In my first year as a defensive coordinator, we ran football’s Odd Stack defense, or 3-5-3 (or 3-3-5, it doesn’t matter, they’re all the same). The year before that I had implemented it on the JV level. To be honest, as much fun as it was, we ultimately did not meet with success. I think it was not the fault of the defense, but the fault more of poor fundamentals and a poor understanding of how to call the defense on my part. The Odd Stack Defense is advantageous for a number of reasons, but in the hands of the wrong person, it is just plain silly.

So where did I go wrong in running the Odd Stack Defense? I think the first thing is not realizing that systems are no substitute for fundamentals. You know that you have to be a good fundamental team, and I do too. But sometimes we get caught up in X’s and O’s and forget that all of the napkins in the world won’t equal success if we don’t become better tacklers, with better feet and better reactions. Systems can’t fix fundamental flaws. I still did not have a complete grasp of it, when I changed away from the 3-5-3 to the 4-3 Defense. To be honest, the concept will slip my mind again and again throughout my career, probably weekly and even daily. Why? You can play with systems all day long, while you cannot correct fundamental problems but for a few hours a week (especially in April, since there is no Spring Practice in Virginia!). But we must take care of the fundamentals, and not rely on 200 different blitzes to take care of our problems.

How do we take advantage of the Odd Stack Defense? We do it by building good, fundamentally sound players, and using a limited number of stunts that are used for a reason. Use stunts in the Odd Stack Defense to create a new front and put your players in the best position to use their football ability to defeat the offense. We should not be trying to get a free-rushing blitzer. We are relying on a mistake by the offense if that is goal, rather than relying on our fundamentally sound ability to play defensive football.

Using the Odd Stack, we can create multiple fronts. Without having to change anything up, we have the ability to show a team the 4-3 Over, the 4-3 Under (or 5-2!), the 5-3 Defense or the Split 6. We can create a Bear Front, the Junkyard Dawg (if we can remember what it looks like!), or the Double Eagle. As an example, here is a stunt that would create a 5-2 Defense.

By rolling the Secondary, you could easily create a 2-High Safety look out of it. This brings up another advantage of the Odd Stack Defense, the ability to run almost any coverage imaginable. It does lend itself to the Cover 3 or Cover 1, but you can truly do anything with it.

Rather than attempting to run a billion stunts in the Odd Stack, you can be more successful with a set number of a stunt packages that really serve not as blitzes but as different fronts for your defense. Become masterful as these plays. Teach your Linebackers to understand the difference between a pass blitz in an overwhelmingly pass-heavy situation, compared to a run blitz, in which they are essentially fitting in as a defensive lineman, though with a full head of steam when they light into the offensive man.

A team that is fundamentally sound, and a solid play calling scheme with a tendency-based purpose, will serve us much better than a thousand stunts attempting to fool the offense. The Odd Stack Defense can do both, it just depends on who is in control.