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Kyle Ralph, Head Coach, New Palestine HS, IN

It is a segment of a content video from Glazier Drive: Coverage Concepts in the Red Rage 3-3-5 Defense

PRE-SNAP MOVEMENT AND DISGUISE

The defense uses its five defensive backs to show the quarterback many different pictures, especially against spread and RPO teams. Standing still lets the QB get the look he wants, so the coach has players move around before the snap to muddy those reads. Movement is earned, though. Players practice it to find their limits on specific plays, calls, and assignments. Anyone who can't execute loses the freedom and has to stand still. The dragon and buck are smaller, athletic linebacker-type players who are also expected to use that athleticism to move around.

COVERAGE PHILOSOPHY

• Cover 3 is the base, especially against run-heavy teams.
• Coverages should reflect what your players are good at. In 2017 the group was too young for man coverage, so they rarely played it. In 2018 the same group was older and more athletic, and man coverage made them better.
• Don't run a coverage just to say you run it. Doing so at the expense of the whole defense hurts you.
• Keep a couple of solid coverage checks that work against everything, layering problems for the offense rather than playing one coverage against one thing.
• Sometimes the game plan demands a specific coverage to stop a real problem, and that's acceptable. The coach's mantra is that execution is king.

COVER 2 (TAMPA 2 PRINCIPLE)

• The adjuster becomes the seventh man in the box, but this differs from the typical Tampa 2, where the Mike linebacker drops. Here the Mike stays on a hard run fill.
• Against the run, the adjuster attacks downhill and tracks the ball with his inside hip. The free safety comes in to fill, which gets the seventh defender down. The clip shows the play stopped at three yards.
• Against the pass, the adjuster takes two steps forward. The corners play soft to hard flat, and the dragon and buck bail to the deep halves. In the boot clip, both run with the boot, the defense breaks on the ball, and the pass is knocked down.
• Against 2x2 with a drop-back pass, the adjuster is a free player. His coaching point is to read the QB's eyes, open his hip to find what the QB is looking at, and take that route away. He doesn't have to be fooled by a look-off, since the zones are already covered.
• The idea is to take away half the field and force the QB to come back to a secondary read he probably wasn't looking at. High school QBs generally don't handle that well, and pressure should arrive by then.

COVER 3

• The standard stack alignment lends itself to Cover 3. The two corners and the adjuster play deep thirds.
• The dragon and buck play soft to hard flat. They don't cover grass just to say they're in the flat. If there's no flat route, they sink. If there is one, they work for width and depth to leverage it while protecting against the route behind their head.
• The goal is to force the QB to throw at three yards or less, which quarterbacks dislike.
• Against switch verticals or wheel routes, the flat player carries the wheel. That's the corner in Cover 2 and the dragon or buck in Cover 3. When a slot receiver converts to a wheel, the flat player passes off his route and takes the wheel.

CLIP: COVER 3 VS. SPLIT-FLOW ZONE RPO

• The offense runs a split-flow zone behind the line of scrimmage, reading the defense and dumping the ball to the wing coming back across. It works like a cheap boot or handoff, is popular, and is low risk.
• The adjuster recognizes it and screams "boot out," so the player goes for the jam.
• When the ball is thrown off, the player goes right back outside with good leverage, stretches the play, and gets a tackle for loss.
• The coach highlights communication and recognition as the keys against this popular RPO.

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR COACHES

• Earn the right to move: make pre-snap movement a privilege tied to assignment execution.
• Match coverages to your personnel's ability, not to an ideal scheme.
• Carry a few sound coverage checks rather than one coverage per one look.
• Teach the flat defenders to play the route, not the grass.
• Use eye discipline and half-field takeaways to exploit high school quarterbacks' limited progressions.
• Communication, such as the adjuster's "boot out" call, is what makes coverage work against RPOs.

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