Small school coaches

[coachdawhip]

What defense do you run at schools with 30 kids or less?

[poweriguy]

We ran a 5-3 defense. That's because we had one stud LB and two good tackles. Then we put speed at nose and ends. Also the majority of the schools we faced were running teams.3 wing-t,1flexbone,1 wishbone, 2 wing-I, 1 split back veer, and 2 pro set that ran 90% of the time.

Our DC did try running a 4-4, and we got eaten up, so back to the 5-3.

[jjkuenzel]

We run a 3-4 slanting and stunting defense. Almost always walk up one or two safeties and play with 8-9 in the box. We will blitz two linebackers virtually every down. Behind it we will usually play cover 3 or inverted 2. The teams we play against are pretty basic and vanilla. They just line up and say here we come. We play 5 Pro I teams, 1 split back pro, and 2 wing t. It works well for us because it allows us to get our best athletes on the field regardless of position.

[los]

They eventually settled on the 44 here, tried 353 (ran past too many ball carriers while stunting), tried the 53(couldn't find the 2 anchor ends). As the school gets more experience with football, I could really see them going back to the 33 stack, with the smaller players they have to work with. PS- I was gonna say smaller and quicker, but we'll just leave it at smaller lol! The average turnout for varsity football is 25-30 kids(9th thru 12th graders).

[groundchuck]

When I was at a smaller school we ran the 4-4 and 5-3. Those two defenses are pretty interchangable IMO. They are also pretty simple allowing us to teach kids more than one position.

[coachshs]

We are a base 5-3 and then line up in 4-4 about 15% of the time.

[gldnglv165]

We run a 4-3 Under/Over. Most of the other teams in our league run a 4-4, one team runs a 5-3, and one team we faced ran a 4-5 with no safety against us. Wierd looking defense, but we went 0-10 passing against them with 1 INT. Still not sure how they did that to us.

[mitch]

Base is 4-4. Do a little 4-3 and 3-4 vs. spread teams.

[tribepride]

We run the 3-3. Teams in our conference run 5-2, 4-4, 4-3

[knighter]

We run the 52 Eagle. Have had good success with it.

[Deleted]

We played 4-4 most of the year with 5-3 by the end of the season. With the exception of one game, we had much more success with the 5-3.

[jburch]

5-3. Any 8 man front is good. Have to stop the run to win.

[fbdoc]

We switched from a 5-2 to the 3-3-5 this year because we felt it was a better fit for our kids. Small school or big school, you can only put 11 kids on the field. Figure out what they can do, and then coach them up!

[coachnorm]

our base is a 4-4 but, to me, the key at a small school is to have a system that's flexible enough to adapt to varying talent and abilities from year to year and even (with injuries) week to week. That's why we use a call system that allows us to place nearly any player in the alignment we want and run multiple fronts out of our base defense.
To me you've got to be adaptible.

[groundchuck]

For you guys who run the 3-3/3-5 in the small school who coaches your spurs? I have read that some coaches say they really need thier own separate position coach b/c of the hybrid position they are. If you only have 3 coaches I would assume they work with the LB coach.

[tribepride]

groundchuck said:

For you guys who run the 3-3/3-5 in the small school who coaches your spurs? I have read that some coaches say they really need thier own separate position coach b/c of the hybrid position they are. If you only have 3 coaches I would assume they work with the LB coach.

We have four total. 1 DL 1 LB's 1 DB's the header (OC) with take the "Spurs" when we need them to work on different drills than the DB's (or he'll take the DB's and the DB coach takes the Spurs)

[bigcroz]

We run the 3-3 with only 3 coaches and my spur/bandit work with both the DB's and LB's. These are 2 of my better athletes and can handle the multi tasking. That being said I would prefer to have an extra coach to specifically work with the spur/bandit.

[groundchuck]

bigcroz said:

We run the 3-3 with only 3 coaches and my spur/bandit work with both the DB's and LB's. These are 2 of my better athletes and can handle the multi tasking. That being said I would prefer to have an extra coach to specifically work with the spur/bandit.

That is what I kind of figured with the spur/bandit/rover guys is that they have to be to of your best athletes...therefor they are better at handling the multitasking (at least from a physical standpoint.)

[fbdoc]

We send our spur/bandits with the group where we feel MOST of their game will be vs our opponent (we have 3 coaches) that week. Most of our district opponents are run oriented but they also get drill on pass defense, 7 on 7, etc.

[smurfturf]

I prefer the 4-2-5. It is easily adjustable to all types of offense, and simple terminology.

Kids learn the same thing no matter who you play. With just a word or two you can jump into a 5-2 look, 6-2 look, 4-4, or 4-3. Responsibilities don't change.

[dubber]

If you have 30 kids (like we do) in the whole program, it is best to have a simple defense that handles what you face. Usually, you only have a handful of play makers, so give them the most responsibility. Got a Stud D-lineman? Make him a two gap player. Shut-down corner? Put him man on the best WR.

Most importantly, make sure all can tackle and take good steps/angles-----a tendency at small school is to coach too much scheme and not enough fundamentals. You got only 20 minutes with a kid a day---make him a better tackler.


THink Jimmies and Joes, not X's and O's