Cover the inside receiver.

The idea is to force the offense to throw through or over people

One of the most fundamental strategies in sport is the matching of players to secure the greatest advantage out of each pairing.

The offensive coordinators in football are always trying to exploit such mismatches, whether of speed, height, weight, strength, or pure talent.

In too many of the games I've watched or scouted, I've seen inside receivers left uncovered for the short pass and watched them turn dinks into big plays.

At Springfield High, we have one basic rule to prevent this from happening, and that is to never leave an inside receiver uncovered. In my two previous articles in Scholastic Coach, I've alluded to this without fully explaining the concept.

Our two primary coverages are two deep (with route-reading) and man (sometimes straight and sometimes with someone free over the top). No receivers are left uncovered in these coverages. The problems start when offenses line up or motion to one back or no back sets.

I've seen four wide-outs covered with some gaping voids in the areas shown in Diags. 1-2. Unless you have agile 6-8 defensive ends who will not allow the QB to hit the quick pass, these seams are going to be very vulnerable. With one exception - when the situation dictates that we play only one LB inside (3rd and very long and watch out for the draw!) and bump the other LB out for pass coverage - we make our formation adjustments with our perimeter five, always keeping six men in the box.

To cover spread looks, we can play straight man (Diags. 3-4) or man-free coverage (Diags. 5-6) or still play Cover 2 (Diags. 7-8).

If we are still playing Cover 2, the men guarding the inside receivers are taught to drop first, taking away any quick inside passes, before making their normal pass drop/read.

The wider the #2 receiver, the deeper the nickel is taught to sink, buying time for either the free safety or the weak-side LB to get out on #2.

The nickel then works his way out to the flat. This forces the offense to throw through people to hit the softly covered man. As can be seen, this is much more dangerous than throwing to uncovered receivers.

Spread offenses try to catch defenses in mismatched situations and try to hit short passes to uncovered men. By covering all inside receivers, we try to force the opponent to throw through and/or over people, which is the much more difficult task to do.

Jerry Jasinski, Def. Coordinator, Springfield (IL) HS