Don't Be Afraid of Change
Current High School Football Defensive Standard
In the recent past, high school defenses have relied heavily
on a 5-3-3 style defense: “5” being the number of defensive linemen, “3”
linebacker and “3” defensive backs. The theory behind this defense was to crowd
the line of scrimmage to help stop the offensive run game, since most high
school teams relied on their run game for the majority of their yardage. This
was a great strategy when high school football was focused on power style play.
When I played fullback/linebacker in high school just a few years ago
(2003-2006 seasons), our offensive line averaged 300 pounds and my tailback was
a 225 pound bowling ball that broke our school record for total rushing yards
in a single season. No one on our offense was a real burner or overly mobile,
but we were BIG! Now, we're starting to see the other end of the spectrum. Now,
many high school athletes are training in more areas then just weight training,
because more kids participate in two, three and even four different
sports. These multi-sport athletes train
in different ways to cater to the needs of each sport. This is causing those
athletes to become a more rounded football player. They are mobile, strong and
outright fast. 5-3-3 defenses are becoming helpless against these new breed of
athletes, because eight players are tight on the line of scrimmage and get
trapped in the box when an offensive ball carrier breaks contain. For this
reason, I proposed the 4-4-3 defense.
The X's and O's of the 4-4 Defense
The 4-4 defense is a great higher energy defense compared to
the 5-3, which was a good way to make sure you have one linebacker with no gap responsibility.
However, you needed to put 5 players on the line of scrimmage that are head to
head with an offensive lineman. The issue with this is, believe it or not, an
offensive lineman is taught to hold. A good offensive lineman is a big powerful
boy with vice grips for hands. So, if a defensive lineman gets caught up with
one, they are less able to put themselves in a position to make a play. If you
take one of those defensive lineman and back them up 5-6 yards as a linebacker,
you're giving that player that much more time to read and react to the offense
without having to overcome an offensive lineman from the get-go. Plus, you will
still have a linebacker with no gap responsibility available to mirror key
offensive threats.
Need more to sway you? Look at the physical and mental
ability of a high school athlete. These athletes are much less capable of
making a tackle when the ball carrier has a five or more yard running start
against a stationary defender. With the 4-4, you are now giving four, versus
three, of your best tacklers not only space and time to read and react to a
play, but physically more momentum to fill a run lane. Remember, defense is a
mental battle as well. An offense doesn't want to get beat up physically. If
your linebackers are continuously laying bigger hits on a running back, due to
that extra momentum, he is more likely to check out mentally.
Expanding on mental capability, high school athletes do not
yet have the experience, or know how, to effectively communicate with one
another as well as college and professional athletes. In the 4-4, a defense has
more room to move, or "stem", during the offensive cadence. This
stemming causes major confusion to an inexperienced offense. This makes
blitzing more affective and overall penetration more affective. Since you still
have a linebacker with no real gap responsibility, you can afford to have a
player caught out of position while stemming or blitzing, which will more than
likely happen.
Stemming also makes blitzing much more affective. The
confusion that movement will cause, will open gaps and cause offensive linemen
to play a guessing game with which defender will attack which gap.
Challenges with the 4-4 Defense
The issues that arise while using the 4-4 at the high energy
pace I have explained above are with conditioning and communication. These are
two of the most important elements in the game of football that are a factor in
any style of play.
As a coach, I am constantly exercising my player’s
communication skills. In every drill, my players are being vocal. In any high
energy defense, your players need to communicate what their responsibility is
in response to the offense. For example, with a heavy blitz game, players will
come across situations where that blitz has to be called off based on how the
offense is aligned. When a blitz is called off, that player needs to know
where, what and who is their new responsibility, which in turn will alter the rest
of your defenders responsibilities. I heavily put this job on my free safety's
and my most knowledgeable linebacker's shoulders. Your FS needs to be much like
a quarterback to the defense. Not only does he need to know his responsibilities
but the responsibilities of every other player wearing his colors. The LB will
need to manage the other LB's as well as the defensive line. That LB will need
to know the ins and outs of every blitz and gap responsibility. This will give
him the ability to call of blitzes and adjust defenders accordingly. But,
challenge all your players to know their responsibilities cold.
Conditioning is a major factor in any situation as well. It’s
the foundation to all of a player’s abilities. If that player is winded, he
will start to sacrifice all of his fundamentals. I come from a small high school
where we played seven guys on both sides of the ball. Some, including myself,
were on every special teams as well. To ask a player to go 100% every play and
never come off the field, is very demanding. However, in some cases, it can't
be avoided due to program numbers. This is why it is so important to monitor
your players in the off season. High school players like to believe that they don’t
have to worry about conditioning until the season starts. It’s your job as a
coach to change that thought process. Conditioning is just as important as
weight training. I know with high school coaching restrictions in the off
season, it makes it difficult to, legally, control what your players are doing
to condition. Having a dedicated strength and conditioning coach is a great way
to maintain contact with your guys year-round.
My Process to Address These Issues
Conditioning and Communication
To address the two main issues with the 4-4 defense, I do a
number of things.
For communication:
Demand players to communicate during every single drill. It doesn’t
matter what they are communicating, it’s the fact that they are communicating
something that will condition them to do so when it really matters. For
example, enforce “run/pass/ball/bingo” calls. This simply means players will be
instructed to call out “pass” when they read a pass play from their key reads.
Then “ball” calls when the ball is thrown and “bingo,” or any other call you’d
like to use, for when the ball is intercepted (think positive). When run is
read, your players will make a “run” call. Again, incorporate this
communication in every drill.
For conditioning/ off season training:
First, install the mentality that there is no off season. The
"off season" is an opportunity to better yourself for the upcoming
football season. The harder your players work now, the easier the work will be
later. You might be thinking, “You said most high school athletes play in
different sports in the football off season.” Yes I did, however, too many of
these athletes use those sports as an excuse to skip out of training.
To address this issue, I make a mandatory schedule, which I
call the "Bible". Obviously, I won’t be able to work with the players
every single day, so this Bible will do my work during my absence. It will
contain a weight training routine, conditioning routine and drill routine. High
school is a good age to create a dietary plan, because of the high metabolism
and growth of these teens. This is why I simply stress a high protein and
carbohydrate diet with water as their main fluid, not sports drinks and
definitely not soda. The protein and carbs will aid the athlete’s body in
growing while being physically demanding. Sugars need to be kept to an absolute
minimum.
Because of the high rate of growth these athletes go through
from their freshman year to their senior years, it is important for them to be
active, even more so in athletes. From one of my personal experiences, I went
through, what doctors called, “fainting spells” during my freshman year of high
school. After countless tests and lab work, doctors came to the conclusion that
my “fainting spells’ were caused by my “athletic heart rate,” slow heart rate,
not providing my brain with enough blood flow while I slowed down my activity
levels because of the amount of growing my body was doing. This experience has
showed me that staying active at that age won’t only help be athletically but
health wise as well.
Don’t be Afraid of Change
I have seen, and worked with, many coaches that refuse to
change their coaching strategies. They argue that what they do works. The
kicker is, those coaches are the coaches that have programs that are now
struggling. I don’t claim that the 4-4 defensive is for everyone. What I do
know is, the most successful coaches don’t build a team around their strategy,
they build their strategy around their team. Don’t be afraid of change.
