South Florida is starting to churn out a ton of safety/linebacker hybrids. This year alone, you have Bruce Davis, Rodrick Archer, Adrienne Talan and Khalid McGee. These are some of the best pure football players in the region because of their versatility and aggressive natures.
Some teams like Duke and North Carolina are starting to feature these S/LB hybrids in their base defenses. A former South Florida four-star, Jeremy Cash, has become a star in Duke's 4-2-5. Lately, we've been using these guys as LBs on passing downs (Cornelius last year, Grace this year).
For the defensive folks on the board (Wildcat, WestEndZone, etc.): how viable is the 4-2-5 as a base defense at Miami? What do you find to be the best ways to utilize these types of players?
Roderick Archer highlights
Bruce Davis highlights
Adrienne Talan highlights
Khalid McGee highlights
Thanks for asking for my opinion, Dmoney.
I think the 425 would be great for our conference and for our recruiting pool. With the explosion of spread and hurry up offenses these days, I have to imagine that any nickel based system is a safe way to go. I would take the 425 over the 335, but my opinion is biased. I spent three years coaching in a 425.
The two schools that made the 425 relevant are TCU and Boise State. We used TCU terminology/rules. Our staff took a trip to Ft. Worth to meet with Gary Patterson and their staff. We also had a Div. III DC come to our school and give us a weekend long crash course on the TCU 425. The 425 is a sectional, no-huddle defense, with a lot of moving parts, turning it into a bit of an amorphous blob. It can be a 44, 43, 42, or 33, all in the same personnel. The front's responsibilities are completely independent of the secondary's; and the secondary features split field coverage, meaning the one half of the secondary's responsibilities are independent of the other half's responsibilities. Everything is taught sectionally. One position group would have to learn a max of 8-15 terms. THATS IT.
To stay on topic, since this a recruiting thread; let's talk about the secondary and recruiting:
The 425, at it's core, is a nickel defense (obviously). Base-ing out of nickel personnel means that you always have a "five spoke" secondary. Those five spokes are (from field to boundary): FC [field corner], S$, F$, W$, and BC [boundary corner]. Every position pre-aligns based on placement of the ball. Your best Corner plays to the boundary.
Most teams like to attack the 425 to the boundary, both in the run and pass game. See
http://www.canesinsight.com/threads...Cs!/page5?highlight=automatic+alignment+rules (Talking a little bit about attacking the boundary). He has to be your best cover guy and your best tackler from that position (Tracy Howard). The field guy can be less athletic. Usually bigger corners do well in that spot (Artie Burns). He will be in deep coverage most of the time, especially if you base your 425 out of quarters coverage, as most 425's do.
The next position group to talk about is Safety. This position group is really cool, and a lot of what DMoney said was, well, on the money. Playing with three Safeties allows you to specialize each of those positions. The S$ position, like stated earlier, always aligns to the field. Additionally, S$ is always playing from an inverted alignment. Inverted meaning that he is never playing deep like a traditional safety. This position is exactly what Dmoney is talking about. You have a guy who is athletic enough to play like a traditional nickel, but has enough bulk to hang in the run game. The S$ NEEDS to have a ***** or two loose. He needs to be incredibly aggressive as the main force player in the run game. Take a look at a few clips from TCU against Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin was the essence of power football at the time. Be sure to watch #28, their S$. Several times in the game hes taking on 300+ lb guards and just chopping their legs out. Tough player.
[video=youtube;UzaJ3Yuchh0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaJ3Yuchh0[/video]
#28 is no specimen by any means. I think we can recruit some monsters for the position.
Weak Safety is essentially the same position. The W$ spends split time deep and inverted. Logic would tell you that you need a guy that is a bit more athletic (less linebacker-ish), but that's not necessarily true. The W$ only has to play on the boundary hash. He has a lot less ground to cover than the F$. The W$ would definitely be the smaller of the two, but not by much. He too needs to play as a primary force defender in the run game, just as the S$ does. We would an easy time recruiting this type of kid, just like S$
The last spot would be the Free Safety. He is the most active of the group. He's always deep, and he roams both field and boundary. He aligns to what's called the "Read Side" which is just the secondary strength (since it's independent of the front's strength). He needs to be a smart kid. He also needs to be your best open field tackler.
Patterson, and most 425 guys play an inverted cover-2 coverage (Cov.7, Robber or Cov.2) to traditional two back sets. The F$ aligns to the strength of the formation with heels at 8 yards. He's playing robber technique on the #2 receiver (usually a TE). Oversimplified, robbing the #2 receiver means that he'll take him man to man only if he releases vertical (While remaining flat footed during his read [as opposed to backpedaling]). If he releases any other way, the F$ will be late help on #1. Playing with heels at 8 allows the F$ to play as a third inside linebacker. All 425 run fits account for the F$ as a primary run defender. He needs to be your best football player. He needs to hit like a LB and cover like a $.
If I would pick our 425 back 5:
FC: Gunter/Burns
S$: Grace/Carter/Bush
F$: Crawford/Jenkins/Bush
W$: Bush/Carter
BC: Howard
