Hi guys, great site!!
The cornerback and safety positions have always baffled me a bit. They both come up to stop the run, they both cover receivers, so what are the differences? What makes a good cornerback or safety? Are they interchangeable in times of low recruitment or injuries? What do coaches look for when recruiting? Please tell me about these positions.
Thanks,
Tom
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Thanks for the comment and questions.
Much depends on your system: in Ohio State's zone blitz, the safeties and cornerbacks are interchangeable in many packages. Differences arise from what you ask each to do.
In man, or three-deep zone, coverages you are asking the cornerbacks to cover the fastest, and arguably the best, athletes on the field. The free safety will be responsible for either #2 to the wide side, or the area between the hashes. The strong safety will be responsible for #2 to the short side, or flat coverage in many zone coverages.
Therefore, the skills needed to play are different:
Cornerbacks need to be faster and must able to support in flats -- both in running and passing plays. The free safety will generally not have line of scrimmage responsibility, so he is not taking on the pulling offensive linemen nor the lead fullbacks, frequent cornerback assignments.
The strong safety can be used as a fourth linebacker in the box, and be primarily run-stoppers. Therefore, they need to be bigger and stronger and able to handle tight ends and full backs.
When you get to Cover 2 this changes. In this scheme, the cornerbacks are responsible for the flats, so must be strong enough to funnel wide receivers into the middle of field. They must defend the boundary and allow wide receivers to release outside. Safeties need to have the speed to cover half the field. In this scheme, speed and coverage skills are essential in safeties.
Thanks for stopping by http://gobluemichiganwolverine.blogspot.com/
If you have any questions please e-mail erocwolverine@gmail.com
Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine
2 comments:
Was this from TomVH?
Sorry only post first names ... also this e-mail was probably over a week old if not longer because been busy around here and trying to catch up on the e-mails.
If Tom wants to say who he is that is fine, but I only give first names or a username when somebody sends an e-mail.
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