The spread offense is one of the more popular trends in high school football, captivating audiences with high scoring at a fast pace.
Not so well known is this: What defenses are being used to stop or slow the spread? Everybody has an opinion, and we asked several metro football coaches for their secrets against the spread:
Corey Jarvis, Duluth: I believe the best way is to disguise coverages and have a good defensive front. I still believe the four-man front is good versus the running spread teams, but the three-man front is great against the passing teams because of the extra defensive back. ... We use one or two extra defensive backs. We make sure we use our better tacklers inside and our better coverage guys outside.
Cecil Flowe, Parkview: You have to pick times to apply pressure, or lay back and cover. ... Good spread teams have a zone-run game to force defenses to leave six people in the box to account for the five blockers and the lone running back. That leaves you with 5-on-5. If you gamble and cover five with six, your front five better be good. If they go empty [in the offensive backfield and send six out on pass patterns], the defense has the option to drop eight and rush three, but you have to account for the QB as runner. There is not one [standard] answer but to [force] an answer, you have to put pressure on the QB, play some man-to-man coverage, bracket their best receiver, and [disguise your coverages]. It is the toughest offense to defend against people who have good skill people and a QB that understands the deal.
Rodney Hackney, North Clayton: Our answer to the spread offenses is the 3-5-3 'attack' defense with three linemen, five LBs and three DBs. ... We believe that adding more LBs gives you the best chance of stopping the run and pass option that is presented by the spread. More linebackers provide bigger problems for the offense lineman in a spread offense because they can blitz or sit back and play the run or pass. Most spread offenses give you the illusion that they are passing the ball, but actually most 'successful' spread offenses have a 60-percent run vs. 40-percent pass ratio. So as a defensive coach, you better be able to stop the run if you are going stop the spread offense.
Mark Crews, Brookwood: I don't know that I'm an authority, but I think that you have to try to give them a lot of different things on defense. If you sit in one front or one coverage, they generally can find a scheme that will pick you apart. You have to change your fronts and coverages and alternate between zone blitzes and zone coverages to all out blitzes and man coverage. Football in many ways is about getting your best athletes the ball in space, and the spread is good about doing that. Just like the option, sometimes it's high risk, but defenders have to be spread out and put in 1-on-1 situations with their best athletes in space. Your guys have to be good enough to make those plays.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
