33 Defensive Linemen

Coach, thanks for the 3-3 information.

Lou Cella

For the 33 stack, I have not found very much info on the depth of the alignment.
We start our young players at 3+ feet to teach them how to read an offensive lineman, then advance to reading on the move while slanting. The better the players get, the tighter we align them. Vs. wing t teams, we back up the front three to 3+ feet. We are leaning toward telling the players to adjust themselves as needed in the game. If the o lineman is getting to you, back up and maybe even shade to the slant, if not stay tight and head up. I've heard several 33 stack coaches refer to it as "teaching alingment vs. performance alignment".

I heard a successful slant 50 coach, who aligns 2-3 ft off the los, say one reason he aligns off the los is so his players can be agressive off the ball, and not get penalties when they jump offsides. He had been having a tough time with kids jumping. He realized that he was condradicting himself when he was telling them to fire off full tilt, but punishing them for getting "silly" penalties. He said if you aren't giving away the direction you are slanting with your alignment, being close isn't that big of a deal.

HAWKOPTION
The key for us it to progress to it by reading a single lineman without slanting to making the same reads while slanting. The best drill we have found is to align three d linemen (T-N-T) on five offensive lineman and hold cards for the o line to work blocks that the d line reacts to while slanting. Part of the time will include a lineman as a TE. We work hard on redirecting when the read tells us the play is the other way. If the player has to back door it, we let him. If he can cross face, we let him. We teach them the best way to do both and then hopefully react during the game.
We just lost the best d lineman I've ever had at this. He could not be trapped and redirecte on a time. He was not fast, but had excellent footwork. In a playoff game the team we played ran tackle counter and reverse and he almost took the handoff by reading pullers. He also lead the team in jumping offsides, especially early in the game before the got a feel for the QB and the o line in front of him.

We will two gap the nose if he can handle it. We have been fortunate the last three years to have ones that could. That has changed and now we are young and not yet very strong. That is partly why the 33 looks so attractive. When we two gap him, he uses the stuff technique that Coach Roberts refers to. Nothing more than attack the breast plate, lock out and react.


Which tapes from coach Roberts do you have? I really like his approach to the 33 and want to get all I can from him. Thanks.

We teach our players to key the back tip of the ball or the near lineman's down hand. We don't get on them if they jump. If they see a twitch get off! You must have them get off as aggressive as possible.

Well, someone has to be the odd ball, right? We don't back our guys off of the line at all--in fact, we crowd the LOS until the refs start giving us warnings. I, personally, can't see any logic in giving the offense any extra yardage. Maybe we're different from you guys in high school because all of our players get to learn DLine technique for six hours a day. We can slant pretty good from our 3-3 stack. We use a 6-8 inch power (lateral) step when slanting and always employ a rip move so as to take the OL with us as we cross his face. You guys have a lot of different ideas, though. You make me question myself sometimes--but I don't know about that 2-3 feet off of the LOS stuff...I'm not buyin' it.

That makes sense. Boy, I'll tell ya... I coached HS 2 yrs ago and no matter how much I stressed it, I just could not get those kids to fire off on the snap the way I wanted them to. I used to pull my hair out when I would watch the film. They just weren't anticipating...they thought they could muscle through everything--drove me nuts.