Featured Coach Friday

I realize that today is Tuesday but I saw this "Featured Friday" trick on a colleague's blog and wanted to adopt it. So on Fridays from now on I would like to review the techniques and theories of great coaches of our time.

3-4 vs. 4-3

After last week's post I decided to look further into the 3-4 defense and it's different advantages. The most promenant is that of having more agility on the feild. The fact is, the more players you take off of the line of scrimage and drop into the secondary the better off you will be against the pass. When you look at the way today's College and Professional offenses are moving its not a bad idea. On the other hand when coaching at the high school level there is still a high percentage of run plays inside the tackles which could be defended better with a 4-3. In the end either strategy can adapt and cover most situations. It comes down to your defensive coordinator being able to call the right plays at the right times.

Whether a 3-4 or 4-3 defense is better is all relative. Look at your roster and see if you have enough linbackers to pull a 3-4, if lineman are your strong point then focus on a 4-3. It never hurts to have another strategy in the bag so keep them both in mind.

For a simple 3-4 tutorial try this link "http://www.milehighreport.com/2008/5/7/481970/mhr-university-modern-3-4"

D-Ends Continued

I was reflecting on my previous post and the importance of athletic d-ends when my wife (Best Assistant Coach there is!) reminded me of a monumental play in NFL history.

In the closing seconds of the first half of Super Bowl XLIII James Harrison(6'0", 242lbs) doused the Cardinals sure hopes of scoring from the 2 yd line when he intercepted a pass and took it 100 yards for a touchdown resulting in the longest play in Superbowl History. Needless to say it had some impact on the outcome of the game.

Now James Harrison is technically not a Defensive end because the Steelers run a 3-4 defense but when you draw it up on a chalk board in x's and o's Harrison occupies the same spot that a d-end would. In my opinion that's beside the point, the point is that his athletisism allowed the Steelers to drop Harrison into pass coverage while rushing 7 other players which resulted in the most pivotal play in Superbowl history.


Once again my point is to put your athletic players to good use in the D-end position.

If you want to read more about the Steelers defensive scheme I would recommend this link : http://steelerstoday.com/?tag=james-harrison