To refresh, here’s how ND started to assign players to defend the option after the 2010 disaster in the Meadowlands:

1. FB Dive (Blue) – The DE and NG function as true interior DTs and attack the A-gaps that they line up over to stuff the dive.
2. QB Keeper (Red) – The Cat and DE get to the outside of the tackle and either make a play on the QB, force him back inside to the waiting safeties in second level support, or force a pitch.
3. Pitch to RB (Yellow) – The outside Will and Dog LBs contain the RB (or “pitch-man”), ensuring they are never beaten to the outside. As soon as they see the pitch, they attack the RB. The CBs serve as additional outside containment.
4. Manti Te’o (Orange) – Read the play and attempt to disrupt in the backfield if possible

While options #1-3 take care of the usual possibilities of the triple option, #4 was where Notre Dame’s defense was truly dangerous. Diaco used Te’o’s natural instincts and superb closing speed to force Navy into mistakes or quicker decisions on what to do with the football.

In 2011, Te’o had 23 tackles combined against Navy and Air Force, with 5 of those being tackles for loss (TFL). In 2012, Navy managed to avoid any Te’o TFL, but Te’o still managed 8 total tackles and 1 INT. As much as Navy tried to avoid Manti, they couldn’t do so completely.

To put it lightly, Diaco leaned on Manti and depended on him for defensive success against the option. So now that Manti’s gone, who fills his role? Or does Diaco go back to the drawing board and use a more traditional scheme without any unique wrinkles?

Personally, I would love to see Jaylon Smith slide inside and get a shot at filling Manti’s role in this kind of defense. He definitely has the raw talent and he demonstrated some impressive instincts against Southern Cal. If you are going to pick one guy from this LB corps to pretend to be Te’o flying to the ball, give me the one with the best instincts and closing speed.

This would give us a front seven that looks like this:

• DT (FB Dive): Rotation of Nix/Day/Schwenke
• DE (QB): Rotation of Shembo/Tuitt/Ishaq/Jones
• OLB (RB): Fox/Calabrese
• MLB (Rover): Smith

All that being said, and as awesome as I think it would be, I seriously doubt Kelly and Diaco would go for that idea. It would be a lot for a freshman to absorb and, if Kelly’s history is any indication, he does seem to favor experience in considering such large moves (remember, Jaylon likely isn’t playing as much as he is if Councell is healthy). So most likely the front seven will look like this:

• DT (FB Dive): Rotation of Nix/Day/Schwenke
• DE (QB): Rotation of Shembo/Tuitt/Ishaq/Jones
• OLB (RB): Fox/Smith
• MLB (Rover): Calabrese

Now, Carlo doesn’t have the same physical tools that Jaylon does, much less Manti. While I think he can do an adequate job in this role, I don’t see him completely filling the void. Because of this, I expect to see a lot more safety help than we are used to seeing. Specifically, look for the Strong Safety (SS), Elijah Shumate, to fill this role, giving almost a 4-4 look to the defense and, in a sense, having two people fill in the Manti void.

This then leaves the Free Safety (FS), Austin Collinsworth, to play “center field” and serve as the last line of defense on any run and ensure no receiver beats the secondary deep should Air Force sneak in a deep pass.

The Irish will most certainly miss Manti in defending the option, but Diaco has more than enough talent on this current squad to compensate.

The post Defending the Option: Who Takes Over for Te’o? appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

After rushing for nearly 190 yards per game in 2012, Notre Dame is averaging a meager 137 yards per game this season. While there are a number of reasons why the run game has struggled (graduation of key personnel, playing from behind, etc.), it is clear that the Irish miss Everett Golson’s mobility. Defenses are attacking the line of scrimmage with little fear that Tommy Rees will make them pay for over-pursuing the Irish running backs. Although Rees will never be a running threat, Brian Kelly and Chuck Martin should force defenses to account for Rees in the running game by using more packaged plays.

What are Packaged Plays?

Packaged plays consist of a run and a pass combined into a single play. The quarterback reads one defender and determines whether to pass or hand-off based on that defender’s movement. If the defender plays the run, the quarterback throws; if the he plays the pass, the quarterback hands off to the running back.

The most commonly used packaged plays are bubble screens and stick/draw plays, but the possibilities are endless. High-scoring teams like Baylor and Texas A&M are having great success packaging rhythm throws with inside and outside zone plays. Temple showed the Irish first-hand how packaging rhythm throws with inside and outside zone plays can keep a defense off balance. The Owls repeatedly abused Notre Dame’s linebackers by isolating them and forcing them to commit to defending the run or the pass.

Below is an example of Temple packaging an outside zone with a backside slant to the slot receiver.

The Owls line up in a three receiver, one tight end spread formation. The quarterback will read linebacker Dan Fox on this play. If Fox flows toward the run, the quarterback will throw the slant to the slot receiver; if Fox stays home to cover the slant, the quarterback will hand-off to the running back.

While Fox and Jaylon Smith attack the line of scrimmage, the quarterback pulls the ball and hits the slot receiver in stride. The void left by Fox makes for an easy read and ultimately results in a 25-yard gain for the Owls. As you can see in the video, Elijah Shumate compounds Notre Dame’s problems by taking a bad pursuit angle.

[youtube id=”5PNhbLstIZw”]

On the next play, Temple packaged an inside zone with a pop pass to the tight end.

The Owls line up in a three receiver, one tight end spread formation, but this time the tight end lines up to the same side as the twin receivers. The inside zone will go to the weak side of the formation. Once again the quarterback will read Fox.

With Fox rotating to cover the tight end immediately after the snap, the quarterback hands off to the running back heading in the opposite direction. The center gets to the second level and blocks Carlo Calabrese which allows the running back to get well into the secondary before being tackled.

[youtube id=”5ZJOWTuZ01I”]

Although the Irish have occasionally used packaged plays this season, below is the only example that I can recall where Notre Dame may have packaged a rhythm throw with a zone run.

On this play, the Irish line up in a 2X2 spread formation. Tight end Troy Niklas is the slot receiver to the boundary. Given Notre Dame’s tendency to use Niklas as a lead blocker on quick screens, it’s not surprising that the outside linebacker lines up directly over over Niklas, while the safety lines up way outside of the hash marks. The middle of the field is wide open. Rees will read the inside linebacker. If the linebacker takes away Niklas on the slant, Rees should hand-off to Amir Carlisle; if the linebacker crashes to stop the run, Rees should have Niklas open.

Niklas immediately gains inside leverage on the outside linebacker. As the inside linebacker rushes, Rees pulls the ball and throws to Niklas. Had Niklas held on to the pass, it would have been a big play. It’s hard to say whether this play was a designed “option” for Rees or a predetermined play-action pass, but it does illustrate how defenses have to respect backside rhythm passes.

[youtube id=”Ik59B0nAqJU”]

Conclusion

Running more packaged plays will not remedy all the issues with Notre Dame’s run game, but it can open some running lanes for the Irish backs. As you can see from the examples above, packaging rhythm throws with inside and outside zone plays would complement the “check it and chuck it” philosophy that Notre Dame has become too dependent on when defenses key the run.

The post Packaging Rhythm Throws with Base Run Plays appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

LINEBACKER: THE IRISH

Manti Te’o won every award available to a linebacker, save one, last season, thereby leaving behind giant, Hawaii’an shoes to fill. With no disrespect intended to Carlo Calabrese, or Dan Fox, or Danny Spond, Prince Shembo is my pick for this piece and the Irish linebacker most likely to end thefts of bicycle seats for all time. Seriously, if Prince yelled at me and accused me of taking his bike seat, I likely would not only have peed a little, I probably would have given him my own bike seat and that of every first born male child in my ancestral village. What would you have done?

As a player, Shembo’s got three seasons under his belt and absolutely blew it up last year. A Butkus Award watch-listee, the 6’2″ 258 pound native of Charlotte, North Carolina tallied some rather impressive numbers over thirteen games: 22 solo tackles, 29 assisted tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, 7.5 sacks, 12 quarterback hurries and 1 pass break up. His fellow watch-listee, Carlo Calabrese, had 19 solo tackles, 30 assisted tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and 1 forced fumble. His other fellow watch-listee (yep, we have THREE), Dan Fox, had 30 solo talckles, 33 assisted tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 broken up passes, and 2 quarterback hurries. Highlights here:

http://youtu.be/6g-eLm6a2a0

LINEBACKER: THE ENEMY

Of all the linebackers on all the teams the Irish will face in the upcoming campaign, BYU’s Kyle Van Noy is likely the best of them all. Slightly taller at 6’3″ than Prince Shembo, and about fifteen pounds lighter, Van Noy is all over the field, even returning a punt. Which maybe Shembo can do for us. I don’t know. We should try something. How could make it worse? Amiright?

Last season Van Noy, a consensus preseason First Team All-American, put up some crazy numbers that harken back to the days when a fella played both sides of the ball, smoked Lucky Strikes and went off to fight the Hun: 37 solo tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 15 assisted tackles, 2 interceptions, 13 sacks, 8 quarterback hurries, 6 forced fumbles, 2 blocked kicks, and the aforementioned punt return.

Check out his action here:

The post Know Thyself, Know Thy Enemy: Linebacker appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Thankfully, I don’t have to justify ranking a kicker #1 (NEVER FORGET) or leaving our starting QB off the top 25 list (NEVER FORGET THIS AS WELL).

So without further ado, let’s get to the rankings.

#25 – #21

I’m splitting these into sections of five, not just because that’s how Keith did it, but because that’s how I tend to form the rankings in my head.

For the bottom five, I usually rank on pure potential. You’ll usually see most of the incoming freshmen around this area, but every now and then you’ll see a veteran in there as well. This year, that definitely happened.

#25 Chris Brown (Sophomore, WR) – Chris rounded off my top 25, mostly because I just couldn’t shake the long bombs he pulled down last year out of my head. The one against OU was one of the top plays of the entire season. The kid has some serious breakout speed and I’m hoping he can parlay this into a Golden Tate-type breakout year in 2013.

#24 Ishaq Williams (Junior, “Cat” LB) – Ishaq is one of those guys that we have also seen flashes of brilliance from. He has yet to record a sack, but did manage to rack up 3.5 TFL in 2012. I’m hoping that his junior campaign is when we see it all put together.

#23 Jaylon Smith (Freshman, “Dog” LB) – I am really excited to see Jaylon play this season. I have him slotted in the “dog” LB position, spelling Spond. He definitely has the raw talent to succeed at the coverage LB position, so I’m looking for him to make an immediate impact.

#22 Steve Elmer (Freshman, T) – The 6’5″, 300 lbs., top-rated tackle will likely see quite a bit of playing time this year on the line. Thankfully, he early-enrolled giving him a much needed jump start in experience and conditioning. Usually, I want all linemen to redshirt since it is such a physically demanding position, but with the Irish needing immediate, talented depth, a spring head-start definitely works. I think he has all the physical tools to succeed (notice a pattern yet?), so I’m looking for another immediate impact from the young lineman.

#21 Max Redfield (Freshman, S) – I can’t even remember the last time I was this excited about a safety recruit. I doubt he will start at the beginning of the season, but I could definitely see him winning a spot before the 2013 campaign comes to a close. The Irish secondary has needed a big-time recruit for quite a while. With Redfield coming into the fold, I feel he has the best chance out of this group to make an impact in 2013.

#20 – #16

This group tends to actually have some proven success. If I rate someone purely on potential here, I’m definitely high on them.

#20 Malik Zaire (Freshman, QB) – While he will likely see a redshirt this season (unless everything goes to hell like it did in my NCAA sim), Zaire is by far my favorite recruit in the 2013 class. Like Golson, he has a big arm and great mobility. There’s a reason Gunner Kiel jumped ship and my gut tells me he felt Zaire seriously breathing down his neck. It’ll be hard to project his impact, but I have no problem sticking my neck out for this kid, even with Golson’s return in 2014.

#19 Greg Bryant (Freshman, RB) – I don’t think I’ve ever considered putting this many true freshmen in the top 25 ranking, but I can’t help it. 5-star RB recruit that will have the chance to take on a backfield that has some huge holes with the departure of Cierre Wood and Theo Riddick just has to make a huge impact, right?

#18 Ronnie Stanley (Sophomore, T) – Yep, that’s two young tackles in the top 25. Much like Elmer, Stanley will be needed to fill some depth on the Irish line. He’s had a full season under his belt, so he gets a bump into this group of five.

#17 Carlo Calabrese (5th year, ILB)

#16 Dan Fox (5th year, ILB) – I’m combining the reasoning for Calabrese and Fox into one because honestly, I see them as damn near equivalent in the ranking. They have loads of experience and you know what kind of play you will get from each.

#15 – #11

This is the group that starts separating talent and potential on the roster to moving towards the elite. To put it another way, this is the true middle-ground. Players here could end up being the true difference makers or the people that I will later be embarrassed to have ranked so high.

#15 DaVaris Daniels (Junior [RS], WR) – I can’t help but feel like I’m waiting for Daniels to just break out. We’ve seen some signs of the potential before, with the huge reception on Golson’s 45 yard bomb to help send the game into OT. He was also one of the few bright spots of the Irish offense against Alabama notching a career high 115 yards on six receptions, one of which was another long strike of 31 yards. I think he should be able to nail down a starting spot so hopefully we start to see him break out in a huge way.

#14 Sheldon Day (Sophomore, DE) – We all know that Tuitt and Shembo are the two big pass rushing threats, but don’t sleep on Day. In his freshman campaign, Day notched two sacks, 3.5 TFL, and 23 tackles. With the departure of Kapron Lewis-Moore, Day will likely see quite a bit more playing time and he is my personal favorite to start along with Nix, Tuitt, and Shembo. In completely unrelated things tainting my objectivity, Day destroyed opposing offenses in my NCAA ’14 sim and seemingly had at least one sack a game. Here’s hoping reality mimics video game success.

#13 Matthias Farley (Junior [RS], S) – When Slaughter went down for the season, I was definitely terrified that the Irish secondary was beyond screwed. But then Farley stepped in and made an impact that I’m sure very few people saw coming and I don’t see that stopping this season. Fear the beard.

#12 KeiVarae Russell (Sophomore, CB) – Because of a thin secondary, Kelly was forced to move Russell from RB to CB…and did that ever work out. Now, Russell is a returning All American and looks to continue the fantastic job that he began last season. The only reason I don’t have Russell ranked higher is my fear of a sophomore slump and the overwhelming fear that gambles like this just don’t work at Notre Dame so I’m awaiting the other shoe to drop somehow.

#11 Tommy Rees (Senior, QB) – Here are the facts about Tommy Rees:

• He had an incredible run to close out his freshman year in 2010
• His 2011 was completely awful and I want to forget it forever
• He came up clutch in several situations during 2012
• With that said, his start against BYU left a lot to be desired

There is definitely potential there for greatness, but there is also the potential for great disaster because none of us are really ever going to be able to shake 2011. Rees still appears to have issues with locking-in on receivers (see: Floyd in 2011 and Eifert in 2012), but if he can kick that habit, that alone will allow him to progress by leaps and bounds in 2013.

Here’s hoping.

#10 – #6

Now we start moving into the elite parts of the roster. These are the guys I expect to be no-doubt playmakers during the season.

#10 T.J. Jones (Senior, WR) – T.J. made some great strides in 2012 and I still don’t think he’s found his ceiling yet. The WR corps needs a leader and a playmaker and I expect T.J. to fill this role.

#9 Chris Watt (5th year, G) – Watt has been one of the veteran anchors in the interior of the line and will enter his third year as a starter. With the departure of Braxon Cave, I’m looking to Watt to be the glue that holds the middle of the line together.

#8 Troy Niklas (Junior, TE) – Niklas is just a beast at 6’7″ 260 lbs. He made his biggest impact blocking in two TE sets, but with Eifert gone, it will be Niklas job to continue the amazing string of badass TEs from ND. At 6’7″, I am fully expecting Niklas to be a bit of a security blanket for a Tommy Rees jump ball and will soon be one of his favorite targets all season.

#7 George Atkinson III (Junior, RB) – GA3 still has some fundamentals to get down to truly be the best RB possible (One Foot Down has a great breakdown of this), but the bottom line is that GA3 is a straight-up playmaker. His speed on the team might just be unmatched and you can’t help but expect something special to happen when he’s in the open field. With two years under his belt, and the backfield begging for a breakout star, I’m expecting GA3 to take control.

#6 Bennett Jackson (Senior, CB) – Sure, Russell had an amazing, breakout year and Manti Te’o seemingly got all the INTs, but Jackson had a hell of a year himself. In 2012, he had 4 INTs (second only to Te’o) and broke up 4 passes (second to Nix, he led all DBs in this stat). I expect Jackson have yet another great season. With Te’o gone, the only people that can steal the spotlight from Jackson are on the defensive line — the rest of the show is all his to steal.

#5 – #1

The absolute elite on the roster and by far the easiest for me to rank.

#5 Danny Spond (Senior, “Dog” LB) – Spond was one of the best surprises for the 2012 defense and was a solid presence all year at the “dog” linebacker. He had one INT and broke up three passes, which was only second among LBs with Te’o taking top honors. I expect the arrival of Jaylon Smith to only further push Spond’s performance this season. He might not light up the stat sheet, but his presence on the defense cannot be overstated.

#4 Zack Martin (5th year, T) – Martin was my top-rated lineman last season and I see no reason to change that. Martin helped anchor a line that gave up only 13 sacks last season (T-28th in NCAA). Sack numbers (most often) speak to the strength of the exterior linemen and considering where this line used to be just a few years ago, I can’t help but give Martin all the credit in the world for that success.

#3 Prince Shembo (Senior, “Cat” LB) – Shembo was one of the people that helped us say “Aaron, who?” With 7.5 sacks and 10.5 TFL, Shembo was just an absolute beast on the line. To further blow your mind, consider that Shembo also led the team in QB hurries with 12. So that’s at least 30 plays that Shembo hung around in the opposing backfield which is just incredible. But as impressive as he was…

#2 Stephon Tuitt (Junior, DE) – 11 sacks, 11 TFL, 9 QB hurried, a blocked kick, a forced fumble, and an incredible fumble return for a TD — there’s no wonder why Bayou picked him as the Irish D-linemen to watch. Tuitt is simply incredible and the best pass rushing threat that we’ve seen in quite a long time. The only downside to Tuitt? He’s excellent play will likely make this his last year with Notre Dame. Enjoy this while it lasts.

#1 Louis Nix III (Senior, NT) – With all respect to Bayou’s selection, and to Tuitt, my pick at #1 was not hard at all. The success of the 3-4 defense starts with the nose tackle and Nix is one of the best that I have ever seen. Ideally, you just need a guy that can command and handle a double team on every snap. Nix goes well beyond that. NTs aren’t supposed to light up the stat sheet, but Nix manages to do so: 50 total tackles (7th on team), 7.5 TFL (4th on team), 2 sacks (T-4th on team), 3 QB hurries (T-5th on team), and 5 passes defended (leads the Irish). Simply put, Nix causes all kinds of havoc and opposing offenses have no choice but to respect the damage that he can cause. That opens up opportunities for the rest of the Irish defense, leading to TFLs, sacks, and turnovers. Plus, how can we ever forget this:

The post Ranking the Irish Roster: Tex’s Top 25 appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Bob Diaco (and his flowing locks), has taken the schizophrenic Irish defense from the Weis era (seriously, three defensive coordinators in five years) and molded it into a true 3-4 anchored by a front seven that is a wrecking machine.

While it would be impossible to describe Diaco’s entire scheme or the intricacies of the 3-4 defense in a single post (if you’d like to do that, I suggest some serious reading), I decided to put together a primer instead. Think of it as your cheatsheet to the ND defense, allowing you to know the purpose of the “Cat”, why the “Dog” isn’t found in the nickel, and the benefits that a 3-4 defense brings to the table.

Positions

Below is a picture of the 3-4 defense at its most basic building blocks (aka its “base” formation) with the nomenclature that the Notre Dame staff uses. To better understand the role of each position, let’s take a brief look at each one.

Nose Guard (NG)

Also called the nose tackle (NT) or simply a defensive tackle (DT), the NG is the unsung hero and lifeblood of any good 3-4 defense. The ideal player for this position is a 300+ pound monster–no I’m not exaggerating. The NG is expected to draw a double team every snap to so the inside linebackers can make plays unblocked. They do this by clogging any interior holes that the opposing line tries to open. Good NGs are able to plug these holes at will, but the great NGs are a special breed all their own as they can also penetrate and wreak havoc behind the line.

Irish NGs You Should Know: Louis Nix III (#9, aka Irish Chocolate), Kona Schwenke (#96)

Defensive End (DE)

In a traditional 4-3, the DE is the pass rusher, the sack machine. In the 3-4, they must be more than that. Much like the NG, more often than not, the DE will have to act almost like a DT/DE hybrid that can both draw a double team to free up the linebackers (the outside linebackers in this case) and also have the skill set to rush the passer.

Irish DEs You Should Know: Stephon Tuitt (#7), Kapron Lewis-Moore (#98), Sheldon Day (#91), Jarron Jones (#94)

“Cat” Linebacker

The Cat (also known as the “Jack” on some teams), is the true pass rushing specialist of the 3-4. This is actually a role the Irish have yet to truly fill in previous iterations of their defense as the defensive ends have been the primary sack machines. For an example of an ideal Cat linebacker, think DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys. Often times, you will see the Cat line up as if he were a defensive lineman as seen below:

Much like other positions in the 3-4, the Cat linebacker must also have the ability to preform more than one function as they are expected to drop into coverage from time to time.

Irish Cats You Should Know: Prince Shembo (#55), Ishaq Williams (#11)

“Will” Linebacker

The Will, or weak side linebacker, gets its name from the side of the offensive line that they line up against. This “weak side” of the line is most often the side of the line (bisecting at the center position) that does not have the tight end. The job here is simple: make plays on your side.

Irish Wills You Should Know: Dan Fox (#48), Carlo Calabrese (#44)

“Mike” Linebacker

The “Mike” (traditionally the middle linebacker in a 4-3 front) functions much like the Will. Their job is to make plays on the “strong side” (the side with the TE) of the line. Additionally, the Mike is often the quarterback of the defense, calling audibles and making pre-snap adjustments. The player filling this position is most often the best linebacker on the team and will often lead their squad in tackles.

Irish Mikes You Should Know: Manti Te’o (#5), Manti Te’o (#5), Manti Te’o (#5)

“Dog” Linebacker

The “Dog” (sometimes called the “Sam” or strong-side linebacker) is the coverage specialist of the linebacker corps. Most often matched against an opposing tight end, back, and, at times, a wide receiver, they are somewhat of a LB/CB hybrid in this style of defense.

Irish Dogs You Should Know: Danny Spond (#13), Ben Councell (#30), Romeo Okwara (#45)

Cornerback (CB)

Fairly simple here–these are the guys that try to break up passes and cause all of ND fandom to have heart attacks like we did last year against Michigan (nope, still not over it).

Irish CBs You Should Know: Bennett Jackson (#2), Lo Wood (#23), KeiVarae Russell (#6), Elijah Shumate (#22), Josh Atkinson (#33), Jalen Brown (#21)–yep, all of ’em

Strong Safety (SS)

Part of the last line of defense, the SS plays a bit closer to the line than his counterpart and often lines up on the strong side. They can do a bit of everything: stop the run, cover receivers, and on rare occasions come in like a bat out of hell on a blitz.

Irish SSs You Should Know: Jamoris Slaughter (#26), Chris Salvi (#24)

Free Safety (FS)

The “center fielder” that is almost always dropped back in a zone, serving as the de facto last line of defense.

Irish FSs You Should Know: Zeke Motta (#17), Austin Collinsworth (#28), Dan McCarthy (#15)

Gap Assignments and Wreaking Havoc

So now that we’ve covered the “who” of the defense it is time to examine what exactly they do. In order to properly understand how the 3-4 (or really any defense) works, knowledge of gaps and gap assignment is a must.

As diagrammed above, there are three gaps that are mirrored across the offensive line for a total of six. The “A” gap is the interior gap between the center and guards. The NG is primarily responsible for these gaps, often attacking the center directly and then moving to the gap in which the play is going towards. The “B” gap is the exterior gap of the line in between the tackles and guards, typically falling into DE territory. Finally, the “C” gaps define the area outside the tackle box. While this is usually an assignment handled by the outside linebackers (Cat and Dog), this is also a gap that a DE chooses to attack on a straight pass rush.

Ideally, on a run, the three defensive lineman will attract the attention of all five offensive linemen, which should also plug three gaps as well. This then frees up all 4 linebackers to make a play on the ball carrier with only the TE and possible a FB to worry about.

Let’s put this theory into action with the play diagrammed below:

Moving from left to right, we see the weak-side DE attack the B gap in front of him. As we are going to assume everything is perfect here, this action draws a double team from the weak-side tackle and guard. The NG attacks the strong-side A gap and the strong-side DE attacks the B gap right next to it. This puts the highlighted guard in a very interesting spot as he now has to pick which defender to double team.

This leaves all the line backers unblocked by the offensive line. For the Dog and Cat, they will contain the C gap. The Will has a wide open shot at the weak-side A gap, allowing for easy penetration past the line, which would likely take the FB out of the equation early. The Mike is free to pick either the strong-side A or B gap, depending on how the offense handles the play. Of course should the play move away from either of these two options, he will be free to pursue it as well. The end result here is that all four linebackers have a legitimate shot at disrupting the play before it even crosses the line of scrimmage.

Again, this proposed sequence is an ideal situation, but it shows how proper gap assignments and containment can result in a scarily effective run defense; however, the true joy in my opinion, is how the 3-4 handles a pass rush.

Much like a 4-3, the 3-4 will usually rush four defenders on every play. An example of a basic pass rush with the Cat is shown below:

Unlike the 4-3, in which the defensive line almost exclusively rushes (save for some of the more exotic blitz packages), the setup of the 3-4 shines allows fourth rusher can really come from anywhere. While the Cat may be the pass rushing specialist, that doesn’t mean he will always do so.

To see what I mean, let’s look at another play:

In this scenario, all three defensive linemen are crashing down towards the strong side of the line. This leaves the weak-side tackle with a seemingly one-on-one match up with the “expected” pass rusher, the Cat. However, in this play, the Cat drops back and the Will blitzes through the B gap. Should the tackle’s focus be on the Cat, he will likely be beaten by the much quicker linebacker. As an additional bonus, the Will is shooting through a gap that has a shorter distance to the QB as well, leaving very little reaction time for the backs to pick up the blitz.

This is just one example of the myriad of combinations that Diaco can throw at an offense as the fourth rusher can come from anywhere, including the safeties and corners. This ability to create confusion on just a basic four man rush makes any additional blitzers even more effective. An opposing line that struggles with just the four man rush in a 3-4 will find themselves eaten alive by blitzes.

The final wrinkle is, of course, only rushing three and dropping eight men back into coverage. While this has been seen in 4-3 defense as well, the difference here is that the eighth pass defender is a more mobile linebacker instead of a much slower DE (or God forbid, a lumbering DT).

The Nickel

So all of the above is great, but what happens when the offense tries to spread the Irish out and comes out with three or four wide? The answer: the nickel package. The nickel derives its name from the five defensive backs in the formation (get it, a nickel!), one of which replaces a linebacker. For a 3-4 team like the Irish, this means that the Dog is sent off as shown below:

One of the first things that you will notice is that the Cat is once again lined up in as a defensive lineman, creating a four man pass rush. While the alignment is technically a 3-3-5, in practice, it is practically the same nickel package you’d see from a 4-3 team.

The “$” position replacing the Dog denotes the nickelback (no, not the crappy “rock” band). While traditionally the nickelback is the third CB on the depth chart, the Irish, and many other teams have employed yet another hybrid position in order to make up for a lack of depth. Last season, Jamoris Slaugther filled this role, which Diaco dubbed the “Star” linebacker. This position was a super-hybrid of sorts combining elements of safety, linebacker, and cornerback.

This season, expect the Irish to take a much different route. In his most recent presser, Kelly stated that he was very comfortable with all of his cornerbacks and plans to leave Slaughter at safety unless more catastrophic injures happen (please, God, no). While I do not share in Kelly’s optimism on the CB unit thus far (too many unproven guys), what this tells us is that Notre Dame will likely have a corner fill the nickelback role in 2012.

On the flipside, if you see Slaugther or another safety slide down into this position, start panicking because this means Kelly doesn’t trust CB #3 to cover a wide receiver.

Looking to Navy

So that sums up the basics on how the Irish run their 3-4 scheme against most offenses. How do they apply this to a triple option team like Navy though? Tune in next week to find out.

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