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

Creating an Eight Man Front to Defend the Spread Offense

Did someone say eight man front?

When I first went to the 4-2-5, my team struggled to grasp the concept, but it wasn't just the concept alone that hurt us.  There are some glaring weaknesses in the "Pattersonian 4-2" that if you are "out-athleted", you simply are setting yourself up for failure.  I will explain further, but after some miserable seven-on-seven outings, I had to do something.  Well, what I'm going to present you is what I came up with, and a bit of it was stolen from our 3-3 brethren, as well as from Brophy's blog on Nick Saban's adaptation of Cover 3 to the spread offense.

I was forced into the 4-2, because like a lot of coaches in struggling situations, we needed answers which correlated to wins.  Now, this story doesn't have a happy ending, however, there are some excellent things to be learned from the trials and tribulations of ANY coach.  So when the switch was made, things looked good on paper, then enter the seven-on-seven league we played in.  Where we got hurt the most was in the curl area to the away side of the coverage.  Blue is a great coverage, however to the away side, you are essentially giving up the curl, and if you play Bronco, you are giving up that out route to the flat due to the leverage issue of the Weak Safety (WS).  Well, after four disappointing games, and four weeks of not seeing any progress, I became enamored with finding a solution.  I needed something simple and quick to install.  Well, I found my answer on the pages of Cripes, Get Back to Fundamentals in the posts on Saban's Rip/Liz adaptation.  So, the following Monday we installed Cover 3, and Mable, and went on to look a whole lot better in seven-on-seven.  After losing our first four games, we ended up winning three out of the last four, to finish three and five for the summer.  The kids liked the new coverage better and I just knew we were going to succeed.  Well, enter the pre-season!

Prior to the start of the season, the goal was to keep the defense simple so the kids could play fast.  Well, our base coverage to any 2 back set was Robber, and then if we got any one back set, we moved on Cover 3.  Trips check would be Mable, and we were going to blitz empty if we got it (we only saw empty five times that year, even though we played seven spread teams).  What I'm going to do in the following paragraphs is explain the coverages we used, and then go through the "rights" and "wrongs" that we did so you can see how we came to an end result which was an eight man front that was sound against the spread. 

Robber
Robber coverage is nothing new, and since I was a Quarters guy, it fit with my mentality of pattern reading.  Trouble is, we only faced two, two back teams that year, and both were at the end of the season.  Sure, we saw some mix of some spread two back, but not much, so Robber was no the first coverage I taught.  Now, the Robber I ran, was the typical Virginia Tech Robber scheme that so many people have become familiar with over the years.  There's been so much written on the topic that for me to write more, would simply fall into the category of "white noise" as there is very little I can bring to the table on the subject that hasn't already been written about.

Cover Three
Cover three, has also been written about a lot, and most know, by now, the links to Brophy's site where he speaks about Saban's adaptation to this age old fundamental coverage.  Most who really know me, know I can't stand cover three.  Anyhow, after reading the beautifully written pages of Brophy's blog I was hooked.  Saban's cover three is everything you love about cover one, and everything you love about cover three, all rolled into one.  I heard one person even comment to Brophy that Saban's cover three was much like a one-high version of Quarters.  This comment really caught my attention, and got my wheels to spinning.  I'm going to re-hash the rules for Saban's cover three, in case anyone missed them.

For the corners, Rip/Liz (what Saban calls his adaptation), is basically like cover one with some zone principles.  The corner's rule is he has all of the number one receiver vertical.  If one is shallow and in or out, he zones off his deep third.  Pretty standard, yet vague enough of a description to be dangerous.  What I added to this to help our corners was to put in a depth of the route, and more specifically a time. If the corner was able to count to three after the snap and the receiver was still running vertical, then he locked on to him man to man (ala cover one).  If the receiver had made a break before this, then the corner would zone off into his deep third.  This gave the corner a feel for the three step game, since you can roughly count to three and be at the third step of the quarterback, and allowed the corner to anticipate whether he was getting a three or five step drop ( I can't tell you the last time I've seen a seven step drop in high school football).  Anyhow, that was really the basis for the coverage for the corners.  Now I did tweak one thing, that if the number one receiver broke off his route in a hitch or out, that the corner could cushion back and think smash and help play under the deep corner route.  This technique helped our outside safeties (OSS) who were sometimes a little outmatched by the opponent's slot receiver.  Ok, speaking of the OSS's, let's move on to their reads and techniques.



Corner reads

The OSS's rules for Rip/Liz were that they were to take the vertical and out by the number two receiver.  Here I had to tweak the term "vertical" a bit more as well.  What I found out worked for us, was that if the receiver took two steps up field, he was vertical.  I know this is slightly different than the corners, but had to be done this way to combat some of the spacing concepts such as all hitches or all slants.  This allowed us to play the short throws much like cover one would, in a basic man-to-man concept.  The OSS was to align in outside leverage so long as he did not cross the top of the numbers if the ball was in the MOF.  This allowed the OSS to maintain leverage on his run assignment of playing force.  If the number two receiver went shallow and inside, then the OSS would break immediately to the flat based on the corners call of what the number one receiver had done (in or out).  If the call was out, the OSS would flatten his drop and look to get in the "window" of the quarterback's vision.  If the call was in, the OSS would "sit down" and hang on the edge of the curl/flat zone boundary line looking for the slant or dig routes.  Again, we can see, Saban's adaptation has taken two of cover three's known weaknesses, the seams, and the curl flat divider and removed them from existence. 

OSS reads/reactions to number two vertical or out

The free safety had the very simple rule of playing the middle third of the field.  What I liked about the coverage is it took a huge strain off the free safety playing those seam routes against four vertical teams.  The free safety did not have to be such a good athlete as a typical MOF safety does, which was our case. 

So, in summary, the Rip/Liz adaptation really helped, and this help immediately showed in seven-on-seven.  However, like anything else, this adaptation had it's disadvantages too, which I will speak of later. 

Video Courtesy of our main man Brophy

Mable
Mable, which is Saban's adaptation of cover three to defend trips, is a very sound way of playing any three by one set you may see.  However, one weakness that stood out in seven-on-seven was that by pushing the linebacker to the trips, he was barely in the box, and really was asking a tall order of one of my inside linebackers to do what his rules were.  The rules are simple, but my adaptation was shown below, in what a friend of mine (Outlaw Josey Wales on the Huey board) called "dogs over".  This concept was one of many I borrowed from the 3-3 Stack guys, and it was simply to move the weak OSS over to the trips side and slide the linebackers one full shade to the weak side of the coverage.  This did two things, first it put our linebacker in man coverage in a situation with a better match up, our linebacker against their running back (which was much better than our linebacker against their number three receiver).  Second, by sliding the linebackers away, and utilizing our Two-Gap/One-Gap defensive line play, we were able to use this weak side linebacker as our force player.  Thirdly, this scheme, which I aptly named "30 backer" (cover three strong and cover zero weak with weak backer force) put our three better athletes on our opponent's three receivers creating the match ups that we wanted. 

"Dogs over" adjustment to trips in the 3-3 stack



"Dogs over" adjustment in the 4-2



Mable's reads are not that tough, and is nothing more than an overloaded zone pushed to the strong side with a man to man concept on the backside.  This is nothing new, and Brophy has detailed this quite a bit in his posts on Mable.  The key to Mable is that the two underneath droppers (the strong and weak safeties) have got to get the number two or number three receiver on a different level if the offense is running four verticals.  Fortunately for us, we didn't see four verticals from trips, and even though we worked the dickens out of it, this concept still concerned me. 

Coverage Summary
As you can see, that is a very simple and small list of coverages.  Much smaller than the standard TCU fare I've talked about in the past.  I'm not knocking TCU, I'm just saying, that it does require some athletes at certain positions to run.  If you don't have these athletes, you don't scrap the defense (although some would), you make the defense fit what you have.  Saban's adaptations have made this possible.  The ability to play an eight man front against spread teams, and especially the spread option teams has been a huge victory for defenses around the country fighting to keep up with spread football.  Sure, are there weaknesses, yes there are, and I will talk about those in the next post.  I'm going to cut this one up into a few posts, so hang in there, these should be some informative posts to those who don't have the athletes to run some of the seven man front coverage schemes!

Duece

Weak Safety Shuffle Technique in Solo Coverage

Uh oh...

Most who know me know I like the shuffle footwork for defensive backs (DB's).  I started using the shuffle about 2006 as a way to help my slow corners have an advantage against our competition, who was much, much faster than us.  Since then, the shuffle is all I've really used when coaching corners.  The technique really has allowed a lesser player to play the cornerback position and still be able to be effective against much better talent at wide receiver (WR).

Introduce Solo coverage, or as I was taught "Poach" coverage.  I learned this back in my early days of Quarters coverage.  I used it as my trips open check as an automatic.  The problem I always had with Solo was the weak safety (WS) and his ability to both get over the number three receiver vertical, and being able to come up and play the force player to the away side.  Sure, most times this player is into the boundary and our dear friend, the 12th player (the sideline) can help us out.  However, if you've had some of the athletes I've had to coach, over the past few years, you quickly realize you need some way of helping this kid out.  I had used both a flat-footed buzz technique (which is my standard footwork for a Quarters or Two Read safety), and backpedaling as the footwork technique.  I take to heart a lot of what the players tell me, as they are the one's who are having to execute the technique and perform.  Most of the players did not like the sit and buzz because they always felt late getting to the vertical of number three.  Secondly, they did not like to backpedal because they felt by the time they judged it was a run play, they were late forcing the football.  So what to do?

WS has an issue with leverage on both the vertical by #3 and being able to force.

A few years back, I started toying with shuffling the WS out at an angle, having him open to the number three receiver.  The kids caught on pretty quick and liked it much better than backpedaling or standing flat-footed.  The benefit is two-fold in this case.  The WS gets to open up to his pass key (number three), yet still can see the quarterback and EMOL to get his run reads.   If the number three receiver is vertical, the WS can get into better position using the shuffle because he opens in the direction of the number three receiver putting him closer to his assignment than if he would have simply backpedaled.  If the WS reads run, he can easily use the T-step, redirect and get back downhill to help force the run. 




By opening to #3 WS can easily read #3's intentions






By opening to #3 WS can still see his normal lane of ball read and redirect if necessary


You do need to tweak the alignment of the WS if you use the shuffle.  Originally I had the WS align in the away side A gap.  I felt this alignment allowed him to get to both assignments well, however the WS still was late forcing the run most of the time.  Anytime I tried moving him wider, then the number three receiver became a problem.  Once I tried shuffling, I was able to move my lesser athletic WS's to the B gap, and the more athletic one's to stacked over the away side OT. 




WS is too wide in normal alignment to account for #3 vertical




Something else, not related to WS technique, that can help with Solo coverage is having the read side LB work fast to wall number three and force this receiver to run a "bubble" when going vertical.  This gives the WS time to get a clear read and get to his assignment.  The LB has to work quickly to get to this route and at the very least help be in the throwing lane, especially vs. quick throws. 

Lastly, if you really like Solo coverage, mix in "Roll Solo" as well.  Roll is not a good coverage vs. four vertical routes, however, it is good against teams that run flood concepts with the number three receiver going vertical (instead of the standard of having number one take the top off the coverage).  Roll takes some pressure off of your WS because there is added help by the FS in this case.  Maybe that's for another article though...

Just something I tried and wanted to share with folks who may be experiencing the same issues I had when installing Solo coverage.  Solo is a very good coverage, but it does have it's weaknesses.  By utilizing a technique, I already was coaching my corners on, I was able to help out our WS's in Solo coverage.

Most of you are wrapping up spring practice, you've had your spring games and are looking ahead to the off-season.  However, some of you may still need some improvement.  Here's some great sites in my blog roll you need to check out!

Football is Life Blog Roll

Smart Football
Smart Football is a site I check daily.  The latest post on the Colts offense shows exactly why football coaches should use this site.  The attention to detail here is second to none. 

Gridnotes
Gridnotes is one of those gifts that keeps on giving.  It seems as if this site is updated daily.  Articles ranging from X's and O's to philosophy and tidbits that will make you a better coach grace the pages of this blog.  You can also find links to some of my long lost posts on there as well!  Great site chocked full of TONS of information on the great game of football.

Coach Hoover's Site
Coach Hoover, the master of creating and editing video has a great site with more links than I can possibly count.  Plenty of articles on drills as well as devotion and coaching philosophy can be found on Coach Hoover's site.  Plus...he's a Gator fan, what more could you want?!

Cripes, Get Back to Fundamentals
If you haven't found Brophy's site yet, you are missing out.  Cripes, Get Back to Fundamentals is the Mecca of a myriad of football information.  So stop lying around on a bean bag, naked, eating Cheetos, and get on the Internet to this site!  I guarantee you can burn up a couple of Saturdays doing nothing but reading old posts on here.  Good job Brophy!

If you are looking for good football knowledge, check out those sites, you won't go wrong there.  Well, I'm off for a bit, heading to enjoy my memorial day weekend.  Have fun, be safe and enjoy a cool one...





I hear Buffet playing...don't you?!


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

TCU Terms-Defined

I get a LOT of emails asking me about "terms" and "what does this mean" and "what is toro or aim mean".  Well, today we are going to have a vocabulary lesson!  Here goes:

• Read side- the strong side of the coverage, or the side of the defense that the FS is aligned on.
• Away side- opposite of the read side.
• Slice- "quick to the curl".
• Swing deep of:  Means take the receiver running out or out and up through your zone man to man.
• "Me"- Call that has the SS take the out of 2 (swing deep of 2).
• Blue- 2 read coverage where the out of #2 is handled by the corner
• Cover 2- In TCU's system, robber coverage where the out of 2 is still handled by the corner (not traditional robber where the OLB/invert has the out of 2).
• Cover 5- 2 deep squat 1/2's coverage, or what most of us are familiar with as cover 2.
• Special- An "X" out concept against trips where the read side corner is man to man on the #1 receiver and the SS and FS play Blue coverage to the #2 and #3 receivers.
• Solo- An "X" out concept against trips where the read side plays Blue coverage to #1 and #2 while the read side LB has the short wall of #3 and the WS has the long wall of #3.
• Roll- Basically...1/4, 1/4, 1/2.
• Bronco- A modified version of man to man coverage ran on the away side where the corner has all of #1 and the WS has the vertical and out of the #2 receiver.
• Cover 0- Man to man, no man free.
• Cover 0 Free- Coverage used when blitzing and there will be a deep safety free; ie Cover 1 (man free).
• COS- Change of strength.
• Man clue- All of a certain receiver vertical (basically).
• Pound- LB is leaving the box to apex a #2 reciever; may also be telling the DE to that side to spill (vague).
• China- When a route by the #1 receiver is shorter than 5 yards (smash alert).
• Bullets- Both ILB's blitzing.
• Smokes- Both outside safeties blitzing outside.
• Lions- OSS's blitzing 1 gap inside a Smoke blitz.
• Dogs- ILB and OSS blitz
• Bullets Thunder/Lightning- Both ILB's and safety to/away from call blitzing.
• Mob- Bullets and Smokes.
• Cop- DE's man to man on a TE if they get one.
• Fiddle- 2 on 1 coverage.
• Aim- DL slant 1 technique away from call.
• Toro- DL slant 1 technique to the call.
• Spy- Call telling outside rusher to cover back man to man if he attempts to cross his face (peel).
• Fire- Call telling DE to rush one gap inside his alignment.
• Switch- Call made by OSS when he cannot blitz (vs. detached #2), this call tells ILB to blitz side to replace the safety in the blitz.
• Silver- DE's will cover RB man to man if he flares and take pitch on option.
• Flip- Corners over.
• Power- Call by OSS puts DE in a 5 technique.
• Tag- Tackle to A gap.
• Peak- Long stick.
• Army- Slant 1 full gap away from call.
• Tank- Slant 1 full gap to the call.
• Tim- Tackles inside 1 gap.
• Tag- Tackles in A gap.
• MOE- Mike off edge/edge blitz by MLB.
• SOE- Sam off edge/same as MOE but for Sam.
• Fifty- Tackle away from call (most of us call him the nose).

That is nowhere near all the TCU terminology, however it is the bulk of what I receive in emails.  Remember folks, it's just "their" language.  You can call it anything you like.  I moved most of my terminology to theirs as it allowed me less "conversion" when learning the scheme and teaching it.  That doesn't mean that some of my old terminology isn't still in my defense, it just means I've adapted more of my stuff to theirs.  Whatever you choose, it's up to you!  Good luck!




No need to convert if you don't have to!

Great 4-2-5 resources here!
Duece

Post Snap Communication in Pattern Reading Coverages

Pattern reading coverages have been the craze hear lately, especially witnessing Gary Patterson's adaptation of the age old Quarters coverage and Nick Saban's Rip/Liz/Mable concepts.  One simple issue I think that's missing is how do these players communicate once the snap has occurred?  In pattern reading coverages, this is essential to the success or failure of said coverage.  I'm going to touch on a way that was recently described to me, that has opened up my eyes to the simplification process in post-snap communication by the defensive secondary.  To start, let's look at some of the ways communication can be done.

Vocal Communication via Tags/Terms by Players Post-Snap
Easy enough, however many a defensive back (DB) has made a communication error leaving a defender wide open on a blown coverage.  Why?  Too many moving parts.  I used to use this system, as recently as two seasons ago.  In my pattern reading coverage (Cover Blue) the corner and safety worked in tandem to describe what they were seeing.  I used basic terms such as "in" and "out", which is all the DB's really need to know once the play begins to develop.  However, as all this communication is unfolding, the DB must first hear the communication from the other DB, then relay what he's seeing as well.  This can become confusing and often times leads to the wide open six!  Boo-ya...NOT pretty.  So, how do we fix this, enter in one-way communication?  For this article, the coverage used in the example, will be TCU's blue coverage, or better yet known as two read.  This is not Quarters coverage, but is very similar.

One-Way Communication
Since most pattern reading coverages are predicated on what the number two receiver does, it is paramount that there be some sort of communication on what exactly this receiver is doing.  In today's world of three, four and even five receiver sets, DB's must all be on the same page, or risk giving up the big play.  So how do we do it?  Let one player make all the reads.  What????  Yes, let one player be designated as the communicator.  This method, employs less moving parts and allows for smoother reads and transitions as receivers stem into their routes.  So how is this done?  First, the defender assigned to take all of the number two receiver vertical is a good person to have in charge of this communication.  Why you ask?  Because this players eyes are already on his key, which is the basis for the pattern reading scheme to begin with.  This also allows your corners to play tighter to the number one receiver, which discourages quick throws to the flats, what most offensive coordinators (OC's) do to beat Quarters coverage.  So, let's look at the "ins and outs" of what the communication process is based on.

First off, the reads I use for Blue coverage are as follows:
Corner- Man to man on number one anything over five yards.  Number one not over five yards call "China" and zone your 1/4.
Safety- All of two vertical.  Two not vertical and inside, rob curl to post of one.  Two outside man one.

The number two receiver can only do four things, three of which are routes.  The first thing the number two receiver can do is block.  This issue is easily handled by utilizing no communication whatsoever.  The corner in Quarters coverage need not be concerned with the run unless the number one receiver crack blocks.

Second, the number two receiver can go inside, to which the safety will make an "in" call (usually echoed three times).  This tells the rest of the defenders their job/role in the coverage.  If number two goes inside the corner knows, he has safety help and can play over the top of all routes by number one.  He no longer has to worry about the out of number two and is essentially in man to man coverage with inside help.  The curl player will now relate to the number one receiver and the hook player can now wall the crosser (number two).

Third, the number two receiver can go vertical.  When this happens, the safety gives a "push" call alerting the defense that the number two receiver has blown the top off the coverage and the safety has to take this receiver vertical.  The corner now knows, he has number one man to man based on his Blue coverage rules shown above. The curl player knows to expand immediately to the flat and look to relate to number one's route.  The hook player can gain depth, and either relate to the back, or work under any deep inside route by number two.  Again, the only player relaying anything to these other defenders is the safety.  This is an age-old trick by good coaches coined "Multiplicity through simplicity". 

Last, the number two receiver can run an outside breaking route.  When this happens the safety gives and out call and knows he must now take all of number one.  The corner hears the "out" call and comes off the route of one, and plays the out or out and up (swing deep) of number two.  The flat player expands and looks for anything expanding to the curl from the backfield or from across the formation.  The hook player also will gain depth and look to work under any inside cutting route, or carry a crosser across the formation to the curl player.  As you can see, this is why in Blue coverage the corner can play tighter to the number one receiver because the safety is being his eyes and making his read for him.  Now the corner discourages the quick throws to the flats by alignment, and adds some confusion to what the quarterback (QB) is seeing pre-snap (is it cover 2 is quarters etc.).  Let's look at how this communication system handles some routes that commonly give Blue coverage some trouble.

When the number two receiver goes outside, it can present some problems when two players are allowed to read this route.  The number one question I get about Blue coverage is what to do when number two does a deep out and number one is vertical.  The answer, leave it in the hands of your safety.  Your kids should know their abilities, probably better than you ever will, so they should be the ones making these reads.  The safety, if he feels he can get to the vertical of one, will give the out call to the corner.  This puts the corner on the out, and the safety on the vertical route by number one.  However, if the safety does not feel he can get to the vertical of one, he makes no communication whatsoever and plays the out by number two.  Either way, the secondary is right in this situation due to only one player making this read, and it is the player put in the most conflict by this route combination.

The other route combinations are the Post Wheel and the Curl Wheel illustrated below.

The main idea behind this post, is have one guy make your reads and calls.  This keeps any miscommunication from happening as receivers are coming into their breaks.  It also allows for your corners to play tighter than in previous versions of Quarters and Blue coverages.  This technique is not limited to only Blue coverage.  This method can easily be applied to other pattern reading coverages as well.  The idea here is, have a system that allows for the person making the calls to recognize the pattern and then make a call that will relate all the defenders to that side of the defense to the receiver distribution. 

To the guy who gave this to me, who WILL remain anonymous, thanks bro, this has really opened my eyes up to being able to simplify some of the post-snap communication issues I've had in the past!

Well, it's a rematch in the BCS National Championship Game...do we really need to see it again?  I'm not in favor of the BCS, however, in this case it has done just what it's designed to do, pitted the number two team vs. the number one team in the country.  Oh how the SEC haters will love this one!  Happy Bowl Season, get that DVR ready!!!




What?


Duece