Youth Football Plays Defense

Let the great debate begin! Blitzing is the most debated topic on youth football defense. Every coach has an opinion regarding blitzing.

Some coaches blitz on every single play. Some coached blitz multiple players, on the same play. Other coaches never Blitz.

I have a unique perspective from the past 20 years. I have been coached teams running the Bears 46, Zone Blitzes, 10-1; Base 40’s and base 30’s. I will make a case for the coach who likes to blitz

• Tackles for loss
• Pressure in the backfield
• Confuse the opponent
• Game turning turnovers

Theses all sound convincing, but let us now take a look at the advantage of not blitzing

• Never over pursue
• Stay disciplined
• Defense stay in position
• Less likely to give up the big play

I hear every year from the Blitzer’s that it is time to “bring the heat”; while the oppositions say, blitzing is a “sign of weakness”.

I liken Blitzing to the Full Court press in basketball. When playing a team with less talent you can press the heck out of them with great success. As soon as you press equal or better talent, it can backfire. Better teams will break the press and make easy baskets on the other end.

Blitzing is the same thing. When you play a garbage team, you can blitz all day and look like an unbeatable machine. When you play a well-coached team of equal skill, or a team with better talent, you run the risk of them exposing your blitzes. When that happens, it is never good for your team.

I am not a big fan of situational blitzing since it is always obvious. I do like to have my defense read and react, while leaving the penetration to the defensive line.

In the NFL, where passing is so common, the blitz can be more effective, but this is youth football.

One of the more important skills you will need to teach your linebackers is how to plug a hole on the ISO, Power, Lead and Counter plays. If you do not teach your defense how to stop the opponent’s power runs, it will be a long day if you are playing a “smash mouth” football team.

It all starts with the defensive line. I slant and bear-crawl my defensive line to accomplish a few things that include

• Mess up the offense line blocking
• Gain penetration to the backfield
• Create a pile to block running lanes
• Keep offensive lineman off the linebackers

Our goal on defense is to force the runners to run horizontal, towards the sidelines, and not vertical towards the end zone.

The next wave is the linebackers and they must be coached to read and react. When they read where the lead blocker, back or lineman is headed, he must meet him head on. There needs to be a collision, where the linebackers remains vertical, shedding the lead blockers while trying to make the tackle. If he starts to lose the battle then he should create a pile.

Our Safeties come up for run support, and they must “clean up” what is left over. The safeties have to be careful not to over pursue and miss the tackle.

I spend countless time making sure our defense will be able to stop the opponent from running at will.

You must teach your defensive players to stay home for counters and reverses. Youth football defense is all about not giving up the big play. The younger the age of your players, the more likely they will get beat by misdirection.

I spend the majority of our team defense teaching the players what position they need to stay in to protect the entire defense. All of the defensive players need to have trust in their fellow player and only worry about their assignment. You will not see linebackers flying all over the field on my defensive teams. I teach my linebackers to keep their feet in cement and move laterally when they know where the play is going.

I teach all of my backside defenders to stay home for counters and reverses. I coach players never to chase a player down across the field. Each player has an assignment, and is expected to do his job on defense.
When teams face us, opposing coaches stop running counters, if we are doing our job. I like to have the opposing coach think we are doing one thing, and then spring another on him.

I am referring to containment responsibility. Most team use just the defensive end for containment, while I will use any of the following players

This is rule one and if you wish to have any success, you have to find a way to shut down the opponents speed. Every team you face will have a speed back, quarterback or receiver. Some teams will even have more than one.

The defense you use to accomplish this comes from your scouting report. From the scouting report, you will know if the upcoming opponent has mediocre speed or not. When scouting, you will get a “heads up” if the upcoming opponent has that God given, greased lightning speed, we all fear.

I have run a base 3-4 defense for the past decade, and I am happy with the flexibility it offers. We can contain the opponents speed with

• Defensive Ends
• Outside Linebackers
• Cornerbacks
• Safeties

I can use any or all of the above players to contain the opponent’s speed. I can disguise who I am using for the containment, and if need be I can use multiple positions to contain the “super star”.

Most youth defenses will try to contain the offense with the Defensive Ends, and that is OK if the opponent has comparable speed to your team. If you decide to go with this approach, you will need to have your best two players playing the End positions.

Whatever defense you decide to use, make sure you learn all the adjustments for containing speed to the outside.

Many youth football defensive coordinators run 6-10 men defensive fronts. It is especially common in the very younger tackle teams, where the pass is not as big of a threat.

With the rebirth of the power running offense, it would seem logical to run a loaded front against those teams. The most popular is the six-man front, but I have seen some 8 and even 10 man fronts.

The theory behind these fronts is to get as much pressure in the backfield as soon as, the ball is snapped. The young teams have a hard time getting the snap off, so the defense loads up.

The young quarterback usually plays with fear and no composure. It is easy to get this young player rattled, if you use the right defense.

I have run all types of defenses over the past 20 years, and I must admit I am not a fan of these loaded fronts. I begin to salivate when I see an opponent lined up this way. I think it is easy for an offense to move the ball against them.

If I am coaching a team with even just a few years of tackle football experience, I will make a defense pay for loading the front. With the young teams, I use an unbalanced line to get a numbers advantage to where I want to run the ball. The older players can pass and that makes it even easier to move the ball.