Installing the 3-4

Michael Moore

My defensive philosophy is simple: 1. Stop the run, 2. Limit big plays, 3. Create takeaways. This is what I believe a coach must do in high school must be able to do for team success on defense. 1. What I mean by stopping the run is holding your opponent under 100 yards rushing, if we can do that then we are likely going to win every game. Stopping the run makes teams one dimensional, If they are down big they tend to throw the ball more. The best thing you can do to a running team is force them to pass. 2. To me big plays or plays of 25 yards or more. eliminating those plays entirely is not realistic, they are going to happen. Instead, keeping them down to two per game is the goal. 3. We want at least three takeaways per game. We encourage this through the turnover chain. When ever a player gets a takeaway they get to wear the turnover chain.



We use the six cone pursuit drill. We put six cones on both sides of the field spaced about three yards apart. We line the players up back in the end zone. We have a tackle line, a nose line, a inside linebacker line, a outside linebacker line, a safety line, and a corner line. Players go six at a time. On the line a tackle and a nose, six yards behind them two backers, and behind them two defensive backs. The coach will say hit. The tackle and nose will hit the ground, the coach will point to one of the sidelines and all six players will run to a cone on that side. The first cone they get to is the one they get by and chop their feet until a coach breaks them down. If they go to the wrong cone or don not sprint all the way through, then they have to go again. While that going on the next group of six fall in and do the same thing to the other side. After each turn the groups fall back in line to go again. We do this for about 10 minutes depending on our practice time. This drill prepares us for power running teams which are most of the teams on our schedule. We also do a interception/bubble screen pursuit because there are a couple of these that like bubble screens and a lot of three step drops. In that pursuit the entire defense is on the field lined up in a defensive formation. The coaches are spread out to outside and behind the defense. One coach hikes the ball and throws to any coach he wants and the defense has to run to the ball. He mixes up hitting the flats in the bubble screen areas and also to the mid to deep areas where interceptions occur. The goal is to get the players to run to the ball and to take proper angles to cut off return lanes. It is good to have some young energetic coaches who like to run and make players chase them down.