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How to slow down the “Tempo”Wing-T

by: Jake Messina
Defensive Coordinator, Merced High School (CA)
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During my first year as a Defensive Coordinator, in 2006, we were very fortunate to have an excellent team at Merced High School. Making it to the sectional final and nearly pulling off a last-minute win was an exciting way to begin my career as DC. However, that year was tempered with several doses of humility, mainly at the hands of the wing-t offense (specifically the tempo wing-t). In our second game of the year vs. Madera H.S., coached by wing-t guru Randy Blankenship, and later in the sectional final vs. Vacaville H.S., problems arose that forced us as a staff to take a second look at what we were doing and how we could more effectively defend this multiple-formation offense that snapped the ball within four seconds of the huddle break.


Issue number one that needed to be addressed was how to avoid getting out-leveraged. Many wing-t coaches, especially those that employ the “fast-break” version, use unbalanced formations to gain a numerical advantage. They simply line up quickly and deploy an exaggerated number of flank players (as in X-Over Diagram 1) in order to run their Buck-Sweep play. If you are calling your defense based upon where the TE is, you are in trouble right away. First, it is very difficult for the DL to get their hands down because the call, from the LBs or DBs, whoever makes your strength call, will be very fast. Second, you have to have a system that allows your Secondary and LBs to align to the unbalanced set. Before we came up with our “quick-call” system, all of these issues made it very difficult for us to defend the “tempo” wing-t.

We created a “quick-call” system of defense that could be called a number of ways. In its simplest form, the quick call is set based upon the spot of the ball, or what we call a field defense. Since most of these teams have a field tendency that is quite high, we played the percentages and set our strength to the field side. Now, if the TE lined up to the field side, our strong outside backer was there waiting for him, as was our strong 5-tech, etc. This eliminated most of the advantage gained by the quick snap and tempo that had caused us so much trouble the year before (See Diagram 2).
However, running this type of defense requires a little extra work. Here’s why: In order to effectively defend all of the formations deployed by these coaches, you have to practice each set vs. the strength of your defense as well as the weakness of your defense. In other words, you have to be prepared for the TE to set up to the short side, or away from your strength call (See Diagram 3). If you cannot do this, an experienced wing-t coach will simply set the strength (usually unbalanced) to the boundary and run sweep short (which works well if you are out-leveraged.) This leads to the third and final component of dealing with the unbalanced issue.


As a coach, you must always have a plan B. In some cases it might even be wise to have a plan C. I cannot emphasize enough the number of times that our defensive staff has had to improvise or think outside of our normal process during a game. It’s literally the difference between winning and losing in a tight game. So when the experienced wing-t coach calls your bluff and sets his strength short (away from your strength) you need to be prepared to adjust to that set with your weak-side defenders. This is the toughest adjustment in this type of defense, but will also determine your success or failure vs. the “tempo” wing-t.


In order for you as a coordinator to make this adjustment there are two major tasks involved. One is the pre-game adjustment, which consists of getting your weak-side defenders lined up to unbalanced short (See Diagram 4). This means that your weak corner lines up on #1, your weak safety lines up on # 2, and your weak-side end or 5-technique must slide out to outside shade of the TE. In addition, your LBs must “bump” into the boundary, which means they simply slide a gap over into the boundary. Now you are set to temporarily defend the boundary sweep. The last piece of the puzzle is the long term solution: setting your strength to the boundary.


In-game, it is critical that you as a coordinator can control the strength call in the event that the wing-t goes “boundary” on you. In certain instances where the wing-t play-caller starts breaking his tendencies (or you get a feel for what he is doing) it is advantageous to have a hand signal system or directional that you can use to set the strength to the boundary if you choose to. Now, your alignments will be identical to those in Diagram 2, and you will again have gained leverage on the offense.


The system that I have described here has many other wrinkles. If you get into great detail and learn as much as you can about opponent tendencies and weaknesses, there are many things that can be done with blitzes, slants, and line stunts in this system. The key is getting lined up, and the rest becomes a lot easier.

About the Author

Jake Messina began his coaching career in the San Francisco Bay area at Sequoia High School in 1994. After a one year stint as defensive line coach for Menlo-Atherton High School in 1996), he went on to serve as offensive line coach at Palo Alto High School for five years before moving to Merced in 2001. Coach Messina started off as a quality control assistant in the booth, then the defensive line coach for four years and was named defensive coordinator three years ago.

Questions? If you have any questions you can email the author at:
JakeMessina@AmericanFootballMonthly.com






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