If you've decided to simplify your defense with a spot drop coverage, you're probably looking at how to play cover 3 vs 4 verticals. Coaches are realizing the value of the spot drop cover 3's simplicity but offensive coaches are licking their chops to attack it, too.
This week's episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic looks at key points for coaching the deep third defenders. From the basics of Cover 3 alignment and the zone turn, to the much more difficult question of how to stop those 4 vertical attacks.
Critical Free Safety Coaching Points for Cover 3 vs 4 Verticals
The Free Safety is by far the most critical part of how your defense will handle 4 verticals with any 1-high safety coverage. He's got to be patient and stay centered or the Quarterback will take advantage when he picks a side. Most QBs are taught to look off the Free Safety to attack the seams.
Along with staying in his peddle and not getting drawn to a side early, he needs to also key the Quarterback to see the ball come out of his hand. Good Free Safeties need to cover from hash to hash to give your Cover 3 maximum effectiveness against 4 verticals.
Couple that importance with his critical role as the alley defender in your run fits. Your Free Safety should always be the best athlete on the football team. One thing that's remained consistent is that the quality of the Free Safety will dictate just how good your defense can be. You can't hide this guy.
Coaching Cover 3 Cornerbacks
High School coaches usually try to hide a guy at Corner. They aren't directly involved in your run fits, so they don't need to be a great tackler. And he's the farther defender away from the Quarterback, so the throws tend to be lower percentage. Even in routes on air drills.
To maximize the ability of the cornerback, and get any real help from your Cover 3 vs. 4 verticals, you've got to keep his coaching simple. The ASKA for Cornerbacks is detailed but not complicated.
Corners always want to force the Quarterback to throw outside of them. Because it's a longer throw, he's got plenty of time to react and squeeze the go route. He's also got sideline help to the outside. If he can force the Quarterback to overthrow the ball or throw it too far outside, it's an incompletion every time.
Listen to this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic to find out the extremely important coaching point I learned from a Kirby Smart clinic talk about a decade ago. It's the most important teaching point for corners in Cover 3 vs 4 verticals that I've heard.
Do you have a question for the JDFB Quick Clinic? Send your questions by email to joe@joedanielfootball.com or message me on Twitter @footballinfo.
When you see that big time coordinator on the sidelines covering his face with that football play call sheet, it's pretty exciting. You think that's just what a football coach is supposed to look like. What you need to have in your hand on game day to be official.
This week's JDFB Quick Clinic takes a look at those offensive and defensive call sheets. What needs to be on your call sheet? And do you even need one in your hands?
Do You Need a Football Play Call Sheet?
Before you start downloading templates and filling out every call in your playbook, take some time to consider if you even need a play call sheet. If you can't remember your play calls, do you have too much?
The Coach Simple, Play Fast, Win philosophy does not rely on a big playbook. You aren't trying to win a chess match. You're putting the faith in your athletes to execute on the field on game day. You keep the play calls simple so that your players are confident in what they're being asked to do, so that they can play at a high level on game day. The play calls aren't the secret sauce.
But, you probably do need a call sheet. Especially at first. When you start using a new coaching system, it can be hard to keep it all straight in your head. Even if the calls are simple. And if you're going to be using wrist bands for your calls, you might need a play call sheet just as a reference to those calls on the wrist band.
What Needs to Be on Your Call Sheet?
You've made the decision. At least for starters, you need to have a call sheet in your hand on the sidelines. Who knows how long you'll need it. There's a good chance you won't look at it much after the 1st Quarter. At least, not for actual play call advice. It's nice to have if you just freeze up in that regard but you'll find you get into the flow of the game most of the time.
Play call sheets are simple, You can google up football play call sheets and find plenty of templates. I've used a few as a foundation, but eventually they evolve into what I really need. The few call sheets I've made in recent years start as a very, very basic Excel spreadsheet.
In this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, I'll go into exactly what goes on that spreadsheet at the start. Then we'll look at how that spreadsheet evolves over time.
By the way, if you're going to be a football coach for long, you probably need to get pretty good with spreadsheets. They're a great tool for making everything from call sheets, to practice plans and equipment inventory.
There's a special challenge for linebackers in defending jet sweep motion. When they see it, they forget everything they've been taught and start chasing the shiny object. The Jet Sweep run play is a lot more dangerous because of what it does to your defenders, than it is as an actual yardage gainer.
This week's JDFB Quick Clinic focuses on how to adjust to Jet Sweep motion. It doesn't matter what defensive front you're running, because your defensive front shouldn't be the ones trying to stop the jet sweep. This is more about your coverage.
Threats from Jet Sweep Motion
There are more threats from the jet sweep motion than just the jet sweep itself. Your plan for defending the motion starts with knowing the biggest threats it creates for your defense.
Along with the jet sweep, you need to be ready for plays that can attack your defensive front. Those include the Jet Read variation of Power Read, and any inside run game where the jet sweep motion is just being used as window dressing.
You'll also need to be ready for passing concepts that use the flat route that is usually run by the sweeper. Concepts like Curl-Flat, Slant-Arrow or any number of 3x1 passing concepts will threaten your coverage. And there's always the possibility of an RPO to the sweeper if your force defender loses his leverage.
How to Adjust Your Defense
The adjustments for defending jet sweep motion all start with an understanding of run fits. You need to know how the umbrella works. Check out my article on Umbrella Principle run fits to learn the simplest way to get your players to understand their role in stopping the run.
Spill defenders under the umbrella must stay focused on their key reads. Nothing about the jet sweep will hurt you as bad as having linebackers and defensive ends jumping outside at the sight of motion. Then you're trying to stop Inside Zone with 4 or 5 spill defenders left.
The jet sweep is handled by your force defender and the alley defender. They need to be ready to shut it down.
Start with your force defender. Pull the alignment lever to get him wide enough to stop the sweep. Don't forget that he'll need to maintain that width in case of RPO's to the sweeper after the initial mesh.
You can also roll an alley defender over. When moving from double formations to Trips with the jet sweep, I always want to 'Check Roll' to a 1/4, 1/4, 1/2 coverage. That way you get your alley defender in better position to come down and help out on the play.
For all the details on how to defend jet sweep motion, check out this week's podcast below!
Get the best Offensive Line Drills so you get the best performance out of your Offensive Linemen. Your practice time is too limited to run hundreds of different drills. What drills should actually run?
Over the past couple years, since turning to the 90 Minute Practice Plan, I've had to really examine just which Offensive Line drills were worth what little practice time we had to work.
80/20 for Offensive Line Drills
Enter the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 Rule. Just in case you don't already know it, the Pareto Principle says that 20% of the work you put in produces 80% of the results. That's critical for football coaches to understand. Out of all those cool drills and gimmicks you see at clinics and in catalogs, only 20% are really worth doing.
This episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic looks at applying the Pareto Principle to your Offensive Line Drills. I always hear coaches complaining about how little individual time they have to work with their guys. Or just practice time in general. You're probably better off trying to work within those limitations - as long as you know what to run. This episode helps you figure that out.
Offensive Line Drills to Make Sure You Never Miss a Block
We take a look at what really matters for your Offensive Linemen to make the block. It's all about the first two steps. Not how quick they are, or how long or short they are. In fact, what matters is the angle. Take the right first two steps, with the right angle, and you never miss a block. Of course, if you make him hold that block too long, he might get his tail whipped. That comes down to play design and execution by the skill guys. But he won't miss the block.
Spend over half your Offensive Line drill time on the first two steps. I'll share some simple drill concepts that you can use in your Offensive Line individual periods to get this done. They don't require any contact, either. Do you have a couple of veteran leaders on your Offensive Line? Then let them run these drills in pre-practice or during the off-season.
Spend the rest of your drill time actually blocking someone. But we do a lot of 'Pro Wrestling' in those drills, too. That means there's a pre-determined winner. But it should look very real. These are 1 on 1 drills and 2 on 2 combo blocks for your zone game. Throw in some Pass Protection 1 on 1 and you've got a complete practice.
Waste Less Practice Time
The only other step you'll need is getting your guys to finish blocks. It involves a simple drill you can work for a couple of minutes during special teams... and a chicken sandwich. The true difference maker.
Use the player below to listen to Episode 220 of the JDFB Quick Clinic to hear all about building your Offensive Line practice around these drills and creating better blocking with less wasted hours on the practice field. Then your guys will have more energy for the long season ahead!
Hudl and other video analysis tools are a powerful tool for football coaches. Not only can you can quickly share film with your next opponent, your entire staff and all of your players. But you can get a ton of data when you tag your film properly.
The problem a lot of coaches run into is figuring out what to tag to actually get a real result. They might tag everything under the sun, or nothing at all. In this episode, I’ll share what I tag on a game film or exchange film - and what order we’ll do it in, based on time available.
You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
This week’s question for the JDFB Quick Clinic is about the spill technique in the Miami 4-3 Defense, but it’s about more than that. This is about the importance of consistent teaching.
And it’s about myths and misconceptions in coaching. The idea that one defense works for this type of player, or one style works for another set of athletes - and you should jump around to find them. This episode is about building your defense on core principles, not a playbook or something you heard at a clinic.
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
If you want to run zone blitzes, you need to commit the time to execute. America’s Fire Zone is a great zone blitz, one of the most popular overloads you can run. But you can get yourself in trouble in a hurry.
The Long Stick technique is critical. This is how we get the defensive end to control A gap if he’s needed there - and how to get him in on the play when he’s not.
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Lots of coaches have tried lots of different reads for linebackers over time. We’re all looking for that perfect answer so that no matter what happens, we can tell our linebackers that if they just read their key they’ll always be right.
That leads to a lot of over-complicated key reads. And the 33 Stack Defense is no different. In today’s episode we’ll talk about the options you have for teaching key reads to your 3-3-5 Defense or 3-5-3 Defense Linebackers, including how to get the Mike Linebacker the cleanest read.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
This is the final mailbag episode for a while, since we’ve caught up to 2020 finally! And there’s a few good ones in here. Even if we touch on them a lot.
You’ll find out the most important aspects of turning around a losing culture on your football team. It’s not as complicated as many folks make it sound. Plus get the answer to whether you should run the 4-3 Defense or the 4-2-5 Defense. Or at least some help making the decision.
This was a response to a listener questions sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Any Offensive System that is worth its salt is able to utilize the best athletes on the field. If that’s not the case, you don’t have a System. Because you’re going to have to completely change the offense for a special athlete one day.
In the Pistol Power Offense System, we have multiple ways to utilize athletes all over the field. Today’s question is about using the Quarterback in your run game in a System that is not on the surface designed to do that.
Find out how easy it is to adapt and utilize the best player on the field with multiple ways to get your Quarterback involved in the run game.
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
This was a great question from a listener in response to an email I sent out last week. Like many of you, I’ve been watching a lot of old football… because there’s no new football.
And those old school fullbacks got me thinking. What a great position! Lots of I-Formation running plays, and the Iso run play is one of the favorites. But the blocking… is it safe? Can we run this downhill attacking play, and still keep our players safe?
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
The Miami 4-3 Defense has been around since the early 1980s. One of it’s most impressive qualities is the versatility in adapting to the evolution of offensive football over the last 4 decades.
But that’s caused a little bit of a change in where you place your 4-3 Defense Linebackers to put them in the best position.
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about where to play your best linebacker. Then we’ll look at the qualities of your other two positions to look for so your Miami 4-3 Defense maximizes the talents of your linebackers.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
I’ve heard this question a lot - so today’s episode is not a response to one particular question. It’s a response to a lot of questions from a lot of places, and related to the pandemic that is affecting all of our lives right now.
How long does a High School football team actually need to get ready? I’ll share my thoughts on it here (and it’s not long). But football coaches are going to have to be prepared to get your team ready in that time.
Send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Usually when we do a mailbag show, it’s just a huge collection of stuff that wasn’t enough for a full episode from my Twitter DM’s. Not this time.
This time it’s 4 questions from an email I sent out, hitting a little bit of everything. Here’s the topics…
These were a responses to listener questions sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic question is a great one. It’s about running counters off the Jet Sweep motion. Probably my favorite reason to even put the Jet Sweep in the playbook.
In the Pistol Power Offense System, Jet Sweep is a fairly cheap play to install. You just use the same blocking as our basic stretch play. But it can have big advantages if you’re using the ‘counters’ we talk about in this episode. Jet Sweep make great window dressing!
This was a response to a listener question sent by Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Football is a weird game. There’s tons of terminology, and none of it is universal. So to a coach just starting out, it can be a very confusing world.
Today’s JDFB Quick Clinic tries to explain one of those terms. “Defense is played flat down the line” is a phrase one of our listeners is hearing, and he’d like a little clarity on what it means. So I’ll do my best.
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
The Mailbag episodes have become a tradition. Not because they need to happen a lot. More because these are questions I never thought we could do a full episode on - then find out we could’ve done a full episode on half of them. Or more.
We start off with a deep dive into why your scout team sucks. And the benefits of scout team wristbands.
Then it’s on to how to prepare yourself as a coach during the off-season. Old coach or new coach. Regular off-season or… whatever this 2020 off-season is (definitely not regular).
This was a response to a listener questions sent on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Bunch formations are a great way to stress a defense by creating a condensed look for the defense. This week’s JDFB Quick Clinic question is about how you can shut ‘em down.
We’re looking at a condensed bunch formation for this one, plus an adjustment to an unbalanced set. I’ll look at using both even and odd fronts.
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s the saying. And if that’s true about the old dogs on your coaching staff, you might be in for a long season.
This week’s Quick Clinic question comes from a coach who was just promoted to Defensive Coordinator. He has a very experienced coaching staff, way beyond his own years, but he’s still got to get them ready to coach the new systems in season. How do you get it done?
This was a response to a listener question sent by twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Great questions this week about the 4-2-5 Defense. It’s a two-part question too, so you’ll even get some bonus content.
The first question is about running Cover 2 coverage and being forced to make adjustments on the weak side. There’s a reason it doesn’t work, and you’ll find that out in this episode. Then we’ll talk a little Option and Iso, and where that can fall apart too.
This was a response to a listener question sent by email. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Great question for this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic. What do you do when you’re asked to coach a position that you know very little about?
It’s good for coaches to learn all facets of the game. If you want to be a coordinator or head coach one day, you should understand every position on the field. But how do you learn? How do you jump into that new position and do a great job for your team?
Today’s question comes from Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Time to get back to the mailbag for questions that aren’t quite in-depth enough for a full episode. These go all the way back to January 2019, and there’s some good questions!
We’ll talk about defending the Wing-T with the Under Front. And how to get to an under front in the 4-2-5 Defense. Plus a look at setting the strength of your backfield, and more.
You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
A few months back on a podcast with Ron McKie, we talked about some out-of-the-box ideas for fundraising in our episode on leveling up your football team’s off-season. One that I’ve been getting a lot of questions about was the email fundraiser.
On this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic, I’ll talk about the basics. The shell of the plan. It’s not the ‘holding your hand’ step-by-step guide. But if you have the motivation to put it together, you can get a start with this episode.
You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Great question on this week’s JDFB Quick Clinic, and one I hear a lot. You’ve put your time in at the Youth, Middle School, Freshman or JV levels… now you’re moving up. Moving up to the Varsity team.
And there’s some nerves. Some concern about whether you are really ‘ready’ for it. Or at least, you don’t know what to expect. How different will it be with the big kids?
Not that different. In fact, the more you treat your guys the same… the better it should go.
This question was sent in on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.
Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. Kenny Rogers was right. Or The Gambler. Someone knew what they were talking about. Knowing when to walk away is tough.
How do you know you’re on the wrong staff, or in the wrong situation? When is it time to start looking for your next job? And where do the players figure into all this?
Tough question. I’ll try to answer it on this episode of the JDFB Quick Clinic.
This question was sent in on Twitter. You can send in your questions for the JDFB Quick Clinic by messaging me on Twitter @footballinfo or sending an email to me at joe@joedanielfootball.com.