AFM RSS Feed Follow Us on Twitter       
AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY THE #1 RESOURCE FOR FOOTBALL COACHES
ABOUT |  CONTACT |  ADVERTISE |  HELP  



   User Name    Password 
      Password Help





Article Categories


AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


Flex Fronts: Stop offenses by using a different front on every play.

by: Eugene Wilson
Defensive Coordinator, Atlantic Coast High School (FL)
© More from this issue

Click for Printer Friendly Version          

As I watched Clemson and Auburn play in BCS games last January, I wondered how many high school coaches will be going to the spring coaching clinics put on by these schools. More importantly, what are defensive coaches going to do to stop these types of offense? Tight ends are becoming a huge part of offenses. While there are some teams that don’t ever use one, other teams use three on one play. We have to be able to line up against all of these formations.

In Florida, we see a different type of offense every week. One week it could be the spread and then the next week the Wing-T. We play a team on our schedule that uses 20, 21, 22, 10, 11, and 32 personnel groups in one game. That is a lot to prepare for in four days of practice. In order to defend against each different formation, we try to move as few players on defense as possible. This allows us to line up against every formation we see week in and week out and still be ready for new formations.

We base our defense mostly off of the offense’s personnel group. If the offense changes personnel, we often change ours. For example, to start a series against a multiple look offense that runs from the sidelines to the ball, we may have 13 players on the field and then run two players off once we identify what the specific grouping is.

Essentially, our philosophy is to play an 8-man front to any offensive formation that uses two running backs and a 7-man front to any formation that uses one running back. We do this by calling our fronts by our schools colors - black, white, and orange. When we call “Black” we are playing a 4-4. “Orange” means we are playing a 5-3. “Crush” means we are playing a 6-2 to all two-back looks. To a one-back look, we play “White”, meaning a 4-3. Also we play some 3-4 but call it nickel because we are substituting a defensive back for a defensive lineman. We also can play the “Bears” front and actually call it “Bears” in which we substitute a defensive lineman for a defensive back. With this plan, we go into every game with at least two fronts that we are going to play.

In our off-season program, we line up these defenses over and over again and drill our athletes. The state of Florida allows 20 days for spring practice. The first three days have to be in helmet and shorts with no pads. We hit them hard for the first three days of spring ball while we are in shorts.

Florida has taken our two-a-days away for the first week of fall practice. Under the new rules, we can have one practice, and then are allowed a walk through with no ball. We keep going over the fronts and blitzes so all of our players know what to do in any situation during our walk through. By doing this we can change our front in the middle of a game, even if we haven’t practiced it all week.

This system is also fun for the players. For example, at halftime of a game this season, a player said to me “Coach, if we go to Orange 31, we could shut down the TE side power run game.” We did and it worked. Keep in mind, under this system, we can still call our blitzes to bring pressure out of these fronts. With the way we execute and coach this system, our players know it by the time they are sophomores. When we have our scouting report meetings, we tell our defense what fronts we are going to be playing that week, we describe the other team’s personnel, and we go through our checks, all before we go into formations. In other words, we take our front and “Talk it”, then “Chalk it”, then “Walk it” after individual sessions on Mondays. By the time we are done “Walking it”, everyone knows what to do. This method helps us dictate to the offense what we are going to do instead of them dictating to us.

Our adjuster is our strong safety who we call the “Bandit.” He has to be good enough to play back as a deep safety (in our white and nickel front) but also physical enough to play outside LB (in our black front) and also become a DE (in our orange front). He always lines up weak. In every diagram he is listed as the “B”. Our “Sam” is really just a hard hitting DB. He never comes inside the box and plays everything outside in while being a fast runner. The closest he gets to the ball is when he stands over the TE as a 9 tech in the “crush” front.

Diagram 1 is Black 31 (over front). Our A is our attacker and is usually an undersized guy that has the best motor on the team. His general job is to attack the QB. Our E is our strong end, usually our most physical DL who lines up nose to nose (6 tech) and has C gap control in our black front. The Mike and the Will are lined up on the outside eye of the guards which we call a 30 tech. Sam is 4 x 4 from the end man LOS and bandit is 3 x 4 from end man LOS. You can see in diagram 2 that we only moved our two inside DL to give the offense a different look.


Diagram 1: Black 31 vs. LT I Pro


Diagram 2: Black 13

Diagram 3 is our range front which is a base under front. We move the A to attack the QB as a 9 tech while the bandit has now taken his spot. This is the only time the A comes to the strong side. Our E moves down to a 5 tech. Mike, Will, Sam, our free safety, and both corners don’t move between orange and black. Diagram 4 shows how we usually play a first down toward a power TE run team. You can see we only have moved the two inside defensive linemen to give the offense a different look.

Diagram 3: Orange 13


Diagram 4: Orange 31

Diagrams 5 and 6 show how we line up our white front in a 4-3 where we play a base quarters coverage. Sam and Will split the difference between the #2 receiver and the end man on the LOS. When they see run, they come screaming.


Diagram 5: White vs. 3x1


Diagram 6: White vs. 2x2


Diagram 7 shows our crush front that we use on the goal line. If bandit doesn’t have a TE to his side, he stacks on the A’s heels and plays his technique. We always play 0 out of our crush defense. 


Diagram 7: Crush vs. 1 TE

 
About the Author: Eugene Wilson begins his fifth season this fall on the staff of Atlantic coast high School, serving as defensive coordinator. Beginning in 1996, he has coached at seven different Florida high schools. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree from Florida State.


More articles like this:

•  Multiple Looks From a 3-4 Defense to Slow Down an Up-Tempo Offense  - Oct./Nov., 2013

 •  Defending the Wing-T Offense - August, 2012

•  Multiple Looks Create Havoc - September, 2001







NEW BOOK!

AFM Videos Streaming Memberships Now Available Digital Download - 304 Pages of Football Forms for the Winning Coach



















HOME
MAGAZINE
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE COLUMNISTS COACHING VIDEOS


Copyright 2024, AmericanFootballMonthly.com
All Rights Reserved