The “No Name Defense” – Mixing personnel, fronts, and coverages along with stunts and blitzes can continually keep an offense off-balance.

Coaches often ask me what we call our defense? “What defense do you run: 3-5-3, 4-3, 4-4, 5-2, or the 3-4?” Our response is, “The one that works.” If pressed to answer, our personnel is best described as a 3-4 but we line up in everything from a 3-4 to 4-3 to 3-3-5 to a 4-6 Bear. Some defensive coordinators do not want the offense to dictate what they do, but we do not look at it that way. We want to dictate to the offense what plays they can run. For example, if they are an “I” formation team, we are going to run our under front “Eagle” or “Bear” because we want to take away the weak Iso and the TE power play (See Diagrams 1 and 4).We wanted a defense that was built on sound principles but diverse in looks. We wanted to change our front similar to how an offense changes their formation. Just like an offensive formation works by moving into the best look possible, we