3-4 defense?

[Eric the Red]

Great post by Hanc in the updates section.

HANC

After visiting the recruiting forum, and seeing another LB being pursued…..someone mentioned that we may try to get 7 or so LB in this class… is that a sign that the DC would "like" to run a 3-4 once he gets enough depth? Would assume so.

 

[cg_8]

No.

4-3 Quarters

 

[Decked]

We don't have enough LBs for that to currently happen. Maybe in a year or two.

 

[zoogs]

3-4 / 5-2 are all the same. I think we don't have enough interior DL for this to happen right now. And the DEs, that's also a spot of weakness. Those are the guys who would become 3-4 OLBs.

I don't think this is anything more than a wrinkle they talked about with the Davis twins, though. Is there anything in Banker's history with this? Primarily he ran a 4-3, right?

* I think I did read something about a 1-gap 34 front, though, which is interesting and sounds a little unconventional for a 3-4. Kind of like Bo, under whom we had a 2-gap 4-3. Something like that.

 

[alexhortdog95]

Great post by Hanc in the updates section. HANC

After visiting the recruiting forum, and seeing another LB being pursued…..someone mentioned that we may try to get 7 or so LB in this class… is that a sign that the DC would "like" to run a 3-4 once he gets enough depth? Would assume so.

Mistake, IMHO. Here's why:

The 3-4 is one of the more complex defensive schemes to run in football, college or pro. It places two gap responsibility on your interior linemen, and it frees both safeties up to defend the deep halves of the field. Therefore, it's more built to stop the pass, not the run.

If you don't recruit the linemen that can physically play the two gap responsibility well, and you have your two inside backers (Mike and Will, respectively) that can't shed inside blocks, you got problems.

And it's not like the problem has been stopping the pass at Nebraska.

The Sam and Jack (two outside backers in a 3-4) must play coverage well. This means they need to tackle well in space, be able to shed blocks, and come up in run support WHILE STILL maintaining gap security on the outsides. This means that your Mike and Will are going to have to be very, very disciplined to play the scheme. This also puts your corners on an island with the receivers.

And, if you watched Alabama play either Auburn or the Buckeyes this year, you saw how that went.

They need to stick with the defense they have now. I wouldn't expect a defensive philosophy change just a few weeks into getting the job.

 

[alexhortdog95]

P.S. - I guess that's why Nick went away from the 3-4, lol....

http://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2013/01/nick_saban_says_hes_still_comm.html

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Alabama’s “regular” defense was and is a 3-4 scheme.

Will that be changing?

Some people would argue a change already has come. Gradually, the Crimson Tide has morphed away from three linemen and four linebackers.

“We probably play 80 percent 4-3,” Coach Nick Saban acknowledged in December.

So if that is more of the regular alignment, how committed is Saban to saying that the 3-4 still is the base defense?

“I'm very committed to it, if anybody would play regular people against us,” he said. “But we're playing against so much three and four wideouts all the time, we're in nickel or dime. That's where the 3-4 defense is not really our base defense. You can pass rush better out of some kind of even front or flex front.”

 

[The Dude]

No. More linebackers would indicate 4-3. More DEs and DE/LB hybrids, with fewer linebackers, would indicate 3-4.