Many coaches, in this day and age of sophisticated offenses, are designing their scheme to spread the field, get the ball to their best play makers, and neutralize the effect of playing against bigger, faster, stronger athletes. Two coaches that recently completed coaching instructional DVDs for American Football Monthly specifically designed their offense to offset the play of ‘better’ athletes.

Kurt Bryan, head coach at Piedmont High School (CA), helped create the A-11 offense where all 11 players are potentially eligible on a specific play. “We created this offense originally to spread the field and give our players a better chance against the faster and stronger athletes we face on a regular basis.” Mike Lee, the Head Coach at Andover High School (KS) had the same intent with his offense. “Our Red’s Wing offense was developed to give our average size linemen the best opportunity to block opponents that were bigger and faster. This is done by misdirection, creating mismatches, leveraging the defense and angle blocking.”

That can work well for an offense. But what can be done on defense? How can you give an edge – any kind of edge – to a distinctly undersized defense? Arcata High School (CA) Assistant Coach Steve De Marino has some definitive thoughts on the subject and his article – ‘Adjusting the High School 4-3 Defense Around Personnel Limitations’– appears in this issue of GS.

“You have to be flexible because so many schools are not able to start 225 to 250 pound defensive linemen,” says De Marino. “You’ve got to have athletes that can read plays well, continuously mix up stunts and twists and nose guard loops but never sit still. If the offense doesn’t know what to expect because of being unpredictable, you’ve got an edge. You’ve also got to continuously be more aggressive.

“Two years ago our DC recycled a great idea in using some unconventional players at defensive tackle. He used two tough back-up corners as D-Linemen on third down situations. Both guys were around 5’-6” and 150 pounds with gear on but their quickness served them well. Many times these two players were in the backfield before the opposing line had even fully come out of their stance. Our opponents’ then began to change their stances, counts and protections to account for our quickness off the line. Often they would then double team our smaller tackles which allowed our linebackers unblocked shots at opposing quarterbacks.’” Using back-up skill players in unusual roles may make a difference.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Gridiron Strategies.

Respectfully,

Rex Lardner
rlardner@lcclark.com