3.5.3 Basics

Stand up 3.5.3

Michael Morgan

There are several factors to consider when implementing your defensive philosophy regardless of what defense you and your staff choose to run.

Philosophy: What do we believe?

1. Make certain the defense fits your personnel. Don't ask kids to do things they are not capable of doing.

2. Make certain the defense is sound. You have to have a scheme that is gap sound and the coverage responsibilities match the front.

3. Make sure the scheme is easy for the kids to communicate and understand. Defenses must be able to line up and play fast.

4. Make sure you have easy to understand formation and motion adjustments and practice them weekly.

5. Great defense is great in situations. Practice and Preach 3rd down and red zone situations. These are the times you have to play your best defense.

6. Communication: All defenders know the call, communicate adjustments, and play off of each other. Knowing down and distance on every play is critical for great defense.

7. Eliminate explosive plays. Make offenses drive the length of the field. Make the offense be patient and most of the time they will make a mistake and put themselves in long yardage situations.

Defensive Priorities: What do we spend our time working on?

1. Tackling: Spend your time teaching and practicing great tackling mechanics and relentless effort in tackling.

2. Turnovers: Getting the ball back is the way to win ball games. Stress forcing takeaways and getting off of the field on third down.

3. Block Destruction: Blocked players cannot make plays.

4. Leverage: Great 2nd level defenders keep the ball inside and in front and understand 2 way leverage. Front players understand fits, especially spill and squeeze concepts and how they fit into the overall defensive scheme.

5. Effort: Great defenses emphasize and insist on outstanding effort and have all 11 players playing hard and in unison until the whistle.

Fundamentals: What must all of our kids do to be able to contribute to the success of the defense?

1. Alignment: You cannot do your job if you are not aligned correctly.

2. Stance: Fundamental defensive play starts with a great stance. A player cannot defeat blocks and will constantly be out of position if they are not in a great stance.

3. Key: Sound defense starts with the ability to read the offensive key and have eyes in the correct place at all times.


Personally I like a four man front with 3 linebackers verse traditional sets and run heavy teams and a nickel (4.2.5) package against spread teams. I prefer two high safeties and being able to run quarters, hard cover 2, and man coverage with the ability to disguise which coverage is being run. I like to blitz when needed but let the linebackers play whenever possible. I believe line stunts, 2 and 3 man, can be effective on run and pass downs as well as slanting to the look you want to be in.


Pursuit


My favorite pursuit drill is a traditional pursuit with all 11 defenders lined up correctly in a great stance with their eyes in the correct location to read their keys. On snap flow will be given. Force players will force, squeeze players will squeeze, contain players will contain, and backside players will take great backside angles.

At this point everyone will have to run. The force players will fit to the sideline. The contain player will fit to the sideline as well but 5 yards deeper. All other players will run to the sideline of given flow but will spread at 5 yard intervals based on who gets there first. You should not run down the back of another defender. If he is ahead of you adjust your path to a deeper fit. The backside players should be the deepest and should be on a path to save the touchdown or take away the cutback down field. All players will run full speed in their lane to the sideline and stay there with feet moving in a great hitting position until the whistle blows. (Attached is a drawing of the team pursuit drill.) The drill can be run from the middle of the field, short side, and wide side to change angles.

The great thing about this drill is that a different front can be called each repetition along with a different coverage. The pursuit fit rarely plays out the same each time and makes it very realistic since fits in a game rarely play out the same. It also quickly identifies if your force players understand who is forcing and who is not. You can also reverse flow and have players initially fit front side and then flip and pursue after misdirection. I like this much better then having set cones or landmarks that each player is assigned to because it makes them fit off of each other. If two players end up in the same spot then someone has fit incorrectly. It is great to film this drill and watch it later with the players. Fits and effort can be very easily seen and coached off of the film