AFM Subscribers Ask with Joe Daniel Defensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach Prince George High School (VA) - Part II

Joe Daniel has more than ten years experience coaching on the high school and college level. In 2009, Daniel began building a website which includes more than 300 articles on defensive coaching – www.Football-Defense.com 

Daniel is also the host of The Football Coaching Podcast and has written several eBooks, including Coaching Football’s 4-2-5 Defense, Installing the 4-3 Over Defensive Front, and Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz. A frequent contributor to both AFM and Gridiron Strategies, Daniel currently has a blog on AmericanFootballMonthly.com, “Linebacker Keys in the Miami 4-3 Defense.” He answers your questions.

What is your best answer to 10 personnel with a 2 x 2 set in the middle of the field? Matt Fulham, Assistant Coach, Westhampton High School (NY).

Unless you are coaching in a scheme that is purely cover 3, where you have spent plenty of practice time working on four verticals, you need to get into either a two-high safety coverage (cover 2 or quarters) or man coverage.

The best answer to defending 10 personnel is to game plan. Is the opponent getting into spread formations to throw the ball, or to run it? If they are spreading you to run, we are going to play a 3 on 2 quarters concept to the wide side of the field. This is played similar to a soft cover 2. On the short side, we will play a man coverage concept with the safety and corner. That allows us to keep a 6-man box with the Mike and Will.

If they are really only capable of running the ball, we can play cover 0 and keep 7 defenders in the box. When the team is spreading us to pass, and we want to use zone coverage, we need to get into the 3 on 2, quarters coverage concept on both sides. Our Will linebacker will stay as tight to the box as he can, while still being able to get to his pass coverage responsibility; that is, wall the #2 receiver (See Diagram).

How do you deal with a double tight end formation and what do you run against it? Also, do you have any proven motivational methods for your defense pre-game? Ron Woitatewicz, Head Coach, Dakota Ridge High School (CO).

In our over front, we make a ‘Heavy’ check against two tight end formations. The heavy check moves our nose, normally in a weak shade on the center, out to a 2i technique, inside shade of the guard. It also moves our weakside defensive end from his normal 5 technique out to a 7 technique, the inside shade of the tight end. This adjustment makes them harder to down block. No one else needs to change. The Will linebacker always makes the heavy check, any time he sees a tight end on his side. If we are going to get a steady diet of two tight end formations, we will run more under fronts than over fronts to help stop the run.

I am not a big proponent of motivational speeches or other tricks to get the defense hyped up. We come to work four days a week in practice. The game should not require any special motivation. The game itself is the motivation. Games are a lot more fun than practice. That being said, I am much more emotional on game days. I have never been a “rah rah” guy, but I’m sure it is clear to my players that I’m more amped up for games. Our whole staff is. That translates to your players.

When defending the spread option, what is the first thing you think about? Most spread option teams we face put the best athlete on the team at quarterback and let him run the show. What is your game plan to stop this? Also, how do you defend the triple option without a seal block? Jeff Schaum, Head Coach, Warner University.

Defending option football is the same, no matter what type of option it is. Option responsibilities should be built into your base defense. A and B gap defenders handle the dive, C gap defenders handle the quarterback, and the force player is responsible for the pitch.

From that point, we start game planning to get the ball in the hands of the player we want carrying it. We want the ball moving sideways, not downhill, so we start by influencing the quarterback to keep the football, and then to pitch. If the quarterback is exceptional, we will use a tag to have the defensive end squat, instead of bending down the line of scrimmage and attacking the dive.

The best advice I ever received on defending the zone read came from Jim Reid when he was the defensive coordinator at the University of Virginia. When you game plan for the zone read, always go in with three ways to defend it. You have your base plan, and then two adjustments to confuse the QB’s reads and timing. We can use fronts, stunts and blitzes to create those looks for the offense.

Start working option responsibilities early and often in your defensive practices. Even if you do not see option very often, you are reinforcing the assignments of your base defense.

What are the linebacker reads and defensive line movements in the over 4-3 defense? Bob Knox, Head Coach, Stephen Decatur High School (MD).

We have played with linebacker reads over the years and found that for most linebackers, keying the backfield gets them going faster. It will make your defense more vulnerable to misdirection plays, so linebackers must learn to recognize certain offensive line keys as well.

We key the near back in the backfield as the primary key. In an I-formation, the Mike linebacker keys the fullback and the outside linebackers key the tailback. The only exception is shotgun split backfields, which we cross-key. Our first two steps will always match the primary key. They continue on their path to fit the play unless they get a pull or high hat from their secondary key, the offensive guard. We always follow pullers and stress that guards don’t lie. A high hat from the guard indicates a pass play, and we will then get into our pass drops.

The defensive linemen are almost always playing in an outside shade, regardless of position. This makes them interchangeable between the ends and tackles on either side. We focus on the “Strike Point.” The inside hand strikes the outside number and the outside hand strikes the shoulder, framing the armpit.

If the strike point comes at us, we try to beat the block and control our gap. If the strike point goes away, we bend down the line of scrimmage and look to attack pullers and kick outs. Reaction to block away is always to treat it as if the play is a run play away from them. They then bend and sprint down the line of scrimmage. While this is simplistic, it is the basis of our entire defensive line play. We teach that there are really only three types of blocks to defeat: block to, block away, and pass block.