63 Basics and Overview

Jack Gregory 2011 All Rights Reserved For more information see www.gregorydoublewing.com Or email me at coachgregory@live.com

THE BASIC CONCEPT

Keep the ball on the opponents side of the line of scrimmage and deter him from running north-south. Never give up the big play or the easy score via the pass or the sweep. Play aggressive, violent, fundamentally sound football.

Roots of the Defense

DC46 (Dumcoach 46 Defense from Clark Wilkins) 62 Shooter (John Carbon) 33 Stack (JJ Lawson) 34 Zone blitz (Don Capers/Dick Lebeux) Tampa Cover 2 (Tony Dungy)

What is It?
It looks like a 60 front but is really a 40 front Inverted cover 2 using Tampa cover 2 concept Really 5 LBs; DE use a 34 rush/drop technique Defensive line are one gap

Important Terms #1
Compress: A defensive line technique that has the lineman get off the snap and get into the blocker and attempt to displace him or get behind him so that the defenders heels replace the blockers heels and there by compressing the line of scrimmage and force the ball to spill outside. In our BASE STACK calls we penetrate, locate the ball, and go to the ball; which is a one gap technique and what we normally use. In any BULL call we attack the blocker and compress which is a 2 gap technique. Hunting (Hunter): This is a technique of having a defender widen out far enough to not be blocked by a interior blocker or offensive end man on/near the line of scrimmage (EMLOS) and then aim the hips, belt buckle, and feet (tilted inside) at the near hip of the deepest back or nearest back (in that order) and attack him at the snap of the ball and stay on that outside edge of that near hip as he gets to him. This literally has the defensive end tracking the near hip so he stays in front of it. If he encounters a lead blocker then cross his face aggressively while ripping through the outside arm pit with his inside arm to stay on that near hip of the ball carrier. Feathering: This is when the near side OLB or a DEFENSIVE END is playing the sweep or a perimeter play and must maintain outside leverage (hips square to the LOS) on the read player and force him to string the perimeter play out towards the boundary (going east-west). The OLB must keep his hips square to the LOS and keep his inside shoulder tight and to the outside of the ball carrier. Used when we call RED (READ) for the OLB and when a DEFENSIVE END is facing a fast running back that is beating him to the C gap.

Important Terms #2
Spill: Force the ball to go wide to the boundary by filling all the interior gaps on the inside. Individually it means having the ball go away from the LOS and go to the outside of the outside shoulder of the defender. Often this is done by crashing or placing immediate pressure inside filling the interior gaps or compressing the LOS. This is a technique we use for our perimeter defense concept and specifically with our defensive ends. Squeeze: Force the ball to stay inside and not allow the ball to go outside towards the boundary. Individually it means keeping the ball on the inside shoulder and forcing the ball to cut back inside or backside. Often this occurs when the defensive end gets inside quickly and does not allow the runner to spill forcing the runner to cut and run inside (into our interior defender) or backside into our backside pursuit (BSDE). This technique is used by the contain (play side) corner and by the RED play side (feathering) OLB. Perimeter concept (SHOOT THE SIDELINES): this is the concept I use to force the ball to stay east-west and deny it the ability to go north-south and drive the ball to the boundary or kill it in the back field. There are several terms tied to this concept:

Important Terms #3
Alley: This is the location from the offensive EMLOS and the near boundary. The defense, once they determine run to the alley (outside), must squeeze the size of the alley down as much as possible from the inside out as they force the runner to run east-west. The alley defender is the near OLB and his job is to maintain outside leverage as well as mirror and attack the ball aggressively. His job is to pin the ball behind the LOS and force it to run to the boundary or back inside to the shoot defenders and pursuit. He is the first line of defense inside the alley when we call RED. Otherwise the OLB is attacking the A, B, or C gaps. Bounce: This is the backside OLB (in RED) once he determines there is no threat of BCR (BOOTLEG COUNTER REVERSE) he must relocate to the play side C gap at an intermediate depth angle to further drive the runner to the boundary and not allow him to cut back as MIKE and alley OLB flow with the ball. He must cross-key and check for Bootleg/Counter/Reverse prior to bouncing. The bounce is the second line of defense inside the alley and we expect his delay as he reads and that allows him to come into the play side C gap and kill the cutback as he does. Cap: The backside corner takes his three step pass drop and once he determines there is not threat of BCR he must relocate to the play side at a deep angle of about 30 yards (end zone line in near the end zone) to ensure that the runner has no chance to score. He must check for Bootleg/Counter/Reverse prior to capping and he should slow play the cap as first to verify BCR and no throw back. This defender must cap the top of the alley to reduce the chance of an easy score. He is the final line of defense on top of the alley or essentially the safety.

Important Terms #4
Contain: Play side/near side corner after he takes his three step pass drop and confirms a run to the near perimeter he immediately closes on the line of scrimmage staying on the outside edge of the runner and attempts to contain the runner behind the LOS and towards the boundary. His job is to contain the ball behind or as near to the line of scrimmage as possible. The job of the contain defender to is to squeeze the alley from the outside to the boundary. Force: This is the defensive ends on both sides of the ball. Their job is to force the ball to immediately turn inside or go deep around the force towards the boundary so the ball can be killed in the backfield. The force defender aligns on the inside of the alley and his job is to attempt to not allow the ball into the alley or for it to have to go away from the LOS to get to the alley. Force the ball to react immediately to pressure and not allow easy access to the alley at all. This is our Hunting technique. Shoot: This is the MIKE linebacker and his job, once he determines the perimeter play, is to attack the ball from inside out down hill and kill the ball as fast as possible and hopefully behind the line of scrimmage as it runs east-west. His job is to shoot into the alley and kill the play. Mike must stay on track to the inside hip of the runner.

Important Terms #5
Bite the Pit: This is simply a term to reinforce the safe and proper way to execute a tackle. Literally bite the ball side arm pit; meaning you have to get your head and eyes up and your mouth into the arm pit which will in turn force you to lower your hips, drop your butt, bend your knees, and get you in the proper hitting position. We use the LOAD, EXPLODE, GO concept with tackling. Load your body, explode into the ball carrier, go through the ball carrier. Bite the pit reinforces all of that. Bite the Hip: This is a variation of the Bite the Pit against a bigger or tougher runner. The tackler simply lowers his landmark the same side hip as the landmark with the same technique. We still teach L.E.G.

Important Terms #6
Field: This is the wide side of the field or the side with more horizontal space for the ball to maneuver in. The field side is always our DANGER SIDE as this is the side the offense often runs to. Mike will call DANGER so that the entire defense is alerted to which side is field and which side is boundary. If we are in the middle of the field then MIKE will call DANGER SIDE to the opponents side line as that is the next most common side ran to. Boundary Side: This is the short side of the field and the ball has less horizontal or lateral space to maneuver in and thus it is much easier to control the ball. Bear in mind that the ball will often go NORTH-SOUTH or cut back much faster on the boundary side and thus another reason why we keep our better players on the field side so that we can account for the quick north-south or cut back move via backside pursuit as we squeeze down from the field side.

Important Terms #7
Window: A Window is any open space on the LOS that is not covered by a defensive lineman. A window is any open space between defensive linemen and the sidelines. It is simply an open space on the LOS that a linebacker or defensive back can penetrate into the backfield to make a play. Pre-snap the linebacker should look for windows along the LOS and post-snap he should then locate the windows that develop as the offense line and defensive line moves for position.

Important Terms #8
Tunnel: Whenever a kick out is made on a defender a tunnel is made and the offense will attempt to run through that tunnel. A tunnel is always between the alley and the snapper. We must squeeze it back inside to our line or spill it to the sideline.

Tactics of the 63 Defense

The defense is designed to funnel the ball towards our best defenders and to the sideline. We do this by compressing the LOS on the inside with penetrating defensive linemen and compressing the edge of the backfield on each side with hunting defensive ends. In this defense the sideline acts as a twelfth defender and is one of our best defenders. This is because the sideline always makes a tackle and the runner can never get by him so we must utilize that extra defender whenever possible and force runners that want to run the D gap to keep running towards our best tackler. Our goal is to funnel or spill every thing to the sideline and force the ball to go EAST-WEST and not cross the LOS. Yardage is gained by running NORTH-SOUTH not EAST-WEST and thus whenever we can funnel and force the runner to run east-west it increases the likelihood that we will negate any chance of a positive gain by the offense and increase the chance that our defense makes a tackle for a loss by increasing the time it takes to go NORTH-SOUTH.

Field Side Concept

Offenses like to operate in big spaces and the field side offers more room to operate in. Out of 104 teams that I studied, during 2005, I found that 76% of those teams ran to the wide side of the field. When they did not run to the wide side of the field 84% of those teams ran to their side of the field. Based on this I will always have my MIKE call strong side to the FIELD SIDE and if the offense is in the middle of the field we will call strong side to the opponent's sideline. This ensures that you will playing to the correct side 80% of the time. Common Chain of Priorities for which side the ball is going on offense:
Wide Side (Field) Near Side (opponents near side) Backfield alignments Formation strength (unbalanced line) Plays specific to individual formations

The Alley Concept

ALLEY ALLEY

B O U N D A R Y

B O U N D A R Y

When an offense aligns there will always be two alleys, one on each side of the ball. It is the job of the defense to squeeze the alley shut on each side of the ball and deter the ball from penetrating the LOS.

Zone Coverage
Tampa Cover 2 scheme (rotational inverted cover 2) Inverted Cover 2 (cornerbacks play in the outside quarters of the field) Play the field then the ball.
Grass is not fast, athletic, tall, tough, and it has never made a catch. When the ball is up in the air every defender takes a path to the ball and gets there with purpose.

All defensive ends and defenders outside of the defensive end will tilt their stances to face the backfield. Zone defenses offers better run support as the defenders are reading the backfield as they defend the field. Defensive backs (two) play pass first drop and keep dropping until they have determined the ball is crossing the LOS. They rotate to the passers vision with the farthest DB slowing their rotation checking for BCR. Otherwise they defend pass as that is their main responsibility. Linebackers play run first and if they read pass they drop to the depth of the passer and immediately rotate to the direction of the passers vision with the farthest backers slowing their rotation checking for BCR. Cornerbacks priority: 1) PASS, 2) CONTAIN, 3) BCR, 4) CAP

Containment of the Alley

Capping the alley. Contain: Shrinking the alley.

B O U N D A R Y

ALLEY

ALLEY

B O U N D A R Y

Squeezing the Alley

Shooting the Alley Filling the Alley

B O U N D A R Y

ALLEY

ALLEY

B O U N D A R Y

Forcing the ball away from the alley

Spill the Alley

Shooting the Alley Filling the Alley

B O U N D A R Y

ALLEY

ALLEY

B O U N D A R Y

Forcing the ball away from the alley

The Hour Glass Effect

The Perimeter Triangle and the Pass Triangle form an hourglass effect. The soft spot or weakness of the hourglass is the funnel on each side (requiring the offense to pass the ball into the funnel).

Pass

Funnel

Funnel

Perimeter

Perimeter Triangle
Deny the ball the ability to penetrate the ALLEY and deny it the ability to go vertical. The perimeter triangle is made up of the MIKE backer and both defense ends. Their job is not to allow the offense to get into the alley unless they do it going away from the LOS and moving east-west. The first objective is to turn them away from the alley (squeeze) but if the runner does get by the end it must be on his outside shoulder as he gets more and more depth away from the LOS. This allows our MIKE, BSDE, and recovered PSDE along with the rest of the interior defense to pursue and funnel the runner towards the boundary driving him to go east-west while the passing triangle convets into run support to contain the runner over the top of the LOS and bar him from going north-south while the PSOLB provides immediate outside leverage over the top to not allow him vertical access to the endzone. This method is really used on any sort of perimeter play whether it is a sweep, a pass to the flat, or an option play. We do the same thing all the time; we force the ball to go east-west and deny it the ability to go north-south.

Pass Triangle
Made up of the two cornerbacks in inverted cover 2 playing off man at 8 to 10 yards and the MIKE backer set over the snapper at 6 to 8 yards. Pass triangle is based on Tampa Cover 2 Scheme. Meaning when the MIKE reads vertical pass or pass threat to the vertical middle of the field he drops to the deep middle turning the INVERTED COVER 2 into COVER 3. In the case of bootlegs and rollouts the MIKE will either attack downhill at the passer or given enough time to read flow will drop and flow into mid field/funnel coverage. The hybrid action of the MIKE makes this defense very hard to throw the three vertical and even four vertical against due to the nature of our zone coverage and the fact that we defend field & ball not a man.

The Funnel Is the Weak Spot!

In the Inverted Cover 2 (Tampa 2) the weak spot is the space outside of the defensive end and inside of the boundary (alley) on each side. Yes and no. Our focus is to stop the offense from getting the big play first and foremost. This is normally accomplished by the vertical pass or the perimeter play (the sweep/flat pass). We also allocate our interior six to filling all the interior gaps (A, B, C) on both sides as well and thus deny them the ability to attack us vertically on the interior and edge while we apply max pressure to their backfield using not only our interior six but our defensive ends. This limits what the offense can really do to us and where they can effectively attack us. They should not be able to throw the vertical pass, they should not be able to sweep on us or effectively attack the flat, and they should not be able to attack us in the interior or edge. What they can do is get the ball into the funnel via the perimeter pass or screen. If you look at the way the defense is designed we have a check and balance to allow us to account for this in our normal structure. First the defensive ends are really executing a rush and read technique that allows them to drop into coverage if they detect any sort of quick pass or screen to the perimeter. Thus acting as FLAT/HOOK robber coverage. Secondly all three defenders in the passing triangle are allowed to flow to the passers vision allowing them to play the ball and the field and not an individual player. More importantly if you look at the funnel once the ball is there we have defenders all around the ball creating a ring of tacklers that allow us to close in and kill the ball where it lands or press it to the sideline.

BCR: Bane of the Backside

Bootleg, counter, reverse! Backside defenders (DE, OLB, CB) must slow play flow to ensure they dont vacate their space and open the defense to a BCR. The rule is simple: check for flow coming your way in the backfield if you see none slow play to flow and confirm the ball on the other side of the field before you commit full speed. Pre-snap Red Flags for BCR:
WB on opposite side Offset FB on opposite side Split backs in backfield or three back alignment Slot, bunch, or trips receivers on opposite side

The defense is designed so that the front side does their job and stops the flow. Make sure the backside slows down and does their job as well and the defense will never give up a big play.

Personnel Group 1 Back 5

Mike: best defensive player with athletic ability to range from sideline to sideline and drop into vertical coverage. Must be aggressive/violent hitter that enjoys punishing ball carrier. Good leadership skills. Defensive End: disciplined, explosiveness off the ball, understands leverage/angles. Aggressive/violent hitter with good tackling skills. Hybrid OLB type so that he can drop into coverage on quick pass key and cover the flat verses an expanded edge on his side when called to. Tall players and/or players with size to match up to lead blockers and pullers. Cornerback: disciplined, athletic, fast, good hands, natural ball skills. Ability to take proper angles/leverage to the ball. Good tacklers in the open field. Can be smaller players as long as they meet the criteria above.

Personnel Group 2 Front 6

OLB: more athletic players of your F6 players. The better football player & athlete he is the more you can do with him. He should be a pretty good leader (stacks), and he should have decent quickness and aggressiveness. The better he is in zone and man coverage and the better he is at tackling the more you can do with him. DT: the more athletic of the two defensive linemen. Can be two types, small aggressive penetrators that are hard to block or big boys that can fill a gap and penetrate with power. In either case they must be able to compress the LOS. DG: the least athletic F6 player but follow the guidelines for tackles. Special note: if you have an elite defensive linemen dont be afraid to move him from DT to DG and even from stack to another to keep the offense guessing. Special Adjustment Player:
NT (Nose Tackle): elite defensive player that can either penetrate aggressively and quickly or fill a gap with power or BULL/2Gap and fill space on the LOS. MO (second MIKE): Same as the MIKE backer and often a ROVER type player.

Order of Need
63 Stack Mike Field Side DE Field Side CB Boundary Side DE Boundary Side CB OLB OLB DT DT DG DG 63 Stack and Red and Lava Mike Field Side DE Field Side CB OLB OLB Boundary Side DE Boundary Side CB DT DT DG DG

Mike Pre-Snap Calls

MADE PRE-SNAP EVERY PLAY: FIELD CALL: This is a call that is made immediately by the mike backer to indicate which side is the field side (wide side of the field or the most vulnerable). The FIELD SIDE CORNER and FIELD SIDE DEFENSIVE END should immediately swing to that side from the middle of the field as the boundary side swings over to the opposite side. If the offense is in the middle of the field then the FIELD side is the side opposite the teams sideline as we want our boundary players on our near sideline. MIKE has to make this call immediately. He should not hesitate to make this call so that the field and boundary players (DEs and CBs) can get in their right spots and wait for any additional tags or calls. SHIFT CALL: Our basic alignment has the interior defenders align against a 3:3 alignment, meaning there are at least 3 blockers on each side of the snapper. With unbalanced sets and the use of a wing on, backfield overload (Yale/beast) and nasty alignments we compensate for this by using a simple shift call. MIKE after making his FIELD call will count the number of blockers on the LOS on each side of the snapper. As long as there is 3:3 he doesnt need to make the call unless he sees a wing on, backfield overload, or a nasty split to the field side or the coaching staff from the side line makes an adjustment call. By calling SHIFT (RIGHT or LEFT) it tells the stacks to shift one man over to the side called (for a 4:2 alignment, wing on, backfield overload, or nasty alignment). If the MIKE calls DOUBLE SHIFT or even TRIPLE SHIFT he is saying to shift over twice or even three times (5:1 or a 6:0 alignment).

Basic Alignment of Interior

Interior Six; Penetrate and Locate the ball! The interior six defenders are made up of two guards, two tackles, and two outside line backers. One guard, one tackle, and one outside backer make up a stack of three defenders. The outside backer is the stack leader and will direct where the other two defenders in his stack go at the snap of the ball. In RED/CLOUD he has a OUTSIDE/AT/AWAY key. Defensive Guards: Will align head up over the first blocker on their side of the snapper. They will get into an aggressive three point stance that allows them to attack either the inside or outside gap of the man they are head up on. Defensive Tackle: Will align head up over the second blocker on their side of the snapper. They will get into an aggressive three point stance that allows them to attack either the inside or outside gap of the man they are head up on. Outside Backer: Will align one to three yards behind the defensive tackle in a balanced two point stance with the arms cocked by the hips. He should be on the balls of his feet and he should be in a solid hitting stance ready to move in any direction. He can offset to the outside slightly (no more than inside foot to outside heel of DT) if he needs to account for an offense that is perimeter heavy.

Basic Alignment of the Hourglass

Mike: aligns in a balanced two point stance and is 6 to 8 yards directly over the snapper. Reads flow/can set key to QB or FB or TB as needed). AT/AWAY KEY. Defensive End: aligns 2 to 3 yards outside from the Offensive EMLOS (OT, TE, WB). He is in a two point with the inside foot up and tilted so that he is facing the deep/near back (numbers, buckle, toes). If the TE or WB is taking a nasty split align inside of him if you cannot close the edge. Hunts the near/deep into the backfield. If flow away DE stays deep as deepest back and follows. Corner Back: aligns 8 to 10 yards of the ball. Face the near/deep back (numbers/buckle) facing inside. Reads QB to 1st receiver as he drops to determine pass, contain, cap. With a wide receiver he splits the difference between the WR and the near DE. If there is a slot or trips looks the CB splits the difference between the 1st and 2nd receiver. If there is no tight end he simply aligns four yards outside of the offensive EMLOS.

Base Calls
Stack: Max pressure! Red: Pressure with inside/out coverage. Spread (Red Spread): Red call with OLB moving outside of the DE into outside coverage using a LB drop and covering the perimeter area. Quarters: spread call with the OLB using a DB drop covering from the perimeter to the vertical seam. This is basically a cover 4 concept to play three and four vertical concepts. Zulu: spread call but the OLB is actually attacking the C gap (edge) inside of the DE force. This allows us to bring additional pressure from the edge when we know the slot is not a pass threat or the QB is not attacking that area.

Stack
Basic call Can be used for eight and below teams as it acts like a GAP 8 defense. Allows you to bring constant but random pressure to the interior and edge on both sides (A,B,C, and D (thanks to DE) gaps). The stack concept sets the basis for all other calls. Two stacks of three defenders. Each stack is lead by a OLB and has a DG and DT. Has four basic slant calls (IN, OUT, SPLIT, GAP). GAP call is also a auto call for an open side (no TE). DG and DT penetrate, locate the ball, and attack ball with hips square to the LOS.

Red
READING DEFENSE OLB stays aligned over the DT OLB becomes a reader instead of a blitzer/stunter OLB read is OUTSIDE/AT/AWAY DRAW/PASS OLB is the ALLEY DEFENDER for RUN OLB takes an outside read step (lateral read step) OLB will drop into zone coverage and to the depth of the QBs drop. He drops quickly and rotates to the QBs vision. Backside OLB slows his rotation to check for BCR Allows us move from GAP 8 pressure defense to a reading zone defense

Spread
Same as RED but in SPREAD the OLB will now split. Allows the OLB to expand out to zone coverage outside of the DE. On the call the OLB expands splitting the difference between the 2nd receiver from the outside and tilts in the same manner as the CB. Aligns to a depth of 2 to 4 yards His drop converts to a LB drop when he is outside of the DE. He reads the backfield READ RUN (OUTSIDE/AT/AWAY) to PASS/DRAW

QUARTERS
Same as RED but in QUARTERS the OLB will now split. Allows the OLB to expand out to zone coverage outside of the DE. On the call the OLB expands splitting the difference between the 2nd receiver from the outside and tilts in the same manner as the CB. Aligns to depth of 2 to 4 yards His drop converts to a DB drop in QUARTERS when he is outside of the DE. Meaning he takes a three step drop and if he has a pass threat he continues to drop. READ is PASS/DRAW OUTSIDE/AT/AWAY Like having a CB in SKY coverage on the SLOT receiver If there is no SLOT he is RED inside

ZULU
Same as RED but in ZULU the OLB will now split. Allows the OLB to blitz from the SPREAD/QUARTERS look attacking inside of the DE. On the call the OLB expands splitting the difference between the 2nd receiver from the outside and tilts in the same manner as the CB. Aligns to a depth of 2 to 4 yards but starts to squeeze inside near the LOS just before the snap. He attacks the near hip of the QB and attacks inside of the DEs force. MIKE calls the stack on that side. We can send MIKE into his assigned GAP by adding SHAKA to the call (SHAKA ZULU). This allows us to get the MIKE backer involved in the STACK blitz scheme and still use the OLB from an expanded look to bring overloaded pressure from the expanded side.

ZULU
Zulu Call Mike calls IN to STACK Shaka Zulu Call Mike calls OUT to STACK

Man Coverage Calls

Press called when we want to put our CBs and OLBs into press man coverage against their #1 and #2 receivers on each side. Depress called when we want to put our CBs and DEs into press man coverage against their #1 and #2 receiver on each side. Press call the near side DE will cover #3 out of the backfield. In the case of Trips/Bunch the MIKE will go into PRESS cover on the #3 if we call HOT. Otherwise we let the DE pick up the quick pass and if MIKE sees the QB mask to that side he will roll his coverage. Depress call the near side OLB will cover #3 out of the backfield in RED otherwise MIKE sees the QB mask to that side he will roll coverage. Mutant CBs stay in inverted cover two and DEs go into PRESS cover on the #1 receiver outside and the OLBs will cover the #2 receiver from the outside. Mike will have base coverage with a four man front.

PRESS CALL
Used when we need to go into press man coverage across the board against a passing team as a change up. It puts the corners into inside leverage press on the #1 receiver on his side. It puts the OLB into inside leverage press on the #2 receiver on his side. They dont mirror depth. They hug the LOS and mirror and they dont let the receiver release inside. Force him outside to the boundary, get on his inside hip, and run with him. MIKE will get a COVER 1 call telling him to go to 8 to 10 yards deep and take a 3 step drop and read QB mask. MIKE can stay base (6 to 8 yards and attack flow) or even get a blitz tag to go into a COVER 0 pressure look. You can call ZULU as well if you feel the defense will not throw to a certain slot receiver. If you want to really take a chance and you feel the SLOT is not a viable threat at all you can call PRESS-SHAKA ZULU (RIGHT/LEFT) If man goes in motion they stick with him.

PRESS

PRESS ZULU RIGHT

PRESS SHAKA ZULU RIGHT (Mike calls IN for right stack)

PRESS SHAKA ZULU RIGHT (Mike calls OUT for right stack)

DEPRESS CALL
Used when we need to go into press man coverage across the board against a passing team as a change up and we want to keep our OLBs inside. It puts the corners into inside leverage press on the #1 receiver on his side. It puts the DE into inside leverage press on the #2 receiver on his side. They dont mirror depth. They hug the LOS and mirror and they dont let the receiver release inside. Force him outside to the boundary, get on his inside hip, and run with him. MIKE will get a COVER 1 call telling him to go to 8 to 10 yards deep and take a 3 step drop and read QB mask. MIKE can stay base (6 to 8 yards and attack flow) or even get a blitz tag to go into a COVER 0 pressure look. OLB can be STACK or RED. If STACK they dont go AUTO GAP so you can play with the line using STACK calls. You can still call GAP (if you do the OLB switches to a DEEP/NEAR FORCE tech and not a QB FORCE tech. It allows you to vary the outside pressure and coverage in PRESS which can often confuse the reads of the QB. If man goes into motion they stick with him.

DEPRESS

MUTANT CALL
Used when we need to go into press man coverage across the board against a passing team as a change up and we want inverted cover 2 behind it due to good vertical receivers. It puts the DE into inside leverage press on the #1 receiver on his side. It puts the OLB into inside leverage press on the #2 receiver on his side. They dont mirror depth. They hug the LOS and mirror and they dont let the receiver release inside. Force him outside to the boundary, get on his inside hip, and run with him. MIKE will be in base coverage unless another call is made. MIKE can stay base (6 to 8 yards and attack flow) or even get a blitz tag to go into a COVER 0 (MICKEY/MOUSE) pressure look or a COVER 1 look (ROBBER) We can SKY our CBs still for quicker run support. MIKE makes a base STACK call for both sides. Often BULL but we can make all sorts of calls. If man goes into motion they stick with him. 5 man front so often this is a RUN read. SKY call the CBs to fool them.

MUTANT

Basic Training
The biggest question I often get is how do you get this defense installed and how long does it take.
My answer is it takes one practice to get the basic structure installed About three practices to get it working so that every player understands their role within the defense. I use a pretty simple group method to initially teach the defense so that every player has a basic understanding of how the entire thing works and why their job is so important.

I break it up into the front six and into a sweep and pass triangles and then combine them into the hourglass and explain how the two triangles support each other to make the defense work. Once I get this done we work on perfecting their basic stances, initial movements, and their role within the hourglass and the front six. Once we get that down we start refining their techniques and adding some additional calls and tags that enhance what we do. First and foremost we stress tackling, pursuit angles, and creating turnovers. These are basics of defensive football and without them any defense you teach is going to be worthless so you have to put an emphasis on these basic concepts throughout the season and especially at the beginning of the season. Fundamentals should be stressed throughout the entire season. A team that tackles, pursues, and create turnovers on defense gives their offense more possessions and increases the likelihood of your team scoring. We instill in our team and aggressive and violent demeanor. I want my kids to always make contact first as that resolves a lot of problems. This is a combat sport and kids need to have a warrior mentality of never quit, never back down, and always strike first and strike hard! We teach using a WHY and HOW METHOD. We explain a concept/technique, we walk it, we run it at half speed, and we run it at full speed. We constantly reinforce good habits and eliminate bad habits.

It is About Pressure!
This defense is all about pressure. In STACK we put it right in the face of the offense and challenge them to stop it. In RED we compress the line and bring pressure from the edges and read and respond to flow. In SPREAD we again compress the line and bring pressure from the edge and play our OLB in a flat/hook zone coverage. In Quarters we again compress the line and bring pressure from the edge and allow our OLB to play a DB drop. Basically allowing them to convert into COVER 4 using a slot SKY look. ZULU and the addition of SHAKA allows us to bring pressure while giving a SPREAD/QUARTERS look to keep passing teams (especially spread) on their toes and hold true to our pressure theme. Bringing our defense right back to the STACK concept we believe in with a nice twist.

Questions/Comments?