New Standard for High School Defense

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.