At Woodrow Wilson High School, we are a field defense first and foremost. We will attack our opponents by either angling our front to the field and/or to the boundary. We know from many years of research that the vast mass majority of high school offenses operate from or near a hash.
That presents us with a dilemma as to how to attack our opponent’s offense when we are directly in the middle of the field. We will still use our bench/field calls and their rules. However, we have also implemented two very effective blitzes. We have numerous ways of attacking from the midfield, but we must take a look at our basic philosophy on how we want to attack our opponent.
• We want to give the offense the same look and provide numerous ways of attacking the offense. Therefore, we avoid giving the offense a pre-snap read and attack at the last moment.
• We want to give the QB the same secondary look but have the ability to be in several coverages.
• We want the ability to have 7, 8 or 9 in the box at all times.
Our first stunt is called Demon (See Diagram 1).
Diagram 1
The field-end/OLB will stunt from the outside with contain and flair control responsibilities. The field tackle will pinch to the B gap.The nose will bull the center and protect the A gaps. The bench tackle will pinch the B gap. The bench end/OLB will stunt from the outside with contain and flair control responsibilities. Also, the following techniques will be used:
• Our ends/OLB will use the creep technique in the movement from covering the first inside receiver.
• We use a prowl technique in the movement from the 2-deep shell in replacement of the ends/OLB creeping into a blitz from the outside.
• We want to time this at the last possible second to catch our opponent in their play call and force them to “freeze” the call and audible to another call.
The inside linebackers will read their normal keys and fill backside A and read the red C to the open side. If C gap opens, we attempt to fill it. If the C gap is closed, we scrap to the outside. Their specific pass responsibilities are the RB out of the backfield in cover 0.
The secondary will rotate to a cover 0 responsibility and will man up. By using prowl and creep techniques by the safeties and our ends/OLBs, we will have an outside-in attack from both sides. It is important that the prowl gets in place on time or the defense will receive bubble screens from all directions. It is also important to note that the blitzes from the outside have full contain responsibility since we are in cover 0.
N – He will align head up on the center and is responsible for the A gaps.
FT – He will align head up over the OT and will pinch into the B gap. He is responsible for the B gap on the way to the ball.
BT – He will align over the OT and is responsible for the B gap on the way to the ball.
FE – He will align over #2. He uses the prowl movement to move into the stunt from the outside. He ends the prowl movement where he would normally align.
FB – The Field Inside Linebacker will align over the OG and that is his read. He has playside and backside C gap responsibility.
B – The Boundary Linebacker has the same responsibility as the Field Linebacker.
BE – The Boundary End has the same responsibility as the field end.
FC/BC – Both corners will align over the #1 receiver and have man cover.
FS – The Field Safety will align over the #2 receiver at 12 yards and will use the creep movement to end up over the #2 receiver.
BS – The Boundary Safety has the same responsibility as the Field Safety.
The second stunt we like to execute from the middle of the field is called ‘Joker.’ This is another blitz from the outside in and it will be by the weakside defensive end and strongside inside LB. Once again, the blitzes from the outside have contain and flair control responsibilities (See Diagram 2).
Diagram 2
The strong OLB will have man on the #2 receiver if in cover #1 or flats responsibility in cover #3. The strong ILB will sneak over and attack from the outside C gap. He will have flair control and contain responsibilities. The strong tackle will pinch the inside B gap and the nose will bull rush the center and defend the A gaps. The weakside tackle will pinch inside the B gap while the weakside end/OLB will creep from the outside in having contain and flair control responsibilities. The safety will notice the weakside end creeping into a blitz and will prowl up as the replacement of the end/OLB and perform the coverage call. The backside safety will rotate to a deep middle 1/3. The corners will have to know what the call is and what their responsibilities are.
N – Will align on the center and is responsible for the A gaps.
FT – He will align head on the OT and is responsible for the B gap on the way to the ball, pinching into the B gap.
BT – He will align head up on the OT and is responsible for the B gap on the way to the ball, pinching into the B gap.
FE – The Field End is the open end and will prowl into his normal position and blitz. He has contain and flair control on the way to the ball.
F – The Field ILB has fill responsibilities to the A gap and then scrapes into the C gap. He aligns over the center but will back out of the backfield if the play is a pass.
B – The Boundary ILB prowls to where the end is aligned and blitzes from the outside, having contain and control responsibilities.
BE – He will align over the #2 receiver and have man coverage.
FC/BC – Both will align over the #1 receiver and have man coverage.
FS – The Free Safety will creep into position to replace the prowl of the FE and play man coverage on the #2 receiver.
BS – The Boundary Safety will creep into a deep third position and play middle coverage. He will align at 10 yards over the #2 receiver.
Joker is a simple zone blitz that allows the defense to stay in zone if we add the OLB in the blitz. We have several zone blitzes but this is one of our most effective and easiest zone blitzes in our package.
By disguising our defense, it gives us the ability to attack in every possible way without declaring any specific look and gives our defense the advantage. We have many different ways of attacking the offense but only give one look!
About the author: John Lilly is the head coach at Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, WV. He has been a head coach for 22 years at three different schools and during that time he has been named Coach of the Year a total of six times.