Checks for quarters coverage

Personally, vs an even spread, there is not much change for me other than possibly personnel or shifting into a more spread friendly wrinkle (44 to 42 for instance). Keys will be basically the same, but responsibilities may shift somewhat. The DE, may have to do more, for instance in terms of paying attention to contain, etc. In the case of a trips, often we will move to a zone scheme to one half of the field, and another scheme to the other--either man or C-2/man free generally. If we are worried about deep balls, then we will call a C-3 to the trips side (basically a quarters scheme to that half of the field) and run a man or man free to the back side. You can get very creative here, but my philosophy on defense, usually, is to follow the KISS method and let the kids play. Bastard TE splits are a bit of a pain, though. I've found that rolling a SS/OLB down to them, running a 46 look at them is often something those teams don't like to see. However, if that TE is a beast and you can't match up with him like that, you are going to have to deal with it in other ways. Frankly, that is one thing I hate to see in an offense I'm facing--which is why I love running it on my offense. In short, don't re-invent the wheel. Keep your basics and tweak them as needed. If your free doesn't play a force technique in your "base", then don't make him play force vs spread/trips, etc. Keep it simple, attack, and force the offense to beat you with what you do best.