Last year we saw a ton of Cover-3 zone and man. 3 deep, 4 under. At its core this is a super simple defense that is ultra-conservative. Meaning, it's intended to be equally effective against the run and pass, but not intrinsically OVER-effective against either. It is designed to prevent the big play - and it was pretty obvious that MDO was really scared of giving up explosive plays. I still remember the Kansas State game where they were spreading us out 4-wide and we are still sitting in our base 4-3 front, and they were gashing us running their zone read game by the leverage we were giving them. Not 30 yards at a time but 7 or 8, over and over and over and over again.
What the Cover-3 absolutely requires to be most effective is a dominant, game-changing Free Safety with ball skills and a defensive line that can stuff the run. I didn't and still don't see a difference maker on our depth chart at safety. I think our DL play will be improved against the run simply based on the personnel that we are returning, particularly at DT.
MDO seemed to get more creative and aggressive as the year went on, flipping fronts and bringing pressure, etc. Honestly I give him somewhat of a pass - he took a depleted unit and actually turned in decent numbers at the end of the year. We got quite the infusion of talent with the incoming class, but there will be lots of growing pains I am sure...we are asking a lot of our freshmen, especially in the secondary.
I can't see him straying too far from what he did last year, but if he finds that he can trust his secondary that will free him up to do a lot of different things.
Good post. I'd disagree that the Cover 3 needs a gamechanger at FS. What it needs is an instinctual player who takes all the right angles. Of course, it's nice to have Sean Taylor as a single high Safety, but Cover 3 works with a Jim Leonard.
The real problem lies in showing Cover 3 and ending up in Cover 3. Another issue with Cover 3 is what Dynasty, myself and a few others discussed a couple months ago: exchanges. When you take a bunch of guys who have never played zone before, there is going to be a serious transition. The timing of a Cover 3 zone is insanely important. Otherwise, teams (like our opponents last year) simply flood a zone with combination patterns and you see guys sitting down on shallow routes and being hit over the top (see UNC, VTech, BC). That kind of goes to Auto's point about a gamechanging Safety who covers that up, but realistically I'd hope our guys pass-off WRs better than sitting around waiting for the next superstar Centerfielder.
My hope is that D'Ono was simply so handcuffed that he had to BOTH keep it simple and sit there in the Cover 3. I can't tell you why he did what he did, but I'd like to see us switch between Cover 3 and Cover 2 a little more when we do go zone. And, I'd like to see us switch between Man Under and Cover 4 more often. Plenty of High School kids know how to show something pre-snap and roll to a coverage at the snap. There's no reason our players can't at least minimally be able to feel more comfortable switching. They've now had a full spring, summer and fall. I expect the defense to get better as the season goes on. Something that hasn't happened in some time.
