DB Play

Coach,
the cornerback should be on the receivers inside. He will naturally be a little bit be behind him, although he shouldn't. As soon as a corner get's beat he will play the receiver man technique, that means DO NOT, under no circumstances, look back to the ball. If you do, you will get beat! The distance between WR and C will grow, etc. When C is running with the WR, and the WR's hands go up, the corner should turn his outside arm into the WR. It sounds hard, but it really is not.
We have what we call the ''Strip Drill": A corner runs with a WR and as soon as the WR's hands go up he does exactly the same thing. He turns his outside arm 'into' the WR, that is right between the WR's arms. Maybe you see what I'm saying. It sounds pretty complicated.
We also don't have our DBs line up with OS leverage. That is because we don't want to give away the coverage. We always line up a yard on his inside, and decide the depth according to the tendencies they have.

Hope I was of any help. If you have any questions feel free to email me:
tschmoelzer@hotmail.com
I might be able to send you some more information on this soon.

We teach our DB's to be very quick with their backpeddle. They play inside leverage as they are the over the top player with no help. We don't ever want a receiver deeper than our deep third player. Cover 3 should take away the deep throws. We backpeddle quickly for 5 and zone drop, maintaining a cushon.

DB's should be inside versus wide recievers and outside versus tight receivers. Force the eligible receiver to work to get yards in a given area of the field.

Lou Cella

we play cover 3 zone with DB on the outside also. The CB is able to read run/pass from end man on LOS. It's a zone and we would like to keep everything inside by keeping outside position. One reason we do not play inside to the WR because when the ball is in the air we would like an equal opportunity to catch it. Playing the WR with inside position only give you an opportunity to strip or PI because you're not playing the ball. I played under coach Dungy a couple of years in the 80's at Pittsburgh and we played it that way. In college we also use outside position.

Coach,
We play 7 yards off and are slightly outside. We too look at O-line and Qb.

Very good topic.

One thing to take into consideration is who you have, and who they have. if they have a very fast wr, and we have a good corner that breaks on balls well, but is not fleet of foot, i'd have to go outside play with him.

Superior speed from a corner can allow you do either.

In college our defense was a 4-4, and even though they moved around to show blitz and fake blitz, it was still pretty much the same look every time. Teams started to read corners to tell coverage, and our coaches started to feel our opponents knew blitz just by corner alignment. We then had to switch to both types of cover 3 coverage, (inside and outside), and inside and outside technique for man coverage.

So, I guess I can officially now say, either way is fine, as long as you have a definite reason for it.

again, just my 2 cents

I'm with Coach Cella on this. Inside Leverage all the way. Utilise the sideline as the 12th defender and make the QB throw the ball OVER the CB and INSIDE the sideline. The Fade is the toughest throw to make. If he does, congratulations to him, it's very low percentage.
We also employ a 7yd rule. Any WR lining up 7yds or closer to sideline is automatically played with inside leverage, no matter what coverage. I've seen teams get shredded with quick slant and post because they wouldn't adjust the CB leverage and left him head up (which I would never coach - too many options for WR) or on outside alignment worried about the Go and Fade routes.

We have used all of Kyle Williams teaching progressions for the cover 3 inside shade corner. If you use the 3 step slide to start with while getting your eyes on the QB it gives the corner an opportunity to play the short passing game, fade, etc. Don't forget that most offenses are not throwing the fade to the WR vs. Cover 3.
Your corner should melt while in his backpedal to where the WR is stemming to. If he focusses on the QB he can get a read off the QB's front shoulder. High shoulder is deep pass, low shoulder is short. We do not overcoach the fade. Your corner will basically become a WR on the fade. Tell him to attack the ball as if the ball were intended for him. If your corner is getting beat over the top consistantly in Cover 3 you probably have the wrong kid out there.

Coach, I believe in teaching Cover 3 out of the base, cover 4 when you go to a prevent, and play a 5 under zone on the goal-line. Three coverages total with 95 percent of the coverages being based out of cover 3. Three coverages total.

Lou Cella

All DB's look at uncovered lineman for run pass read while seeing QB. If uncovered lineman fires out across LOS, it's run. If he does anything else (pull, cross block, drop back), it's pass. While they are making this read, they are taking three short shuffle steps (we call them the read steps).
If a pass read, get eyes to QB until he passes three-step drop. If QB raises up during this time, fly to the side his shoulders are pointing toward. If QB passes three-step drop, get eyes on man.
If run read, he should see the ball as he sees the uncovered man. All the DB has to do is attack the ball accroding to his assignmnet in the coverage. Since we are an 8-man front, our C's are usually 2nd contain players. Our FS is an alley player; we want him flying through the alley to the ball. We tell the FS that he is a LB who happens to line-up 9yds deep.

DB aligns on WR with inside foot back(heel/toe relationship). On the snap, DB uses a step and replace technique for his shuffle steps. The DB will push with the front foot while sliding the back foot back (first step). The second step is the front foot sliding back to approximately where the toe of the back foot started. The third step is the same as the second step. I guess you can think of this as sliding the back foot back, then sliding the front foot back, but the foot that starts in front always stays in front.
I learned this technique from Nick Rappone at Temple. He says that it keeps the DB's feet on the ground, which in turn allows him to react quicker, especially to the 3-step pass.

This is going to be a long post because this is the first time I've seen this post and there is a ton that I want to respond to.

First off, I like outside leverage with a 7-9 yard cushion, depending on the speed o f the db in relation to the receiver, in a Cover 3. On a post there is the free safety to help in the middle. A slant or hitch you should be able to break on to either limit the reciever to a 3 or 4 yard completion. If 3-4 yards is too much to sacrifice from time to time, then you should be in a press man coverage with inside leverage. Remember 3 consecutive 3 yard hitches leads to a punt. As for what happens against a fly or fade, the corner should try to influence the receiver to have to work to the sideline, this can be done from outside leverage, and then turn and run after the cushion is broken down. Turning whe the ball is in the air, look back through the middle of the field with thier back to the receiver, slightly leaning back to edge the receiver to the sideline. It is key to maintain some kind of "incidental" body contact so as to not let the receiver stop and get inside for a jump ball type play. I've been taught and have taught my dbs to make the receiver go through you to get to the deep ball. Starting out with outside leverage also makes it easier to read the onside gaurd, wr, onside rb triangle to determine run or pass. And as for run support, it makes ti dificult to get hooked by the wr who is blocking, not giving up the sidleline.

As for how many coverages to teach, I like 2 zone coverages and 3 man coverages. I like the basic 3 deep zone with the strong safety up covering the flat and a basic Cover 2 with the deep safeties splitting the deep field and the corners up in the flats. As for man, I like an outside leverage with FS help in the middle, an inside leverage with FS help, and an inside leverage with the FS taking a man also for inside the red zone. All of these can be adapted and shifted slightly depending on the skill and intelligence level of the team. As a player I was a fan of a 2 deep mixed man and zone defense, but you have to have good people to be able to run that. As of yet, I haven't had the personel to run that one.

I love to talk about defense and coverages and I'm glad I found this thread. Hopefully, there will be more discussion on this topic.

how much man coverage do you throw in there?

what technique out of the corners do you prefer, the backpedal or the shuffle/slide?

oh, and why?