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Sterling College\'s - Principles of the 3-4 DefenseDefensive Coordinator, Sterling College© More from this issue Every coaching staff in America has to have a starting point when they put together an offensive or defensive scheme. Our defense staff at Sterling College is committed to four main principles. First of all, we are committed to having our best eleven football players on the field. Secondly, we want to position players where they will be able to make plays by being deceptive. Thirdly, we want to be assignment proof. And, finally, we want to minimize the ability of the offense to make big plays and their potential by involving eight players to stop the run game with the ability to play zone behind it. The 3-4 defense allows us to get our best eleven players on the field at the same time. As with many small colleges today, we have a hard time recruiting the 6’2”, 265 lb. defensive tackle that can move well enough to run a 40 front. However, we can get a number of 6’0”, 190 lb. kids that do move well. Instead of having to play our fifteenth or sixteenth best football player while our tenth or eleventh best is on the sideline, we can now play four safety-type players that make us more athletic and able to run to the ball better.
The reason that I personally like the 3-4 defense is that it allows
you to involve eight players against the run without having to play
man-to-man in the secondary. This helps us to stop the run with
our guys up front and limits the offense’s potential of the
big play. We can be aggressive with our front seven without taking
risks in the secondary. Diagrams 4 and 5 show our plant package
with a “Mike” or “Will” blitz and our cover
3 behind it. Notice how we are able to actually get eight men involved
against the run and still be a zone team in the secondary. We can
bring two and sometimes three linebackers depending on the offensive
personnel group that is in the
We stay “gap sound” with this package which means that
there really is no bad blitz, and, if the play is away from the
blitz, the defense is still sound. Diagram 6 shows both of our outside
linebackers are coming so we like to run a cover two with this blitz.
Again, we are “gap sound” against the run and can switch
up our coverage to keep the offense off balanced. Obviously, we
need to be good at disguising our calls so we can stay deceptive.
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