Split Field Coverage Concept - The Underneath Players

What's underneath there???

I get a lot of questions about this topic, especially regarding TCU's Blue coverage and how they deal with crossers.  Now, I've not heard it from the man himself, but from what I've watched on film and broken down, here is what I've come to find out.  To first illustrate, we need to look at how traditional zone coverages, that are not split field in nature deal with crossing routes.

Traditional Zone
In a traditional zone, much like in basketball, routes get passed off to other defenders when the run through a zone.  In the early years, if you were to have run with the receiver after he passed through your zone, you surely were getting yelled at as a player.  The idea behind zone is that all eyes are on the football and that in an attempt to minimize spacing, you pass routes off to one another.  This works good in basketball where things work on a much tighter scale, however in football, OC's found out that there was just too much ground for a traditional zone player to have to work with to effectively control passing concepts by simply passing one receiver from zone to zone. This "passing off" is where many zone coverages fail and it's for two major reasons.  Reason one, is sheer athleticism.  Most underneath zone guys are linebackers or inverted safeties who are not as fleet of foot as their cornerback counterparts, yet they are still having to cover receivers within their zones.  As the spread has evolved, instead of the number two receiver being a tight end or a running back, he's now a slot receiver, which makes this match up that more lopsided in the offenses favor.  Secondly as offenses have advanced through the years, passing concepts have become more and more advanced, and are using this "passing off" technique against the defense by overloading zones with multiple crossers and/or high lowing a zone AND adding a crosser.  These two factors are the single most important reason to pattern read in my opinion.  That's for another post however...

Anyhow, in traditional zone, if a hook to curl defender expands to his landmark and gets a receiver coming into his zone, he runs with him, until something makes him stop.  Now this can be the edge of zone, or another receiver entering his zone.  A lot of people call this passing the route and looking for work.  In the beginning of pure zone coverage concepts, I'm sure this was the bees knees, however as offenses have figured this out, the stress put on these underneath coverage guys by both horizontal and vertical stretches have become so great, most folks are not using any "pure zone" concepts anymore (if you are, please proceed to the nearest mental hospital, put on one of their fancy white coats and stay awhile).  With two speedy receivers crossing in a linebackers zone, or high-lowing his zone, the idea that you ask him to split the two and rally was a good answer in the beginning, but as QB coaching has progressed, even in high school football there are kids who can fit the ball into the tightest of windows.  So now you get pattern reading.  But how does pattern reading and the split field concept tie together?  Let's take a look.

Reading...you're doing it wrong!

Pattern Reading
I would venture a guess that ALL major college football defenses pattern read.  I'm sure there are a few that still use some landmark drops, but most are now at least using a progression type read, reading from two to one, or one to two and so on.  Other pattern read schemes have very definitive rules, such as "all of number two vertical and out", which gives a clear cut picture of what the defender is doing.  This pattern match principle can be easily seen on display every Saturday afternoon in the fall.  Pattern matching is not really all that new either, but it's refinement is what's really taking pattern matching to new heights here lately.  Anyhow, what I really like about pattern matching is the definitive answer to reacting to what a receiver or offensive player is doing.  This leaves very little gray area for the defender to have to deal with.  Gray areas are what force your players to play slow, because it makes them think. Now many of those that argue against pattern matching, don't really understand the concept and just how concrete it is.  It's the best of both worlds is what it really is.  It's zone in nature, which means we have all 11 eyes on the football at the snap of the football, helping immensely with stopping our opponent's run game.  Secondly it's man in nature in that once the man trigger has been pulled by the defender, he simply covers the receiver man to man.  We all know that man is one of the simplest coverages out there, so all you are really doing, when pattern reading, is giving qualifiers to man coverage.  Anyhow, I could go on for days here, but even in pattern matching, defenders can still pass off routes to other defenders.  In Saban's Mable adjustment to trips, if there are two crossers, the inside linebackers will pass them off to one another, they do not run with them man necessarily, even though their base rule would say to do so.  This can lead to some confusion though and lead to open receivers.  It can also allow the offense to use this passing off feature against the defense, much like offenses exploited it back when it was still a pure zone concept.  So how does the split field concept alleviate the stress put on a defense by crossing receivers?

Split Field and Crossing Receivers
Now I'm speaking of how TCU's split field concept works and what makes it so solid, I'm sure there's plenty of split field coaches out there that will disagree with this approach, however the TCU scheme is by far the BEST I've seen for dealing with crossing routes.  Let's set up a two-by-two set up playing Blue to both sides (though TCU does not do this, we could simply say playing quarters to both side etc.).  Anyhow, does not matter where the read side is, just keep in mind what the underneath players are doing.  Let's look at the following concept (similar to the levels concept) out of the two-by-two formation shown below.

The corner to the away side has to honor the vertical of one to help the weak safety get over the top, so the out will inevitably be open, however the Mike, is the slice player so he will exit 90 degrees in an attempt to undercut this route.  Now, if the read side linebacker (Sam in my illustration), passes off the shallow crosser, the QB can have a field day!  Here's where the man trigger of pattern matching comes into place.

As we can see from the illustrations, if the read side linebacker passes the crosser off, there's a large void and an open area for that receiver to sit down in.  If he runs with the crosser, which he should, then this window is immediately closed.  Also, from the illustrations, you can see there are still elements of pure zone coverage as look at the strong safety, who sees two go inside and knows now I look to work under number one's route.  He is, in effect, "passing off" the crosser to the inside linebacker, which as stated above, is a pure zone concept.

Now, the other beauty of the way TCU plays things, is that behind everything they do, there is a "common sense rule".  Which basically means, "don't do anything stupid".  For instance, one would say, "What about mesh coach?".  This is a valid question, since now you have two crossers and as we all know (or should know), crossers can severely damage man coverage, ESPECIALLY when they cross.  Here's where the common sense rule comes into play though.

The two linebackers will communicate to each other on the crossing routes and come off and switch.  Here the switch makes sense because Mesh attempts to beat the tar out of man coverage with these crossing routes.  Had the two defenders stayed locked in man a natural rub would occur and one defender, or both, could be compromised, thereby leaving a receiver open.

The Weakness
Much of the questions I get on the subject of underneath coverage defenders has to do when one of these defenders is assigned to the vertical of a certain position.  For instance, in Blue, the read side linebacker is the middle hook dropper and will have all of number three vertical.  This scares the hell out of folks, because they are not accustomed to having their linebacker run with any vertical threat.  This is not a big deal IF you've done your scouting homework.  I once faced an OC in that would get in stacked twins, two-by-two look with the receivers out on the top of the numbers and would run the running back vertical down the seam because he knew we were running quarters.  They had a major down and distance tendency for doing this, and had a damn good running back who could catch as good as any receiver on their team.  When we saw this look, or expected it, we simply rolled into good ol' country cover 3.  They ran fade/hitch with the other receivers which cover 3 took care of nicely.  The safety would roll to the MOF and we ended up picking off that route once and breaking up another to where they quit running it.  My point is, don't make one coverage fit everything.  That would be like you waking up in the morning, trying to find an outfit for the office that would also look good for your job interview that afternoon and be comfortable enough at your son's Little League game later than night.  CHANGE YOUR FRICKEN' CLOTHES DUDE!!!  C'mon, don't ask one coverage to cover everything, I mean that's what everybody supposedly loves about cover 3 is that it aligns to everything.  BIG DEAL, it covers NOTHING, so why use it?  If you know a team likes to do a particularly thing you need to have an answer for that.  It may mean another coverage, it may mean tweaking what you have, but Lord knows, whatever you do, don't just "hope" your linebacker can run with their back if he can't.

We have found a weakness!

The other thing I get, is coaches saying "Well that's just man, I don't like my linebackers to play man".  Well why not?  I mean, the best way to see man to man coverage, is to go to a playground and watch kids playing tag or a pickup game of football.  If you watch, there will be mismatches everywhere, hell that's LIFE.  But watch closely and time up the time that the kids begin to run or chase the other kid and the time that one either separates or closes the gap between the other.  You will see this time will be around three to five seconds.  Sound familiar?  Any kid can run with a receiver for three to five seconds, anywhere on the field.  This is not a major issue in my book, and I always roll my eyes at that question, but go check it out for yourself.  The other thing to remember is that 75 percent of pass defense is pass rush.  So if your guys can run with their guys for three to five seconds, you need to be able to apply pressure in that same amount of time.  That, my friends is EXACTLY how good pass defense works.

The face of your pass defense.

To me, the major weakness of the underneath coverage in the split field concept is communication.  If communication is missed it can lead to open receivers or defenders running into each other.  It is imperative that you, as the coach, make sure that your players know not only why they should communicate, but how to effectively communicate.  I worked for a guy that used to have underneath guys yell "crosser" when a receiver would cross in front of them and leave their zone.  I always wondered why, because trying saying the word "crosser" with a mouthpiece in.  I came to him one day, and said "Why don't we just say in, instead of crosser?  It's shorter and easier to say than crosser."  He looked at me, as though he'd never thought of that, which to find out, he hadn't and we immediately changed that and our communication with our underneath players got much better.  These are the things that you, the coach, can do to facilitate your players and help them be successful implementing the underneath coverage in a pattern read scheme.

Conclusion
The underneath coverage  in the split field concept is not as tricky as folks make it out to be, especially if you build communication into your system and a set of fail-safe rules.  I always tell folks, using the word "always" in building your rules is a bad thing, because good OC's find out your "always" and then exploit it.  Keep your rules open and flexible as possible to allow for your players to adapt to what they are seeing.  Just as in the example above, both the inside linebacker's man keys were triggered, but because of communication and common sense (which should be ingrained in how you coach the coverage to your players) these players knew what was coming and were able to adjust.

Always...not "always" a good word...

Duece

Setting the Record Straight

I was talking with a very knowledgeable colleague yesterday and had some things dawn on me about this blog.  As everybody knows, I had a recent meltdown where I got frustrated with some things and basically shut everything down.  Well, I've cooled my heels since then, been keeping my nose to the grindstone, heavily studying TCU's defense and writing my book on the flexbone offense.  This is why my posts have been few and far between lately.  I have some things on the horizon that may get me back into the high school game.  I'm not 100 percent sure of it yet, but hopefully with a little luck, I will be back to coaching on Friday nights.

Anyhow, back to the reason for this post.  My colleague, who is extremely knowledgeable about the game of football, has pointed out some glaring flaws in my blog with some of my posts, especially those about TCU's defense.  Now this flaw is that I have reported in a manner that would leave folks to believe that I was sitting in Gary Patterson's office taking dictation.  This was not my intent.  When I first started looking into the TCU defense, it's manner of divorced front and coverage, split field concept and the pro-style play calling, I did what a LOT of coaches do with college schemes.  I took it and tried to mold it to what "I'd always done".  So instead of an eight word call for Tite Tank Tank S-Dogs B Silver, I made that into Boston Dogs to shorten the call and turn it into a concept call instead of using the pro-style method.  So in those regards, a lot of that stuff was my adaptation of TCU's principles.  My colleague pointed out that this can, and has been misleading.  Not my intent whatsoever.

Also, some things have been PURE mistakes, which I'm not afraid to admit.  It doesn't mean that what I wrote was necessarily bad or you shouldn't use it, it's just maybe not EXACTLY like TCU does it.  The reason for this is because all I had in front of me was clinic notes, the 57 page playbook most TCU gurus have in their library, and some game film.  Well, I sat down to digest this stuff, because I wanted to install the 4-2-5, but I molded it into "my defense" with my terminology.  Looking at film, it's easy to see where Blue, and Robber look so much alike.  One clear mistake I made is to make the statement that TCU plays Blue coverage to both sides.  Having done further homework, I have been shown that this is actually not the case. They rarely if EVER play Blue to both sides.  However, I do, and have done it this way, because I like Blue better than their cover 2.  My posts on the matter have been a bit misleading in that they are really my interpretation of what teams are doing based on studying.  You have to realize, using this information can come with a price (remember this shit's free, so you get what you pay for).  Again, doesn't mean it's wrong, but if you are arguing with a GA from TCU you COULD undoubtedly look like an idiot.

What I did when I started out with this blog is to try and study the game and put things into terms and perspectives that the high school football coach could use at that level.  I never meant for this to be a blog where I simply reported what teams did verbatim.  I don't have the money or the resources to fly all over the country and clinic with all these staffs to figure all this out.  I, like many of you, am DVR'ing every game I can on Saturday's and then breaking these films down in the off season, studying them and reporting my findings.  Do I misinterpret things?  Yes, hell I'm human too.  The thing of it, is I'm not too proud to admit that I've made a mistake, and here's the correct answer.

Lastly, a LOT of the stuff on here is stuff I have run or friends have run and shared with me that has been successful.  The Two Gap One Gap (TGOG) stuff is something I did YEARS ago BY ACCIDENT.  I wasn't sitting around being a mad scientist in a lab figuring this shit out, I was a quarters coach, trying to figure out how to contain this new generation of running QB's using a pirate stunt when both OLB's in the 4-3 were walked out on number two in a two-by-two set.  We simply stumbled on the principle and a friend of mine actually learned how Iowa does it, and uses it to this day with tremendous success.  The same thing goes for a lot of the stuff I've posted on here (the 8-2-1 kickoff return, the BOSS blitz, the zone read stunts etc.) are all things I've had a hand in using or developing that have helped coaches and I wanted to share them with you.

The frustrating part is the coaches that email and act like I sold them something with a warranty.  Dude, I'm not Sears and you just bought a set of Craftsman wrenches and had one break.  I'm not going to rush right over and help you, if I'm busy doing other things.  This was the major reason I shut the blog down, and the major reason I'm writing this post today.  Now, for those that haven't done this, don't worry, I plan to keep blogging as I feel it's a great outlet, but I want the blog to be special, because since I've started it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they should start a blog too.  Good for them, but I want to do things that set me apart from the crowd.  I'm going to keep writing about things I learn, or do, or develop, from MY perspective and not try and mislead folks that, this is HOW somebody else runs something that in all honesty I haven't heard from the "horse's mouth".  I hope that will clear some things up, and keep folks happy, and yes I plan on getting back into blogging once things settle down a bit.  So have no fear, Football is Life will still be around, just maybe not as many posts as your used to, so please be patient.

For those fixing to start spring ball, I'm hoping and praying I'm among your ranks here soon.  Lord knows I miss those Friday Night Lights!!!

Duece

Why Install Both Special and Solo Coverages?

I get this question a lot from guys, and I guess things are not making sense, so I'm going to try and set the record straight with this post.  First off, we must understand, that everything is done for a reason.  Solo and Special Coverages are overloaded zones pushed to the passing strength to help with 3x1, 3x2 and 4x1 offensive sets.  So let's take a look at what each coverage is, and why each coverage is needed.

Solo
Solo, often referred to by old-school Quarters coverage guys as "Poach" is basically Blue (2 read) to the number one and number two receivers on a trips side.  In the TCU 4-2-5, the read side corner, strong safety (SS) and free safety (FS) will all play blue coverage to the number one and two receivers.  The number three receiver strong is handled by both the read side linebacker and the away side safety.  The weak side corner will cover the single receiver man-to-man, and the away side linebacker (LB) will take the running back in man coverage also. 

Here are the individual rules:
Read side:
Corner: All of 1 vertical/Swing deep of 2
FS: All of 2 vertical; 2 not vertical and in, rob curl to post of 1, 2 not vertical and out, man 1.
SS: Curl/Flat/Swing deep of 3.
LB: Strong hook, short wall 3.

Away side:
Corner: Man #1.
WS: Deep 1/2, all of 3 vertical.
LB: Man #2.

Pros of Solo Coverage
Right off the bat you can see that the simplicity of the coverage is that the read side needs no new teaching (with the exception of the wall off technique by the read side linebacker).  This is nothing more than the simple "X-out" concept many loaded zone coverages employ.  The away side is also a relatively simple assignment as well, since kids have been playing man-to-man since they were first put on playgrounds.  Also, the run support to the read side is very solid, with the SS still being in a great position to force the football from his normal alignment.

Cons of Solo Coverage
The weak side run support is the biggest issue I know of with Solo coverage.  The WS is put in a bind in that if the number three receiver goes vertical, he MUST honor that release, leaving the force player late to the party on the away side.  However, you must remember, the read side is always set to the wide side of the field when the ball is on a hash, so there is not much room for the offense to maneuver to the single receiver side.  In the middle of the field though, I would say this could be a recipe for some big gains, particularly if your opponent is used to sending its receivers vertical.  The other issue is the WS's ability to get over the number three receiver when he is running vertical.  Another tough issue, is when the vertical of three becomes a corner route.  There is some much needed seven-on-seven time with Solo coverage.  Another issue that arises is that most times the single receiver in a trips set is the best receiver of the bunch, and if they pit him against your corner, you could see some mismatches based on personnel. 

Another con is flood routes to the read side.  Depending on how you declare receivers vertical, you can be caught in a pinch if you are not careful.  The flood route is as dangerous as one may think, but does take some work to perfect.

Special
What Solo isn't, Special is.  That's about as simple as you can put it really.  Special is an excellent 3x1 coverage, that is also an "X-out" concept, however this time the manned receiver is on the read side instead of the away side.

The individual rules are as follows:

Read side:
Corner: Man #1.
FS: All of 3 vertical; 3 not vertical and in, rob curl to post of 2; 3 not vertical and out, man 2.
SS: All of 2 vertical, swing deep of 3.
LB: Strong hook, all of 4 vertical.

Away side:
Corner: Play call (can play sky/cloud,bronco etc).
WS: Play call.
LB: Depends on call.

The away side has a ton of freedom.  You can do any of the following options.

Cloud
TCU would refer this as cover five, however in my system when the corner is the flat player, then we simply tag it Cloud.  In cloud, the corner is the flat player, and is also the swing deep of two player.  The WS then becomes the deep 1/2, all of one vertical player with the away side LB playing the weak hook to curl, and has all of number two vertical.

Sky
Sky is simply the opposite of cloud for the WS and weak corner.  I like Sky coverage because it has safety run support, and I prefer to have my safeties force instead of my corners.

Blue
You can run blue coverage to this side as well, but you do have a rough time defending the curl from blue coverage, so I only recommend this if your opponent does not attack the curl area, or if you on a hash.

Bronco
Bronco is a better option than Blue, because you can tighten the WS's alignment to assist in supporting the run.  Bronco is played many ways, I simply man the corner on the number one receiver and the WS will take all of number two vertical or out. 

Solid
Solid is the way to truly get 3x1 teams out of trips.  In Solid you can run Solid Backer, Solid Smoke, or Solid Cobra.  All three are shown below.

Solid Backer

Solid Smoke

Solid Cobra

As you can see, the defense is taking advantage of a three-on-two match up and attacking the offense with this match up.  Solid coverage is one of my favorites because the offense does not expect this from a zone look on the backside of a 3x1 formation.

Pros of Special Coverage
The top reason I like Special is the fact I can cover my opponents best receiver with two players.  You can mix and match either having the safety over the top, or the corner, thereby keeping your opponent's quarterback (QB) guessing as to which player is responsible for what zone.

The addition of Solid coverage on the away side is another great reason to play Special Solid.  Attacking the offense is what the defense should ALWAYS have in mind, and Solid does just this. 

The weak side run support in Special is much better than Solo because either the corner or WS has deep help to their side.  This frees this player up to attack the line of scrimmage (LOS) on run looks, as well as helping to play the cutback on runs to the strong side.

Cons of Solo Coverage
The cons most often come to the read side.  The read side run support is tricky at best.  The SS should be the force player, but can easily be influenced by the release of the number three receiver.  The FS and read side LB can alleviate this somewhat, but the run support to that side takes some work.

The cross-training of the SS as a corner also takes some work, but is not as tedious as many may thing.  However, this does add to the complexity of the coverage. 

Conclusion
So, looking at what both these coverages are and aren't, really shows why both are a compliment to each other.  The biggest reason to run both, is quite easy, run support.  I did not run much Special for fear of the complexity and did just fine, however flood routes and away side runs did take their toll on my team.  I would have benefited from installing Special, to combat the problems that are inherent to Solo coverage.

Yes, both coverages take time to implement, and I recommend installing Solo first, as it is an easier coverage install.  However, I do think, as the season rolls along, you should have Special installed by your third game at the latest.  This is just my opinion, and obviously the earlier the better. 

Duece

Creating an Eight Man Front to Defend the Spread Offense III

In the first post I touched on various ways that one-high (MOFC) coverages can be utilized in a sound manner to defend the spread offense.  The second post touched on some adjustments you can make via the front and the coverage to attack certain things the offense is attempting to do.  Now, I want to touch on a couple of the finer points of the eight man front such as:

• The Free Safety (FS) and his role in MOFC coverage in the eight man front.
• Simplifying alignment in the eight man front.
• Blitzing in the eight man front.

The Free Safety's Role in MOFC Coverage
The FS in most MOFC defenses has a tough job, especially if the coverage is cover one, or some sort of two-deep rotational coverage.  Robber, and Cover One are not too strenuous on the FS, the reason being, in Robber the FS is pattern reading, and it's basically man, and in Cover One, the FS is free to roam based on the QB's eyes.  However, introduce Rip/Liz Cover Three and you now have the best of both Cover Three and Cover One.  Let's look at the pros cons of each and then display them with Rip/Liz and see what we get...shall we?

Cover One-Pros

• Aligns to and covers virtually everything with guaranteed MOF help.
• Simple, cover your man, run with your man if he goes in motion (you can bump, or motion blitz if you'd like, but again, this is simple man-to-man defense here).
• Provides a stable defense for the MOF, having both a MOF deep player and a MOF shallow player (Rat-in-the-hole). 
• Affords sending up to six defenders on a blitz if using peel coverage rules.

Cover One-Cons

• Run force-the force defender can be "run off" by a receiver he's supposed to cover man-to-man (although catch man alleviates some of this, it is still, nevertheless worrisome).
• Not all 11 eyes on the football.  Zone defense affords 11 eyes watching the football, whereas man defenders cannot always eye the football for the threat of being beaten in pass coverage.
• Outside 1/3's vulnerable to match up issues.  Corners are on an island in Cover One.
• Suspect to picks and rubs, as is any man-to-man defense.
• FS must have very good range.

Cover Three-Pros

• Aligns to everything.
• Very simple to install (should be able to do this in one practice).
• Good run support (dedicated force players at or near the LOS with a solid MOF alley player).

Cover Three- Cons

• Covers nothing.
• Weak in the seams.
• Weak in the curl.
• Weak against flood routes.
• Every offense in the country has several "Cover Three Beaters" installed in their offense day one (which means EVERYONE's seen it).
• FS has to have excellent range.

By utilizing Saban's Cover Three, you end up with the following:

Rip/Liz-Pros

• Aligns to everything.
• Excellent MOF defense with a MOF safety deep and MOF underneath player (ROBOT).
• Can keep same rules for zone blitzing (Number one and two droppers are identical in both Cover Three Rip/Liz and most three deep, three under zone blitz schemes), which alleviates teaching time(multiplicity through simplicity).
• Force players not as apt to be run off by receivers.
• All 11 eyes are on the football at the snap.
• No need to worry about picks and rubs (you're not in man-can run banjo schemes).
• With flat players funneling the number two receiver inside the hash, FS doesn't need to be as "rangy".
• Has the same run support structure as "Country Cover Three".
• Very strong in the seams and curl areas because of the pattern read.
• Works against most "Cover Three Beaters" and is hard for offense to distinguish between Cover Three and Cover One.

Rip/Liz-Cons

• Not as easy an install as "Country Cover Three" or Cover One, due to the pattern reading nature.
• Force players can still be run off somewhat, providing for a "soft edge".
• Corners are still on an island (match up).

Whew!  I know there are some more, but these are just the basics.  What you can see here is you get a lot of bang for your buck with Rip/Liz.  You can still run some Cover One if you need to and it's a great disguise for when you do.  You also can zone blitz from the one-high look and don't have to afford any pre-snap rotation to give away what you are doing (which many QB's are being taught for what to look for pre-snap nowadays). 

The biggest benefit I think is the protection of the seams, and the fact that the FS doesn't have to be a guy that can cover a TON of ground. Sure he has to be able to move, and read on the run, but he doesn't need to be a Major Wright!  The funneling of the number two receivers also helps the FS in the run game.  The FS can get a clearer read because the number two receiver is being pressed and thereby has to make his intentions pretty quickly (am I blocking or running a route) so the FS can get into his run/pass read quicker and is thereby a little better factor against the run than a traditional Cover Three FS.

So, we can see, the addition of a pattern reading Cover Three is the top priority if you are an eight man front and you want to consistently defend what spread teams will do to attack you.  It does not hurt to mix in some Cover One however, which will keep the opposing coach guessing and off track when trying to call certain plays.

Simplifying Alignment in the Eight Man Front
The eight man front is one of the easiest of all defenses to align.   The reason is, it's balanced with five defenders on each side of the ball and a MOF safety.  The thing I recommend, is to take a page out of our split field concept brethern's playbook and play field and boundary.  Let's look at the alignment shown below and I'll explain.

I chose the 3-3 defense for it's simplicity, but you can use the 4-4, 4-2, 5-3 or whatever eight man front you run out there.  However, the simplicity is that the Strong Safety (SS), who is usually the better of the two overhang safeties always goes to the field.  The WS (B in the illustration), would be the weaker of the two, and would be set to the boundary.  In most 3-3's I've seen, most coaches utilize right and left defenders which is super simple.  However, if you wanted to, you can easily set your strength to the field and still be quite sound.  Putting your best players to the field is not a bad idea either.  Here is how the 4-2-5 would align to the same look using field/boundary alignments.

Again, the defenders on the right side of the image are the strong side defenders, and are probably your better football players whereas your lesser player play into the boundary and are on the left side of the illustration above.

The simplicity of aligning the eight man front, affords your players one less thought that must tumble through their testosterone laden minds during the course of a game.  This lack of thinking keeps these players comfortable and playing exactly how we want them to...FAST.

Blitzing in the Eight Man Front
For years most folks new me as a Miami 4-3 guy, and to this day I still love that defense.  The one trouble I always had though, was blitzing out of it.  It may have just been me, but having been introduced to the TCU blitz scheme and after studying tons of 3-3 playbooks over the past few months, I can see there is no simpler front to blitz from than the eight man front.  Again, the balance affords simplicity in alignment, so teams have trouble getting you out of your base alignment.  What this does is affords for less of a chance that a blitzer will have to widen with an adjustment and thereby be caught out of position on the snap of the football.  The "six-in-the-box" concept keeps blitzing simple as well (both the 3-3 and 4-2, as well as some 4-3's keep this principle as well).  What I will show you, is some blitzes I used out of TCU's playbook, that despite us being a MOFC defense, we were still able to execute.



Bullets Away, my favorite!



Smokes

Strong/Wide Dog



Weak/Short Dog



Mob (cop)

As you can see, quite simple really.  All the blitzes listed in TCU's playbook can be run with the same adjustments and calls that TCU uses.  You don't have to limit yourself there either, the 3-3 defense has a myriad of blitzes that can be run from a MOFC defense.  Whatever front you choose to run, will find blitzing is quite easy and not too terribly taxing either.  Another "cheap" blitz from the 4 man front is the zone blitz sending one LB.  The rules for coverage are very simple, with the number three dropper being the only one who really changes from the standard Rip/Liz coverage rules.




Sam "B"



• Corners- Deep 1/3, all of 1 vertical
• OSS- #2 dropper, all of 2 vertical and out.  2 shallow and inside squeeze to the 3 dropper.
• ILB- #3 dropper, cut all crossers.
• FS- Deep 1/3, all of 3 vertical.

There you go!  Very similar to standard Rip/Liz reads and assignments.  Again, this is multiplicity through simplicity, which is a time tested manner for being able to attack your opponent in multiple ways with very little teaching time. 

In conclusion, I think it is VERY possible to be a one-high, MOFC defense and succeed against today's spread attacks.  I think there are multiple reasons for doing so, from anything to poor match ups or solving tricky alignment problems to being able to bring pressure without having to roll coverage are just some of the numerous benefits you get from staying one-high.  Hopefully you've been able to use this and can couple this with some other things I've posted on the site to have a very successful defense in the near future. 

Don't forget to check my other blog, The 12th Man, and as usual you can follow me on Twitter @theduece02. 

Duece

The B.O.S.S. Blitz-An Answer to Dog Blitzing to a 3x1 Set

The Boss Baby!

For a while now, I've had coaches ask me about my adaptation of TCU's blitz scheme to lower level play.  One question that frequently comes up is "how to deal with the dog blitz into the trips side of a 3x1 set.  If we look back to 2 years ago when TCU defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl you can see a clear breakdown of the Dog Blitz into a trips set.  This breakdown, almost cost TCU one of the biggest wins in school history, and I'm sure Gary Patterson would tell you this if you asked him.  I'm not going to delve too much into what happened in that Rose Bowl game, for more on what did happen go here.  What I'm going to describe to today is a simple call that keeps cover guys in coverage, and cuts down on leverage issues presented by utilizing players on the opposite side of the field having to come all the way across the formation to get to their assignment.

Review
First, let us review my blitz assignments for my players when blitzing.  When I call a blitz, all players involved must know two things:

1. Am I an inside rusher?
2. Am I the widest rusher?

The inside rushers are all responsible for any back to cross their face.  If they encounter a back, they are to "lock him up" and run him straight to the quarterback.  This prevents the draw and inside screens from hurting your blitz package.  The outside rushers are ALWAYS peel rushers, unless somebody calls them off with a "go" call.  A go call is only made if the defender responsible for the running back has outside leverage on the back.  If no go call is made, the outside rushers are automatically peel rushers.

As mentioned before, this cuts down on the confusion created by TCU's scheme (or at least the confusion I encountered when installing).  Now no calls need to be made to keep us safe (as in TCU's Spy and Silver calls).  Please don't take this as I'm knocking what Patterson does, Lord knows he makes a hell of a lot more money doing what he does than I do!  Where I got the idea for this came from a blitz I've talked about before, our good friend the Nickel Tracer Blitz.  Anyhow, let's look at the Dog blitz into a three receiver set.

The Blitz
The Dog blitz is essentially four rushers to a side in an attempt to overload the protection scheme to that side.  Dog blitzes are my favorite of all of Patterson's blitzes, as I have had the most success when running these.  Looking at just a Wide Dogs blitz (blitz is run from the wide side of the field), let's look at the blitz being run into the three receiver side.

If the strong safety makes a "switch" call, then you only end up with three rushing to that side, not a very effective pressure, especially if they slide the back to the blitz side.  So what to do?

If the blitz stays on, then the weak safety is now responsible for the number three receiver and the away-side linebacker has the running back.  Two things can happen here, the first is that, as seen in the Rose Bowl, if that even if the weak safety had been paying attention and stemmed over to cover number three, there is an inherent leverage issue.  All the number three receiver has to do is run an outside route and the weak safety is beat simply by alignment.  The other issue arises from a match up problem with the away-side linebacker and the running back.  What if this is a match up problem for your players?  I have faced several 3x1 teams that loved to run the running back out on a flare or wheel route away from the trips side.  The flare, is an easy throw, and pits your linebacker one-on-one in space with one of your opponent's better athletes.

The B.O.S.S. Blitz
So what is the BOSS blitz?  Simple, BOSS stands for Both Backers on the Same Side.  Think of it this way, it's almost like a "double switch" call.  What happens is, any time the strong safety gets a three receiver set when running the Dog Blitz, he simply gives a BOSS call instead of his normal "switch" call.  What happens with the BOSS call is this:

• The linebacker to the call replaces the blitzing safety.  So the LB will blitz the widest gap available and is also a peel rusher if the weak safety does not give a "go" call.
• The linebacker farthest from the call replaces the linebacker in the dog blitz.  For example, in TCU terms, if Wide Dogs A was called, and then the strong safety made a BOSS call, the read side linebacker blitzes outside while the away side linebacker will blitz the read side A gap.

Now you still have a four man pressure to one side of the offense, and you have three defensive backs dedicated in coverage to the trips set.  Your weak safety also has coverage on the running back, so you have no match up issues to deal with when covering the running back.  For the sake of simplicity, I always have the away side linebacker blitz the read side A gap, you, however can have him replace the blitzing read side linebacker's gap if you'd like.

BOSS was something my staff and I came up with out of necessity.  I'm sure I'm not the "inventor" but as with many things I've done over the years, I like to share little nuances that I've done to help have success.  Hopefully this is one of those tidbits you can utilize in your defense!

In other news, our old boy Brophy is at it again with several good posts on La. Tech and what they are doing both offensively and defensively.  If you want some good Nickel defense and Franklin Air Raid info, get on over to Cripes! Get Back to Fundamentals and check out some of Brophy's latest posts.

Spring ball is upon us, and with less than a month away for some, the time is now finalizing schemes and installation as well as testing to see what your players have done in the off-season.  Have fun, and utilize every minute of your spring (if you have one) to evaluate what you've got going int the summer months!

Duece

Automatic Coverage Check (ACC)

Playing off of an old article by Brophy about having an Automatic Front Check (AFC), I'm looking more at the automatic coverage check.  I think any defensive coordinator (DC) worth his salt will teach his players a base way to handle various receiving structures that they will face throughout the course of a ball game.  How many times have you gone into a game knowing you were going to see 21 or 20 personnel and the next thing you know the opponent comes out in 10 personnel and starts throwing the ball all over the place?  It's happened enough to me, that I developed an Automatic Coverage Check (ACC) for things we had not practiced on that week.  When I switched to the 4-2 and split field coverage, this idea did not change.  I'm not saying you do this against every opponent, as careful scouting by your opponent will lend you to be out schemed, however by teaching a base method to alignment and assignment vs. various passing sets this will allow your kids a "fail-safe" way of getting into the right coverage for that "odd situation"( as mentioned above). 

The split field secondary makes the ACC just that much less complicated as you are only dealing with half of the offensive formation.  I will talk in TCU terms, as we all know, I'm a TCU buff (if you are interested in some good 4-2 links, go here).  Anyhow, looking at the split field concept, with the ball in the MOF, the read side, or strong side of the secondary can only see the following:

1. Nub (single TE)
2. Single (single WR)
3. Pro (TE and flanker)
4. Twins (2 receivers)
5. Trips (3 receivers)
6. Quads (4 receivers)

To add to that, the away side, or weak side of the coverage will only see the following:

1. Nub
2. Single
3. Pro
4. Twins



Nub sides



3 backs open-"single" to both sides







Away side reads


So, now that we know what we are going to see to each side, let's see how the free safety (FS) and the weak safety (WS) will set the coverage to their respective sides.

Read Side
To the read side, if the ball is in the MOF, and the FS gets a nub side, then he knows, there are three backs.  In this case, the defense checks into cover 0 Power.  Power is also the front.  The defensive tackles move to 2I's and the DE's move to 5 techniques while the OSS's move into "up" alignments on the LOS and the LB's move their toes to the heels of the DL in their respective B gaps.  The corners take the number one receiver to either side, the OSS's peel blitz the near shoulder of the near back and the FS takes the final number three receiver.  This is my automatic check to any three back offense.  This allows your defense to get plenty of players around the football and still be in sound coverage.  This check also works if the FS sees a single side as well.

If the FS gets a pro side, then he plays "Blue" coverage to that side, however the SS makes a "me" call and this puts the FS inside the number two receiver and we are playing traditional "robber" coverage.  Robber is very simple and to the read side the rules are as follows:

SS- Curl/flat/swing deep of 2.
FS- All of 2 vertical, 2 not vertical rob curl to post of 1.
Corner- Deep 1/2, all of 1 vertical.

Very simple, and we've been over a lot of this before.  The "me" call allows the FS to stay inside the tackle box and fill the alley on outside runs, and play cutback on inside runs.  I speak a lot about the "plus one" player on defense, and this is the player who is not accounted for in the offenses' blocking scheme.  With the FS in the box, yet deep, he is not accounted for in most blocking schemes, so he is free to attack the ball, so long as he does not read pass.  Again, a simple system to put your guys in the right coverage for what they are seeing.

Now, twins is very easy, I tell my guys, no matter the side, we play blue to all twins sets.  Now we will game plan some Bronco coverage in to the away side, and will usually check bronco on the away side when the ball is in the MOF, but to the read side, we are going to play Blue.  There's not much out there that hurts Blue coverage, so this is a very sound check to all twins sets.  Go here to read more about TCU's Blue coverage.




What about twins????


Ok, so now the read side gets three receivers to a side.  Does not matter if it's trips or trey or trio, the FS does not care, all he knows is he has three to his side.  As a base rule, my guys are going to check into Special on the read side.  This puts the corner, man to man on the number one receiver with the SS and FS playing blue to the number two and number three receivers.  Again, this is just a "base" rule, we can game plan for anything, but if we do not expect trips, and we get them, we now have a way for our guys to line up and play, without being confused.




Solo is also another option vs. trips, just not the "base" rule...


The odd "quads" front does pop up every now and then, although, to be honest I see it less and less each year.  Does not matter, you need to prepare you guys for being able to handle this four receiver look.  The idea here though is simple, the read side will play Special to the numbers one, two and three receivers with the WS taking the number four receiver in Solo coverage (away side coverage checks are next). 

There, that's all the read side will see!  As you can see, reducing the field down to only half, allows the defense to set the coverage quicker and get lined up rather than one DB trying to grasp the whole picture of what the offense is doing.  This is one huge benefit to the split field concept.

Away Side
To the away side, things are just as simple.  The WS only has one other job than that of the FS, and that is, he must look at the backfield to determine what he is going to see, and how he is going to set the coverage.  The reason for this is any formation to the sideline (FSL) checks must come through the WS, so he needs to know if the formation is in to the boundary or not, and the backfield will give this away.  Again, for the purpose of this discussion, I'm talking about the ball in the MOF.




Cloud to a nub side


If the WS sees three backs in the backfield, he knows he can see only one of two things, a nub side, or a single side.  Both of these as a base check would be checked into "Sky" coverage, which has the WS as the curl/flat/swing deep of 2 defender and the away side corner as the deep 1/2/all of one vertical player.

To a nub side, the WS checks "flop" and he and the corner will switch assignments.  I do this as a base rule because most of the time my safeties are better tacklers and more aggressive than my corners.  If this is not the case in your defense, then you can leave your corner low and play "Cloud" coverage to that side. 

If the WS gets a pro set to his side, he must play Blue.  This is one area where the read side and away side differ and it's simply because without the SS there is no way that the WS could be inside the number two receiver.  The WS must force, so he has to have outside leverage on the number two receiver.  The automatic check here is to play Blue coverage to any pro set to the away side.

If the WS sees twins to his side, he knows his twins rule states he play Blue coverage.  Again, if the ball is in the MOF and we expect twins to the away side we are probably going to play Bronco, but as a base rule when facing twins, we want the WS to check us into Blue coverage.

Again, these checks can easily be altered with a game plan adjustment.  If a team is coming out in trips and doing something to you that solo would handle better, then simply make that adjustment during a timeout, or at halftime.  Don't let your rules and adjustments handcuff you, build in automatics, and then build your game plan rules to break those automatics.  The automatic checks give your players a fail-safe way to get in the best coverage for the situation that's being presented to them at that particular moment.  This will allow you to still be sound why you and your staff are figuring adjustments on the sideline.

To those that won themselves a district, region, or state championship, I say congratulations!  I'm still searching for that elusive ring, but as they always say, it's not whether you get knocked down, it's what you do when you get back up...




"C'mon kid...get back up and get in that ring!"


Happy Holidays coaches,

Duece