Defensive Coaches on Scouting and Offense

[coachg]

What are the primary things you look at when looking at how to stop an offense? As a DC what are the things you look at tendency wise? Any ideas on what we offensive guys can do to give your D guys a problem?

[cqmiller]

At the high school level, I would say that TENDENCIES are the #1 thing. A lot of high school coaches ALWAYS (seems like) go back to the same 2 or 3 plays in certain situations. So if you can get a defense that defends against those 2 or 3 plays simultaniously, then you can stop them in those key situations.

The second thing, I would say, is PERSONEL. Find a guy on their team that you believe CAN NOT beat you. Then make him try. If he can do it, then you just have to shake his hand, but usually they cannot, because they lean on the 1 or 2 good players they have too much.

[knight9299]

Self scout. You should know better than your opposing DC what you do on 1 and ten from the left hash in the center of the field.

[Deleted]

Against a shotgun team I will always study the QB to know when the ball will be snapped so I can time my blitzes and stems. A lot of QBs get into a routine as they wait for the snap. You'll see them start to flex their fist, bend at the waist, etc. about 1-2 seconds before the snap. I always try to find this.

I want to know when a team will run a screen. Because we blitz a ton I want to know when it is coming. We have only 1 team in our league that catches you offguard with it. The rest have pretty solid tendencies.

I want to know what they do on 3rd and medium when they're on a hash. That's a make or break down, some teams know that they'll get heat from the field side and I want to know if these guys will run or throw wide or try a flood route, etc. to the boundary. I need to know this info.

And always scout yourself. If it seems obvious to you then it has become obvious to me.

[bluboy]

I have a question for you guys. How do you break down down/distances? Do you "clump" any distances over 10 yds as a long distance? or do do you have a separate category for this? Do you incorporate field postion along with down and distance?
I am quite interested in seeing what other folks do in regard to down/distance situations.

[Deleted]

I do anything over 15 yards separately.

[bluboy]

I have another question. How do you break down the field? I use the following, but am looking for other ideas/suggestions. -1/-5, -6/-20, -21/50, +49/+20, +19/+5, +4/+1
How do you guys do it?