Skip to main content

Simple Way to Add A 4-2-5 Front in a Base 33 Stack Defense

Simple Way to Add A 4-2-5 Front into A Base 33 Stack Defense
By Coach Sheffer

Image result for stand up end football
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-defensive-end-stance-in-football

When running a High School Defense how many fronts should you have in your arsenal?  Some might say just run one front while others say it's best to carry multiple.  While I can see both sides I do tend to lean more towards being able to carry multiple looks in your defense.  Today's post isn't going to focus on why you should carry multiple fronts, but on one simple way you could carry multiple fronts.  If you run a base 33 Stack/3-5-3 defense, or want to know more about it, and you would like a simple way to get into a 4-2-5 look this is the post for you.  

Base 33 Box


This is our "base" Stack front with our Nose head up on the Center, Ends head up on the Tackles and our Backers "Stacked" directly behind them at 3-4 yards deep.  In this particular example I have set our strength opposite the Tailback (more on why later).  The terms I will use today is Sam (Strong), Mike (Middle) and Will (Weak).  In our base we do have the Sam and Will switch sides based on strength calls.  

This past season we had the personnel on Defensive Line that we felt comfortable bringing in 4 linemen for our 4-2-5 package.  This year we are a bit inexperienced on our line so we may or may not feel comfortable with 4 down linemen.  So how could a coach show a new front without changing personnel?

Storm (Over)


Vs a team that runs a lot of Inside/Outside Zone concepts I like the Storm Front or what many Even Front defenses might call Over.  Weakside end will take outside shade of the OT, Nose will shade to the weak side of the Center while the Strong Side end will move in to outside shade of the OG.  The Sam will walk up to outside shade of the OT to the strong side and now basically becomes a stand up end.  Mike will have Strong A gap responsibility while the Will will have Weak B gap responsibility.  I like this front VS IZ/OZ because theoretically if the front line can hold their gap there should be at least one Backer who can move freely and be a free hitter.  


Thunder (Under)


A second way to add an Even Front to your Stack Defense is to go Thunder (Under).  This is basically the opposite of the Storm front, where now we shift the Line over Strong and walk down our Will backer as a stand up end.  Now Mike has weak side A gap while Sam has Strong side B.  I would say that I prefer using the Storm front vs a team that likes to run IZ/OZ and potentially would like the Thunder front vs a team that likes to run Zone Read/RPO's.  

So to recap, if you run a Base 33 Stack/3-5-3 defense who isn't afraid to break the Stack and are looking for ways to present multiple fronts then the Storm and Thunder fronts might be worth a look at.  If you have any questions feel free to contact me on Twitter @darrinsheffer 

Stay Obsessed 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Quick Screens From Wing-T Offense

Quick Screens from Wing-T Offense By Darrin Sheffer                 When most coaches hear Wing-T Offense they usually don’t think about passing, however there are a few ways that a Wing-T coach can utilize his receivers on the edge.  Delaware Wing-T X-Now Screen One of the simplest ways to attack the boundary using the Wing-T is to use an X-Now Screen or Quick Screen.  Preferably, unless you have a QB with a rocket for an arm, I would rather use this play when the X receiver is to the boundary.  In the case of using the Right Formation we would like to have the ball on the left hash with the X lined up on or just inside of the numbers, this will give the QB a nice easy pass and the X a bit of room to maneuver.  I would teach my X to use the sideline and get as many yards as possible but you might have a different preference on the Now Screen. An idea that you could use...

Why I Like... Unbalanced Formations

Why I like… Unbalanced Sets (Photo by Coach Eien @bruceeien) If there is one thing that Dinosaur Offensive coaches love to talk about, besides running the ball, it would have to be Unbalanced Sets.  Old school Wing-T and Single Wing guys will hang their hat on being able to cause conflict with the defense by using Unbalanced.  However, it isn’t only old school coaches using it; many Spread coaches are seeking ways to use Unbalanced in their offenses.      Unbalanced Wing-T For my part I am most familiar with the Wing-T’s use of Unbalanced formations.  One common way to go unbalanced in the Wing-T is to simply go X-Over (See diagram below).  In the normal Wing-T formation the X is split off to the weak side of the formation, but in the X-Over we simply align him split to the Strong side/TE side.  One downside to this formation is that due to the alignment of the X, the TE becomes ineligible in the passing gam...

Simplified Six Man Box in the 33 Stack

Simplified Six Man Box For 33 Stack Defense by Darrin Sheffer https://youthfootballonline.com/3-3-stack-defense-base-rules-and-blitzes/ In my previous blog post on the 33 Stack Defense I discussed some basics on Defensive Line play and talked about 4 basic Slant Schemes used (Strong, Weak, Loop and Pinch).  Today I would like to expand on that topic and discuss the Six Man Box used in the 33 Stack which includes the three down lineman and three Inside Linebackers.  For those of you who are already versed in the 33 Stack this blog post may seem boring as I plan to keep things extremely simplified for any Stack Newbies out there.  In future Stack blogs I will get into more complex pressures and coverage.   Alignment While you can have your D-Line align any which way you like, we like to keep things simple with the Nose head up on the Center and both Ends lined head up on the Tackles.  This is to allow our D-Line to have the ab...