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Defending the Triple OptionDefensive Line Coach, UW-Plattville© More from this issue At UW-Platteville we run a 3-4 defense because we believe it gives us the best opportunity to compete in our conference (See Diagram l).
We utilize speed because we are often undersized on the defensive
line. Every year we face opponents (UW-River Falls and Augustana-Illinois)
who run the option. We used a simple adjustment to our defense that
allows us to defend these teams and not have to make drastic changes
to our defense.
of dust.” The focus when facing these teams is limiting production
on first down, trying to keep them in third-and-long situations
and keeping them out of the end zone. As a defensive staff we take
these things into consideration when developing our game plan. We
wanted to keep things pretty “vanilla” and play assignment-sound
football.
technique on the offensive tackles and our nose in a zero on the
center. We believed this alignment gave us the opportunity to play
games with our front people and still be assignment sound (Diagrams
3, 4, 5). The defensive line’s main objective is to tackle
the fullback on the dive and to keep the offensive linemen from
getting to our linebackers.
From this alignment he can play the quarterback or Pitch.
we play a lot of man coverage with our corners. We feel that our athletes can lock-up with their athletes. The corners have rules for their alignment. For example, if the ball is in the middle of the field and the #1 wide receiver to his side aligns on or past the numbers, he is to align 1-2 yards inside of the receiver and 7 yards deep. We assess from our scouting reports that when the teams line their receivers up like this, they are not planning on throwing them the ball. It is also a hard throw to make and the corners can use the sideline as an extra defender. For blocking purposes, it does not allow the wide receivers to get a good angle on our corners and they can offer some run support once
they have determined that the play is a run. Our free safety plays
deep middle. His job is to get depth and play the ball to the side
it is thrown. His responsibility is always play the pass first
(See Diagram 6).
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