Man or Zone Blitz, That is the Question...

I actually get this a lot, and to be honest, it is a very fair question.  For most of us who've gotten into coaching in the past 20 years, the zone blitz was the newest and latest and greatest thing when it come "en vogue".  I have run both during my tenure as a defensive coach, and I thought I'd weigh in on the two schemes so that readers might get an idea of what they are looking, especially when trying to adapt higher level schemes to play at the high school level.

Some History
I actually started out my defensive career with zone blitzes.  I worked for a DC that absolutely did not blitz.  This guy almost couldn't stand to blitz.  From him I learned that defensive football ain't all about running guys here and there and everywhere putting your guys in "high risk" situations as he called it.  It was about making the offense uncomfortable in what they were trying to do.  In my opinion, this is exactly what defensive coaches should be trying to attain.  Anyhow, I found some pretty cool zone blitz stuff and presented it to him, and he really liked it.  The idea, back then, was that you could blitz and still have all 11 eyes on the football.  We already ran the four-spoke rotating secondary, so using a sky or "skiff" player (seam-curl-flat) wasn't too big of an issue for us.  We were also in our infancy in pattern reading coverages, so that wasn't too hard to adapt to the three deep, three under zone many zone blitz teams were presenting at the time.  So, we went for it.  Now we were like most, we had our patented NCAA blitz we used a large majority of the time and a few others.  As time went on, and I became a DC, I kept the zone blitz package in the scheme, even adapting it to fit a three man line and so forth.  Then I ran across the 57 page playbook from TCU that many, many people have perused through over the past several seasons.  What I noticed, no zone blitz?  I thought, "How is this possible in today's game?".  The further I delved into the TCU defense, the more and more I liked the ultimate simplicity of the Cover 0 scheme.  See, having cut my teeth on the zone blitz, I was afraid of being "pure man", because as all the clinic speakers say "We don't have the athletes to do that".  Well, I was THAT guy!  I always felt I didn't have the athletes to "man up" with other teams.

I had an epiphany one fall week when we were to face a district rival.  Now this foe, was a team we did not even belong on the field with, however, for some reason, we were a thorn in their side.  We had nothing that season.  TONS of injuries had plagued us, we had JV kids moved up to varsity and quite simply were very, very inexperienced.  Well, I uncorked the man blitzes on the team we were facing.  I did so, mainly because my freshman and sophomore linebackers didn't read so well, but also I wanted to see how we'd take the fight to somebody.  Instead of being reactive, we went proactive.  I wish the story had a happy ending, however it does have a silver lining.  We lost by 16, however, I'm pretty sure it would've been worse had we not done what we did.  The kicker of the whole thing was the score was 22-6.  Our opponent was averaging close to 42 points per game coming into that game.  We held them to their lowest output of the regular season (they went on to be the regional runner-ups that year).  Anyhow, what I liked is how easily the blitzes adjusted to what we were seeing.  This was a spread team that would get into some two back stuff as well. To keep run fits working, zone blitzes need quite a bit of adjustment, especially between who is the hole dropper and who is the skiff player.  We constantly had miscommunication between these two positions.  It could've been poor coaching, but I think it was basically a simpler system was needed.  The man blitz provided that.  Well, I got let go after only dabbling in man blitzes, for a year, and ended up at a junior high coaching seventh and eighth graders.  Anyhow, after my two year sabbatical with the younger guys, I came back and have implemented a man blitz scheme where I'm currently at.  With all this said, I'm going to show you the two schemes as well as the pros and the con's of each, and then give you my heart-of-heart talks on what I feel works best at the high school level.

The Zone Blitz
I'm not going to go to in-depth with zone blitzes, but most know that you are sending four to five players into designated gaps, while generally dropping into a three-by-three zone, or a two-by-four zone (although there are teams that are using less droppers and more rushers and getting away with it).  Again, this is purely a generalization.  The most simplest of the zone blitzes is the timeless NCAA blitz.  It is a deception blitz that slants the DL in one direction, and then brings two rushers in the C and D gaps away from the slant.  The DE (or sometimes OLB) in the direction of the slant will usually drop, and in most cases becomes the weak side "skiff" dropper.  The remaining LB is the hole dropper and to the blitz side a safety rolls down to be the strong side "skiff" dropper.  The remaining DB's rotate into a three deep zone.  Pretty simple stuff.

Benefits of Zone Blitzing

• The benefits of zone blitzing are that you can generally get 11 hats to the ball if the ball breaks the LOS.  You rarely end up with defenders with their eyes to the back of the ball, not seeing what's going on.  
• Many zone blitzes are very option sound, and also because a defender cannot be "run off" as they can in man schemes, if the option does break, the damages can be limited.
• It's match up zone, a lot of folks have been doing this for years, so the scheme fits right along with what they already do.  
• You can even spot drop it in high school and get away with it for the most part.  So if you are spot drop team, zone blitzing can be an easily added package as well.
• The possibilities are endless.  Drop both DE's and bring all three LB's.  Roll a safety into the hole while blitzing the MLB from the Over front, you name it, with zone blitzing it can be done, to a degree.
• Less confident players seem to feel a bit more comfortable with it, in that they don't necessarily feel like they are on an island.  Since the deep zone guys are basically MOD (man only deep) defenders, they don't have the same pressure a a MEG (man everywhere he goes) defender does.  You basically take away half of the routes they will see (or more) and now they are limited to defending deeper breaking routes, which if you are already zone, this is what they see 90 percent of the time anyways.
• Blitzes are easy to set up.  They can be brought by run strength, pass strength, right or left, and field and boundary.

Drawbacks to Zone Blitzing

• Dropping a DL into a poor match up.
• i.e. having a DL have to be the SCF player vs. a speedy slot.
• Dropping a DL to the field
• Many times these zone blitzes are field/boundary, so sometimes in certain situations, you end up with a DL as the SCF player having to drop to the field.  That is a long way to go, even for a DE.
• Match up issues in general.
• There will be times you end up with a DL on a receiver and a LB on a RB.  This is an adjustment that will have to added to the overall scheme
• A large amount of schematic adjustments
• There are certain formations (seems like 11 and 12 personnel cause a lot of these issues) that need to be accounted for as not necessarily fitting to the blitz.  In other words, you have to build in adjustments.  These adjustments add "weight" to your scheme (i.e. more for your players to have to remember).
• Due to adjustments, the overall scheme is reduced.  What this means is you can only run a few of these to be effective.  Due to not only having to teach the base scheme, you now have to teach the adjustments as well.

Now, I know Manny Diaz has had a ton of success zone blitzing, as has Michigan State and Nebraska to name a few.  However, I'm talking about high school football here.  I zone blitzed for eight seasons, and all the while some of it was good, the more and more folks saw these blitzes, the more they lost their "luster".

Benefits of Man Blitzing

• Coverage rules are simple and concise.
• Motion to new formation or change of strength (COS) does not really effect.
• Match up issues can be handled via switching of blitzers assignments (think TCU's switch call).
• Can bring as many blitzers as needed vs certain sets.
• All gaps and all men accounted for without the use of numerous adjustments
• Man is usually played somewhat tighter than zone, forcing QB's to make near-perfect throws.

Drawbacks to Man Blitzing

• It is man, one slip up, one misread or poorly timed break on an out-and-up and it can be six points.
• Not all eyes on the ball, if a big run breaks, it can do some serious damage.
• In some schemes, rushers must account for the backs and the QB draw, with younger, over-eager players this can often be overlooked, thereby allowing the screen and draw game to hurt the blitz.
• Pick routes, or "rub routes" can often cause defenders to collide, thereby leaving an offensive player open with nobody back deep to help.
• Not necessarily an advised scheme to attack the option.  Again, with not all 11 eyes on the football, certain run support players can be "run off" leaving the defense with a soft flank, or weak on the interior.

In My Opinion

I have gravitated toward the man blitz for the simple reason stated above that man is usually played somewhat tighter than zone, and forces high school QB's to make very good throws.  I have played both a three-by-three and two-by-four zone scheme and had QB's make throws on us, however most of the completions we get vs. man, is if a defender slips or utilizes poor technique etc.  Even the colleges and the NFL teams are gravitating to more man to man schemes when they zone blitz, as evidenced by a resurgence in Cover 1.  I mean, let's face it, offenses have evolved and pretty much all of them have at least one hot route, or check down concept built in to them anymore.  The idea here is get the QB to hold the ball longer, or to disguise the look in a way to get the QB or OC to change the play into something you know they're going to run (again, from film study).

In all, I've just seen more payoff with the man blitzes than I have with zone.  I'm not advocating that you switch, I'm just giving a personal account of what my experience has led me to do.  

Here's some older posts on blitzing, and links to good sites with blitz information:

Blitzes from Football is Life

Cripes! Get Back to Fundamentals Blitz Posts

Blitzology, need I say more!

Coach Hoover's site

Blitzes from Compete in All Things

Some 3-5 stuff from Hit'em Hard

RUNCODHIT's blitzes

Student of the Game

Enjoy!

Duece

"The Most Hated Man in West Texas"...and other news...

Best headline I ever saw!  Craig James is running for U.S. Senate, and it looks like Horatio Sands would have a better chance of winning a marathon than James winning a seat in Congress.  I find this a fitting scenario given James track record with legendary Air Raid coach Mike Leach.  I will not go into Leach's book, or the scandal, as most know what this is all about.  Obviously, Leach has moved on and is surely going to do well at Washington State.  The future of Craig James looks bleak though, and I can't say I didn't smile a bit when I read this headline.




Living the good life...

 We've all had those dad's that just think their son is the greatest thing since the invention of the DVR.  James is no different, yet he's worse in many ways, because of the grand scale on which James portrayed this annoying habit.  "Helicopter dads" are awful, but when they are someone the scale that James is, I'm sure it can be quite disturbing.  Although I don't necessarily condone Leach for what he did, I do like the fact he stuck to his guns, and now he can look both Craig James and the trustees at Texas Tech. University in the eye and say "I told you so!".  That's a very fitting end to this saga in my humble opinion!

Well, in other news those that are wondering about the progress with the book, all the chapters are written!  I still have some illustrations and editing to do, but things are moving along nicely.  I will keep you updated as things progress, so keep those fingers crossed.

I'm sure Kyle Williams doesn't open his mail very much these days, but this was a very heartwarming story about the letter one young man decided to write the belittled football player.  Sure wish more people thought this way...death threats...really?

Speaking of the 49'ers could coach Jim Harbaugh get any hotter right now?  I'm very impressed with what he's done, and I think the Bay Area should be ready for some familiar "January football" once again.  Here's an article by Brophy that shows Harbaugh doing what he does best...coach the quarterbacks.




These days could be closer than you think!


Coach Hoover continues his dissection of the Fire Zone blitzes here.  Good article buddy, keep em' coming!

Here's a good post by Student of the Game, piggybacking an earlier post I had on Coach Paul Johnson's "If/Then" methodology of calling plays in the Flexbone offense. 

I just got my first "moderator" gig over at the Single Wing Forum.  This is a great forum, well thought out, clean and easy to use.  For you "single wingers" come on over and check this place out.  I think you'll like the format, and hey, I'm one cool ass moderator! 

Well, I've joined up with Full Throttle Football and you can read some of my articles over there if you'd like to.  Full Throttle is a very neat site with excellent articles, video and instruction.  You can spend hours on that one site alone, so check it out!

Direct Snap Football has a nice little piece on a shotgun running game some of you "spread" guys might be into.  This is a good site for anything direct snap and single wing.  Check out Direct Snap Football for more information on the spread and single wing offenses.

I found this site while perusing the Huey board the other day.  A very well thought out site with good illustrations and video on the Flexbone offense. 

Anyhow, I will continue with more 46 Nickel stuff here in the near future, so be patient with me!!!!

Duece

Single Wing Forum and New Links

Just wanted to let everyone know there is a new Single Wing Forum that has opened up here recently, by Coach Tut.  It's Pro Board based so it seems much friendlier than some of the other forums out there.  Go to the site, check it out and start sharing some of you Single Wing knowledge (I need it!). 

In other news and links:

Coach Hoover's site has got some great running back drills.  This link takes you to them all.  If you are a running back's coach, I highly recommend checking out Coach Hoover's site and utilizing the drills he has out there.  Good stuff coach!

Compete in all things has two really good posts on the 3-4 defense.  The first one is one on a very good safety blitz from the 3-4 called Sabre.  This blitz can be run from anywhere on the field, and really puts the offense in a bind.  Secondly, the post of defensive line play in the 3-4 is brief, but descriptive.  It's hard enough to find information on the 3-4, and even harder yet to find information on defensive line play in that defense.  Take a look at Coach Mariner's site, it's loaded with information!

Brophy is at it again with gun running.  His posts on the subject have been very informative for those that are shotgun guys and looking to improve their run game.  As usual Brophy follows up his postings with some of the best video on any football blog I've seen. 

Coach Ianucci has got some very informative posts on the Rocket play from the flexbone.  The three back blog talks about how coach set up his blocking scheme for Rocket  and how it differs from what we see every Saturday from Navy and Georgia Tech.  If you are a flexbone guy, this site is a must add to your favorites!

Well, that's what I've been reading, hit me up in the comments section and share any other football blogs you read.  Those of you in the playoffs, congratulations, now's the time to make it count.  Don't waste a minute of it, and enjoy it while you're there!

Duece

Paid to Play? Why This Concept Will Ruin College Football



It's all about the Benjamin's baby...


I recently read an article on this topic at Smart Football (which is a great site, even though I'm completely dissing the idea behind one of the posts over there) and it got me to thinking, where are our morals?  Deep question, I know, remember I have LARGE amounts of free time on my hands here lately, so I do a lot of thinking...probably too much.  Anyhow, I don't see how advocates of a revenue sharing plan for College Football don't see the down side to their ways.  So I wanted to share the other side of the coin, the moral one.  I know this is a touchy subject and I will probably be blasted in the comments section, but you know what...I don't care!  This is my opinion on why College Football players should not be paid to play the game of football.

What really got me burned about this idea was the similarity that the topic has with government spending.  I know, I'm crazy right?!  Anyhow, as most know, I don't teach, I own my own business and part of what I do is site development.  Where I live, there has been a recent influx of public housing.  Being conservative, I'd rather have a hole drilled in my head than do anything with public housing.  However, we all gotta eat right?  Right!  I recently had a conversation with the head investor of one of these projects, and his attitude about public money, blew me away.  He was bitching about the fact that in Florida, Governor Rick Scott is making Welfare recipients comply with random drug tests to comply for the social service.  He was also griping about the Arizona Immigration Laws and how laws like these were taking money out of his pocket because it made it more difficult to find tenants for his low-income housing.  To move ahead in my story, the last comment he left me with was "If the government's willing to give this money away, I might as well get my share."  Where is the morality in this country anymore?  This is what ties in to what I'm trying to get across to you about the paying of amateur athletes in collegiate sports.  This idea that because the universities make so much money on the sports, that the athlete must be entitled to some of it, is ridiculous, and frankly it disgusts me.  Now let me elaborate.

Not one single college athlete has EVER been forced to participate in their sport.  NONE!  I would be willing to bet that all of them knew going in to collegiate athletics meant they were amateur athletes.  However, they DID know that they were getting their education paid for, by the institution they played for as a return for their services so to speak.  One of the most invaluable items we have in this country is a college education, yet we now have college athletes who want a bigger piece of the pie, with the attitude like the investor in the above conversation.  Why is this?  The answer, is easy, as it is one of the seven deadly sins....ENVY.  College athletes envy the money the universities they play for generate.  This is the same premise that liberals claim large corporations are greedy, and that they should give some of their money to the less fortunate.  This idea that it is somehow a crime in this country to make a profit AND KEEP IT has become what many call "greed".  Frankly, it's bullshit.  The institutions have provided a place for this athlete to not only perform, but to get better, as most have state-of-the-art training facilities to go along with some of the top facilities in the nation.  The other item, so often overlooked in this discussion, is the fact that these same "greedy" institutions provide these athletes with some of the land's top facilities in which to get something to which a monetary value need not be applied, and that's a college education.




Envy leads to Wrath


The liberal idea that profit is bad or evil rings ever so true in this argument.  However, look around you, this argument as killed this country we call America.  Between unions, and social programs, the ideas that this country was founded upon, have eroded and drifted away in the breeze.  The car you paid $35,000 for, probably only has around $15,000 in materials in it.  The auto worker's unions have pirated and pillaged the coffers of the auto companies to the point they nearly closed these companies down.  Look in your local newspaper and read every day, some where in this country, some social program is closing, or cutting it's numbers, or government employees are being laid off etc.  The reason, the socialist system does not work is eventually the payer runs out of money due to the greed of the payee.  How is paying college athletes any different?  There are a lot of similarities to the two ideas, think about them.




Bail em' out boys!


Then there is the overall attitude of the game.  Watch a college game on Saturdays and study the players and the coaches.  Then watch it on Sunday and do the same thing.  They are NOT the same.  The players on Saturday, play with a passion and aggression that is unparalleled in Pro Football.  This is even more evident in the argument between College Basketball and Pro Basketball.  At least in the collegiate game, they play defense.  Pro Basketball is nothing more than "Look at me, I get millions to play street ball".  I can't stand professional sports, because at the end of the day, the athlete gets paid, so winning and performing at the best of one's ability takes a backseat to Bentley's and Benjamin's.  I would advocate a performance based payment system for professional athletes, if I had my way (In Dueceland) where like most of us, if we don't do our job, we don't get paid.  So that defensive tackle who got blown out of the B gap on the goal line for a touchdown, doesn't get paid for his screw up.  I think you'd see the face of the game change a bit.  I know, I'm sick, I need help, and the game will only be played this way in Dueceland, but hey, that's what dreams are for.




Wonder how he did today?


In summary, if you pay college athletes, you destroy the game.  I do think there could be a happy medium here, but in all likeliness, it won't be anywhere near this.  I wonder if we will have college lockouts if they institute a "pay to play" system?  I think the advancement of the game, should be left on the field and in the coach's office, not in the pocket book of the players.  Remember, nobody made them sign that scholarship....

I don't normally have posts like this, but something sorta snapped this morning when reading Smart Football's article after reading what a joke of a deal our lawmakers struck over the weekend on the nation's debt.  That with the mounting fact that Washington D.C. could float into the Atlantic and I wouldn't give a shit, got me to typing.  I will try to stay away from posts like these in the future, and I kinda feel like Jerry McGuire when he wrote his mission statement.  Hopefully I don't run off too many people by writing an opinion post.

In other news, Smart Football has a great post about a man few understand.  Mike Leach's book, Swing Your Sword has created waves among coaches and there is a great article about it that can be found here.  Good article on what appears to be something I'm adding to my birthday wish list!  Leach was and is a great innovator of the game, I have heard nothing but good reviews about this book and look forward to reading it.

Brophy has a good post on Unbreakable Fire Zones.  Manny Diaz's concepts are growing in popularity, as can be seen in this post from Coach Hoover.  Two very good reads if you are into FZ concepts and keeping things simple and adjustable.  Good job guys!

Coach Hoover's latest post is one of the best blog reads I've had in a while.  It is a very in-depth article on something known as the Peter Principle.  After reading this, I can finally rank myself in the victim column of just such a principle.  Now I know why I can't stand stupid people!  Anyhow, a great read by a great mind in football, good job Coach Hoover.


Over at The 3 Back Option Football Spot is a great link to Coach Iannuci's quarterback manual.  A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I bought this manual, and I can tell you READ IT!  I only thought I understood the option quarterback.  This manual will aid you in not only teaching your option quarterback, but developing him to be the "dealer" on the field you need him to be.  Please check out Coach Iannuci's blog, if you are triple option guy like me, you'll LOVE IT.




In other words...when Moby Dick was a minnow!


If you haven't checked out Gridnotes, you are missing out.  With so many bloggers out there, information can become hard to find.  Check out Gridnotes and get a summarized view of each article along with links to the full article, as well as categorized links to aid in finding just the right tidbit of information you are looking for.  It's in my favorites, what are you waiting for???

Lastly, Coach Hoover had a link to Becoming a Man for All Seasons, which is yet another very informative blog I think you should read.  Very good reads on a wide variety of topic, from the technical to the theoretical and even motivational. 

Still waiting to hear if I'm going to be a DC for a local junior high or not.  Don't know how to feel about it, as once again I'm helping a friend and that didn't get me too far the first time.  Anyhow, I guess it's coaching though right.  Season is upon us, free agency is maddening and we are going to have an NFL season after all.  Hang in there boys, football's right around the corner!




I'm ready for football dammit!!!!


Duece