play with 5 defensive backs in the secondary...

...[If the passing strength is to the defensive left] the FS calls 'read' left. The FS is going to talk to the LCB, SS, and the read side LB. The weak safety aligns on the other side and talks to the right corner and right LB...

...Starting in spring practice, the 1st Mon. we teach Cover 2 (Robber). On Tues. we teach our Blue coverage (quarters)....On Wed. we teach squats-&-halves coverage (Cover 5). After that we are done teaching our zone coverages...

...We don't worry about formations any more. When you divide the formation down the middle, to each side there are only 3 formations the offense can give the secondary. The offense can give you a pro set, which is a tight end and wideout; a twin set, which is 2 wideouts; or some kind of trips set that the defense will have to defend. That is all they can give you.

In 3 days we teach our kids to line up in all 3 coverages against those formations...when we start talking about our game play, we never talk about lining up. All we talk about is what the opponent is going to be doing and how we are going to adjust to it.

Unless the offense lines up in a 3-back wishbone or a no-back set, there are only 3 ways the offense can be aligned and still be sound. Unless we want the coverage to overplay something to one side, we don't worry about formations....

We'll now turn to Dr.B from Shakin' in the Southland, who will run us through TCU's secondary packages (emphasis mine).

----------

Coverages

For the majority of the time, TCU is a Cover 2, Cover 5, or Man defense, but with Cover 3 in zone-blitz situations. What they tend to do against 2-back sets is slide a safety down into the box, so it looks like a 4-3, and play Cover 2 Robber to the side of the passing strength.


...In the secondary we have 3 basic zone coverages. We split the difference in those 3 coverages and it gives us 9 total coverages...We can also play cover 25. That means we are playing Cover 2 (Robber) to the FS side and Cover 5 to the weak safety side. The 1st digit in the number is the FS side and the 2nd digit is the weak side...


The problem with a 4-2-5 has usually been inadequacy against the rush. Against a Strong offset-I formation, for example, TCU will shift their LBs over to the strongside (called a slide) and slide the WS down into the box at the last second. With 3 DBs playing on the strongside, the Robber coverage call is unaffected. Despite the lack of another LB, TCU still manages to have one of the best rush defenses in the country because of these presnap shifts.

What is Cover 2 Robber? To the 2 WR side, for example, the SS and CB will matchup across the LOS with the FS playing deep-half. The FS watches the backfield for play-action, and once he reads pass his eyes immediately go to the #2 (slotman). If #2 runs vertical, SS stays with him. If #2 runs an out, the SS waits for #1 and is watching for a curl or post route by watching the guy's hips. He'll be underneath the route most likely to "rob" it.

If the hips sink, he's going to break and stop (like a curl). Then the SS jumps the route. Otherwise he goes with him on the post.

If #1 runs an in/out route, the CB calls "in" or "out" and the SS must get under the route to "rob" them. The CB is not responsible for them. On posts, the FS is meant to get under

On the weak side, there will only be the WS and CB on the #1 receiver, and the combination will play what is called "squat and half" coverage or "bracket" coverage. This means the CB will come up to try to squat or sit on routes (bumping the WR at the LOS) with the WS playing deep coverage. Bracket coverage looks a little like a Cover-2 zone, except that the first defender never peels off the receiver to defend the flat. Both defenders maintain high-low coverage throughout the receiver's route. Note that by "weak" I am talking about passing strength, not the Split-end side. The weak side would be a TE and Flanker, which are not as good at receiving as two true WRs to the strong side.

Cover Blue: Cover Blue is a cover 2 "Read", where the FS and WS both have halves, and the corners are in a read (called Blue technique) which means they will follow the #1 receiver vertical unless #2 releases outside before 8 yards deep. In this case the FS and WS will cover the #1 receiver. In a sense this is also Cover 4 (quarters).

Together with a cover 2 robber scheme to the other side, recall the coverage is called by the S to each side, it would be difficult for the QB to read.

The difference between robber and blue is who has flat, curl and wheel responsibilities. Cover 2 Robber: CB has #1 deep and post. SS has #2 flat, curl. Generally on a wheel route, they run the FS down and leave the SS underneath. FS has #2 vertical. If #2 runs an out, rob #1. Blue is 2 read but safety run support (SKY). CB plays outside #1 but on top of route if #2 blocks. If #2 to flat, CB stops feet and WS gets over top of #1.

Cover 5: A true Cover 2 look with CBs in Cloud (they have run support). The Free and Weak safeties are playing 2 deep zone with 5 men playing zone underneath. In other playbooks I've read, Cover 5 is a Cover 2 Man-under scheme, but not in TCU's. Also, TCU runs a matchup zone coverage, so it might as well be man/man. They almost never play the whole field in Cover 5, only one side.