5-2 defense

Coach,

This is no secret, but one of the reasons we love the 50 is that the guards are uncovered (as opposed to a 4-4), easy to read, and in all honestly, take you to the ball more than any other player. As such, we teach our ILB's to see both (1) the G's AND (2) the FB/Near back (we teach them to use the horizontal bar on their facemask and to see the G below the bar and the FB above the bar). So if the G blocks down on the NG, and the FB does anything other than attack outside of us on our side (in which case it is a Power O our way, so we scrape across to the off tackle hole), we fill through the area vacated by the G, immediately. This allows us to beat the down block of the PST on Traps and Counters, where the FB has gone away from us initially, but the ball ultimately comes back to us (we usually run right into the ballcarrier), and to meet the FB as close to the LOS as possible (preferably in the backfield) on Iso's. Similarly, if we get a base block from the G and the FB comes at us (generally a dive), we fill immediately and place the G in the FB's lap. If we get a base block and the FB does anything else, we scrape, mirroring the FB, until we find the football and swarm.

Our system is a little strange in that, other than the NG (both A's), none of our players has a gap responsibility. Instead, we attack and react to our keys. Thus, we drill our keys constantly, so our kids know exactly what is coming at them and where the ball will be all the time. Then it's just swarming to the football. What fun!!!