Coaching the 3-5-3 Defense Web Clinic with Pete Mutascio (March 26, 2013)

strongbatOn March 26, 2013 we hosted a great Web Clinic with Pete Mutascio, Head Football Coach for Cosby High School in Midlothian, Virginia. Coach Mutascio has had a lot of success with his 3-5-3 Defense over the last 6 years and he’s sharing it with us.

Coach Mutascio shares his base philosophy and reason for choosing to move to the 3-5-3 Defense over a decade ago. He then goes into the defensive alignment, line stunts, blitzes and coverages. Plus, as always, we have an extensive Question & Answer session at the end.

Unfortunately, the first portion of the Web Clinic did not get recorded. We’ll try to get that problem remedied, but for now the video recording picks up with the Defensive Line stunts. [Read more...]

Coaching Football’s 3-3-5 Defense Web Clinic (March 5, 2013)

335webclinicOn March 5, 2013 we held a free Web Clinic on the 3-3-5 Defense. We talked about the basics of the defense from start to finish including fronts, stunts, blitzes and coverages. The presentation itself is about 1 hour in length which includes a 10 minute video session.

Following our clinic presentations we have an Open Question & Answer session where we hit on a wide variety of topics.

All Web Clinic videos are available to our Football-Defense.com Members. If you would like to watch this Web Clinic, or any previous clinics, you can get a 7 Day Free Trial today.

During the Q&A Session, we answered over 25 member questions including the following topics:

  • Reads & Keys for Inside Linebackers
  • Defending Double Wing and other Power Run formations from the 3-3-5 Defense
  • Drills for coaching the Overhang Safety / Outside Linebackers
  • The best defenses for Youth and Middle School football coaches to use
  • …and a whole lot more!

Sign Me Up for a 7 Day Free Trial to watch this Web Clinic and all past clinics!

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Breaking the Stack: Defending Trips in the 3-3-5 Defense

In my Coaching the 3-3-5 Defense eBook, I talked about defending Trips and how to adjust to it. With a base Cover 3 behind us, I find defending Trips formations with a ¼ – ¼ – ½ principle to be the most effective coverage. But you may want to make some other adjustments.

When you run a balanced defense like the 3-3-5 or 3-5-3 Defense (which are the same defense), offenses will try to un-balance you. By being balanced, we mean that if you draw up your base defense and draw a line right down the middle of the Offensive Center, you’ll look the same on both sides.

How do they try to unbalance you? With unbalanced formations. That could mean a Tackle Over look, but more likely you’ll see formations like Twins and Trips. These formations force you to make a decision on whether to make no adjustment, break your stack, or move corners (or safeties) over.

Refusing to Break the Stack

If you make no adjustments in the 3-3-5 Defense, you are not in terrible shape. That can’t be said for all defenses. Assuming your Inside Linebackers can run a little bit, they can still handle the Hook-Curl area, while your Strong Safety coves the flats. The Corner and Free Safety are now playing Deep ¼’s on the Trips Side, while the Corner on the back side has a Deep ½ coverage, but only one vertical threat.

Your only decision left here is to either play man to man on the single receiver side, or play a zone coverage with the Weak Safety there to help underneath on the single receiver. In this interview on The Football Coaching Podcast, Pete Mutascio talked about bringing that Weak Safety off the edge against Trips formations.

Many coaches are very committed to not breaking the stack. I have done it both ways. As a Linebacker Coach, I like the fact that my Linebackers do not ever have to change their position and their view on reads and keys. In passing situations, we may loosen the Trips side Inside Linebacker 2-3 yards out to help, while keeping him in place on run downs.

Another way to play this is to use a Man coverage concept and bring the heat. You can either roll down the Free Safety to play man on one of the Trips receivers, and play a Cover 0 – or bring the Weak Safety over to play man on the inside receiver, while still playing a Cover 1.

Breaking the Stack

Your other option is to break the stack, meaning to get your Linebackers unstacked from the Defensive Linemen. You do not have to change gap responsibilities here. You simply need to think carefully about where you want players slanting and blitzing.

In this diagram we’re using a Weak Mike call, slanting away from the Trips and bringing the Mike Linebacker. Each Linebacker starts their alignment in a “PULL” Call, pulled out toward the Trips receivers.

This gives your Defense a 3-4 appearance. You are in a better position for a 4-on-3 numbers advantage to the Trips side. We’re still playing the same coverage, a ¼ – ¼ – ½ field coverage that fits nicely with all of the Cover 3 principles our players already know. To give you some added protection against the threat of 4 Verticals, you could use something similar to our Quarters Survivor call (TCU’s SOLO call), as well.

Want to learn more about the 3-3-5 Defense? Check out Coaching Football’s 3-3-5 Defense eBook. Or try a Free 7 Day Trial of Football-Defense.com for hundreds more coaching articles!

What’s the Difference? Part 3: 3-3-5 Defense vs. 3-5-3 Defense

As I’m working on finishing my newest eBook, on coaching the 3-5-3 Defense… er, 3-3-5 Defense… The question of what’s the difference came up.

Why did the question even come up? Because there is no REAL difference. I was just trying to decide which one to use for the title.

There is no serious difference between the 3-3, 3-5-3, Odd Stack or, truthfully the 5-3 Defense. The core of the defense does not change. This article could also be named, Disguising Coverages in Your Odd Stack Defense. But let’s look at the options that changing some personnel can give you.

Differences in Personnel

So you want to run a 3-5-3 Defense, but you want it to sound faster. Simple enough! Just change the name to the 3-3-5 Defense and voila! You have 5 DBs on the field instead of 3. It’s like an instant nickel package.

And that is the basic difference. By changing what you call the Outside Linebackers in your 3-5-3 Defense, you can change to a 3-3-5 Defense. Just start calling them Overhang Safeties.

For arguments sake though, lets just say you are truly using speedier personnel in your 3-3-5 Defense, compared to someone else’s bigger (and slower) Outside Linebackers. What options does that open up for you?

Knowing Your Options

By having more speed on the field at the Overhang Safety position, your 3-3-5 Defense opens up world of coverage possibilities. Defenses with legitimate speed can disguise coverage with pre-snap looks that teams using more traditional Outside Linebackers would risk being out of position with.20121121-203558.jpg

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Put the “Spurs” to ‘Em! Strong Side Blitz from the 3-3-5 Defense

This year we incorporated the 3-3-5 Defense into our Base 4-3 Defense as a change-up front. We used the front in some games more than others. It was used sparingly against I Formations and Dive Options, and more often against Spread Offense teams. But we used it in every game.

I’ll credit two football coaches with the addition. The first is Jerry Campbell and his manual, Combining the 3-3-5 with the 4-2-5 Defense. We do not do it the same way as Coach Campbell, but we use a lot of the same ideas.

The second is Shap Boyd, who I interviewed for The Football Coaching Podcast. Coach Boyd runs a similar Quarters Coverage and was able to incorporate the Stack Front without changing coverage behind it. [Read more...]