| Disguising Half Field Coverages in a 4-2-5 Defense
Our deep safeties call our base coverage determined on where their help is lined up at the snap of the ball. Our coaches will also use coverage that will help our corners play short routes or help double inside or outside receivers. In our normal situations we feel like our deep safeties can do a better job on the field calling our coverage when they know where their flat or underneath coverage is coming from (help). Example, take a two receiver set with our help in the box, we would normally play a loose two cover to this side of the formation but if the split between the number one receiver and number two receiver is so great that our free safety can't get on top of the number one receiver if number two runs a flat route we're in trouble. In this case the free safety will make a combo call that will man up the corner with number 1 and the free safety will play outside man on the number two receiver with linebacker combo help inside. If we had called two cover to that set from the sideline we would be setting up our free safety for failure. I like having him call the coverage so if he doesn't get over the top; I just remind him that he was the one that called the coverage. In reality he can see it better and knows his limitations. These are some examples of our half field coverage and how we call them based on our help. Take double twins 1 back alignment, if our help is head up or outside on the number two/ inside receiver we play robber coverage. If our help is inside the number two receiver or in the box we would we would run a soft two cover. If our help is blitzing then we know we are in some type of man cover. Because of things we are doing with the front our help on the opposite side of the formation may be in a different place, our high safety to the other side would call his coverage base on his help in the same way. This applies to our trips coverage also, if our help is lined up on or outside the number two receiver to the trips side we are going to run a coverage that would work both high safeties to the three receiver side which we call our trips coverage. If our help is inside the number two receiver we will play a deuce coverage to the trips side which will allow our weak safety to stay home and double or banjo the one receiver side. Disguise is all about showing a weak box and moving in to make it a strong box, faking a blitz and working back out or showing a strong box and moving to a weak box, overloading one side and slanting back to the other, showing two high safeties and moving to one high safety. We want our strong safety and Rover linebacker to constantly be on the move to disguise our true alignment but not confuse our deep safeties that will be making the secondary calls based on their alignment. Because of the constant movement of our strong safety and rover linebacker we use a system of colors or numbers that let our deep safety know where his final alignment will be. He might end up on number 1 receiver, head up or outside the number two receiver, inside the number two receiver or in the box, or he may be blitzing. By knowing where our help is we can put ourselves in the best coverage possible, move our flat and wall defenders as much as possible for disguise, and also alert our secondary to blitz and option responsibilities.
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About the Author... |
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| Mark Reeve is one of the most successful Texas high school football coaches in the history of the state. He recently retired from state power Cuero, where he led the Gobblers to a combined record of 84-11 over seven seasons. Reeve was also the Cuero athletic director.
Reeve never lost a district game at Cuero and led the Gobblers to the 2004 state finals and to state semi-final appearances in four other seasons (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009). The Gobblers with Reeve produced a 34-game home winning streak. Reeve has an overall coaching mark of 192-37-4 as a head coach at the high school level. His winning percentage is the sixth-highest all-time in Texas high school football. Reeve was inducted in 2007 to the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor. In addition to his time as head coach at Cuero, Reeve was the head coach and athletic director at Plano West from 1999-2002 and went 21-9 there. From 1990 to 1999, Reeve was the head coach and athletic director at Victoria High School. He posted a record of 87-17-4 at Victoria. At Victoria, Reeve and his team were the program with the fourth-most wins (any classification) from 1990 to 1998. Victoria produced seven undefeated district championships (six in a row) and had 39 consecutive district victories. Victoria was the 1993 Class 5A Division II Region IV Champion with a mark of 14-1. Reeve and Padron worked together at Clark High School in San Antonio starting in 1978 when Padron was the head baseball coach and Reeve was the defensive coordinator for football. Padron moved to football offensive coordinator in 1981, and the two coached football together at Clark from 1981 to 1987. With Padron and Reeve coaching offense and defense, respectively, Clark advanced to the state playoffs for seven consecutive seasons. Reeve also has assistant coaching experience from Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Southwest High School in San Antonio, Pearsall High School, and Frisco Junior High. Some of Reeve's other honors include: District Coach of the Year seven times, Mid-Coast Area Coach of the Year twice, Class 5A Bay Area Coach of the Year, two-time Dallas Cowboys High School Coach of the Week, Texas Xtra Prep Coach of the Year, nominated for NFL High School Coach of the Year, and UIL Sponsor Excellence Award. With Reeve as athletic director, other sports also enjoyed unprecedented success. At Cuero, the Gobblers were state track champions three times. At Plano West, three soccer state championships were won, and one tennis title was secured. At Victoria, the boys and girls basketball teams were each state finalists |