How to Run Multiple Fronts Without Changing Run Fits

We want to be able to marry the 4-3 Defense to an Odd Front this season and am looking at various options. In this video we explore the run fits between a 3-4 Defense and a 4-3 Defense without changing personnel or changing our basic fits.

Read more about the 4-3 Defense in Installing Football’s 4-3 Over Defensive Front eBook.I’d love to hear how you have married various fronts together without changing run fits or coverage teaching, so leave a comment!

Transcript of Running Multiple Fronts

Hi! My name is Joe Daniel. Welcome to FootballDefense.com. Today we’re going to be talking about Running Multiple Fronts and keeping the same Run fits from front to front. This is something that interested me. It is not something that I will be able to do but definitely something that interested me and seen other coaches do is run a number of different fronts out there without really changing too much for your kids. Just changing where they lined up and they don’t have to think a whole lot this far on how they’re going to finish the certain play because they understand the run fits. It is going to cause a lot of problems for your offense. Check the offensive line in terms of figuring out where to block, who to block, who’s going to be where. Are they going to have made different calls every play? If you can line up in 2 or 3 different fronts and really run them effectively. I don’t think that you can never expect to be great in every front if you’re going to run a lot of different fronts out there. What I’m talking about for running multiple fronts is not just running for example with the 4-3 who run over in an under front.

To me those are two different fronts but they don’t change matches for what our kids are doing. They still shade. What I’m looking at is for running a multiple fronts being overrun both “I” and “Even fronts” and not only that being able to run for example a 3-4 and even a 4-2-5 where I got a really good two high safety look maybe a pass package but then I’m also able to jump into a 4-2-5 when we got an 8-man front really good solid against the run. So, these are the things that we were looking at today. What we were looking at today is fitting just a simple inside zone play. Here we got the offense running inside zone to our right offense of running to the left and filling both out of the 3-4 defense and a 4-3 defense without changing our personnel scene and make those run fit the same. What we are looking at here with our 4-3 defense first of all is the run fits since we share into the gaps should be very simple. Our defense of End on the right is getting block two here. He’s going to lock on this guy. He’s going to hold his ground try to squeeze him back in there. We’re not going to back door zone block. We’re trying to squeeze him back in. We got our down to run foot to the Sam backer’s side here. He’s going to camp board now. He’s going to fade up his inside shoulder tight to that tackle he’s going to close that gap off. He’s not going to weight on the scale to get off to him. He is on the close down now he’s going to fade up and he’s going to handle this gap. Our tackle 3 technique and block two he’s slashing on to the sound defender so they can get to double team and overtake him and come off who are naturally the sound defender and just like your defense of end play it who wants to take with the inside out of the gap and handle right there. Our Mike backer covering here now filling up the gap take it all with his inside shoulder just like our Sam backer did. On the flow away here our Will backer is going to set. He’s not going to go running now. He’s going to counter shuffle. If you were zone read option heading to be responsible for that quarterback. In this case we got a kick out block coming by full back with our zone read we were on the shot gun we have trend of quarterback coming out. Our back side backer is being the one who’s able to comebacker to the top one. Nose guard fit as the same way as other defense of upfront up here. Taking that on his got a little tougher job. He was to set tight End to the center lots on blitz center and not letting front on the backer not let this guy overtake. We take hips to the hips. Just squeeze his hips and sees lapses on here just squeeze his hips and the pressure coming back from him just like you teach to split the double team there. The key is that he doesn’t let these guys in or overtake here and blocking by himself. We got this zone block here covering up working to our backer. We were going to ban to get underneath to kick out block. The defense of End was to come tight rolling on this kick out block to begin to end and he was to bend down to the line of scrimmage to play the cutback here. He is responsible for a cutback play there. If we got cutback used pick up we still got the Will backer to come back. So, that’s over to defend the inside zone out of 4-3. What’s going to be different are in the 3-4, will in our 3-4 we are going to slant on one direction to the other. In this case we slant strong if we slant weak here, if we were going to slant weak we will essentially have the same run fit upfront. We will be slanting this guy into the B gap same place to our tackle over here spent. Our Nose in to this weak A gap same place that our Nose stays there. We will be slanting him to the outside. That will make very simple and then these guys base will be going to the same spot where they end before. They will slant weak, these guys will work strong. So that’s the start with force. We’re going to slant strong here. As we slant strong this slants is going to take control this guy, control his C gap. We’re going to block two for the defense of End same as we do over here we’re going to attack hold our ground, he’s the Contain player in this case. We’re going to attack hold his ground hold that A gap as we get the downhill flow we got the gap responsibility. He’s attacking taking on the outside half of that guard with his inside shoulder not letting him get off to him. The guard is not sure whether he’s going to be working to overtake that tackle or have this backer. So that makes a different element here the one he had before where he knew 9% most of the time who got to have that tackle. Now he’s not sure who’s going to get it slow down the rates. For fitting up for the backer on the flow two who slants on the B gap control our B gap here. Back side inside backer flows going away from him he’s counter shuffling if he gets cut back you come down to fill it up. If he continues over here he’s going to scrape over find an open door or just let keep scraping until they find and gets to it. Now we got this guy if we really get the zone read look like what we talk before. Same guy is responsible now for the zone read look. We will a little bit different in that Nose responsible for the cutback. He does not fill as fast because this is the combination on his sides where the cutback will get fill it up now. These guys going to be responsible, again he gets the run-read he’s coming in the line of scrimmage get down there now defending on our coverage he may be the outside Contain player or may not be. He fill the quarters coverage here, we may ask somebody else to come down to help him out. So if he’s not the Contain player we would want him to fit underneath on that kick out block. Same of what we do in our End out here. So there’s one differences, if he is not the contain player he’s going to fit underneath. If he is the Contain player he’s going to fit outside. We would have our full on full safety out there. So these just two different ways of fitting it up both effective, both ways were going to handle this are going to be the same. For most of our players we just got a slight change for this backer here more than anything. I don’t think that you have to be great in slant I think you have to be good in playing on your shade. You don’t have be great in slanting here with your technique you just have to make sure that your guys can move and knock it wash and really just get to that shade technique the we had in the 4-3. This is some of what we talk about in FootballDefense.com of multiple fronts on ways to run on 3-4 and 4-3 together to be given like to be over work even more fronts together with the 4-2-5 and even in a smaller look bare fronts things of that nature as well. It is important to be all the metric coverage here with the different fronts so that’s other consideration as well. Hope you stop by at FootballDefense.com. Read over 200 hour we have there as well as download our free eBook “The Defense of Installation Manual” for as you headed your off seasons looking up create your defense for next year. Thanks for listening…have a great day!

The Complete Guide to Defending the Spread Offense


Every coach who has seen it has had nightmares. We lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about it. It may have been days, weeks, months, or years since it last happened.

The speed. The space. The missed tackles, blown assignments, chaos and confusion. The juggernaut your team just could not stop.That helpless feeling you had on the sidelines. It became the frustration you felt when you sat down to watch the film. Even today, when you look back on it… You are not sure if you will be ready when it comes back around.I’m not talking about a Spread Offense. I am talking about a team who gets athletes into space, athletes with blazing speed. Linemen who execute their blocks. A complete team, who can run and throw.

We aren’t just talking about a formation. We are talking about defending teams who have made spreading the field a philosophy, a lifestyle, a habit.Anyone can defend an average spread offense. Will your team be ready to defend a great spread offense? [Read more...]

Using the Alert Check in Quarters Coverage

We have spent a lot of time looking at the Quarters Coverage on this blog. I love this coverage for any 7-man front, like the 4-3 Defense or the 3-4 Defense.

The Alert Check is the coverage check we use in Quarters versus two receivers removed. We have to make some adjustments in order to handle the threat of two fast, vertical threats. This video details the check.

Learn more about this details of Quarters Coverage and other checks we use in this video.

Transcript of Using the Alert Check in Quarters Coverage

Hi! Welcome to Football-Defense.com. My name is Joe Daniel. Today we are going to take a look at the quarter’s coverage in the alert check.

The alert check in our quarter’s coverage is the check that really used in order to get our safety’s back off the ball. Alert means alert we have two fast guy’s out there, we have number one and number two receiver’s both from removes. So alert is something that we use from two receiver’s remove d in order to make sure we can handle these two fast guys.

Is going to give us three on two handily most two-pass guy’s out there, which is a great advantage for us. Alert is going to give us a soft cover two type of look if you are familiar with cover two football or we are going to be off not pressing the man or we are going to be funneling everything to this deep safety’s.

[Read more...]

Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz eBook

Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz eBook was made available to Football-Defense.com subscribers last week, and is now being introduced on the blog. I’ve sold a lot of them, and so far, nothing but positive feedback on the book! Thanks guys!

It has been 8 months in the making, but Football-Defense.com proudly announces that Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz eBook is available!I am really excited to offer this eBook to you. I have worked hard to create a short but comprehensive guide to using zone blitzes in your defensive package.Buy Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz eBook now!

This eBook is intended for coaches running any defensive front. It includes:

  • Why and when to run zone blitzes
  • Defensive Line, Linebacker and Secondary techniques for needed for running a complete zone blitz package
  • The advantages of running the zone blitz from the 4-3, 3-4, 3-5-3, 4-2-5 and 46 Defenses.
  • The basic types of zone blitzes including base blitzes, X blitzes, middle pressures, single edge and double edge pressures.
  • [Read more...]

Why You Can’t Run the 3-4 Defense

Take a look around for resources on the 3-4 Defense and tell me how it goes. The one question you guys send more often, one that I cannot answer, is “Do you know of any good resources on the 3-4?”

I do not. It seems no one else does, either. Stop by CoachHuey.com and visit the section on Books & Videos. For a site with 25,000 members, not one of them can seem to come up with a decent reference on the subject.I am ordering videos as we speak, and one of them has to be decent. You guys that really want to run a odd 7-man front, you will have your day. When that day is, who knows. For now, not many folks are talking.Championship Productions coaching videos has a few 3-4 videos. I have not heard good things about The Multiple 3-4 Defense for High School Football. Disappointing because of a very promising title. Dominating with the 3-4 Defense shows more hope. [Read more...]