Mailbag question: Defensive fronts question

Mailbag question: Defensive fronts question

Eroc and Coach,

Can you guys give us folks a little heads up on the different fronts and coverage's used by our defense this past spring?

I guess too much has been made of the "spinner", "quick" and "hybrid" things on defense.

Just would like to have an idea what fronts we are going to run against different offensive formations before the season starts.

If you guys can give a rundown of fronts and coverage's employed it would be great. If you have already dealt with this please let me know which month to look.

Thanks,

Anonymous

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Thanks for the question.

Well, first off, please check out the month of April during the spring practices archives under the labels of Coaches Corner, Spring Practice, Michigan Football Tidbits and even sometimes Mailbag questions. That might take up a lot of research time. So hopefully what is below will help and also serve as a refresher.

Michigan used three basic coverages this spring, but UM played mostly cover 2, or two deep safeties. The defense also showed some cover 4, or 1/4 coverage, and some man coverage.

A zone blitz scheme was a key to the coverages that Michigan was playing. There were times when S. Brown was in deep zone coverage and UM also played a version of the now famous Tampa 2 with Ezeh, or another inside linebacker, playing deep coverage.

The defense used two basic fronts to initiate play. Michigan showed a standard 3-4 look, whereby, the nose-tackle played a 0-tech, head up on the center, and the defensive ends played head up on the offensive tackles.

Michigan also stemmed the defense/shifted it down away from the quick, with the defensive tackle playing a 1-tech/outside on the offensive center and the strong side defensive end playing a 3-tech/outside shade on offensive guard, and the quick/hybrid outside linebacker/defensive end lining up in 5-tech/outside shade on offensive tackle.

Remember this was part of a zone blitz package, so where the players started in the alignment is generally not where the players ended up.

Also, remember the players were just initially learning the defense and we are ASSuming that the defensive package will be more complicated and involved this fall as well as during the season. Several of us were on the sidelines directly next to the defensive group and could easily observe that players were very confused on many plays after coming off the field and immediately finding coaches for clarification. This is a new system (yes, another new system). So, understanding that today’s defenses are complicated, one must expect difficulties and grant time for the players and coaches to work out the imperfections.

Thanks for stopping by Go Blue Michigan Wolverine
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Written by CoachBt and ErocWolverine