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Systematic Defense

 If there is one thing that I will always always always believe when it comes to the game of football, it is that systems are better than schemes. What I mean by that is that your defense should be flexible enough to mold to any offense that you face. The way that I have seen defenses become systematic, and the way that I have made my own defense systematic is through simple rules, simple concepts, and easy play-calls, all of these take the heavy thinking out of the sport for the kids. When we boil down sports, especially in high school, we have to remember that we are coaching angsty, hormone driven teenagers. We do not really have to outthink the opposing play-caller, we just have to get our angsty hormone driven teens to out play theirs. I say that jokingly, but really football at the high school level comes down to execution and skill. To me, the best way to maximize the talent you have on the field is to create simple rules that are universal and spell everything out for your athl
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Covid Coaching

 First things first, I am sorry there was such a huge gap in between this post and the last post. Like for many other people, things have been crazy. My excuse is I got married, started a new job, started coaching, and bought a house. Finally though, things seem to be calming down, at least in those senses. In other aspects, the world is as confusing as it's ever been. Teaching is remote, football practice is canceled, nobody really seems to know what is going on, and I think that is the most frustrating part of it all.  The first thing that I want to take a little time to reflect on is teaching during covid, especially teaching remotely. It is extremely difficult to teach to a computer screen. especially as a special educator. One of the most important things to build with your students is a relationship. That is really hard to do over a computer screen. These kids need to know that you care about them both as a student and a person. We have to look back to Maslow's hierarchy,
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Overload Pressures

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ith today's shift towards pass-centered spread offenses, if a defense wants to be successful it has to find ways to pressure the QB. This causes some problems for zone teams. If you have to bring a 6 man pressure (Out of a four-down defense) then you are sacrificing two of your underneath zones. Offenses can key on this and take what you give them. A way to counter this is an overload blitz. An overload blitz focuses on manipulating the O-line's blocking rules to try to get a free hitter through while only bringing a 5 man pressure. The first thing that I feel like we need to understand before running an overload blitz is the blocking scheme of the offensive line. The rules and style of pass protection can be different for every team. The blocking progression on pass pro in the way I taught it was inside-outside-over. In pass pro, if you have a man to the inside gap, you have to pick him up. If you have no man inside, you look to the outside to pick up a man or help. Lastly, if
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The 33 Stack

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Quarantine has definitely given time to experiment and learn about different styles of defense. One of the most interesting defenses to me is the 33 stack. What I like about it is the ability to bring multiple disguised blitzes and the two built-in overhang force players. Not having to worry about having one of your box players to be your force allows you to get creative in your fronts, stunts, and blitzes. I am not an expert on the 3-3, but I wanted to do some research and share some of my ideas. I think cover 1 and 0 pairs best with the 3-3 defense. I feel like this allows you to stay ultra-aggressive with your box players. I have diagramed how I would run cover 1 out of the 33 below. I love cover 1 because it combines the best of the zone, having at least one high safety, with the best of man, being able to walk up your DBs, and being aggressive with them. I also like the simplicity of cover 1, you know your assignment and there is no changing it, as opposed to other over-complicate
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Reflections on Student Teaching

It is hard to believe, but today would have been the last day of my student teaching semester. Of course, the semester was cut short and I was unable to finish in a traditional way because of the Corona Virus. There were a few things that I learned from the experience that goes beyond the classroom. The first thing that I learned is something that I already know but had it confirmed through working with my kids. Each kid that we teach and coach is completely unique. They come from different backgrounds. Some have advantages, while others have disadvantages. We have to be sensitive and understand that. We should stay away from a blanketed method when it comes to teaching our kids. Rather we should look to differentiate our lessons both in the classroom and on the field to best fit our students. Helping the majority of students through one approach is not the goal. The goal is to help all of our students and athletes learn, even if it means offering our instruction in multiple ways. The
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Coach Vygotsky's ZPD

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One of my favorite things I learned while getting my ed degree at West Virginia State was Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development, or ZPD, for short. The ZPD aims to explain an observable educational phenomenon. There is a limit to what a student can achieve at every level, every student is different. The ZPD sets out to help us understand that a student can only achieve so much without help. This level of understanding increases with the assistance of a teacher, but there are still things that a student can not yet achieve. The ZPD is crucial in the classroom because it helps the teacher create their curriculum, the ZPD is tied directly to motivation. If a task is too easy, the students are not learning anything, this is the first ring of the ZPD. In the same line of thinking, you do not want to give your students something that seems impossible. If a student feels like there is no way for them to be successful then they will likely shut down, wasting class time and hurting thei
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Simple multiplicity on defense

Imentioned in a previous post that the 4-3 is considered a stagnant defense. I disagree with that. I think there are several things that a defense can do, out of any scheme, to keep their defense dynamic. It is crucial that the defense is multiple so that the offense can not become comfortable and tee off on the defense.. I am a big supporter of the idea that the defense should dictate the tone of the game, not the offense. The defense should limit what the offense can do, not just absorb the punches. Multiplicity helps with this. While it is important to stay multiple, it is also important to not overload the kids. Keep things as simple as possible to allow your kids to play fast. Build your wrinkles, your tendency breakers, your multiplicity, into your base defense.  On the defensive line, I love stemming. I think stemming is one of the greatest equalizers upfront. The biggest thing that I try to remember is I do not have to fool the OC for the other team. I just have to fool his ath
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