Football X's and O's: Michigan's City Coverage
Cody Alexander is a former Baylor GA and current DC at the high school level in TX. He's one of my favorite football "coach twitter" users that I follow, as I learn a lot about the defensive side of the ball from him. He's mostly a 2-high safety disciple (hence, his blog name: Match Quarters), but he's willing to give credit to other coverages/defenses that have value.
In a post out today, he looked at Don Brown's "City" coverage, which is similar to the Dave Aranda "Key" coverage that he used to run mostly at Wisconsin and still does a bit at LSU. Neither coach runs pure 2-high safety Cover 1 as much as they used to, but with the reemergence of more two-back offensive formations (typically with an H-back or "Y-Off") and what I expect to be more two-high zones from Brown, I would expect to see more of this two-high safety Cover 1 look, because it disguises the coverage a bit pre-snap. Michigan used this a bit against Wisconsin last year and Purdue in 2017 (and more in 2016) before Brown started really preferring to stay true to his Base personnel (which forced the safety over the slot rather than a dedicated nickel, because Peppers was better suited from his Viper spot to play Nickel than Hudson is).
It's a good read for those technically/schematically inclined: https://matchquarters.com/2019/06/07/keying-the-h-back-versus-y-off-or-i-formations/
Great find - my head hurts reading these types of posts and when Seth does his write ups but I'm trying to learn more about the technical elements of play design and player responsibilities. Is there any good 101 level type resource that would get me a better baseline terminology understanding that anyone can recommend?
I dunno, but I suggest following Space Coyote if you're on Twitter. That's the quickest way I've found to learn that you don't know shit about football.
These days I'm learning that Tite and Mint fronts are similar, even though I don't necessarily know what that means or if we use either or the pros and cons involved. The real value is when I hear somebody talk about "mint front" I can now nod my head confidently and say something brilliant like "Yeah, that's what Kirby's running at Georgia", and then go back to thinking about dick and fart jokes.
Why thank you. I did post an article on the Tite front last Friday (a bit similar to what Seth posted in his Neck Sharpies this week).
http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/2019/05/football-fundamentals-tite-front-defense.html
Tite and Mint are similar and that they both put defensive ends in a 4i-technique (inside shoulder of the OT) and a NT in a 0-tech (immediately opposite the Center). Tite relies on OLB/Safety hybrids as "overhang" defenders to box everything in, but they are generally off the line of scrimmage and a bit away from the run box. The Mint has a more traditional "Sam" OLB that is right off the edge, similar to Jake Ryan's old role under Mattison's Under front. They are similar because of the DL, but there are some distinctions in how they align, assignments, and goals.
I know Coach Alexander will be releasing a video with more distinctions between Mint and Tite sometime this summer. So you can look out for that as well.
hey, here's your missing comma after the word dick: ,
You're welcome.
I'll plug my own site I guess: http://breakdownsports.blogspot.com/
The easiest way to learn about basics are through the tabs at the top, where I have sections for "Football Fundamentals" and "Nomenclature". I've been meaning to try to bridge the basic and technically a little more on the basic side this off-season, but haven't gotten around to it yet (what does 11 personnel mean, what does a 3x1 formation mean, what does s 4-2 defense mean), but there is quite a bit there about the basics of a large variety of plays/coverages/techniques.
Thanks SC - I don't think I've spent enough time on your site. I'll check it out!
Good stuff. It will be interesting to see our nickel personnel against spread looks. Will quickly learn whether the staff trusts Vincent Gray or J’Marick Woods more.
I'd bet $1 we see the corner nickel and the safety nickel deployed throughout the season like in 2016.
Safety personnel is interesting and I'm higher on the group than some others: Metellus will be somewhere between good and great, Dax has all the tools and Hawkins and Woods have intriguing skillsets.
Sounds like Hawkins was the nickel safety in spring but where Dax plays and how quickly he gets up to speed looms heavily there.
I think it'll depend on the competition. If it's a team of speedsters similar to OSU, it will be Gray. If it's a team that doesn't deploy much of a threat in the slot, I think Woods will get the call. My scheme knowledge is not too deep, but I sincerely think that the biggest mistake with the defense in last year's OSU game was not replacing Watson with Ambry Thomas. Watson just couldn't keep up with the OSU receivers. I think he gave up 3 touchdowns.
I appreciate Watson as a player, and he was very good much more than he was ever bad. But that was a tough matchup for him. In desperate situations you sometimes have to take a chance with the raw talent over technique and knowledge.
I met Vincent Gray the day of or day b4 the Juwan hire, right after having an accidental drive by stare down with Warde in the parking lot. What a nice kid with a great big happy smile Gray is!
Thanks. Sometimes I love this place.
I much prefer the "tackle their guy after not that many yards" coverage to the "let their guy get a lot of yards before tackling" him coverage. I know that the former is a much more difficult scheme to run consistently, but it seems we have a lot more success with it than the latter.
I love when they call the touchdown play. You would think they would call it every play, but alas this is Michigan...one must prove they are worthy.
If this were about last year vs. OSU, it would be Michigan's Shitty Coverage
am
i
right
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that
Zing.
But yes, you are right. Like, you could tell exactly how Ohio State was going to score pre-snap.
Au contraire. You are left about it.