UNDER FRONT DEFENSE WITH DIVORCED FRONT CONCEPTS

3-4, 4-3, or 5-2? Its All About Personnel

 Today I want to take a look at defining defensive concepts.  Many people new to the game of football look at the picture at the snap of the ball and try and determine what the defense is.  This is a classic mistake in defining defensive concepts.  All fronts are universal and can be played by any personnel grouping on the field at any time. Now with that said, that does not mean you will be successful with those fronts but you sure can play them.  For argument sake, i can play the under front with my 425 personnel at any time.  The problem is I am going to ask one of my safeties to play a 9 technique(outside eye of Tight End on the LOS) and put him in a position where the chances are he wont be successful.  That does not mean I cant play that front, it just does not make sense for me to do it.  Conversely I can play an okie front from my 425 personnel grouping and make my weak side DE play as an OLB. Again I would be putting a player in a position to fail, but yet can still play that front if I chose to.  A real good example of that is watching NFL Football games.  On 1st Down vs 21 Personnel you will see both 4-3 teams and 3-4 teams play an under front or a reduction front.  That does not mean they magically became 5-2 teams!!!!  They are playing the same front with different personnel.

4-3 Under Front 4 Hands Down

I want to take a look at playing Under Front concepts with 3-4 personnel while playing divorced front/secondary rules and check with me coverages.  Divorced front simply means the front six defenders are separate from the back 5 players and do not have to be set to the same side.  Check with me coverages mean your secondary players play their coverages based on the deployment of the receivers. It is the easiest way in junior high or high school football to play defense because you can get multiple reps playing the exact same coverages to the exact same looks the offense gives you.  Keep in mind the goal of this blog is to get our kids to play fast.  With that being said it may not be the most effective way for college or NFL teams to play because they want to show multiple looks and coverages and they have the teaching time and meeting time to do that.  I base all my theories around High School Football because that's the level I currently coach at.

With the under front you normally have the Sam LB tied to the front which technically makes it a 7 man front.  This gives you a little bit of a problem when the offense gives you conflicting formations.  What I mean by that is formations where the run strength is opposite the passing strength. So if the Sam LB goes with the run strength you wont be able to play your standard every down check with me coverages.  Now what you could do is have coverages that are tied to fronts but again I think that is asking too much of high school kids if they play both ways and multiple sports, and don't have 365 days a year to study defensive football.

Just A Thought

 So what I am going to suggest today is just an idea if you wanted to play under fronts while still teaching your kids standard check with me coverages.  Again I think it is OK to think outside the box and stray from the normal a little bit.  The reason I say that is because High School Football is far from the normal everyday football of college and the NFL.  If you look at the video chalk talk I am going through the way I would play divorced front check with me coverages with 3-4 personnel.  I am going to travel the Sam LB with the passing strength while allowing the Mike LB to set the front 6 to run strength.  There are only a few formations that will put you in a conflict and you may not see those formations a whole lot anyway, so to me it is the worth the time to teach it.  The reps the kids will get playing check with me coverages far outweighs the concern of conflicting formations.

This is not intended to be a 3-4 2 gap discussion as that is a completely different animal.  This is a discussion about defensive personnel and playing 1 gap football.

**Editorial Note** At the 18 minute mark or so I say 10 personnel when drawing an 11 personnel formation.  I am not smart enough to edit the video so this is my clarification.

PLAYING FAST IS A MIND SET

Rub Concept for 2 Point Play

HAVE A PLAN TO BEAT MAN COVERAGE

Today I am going to talk about having a 2 Point Play or a Play that beats man coverage in short yardage situations. We are going to look at a mesh concept designed to get 2 or 3 rubs on a primary receiver to get him the football vs. man coverage. The idea is very similar to setting picks or screens in basketball.  The only problem is in football you cant legally set a pick.  So we have to incorporate routes that effectively act as moving picks or rubs to create space vs. man coverage.

The Student Becomes The Master

 It is a privilege for me to have one of my former players on video with me drawing up the route concepts.  This play was run by one of the best offensive minds in college football and my former QB Derek had a chance to run it first hand in practice.  As a coach it is very exciting to see your former players get involved in coaching.  That tells you that you had a positive impact on their life. I think part of our role as coaches should be mentoring and tutoring the future coaches in our profession.  Derek was great to coach, he was a gym rat and a film rat that could not get enough football.  Now I will probably have the privilege to work for him someday.

The concept we will look at today is a version of the mesh passing concept.  The idea is to create 2 or 3 rubs for our primary receiver.  It is not a true mesh package, it involves 3 routes in the mesh instead of 2 and only one of these routes will sit down.  It is truly designed for man coverage principles.  We have it drawn up from empty so that the front side flat route can get the necessary yardage needed if it becomes a hot throw. Throwing hot short of the goal line on a 2 Point Play does not accomplish the goal and actually is very poor coaching. The primary route is the shallow cross by the backside #1 receiver.  This route will stay on the move the entire time and will be run at 5 yards.  The TE is the backside #2 and he runs a read route where he releases to the flat to check man or zone.  If its man he will continue to the flat and create the first rub for the primary receiver. If its zone he will run a corner route.  The play side #3 runs the flat wheel route with eyes on the QB immediately for hot throws.  If he does not get the Hot he will convert to a wheel route.  VS. zones this route will help expand the OLB.  The play side #2 runs the under part of the mesh at 4 Yards.  He is always on the move and can never sit.  He will aim for the opposite front pylon.  He must have his eyes on the QB early for the inside portion of the built in Hot throws.  The play side #1 will run the high portion of the mesh at 6 yards.  Remember there are actually 3 mesh routes occurring here.  He will always sit down vs man or zone and a good landmark for him is the goal post.  He will try to create the 3rd rub for the primary receiver on the 5 yard shallow cross. The protection will be a half slide protection with the QB responsible for the play side ILB and Play side OLB.  This is a 5 man protection so either one of these 2 players blitzing makes us throw hot.

I am sorry there are no diagrams, but this play is not a part of my base package in High School.  It was taught to me by my former QB, as always I am just borrowing information.

If any of you are watching this from the New York/New Jersey area I will be on Long Island the second week of June doing a 2 day clinic.  The first day will be a spread up tempo offensive clinic with the second day being a 425 split field coverage clinic.  Hope to see some of you there. PLAY FAST!!!!!