American Football Monthly - Maximizing Your Down Lineman in the 3-5-3 Defense (2024)

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by: Mike Kuchar
© More from this issue

It is often said that necessity is the mother of all invention. Suchhas been the case with the trend of the 3-5-3 (or the hybrid 3-3-5), orodd stack defense. While the scheme’s origins trace back to the mid1990’s, when defensive coordinators Joe Lee Dunn at Mississippi Stateand Charlie Strong at South Carolina began penning its initialblueprints – now it’s trickled down to over a couple dozen teams at thecollegiate level and some high school programs have even started tocatch on.

The necessity is getting more speed on the field –especially when facing the spread offenses that have infiltrated thefootball landscape. There is no better way to do that, then by trimmingthe fat, literally. Coordinators are finding means to get more agileathletes in space and letting them run around and make plays. Nowherehas this change been more apparent than on the defensive line where theideals of agility and quickness have replaced the traditional, oldschool concept of having massive lineman plugging two gaps and justtaking up space.

While all teams use three defensive linemen in thescheme, how they use them is an entirely different issue. According tothe coaches we spoke with there are two schools of line play in the oddstack. The first is an attacking and stunting front, movement on nearlyevery snap- that is usually backed up by man free coverage in thesecondary (Diagram 1).

Diagram 1.

The second principle is using the odd stack as abase front, as a read and then react defense while playing some type ofzone coverage, usually cover three behind (Diagram 2). We’ll presentboth philosophies in this article.

Diagram 2.

But before we do that, we should take a look at thetype of personnel it takes to run it successfully. Most coaches feel ittakes a different kind of defensive lineman to fit the scheme of theodd stack. So if you’re a high school coach wondering if you got theplayers up front to play the scheme or if you’re thinking aboutincorporating the 3-3-5 as your base defense at the collegiate level,it would help you to know exactly what type of players to look for.

Noseguard - The real “truedefensive lineman” of the group. He’ll see plenty of double teamsinside with the center and guards and he needs the strength to fendthem off. He’ll be asked to play the double A gaps, so he needs to bebigger and squattier. Air Force Academy’s noseguard is in the range of245-280 pounds, while the University of Tulsa’s man in the middle topsout at 330 lbs. Both play in the odd stack.

Defensive End (tight side) -The stronger of the two ends, mainly because teams have a tendency ofrunning to the tight end side. He should be strong enough to handledouble teams from the tight end in the power o run game. Most of theseends at the college level are LB converts, because speed is anecessity. They need to get off the ball quickly and have the abilityto redirect on the snap.

Defensive End (open side) -Needs to be your best pass rushing defensive lineman. Playing away fromthe tight end, he’ll see a lot of option schemes and bootlegs. This isgenerally the most athletic d-lineman. He must be able to play well inspace, especially if teams like to put their split end to the fieldside of the formation.

Perhaps no other team has had more success using theodd stack than Georgia Military College, who since implementing thescheme has finished in the top 5 nationally in total defense fourconsecutive seasons while winning the NJCAA National Championship in2001, the first year they switched from the 3-4. Head coach BertWilliams and his staff traveled north to South Carolina to meet withStrong and was impressed with the type of movement he was getting withhis defensive lineman. It has been a staple of GMC ever since. Williamsplays the noseguard as a zero technique (head up the center) and twoends on five techniques (outside shoulder of the offensive tackle). Buton the snap, the three linemen up front could be anywhere, depending onwhat stunt he calls.

“On every snap our defensive line is moving. It’s amore aggressive style defense and it is a rule-breaker defense for theoffensive line. As a life-long offensive line coach, this front is abooger to block because these guys are coming at you in so manydifferent ways. The offensive line can’t fire off the ball and drivethem out because they don’t know where they’re going,” says Williams.Williams and defensive coordinator Taylor Burks have over 40 differentblitzes in their package but keeps it simple for the guys up front. Allthe noseguard listens to is the “strong” or “weak” call in the huddle,then on the snap shoots the gap opposite the call, so he’ll never beforced to play two gaps. For example, in his “Mash Weak” scheme, thenose shoots opposite to clear the gap for the mike and buck linebacker(Diagram 3).

Diagram 3.

The defensive ends, if not included in the blitz, willalways perform what Burks calls a “jacks” stunt. That is getting a hardup field rush outside the tackle, taking on contain responsibilities inthe pass.

Even high school programs are getting in on the act.David Prince, the defensive coordinator at Lake City High School inSouth Carolina, switched to the front two years ago and has seen hisopponent’s offensive production cut in half. “We move our front 90percent of the time. It’s something we can’t do enough of. We do somuch stunting, they have to have quick feet and be able to redirect. Ifa kid can’t run, he’ll have to go play offense for us,” says Prince.

But stunting is a technique that must be coached.The key is coming full speed, but under control. One of the drills thatPrince does with his d-line is a three step stunt move where on thefirst step they move their right or left foot depending on thedirection of the stunt. The second step is up field to get penetration,and the third step is redirection down the line of scrimmage.

Ron Burton, the defensive line coach at the AirForce Academy teaches what he calls the “angle technique” when hisplayers are working on stunting. On any stunt, either inside oroutside, he coaches an aiming point- the inside hip of the nextadjacent lineman, usually the guards for the two defensive ends. Thereare two reads that will show. First is when that hip comes away fromyou, which usually means that there is a backside pull coming at you.Burton teaches his players to work down the line of scrimmage,expecting trap or counter. The second read is the hip coming directlyat you, which usually means the play is coming to your side. Here, thedefensive lineman is taught to attack and knock the guard back,maintaining his initial gap responsibility. He’s repped the drill sowell, Burton feels that by constantly moving, you’re cutting down theopponents playbook while expanding your teaching time.

“You’re dictating to the offense what they can runagainst you. Teams cannot tee off on you, so they’ll run zone schemes.Now you have all the time in the world just to rep blocking schemes onthe zone play,” says Burton. He’ll even have his defensive line alignabout 18 inches off the line of scrimmage, something uncanny fortraditional d-line play, not to press the line of scrimmage. He callsit an “ability adjustment” depending on how good the offensive linemanis they’re keying. It’s to prepare to defend any type of blocks theline shows, and to get better angles on movement.

While Williams and Burton’s “you know it’s coming,now try and stop it” approach has worked wonders at their schools,other programs are finding success in the odd stack by lining up andplaying read and react football- without the use of various stunts andblitzes. Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson at the University ofTulsa only stunts on about 10 percent of snaps during a game the courseof the year. His philosophy served him well. The Golden Hurricane iscoming off a 9-4 season, winning the Conference USA Championship thefirst year they’re in the league.

Patterson teaches what he calls “anchor points” tohis defensive line. The term anchor, tells his line to stay put, andread your keys without trying to fly up the field and make plays. “Wedon’t move too much. We will just stay put, especially in short yardagesituations. We want to teach them how to line up and playgap-controlled, fundamental football. We’ll change our alignment but wedon’t like to slant and move a lot. It becomes difficult to fit our rungame responsibilities around them,” says Patterson.

Tulsa also plays the odd stack with a zero techniqueand two five techniques on the line of scrimmage, but they are readersof blocks. The nose has an anchor point of the center’s facemask. Hisjob is to attack and neutralize the center on every snap. The endsanchor point is the outside “V” of the neck of the offensive tackles,and they must learn how to react to three blocks – the down, the baseand the reach. When Patterson wants to bring pressure, he does so byalignment, not by stunting the front. In his stack shade (Diagram 4)

Diagram 4.

he’ll bring an outside linebacker outside the tight end side to playcontain, which tells the end to move inside to a four eye technique(inside eye of the tackle). Patterson preaches gap integrity thatmatters most – the d-line and linebackers are all responsible for agap, and playing out of that gap takes you out of position to makeplays and opens up seams in the defense.

So, whether you’re planning on using it to attack,as an up field scheme or as your base defense, the odd stack has been aproven commodity at the collegiate and high school levels. It will helpyou to match skills with the best athletes the offense can put on thefield on any given snap.

Two different styles ofdefensive line play in the odd stack

Teaching the Angle Technique – AirForce Academy
• Don’t press the line of scrimmage- stay between12-18 inches off the football.
• Stunt into designated gap, stay flat down line ofscrimmage, and don’t work up field.
• Read the near hip of the next adjacent offensivelineman. If it comes to you, knock it back, maintain gap integrity. Ifit goes away, work down L.O.S. looking for a backside pull.

Teaching the Anchor Technique –University of Tulsa
• Crowd the line of scrimmage.
• Burn your eyes on your sight key:
Nose - helmet screws of the center
Ends - outside “V” of the offensive tackle
• Be able to react to a down block or drive block,but do not get reached if you are an end.
• Work to keep offensive lineman from working to thesecond level (linebackers).