An Introduction to The 5-3-1 Triangle Defense By Denauld Brown I would like to introduce to my fellow football coaches, a defensive concept

that I have been working on for last 5 years. I call it the 5-3-1 Triangle Defense. The 5-3-1 Triangle is a single gapping, 3-4 hybrid defense, that first adjusts its self to the offense formation by identifying the middle of the used offensive formation and placing a specific defender transversely across from MO. (Or the Middle Of the formation) The 5 in the 5-3-1 refers to the 5 LOS Defenders (4 down linemen and the Sam linebacker). The 3 in the 5-3-1 refers to the two inside linebackers and the stacked safety (Mike, Will, and $). The 1 in the 5 -3-1 refers to the Free (Field) Safety.

Q: Is the 5-3-1 Triangle a balanced single gapping defense? A: In essence, every 2 high defense is imbalanced. In more traditional defenses, balance can be created by walking down or overlapping a Safety. In the 5-3-1 Triangle, we keep the Sam linebacker on line of scrimmage. This player serves as the primary overlap, allowing the defense to stay single gapped. However, this also allows this scheme to keep the pre-snap disguise longer, making it more effective. This allows us to maintain 2 high look by choice, not necessity.

To me, that gives the defensive coordinator an extreme amount of latitude, flexibility, with the secondary. Q: How did the 5-3-1 Triangle comes about? A: With the immergence of the spread offense and it's off-shoots, traditional defensive schemes have been attacked like never before. These type of offenses has exposed us defensive gurus for the traditional coaches that we really are. Q: How does the 5-3-1 Triangle defend the Spread offense? A: To me, the biggest culprit is the in defending the spread offense is the hash. Binding a defense to the hash, in my opinion is a mistake that many coaches perform. This has has been a large contributor to why the spread offense is exploding; with a larger volume of plays and points. This could be a likely reason to why the Spread Offense has been so successful over the last 10 years. Q: What alternatives do the 5-3-1 Triangle offer to Hash Binding? A: I challenge defensive coaches to reconsider binding your entire defense tothe hashes, and start putting more emphasis on the opponents offensive sets. By running a hash defense your tendencies in the middle of the field are skewed. Chances are you will be more likely stay in your base shell or become a simplistic 2 high shell defense, the majority of the time. This allows your defensive schemes to become predictable. So we are waiting for the defensive gods to bring us our messiah and with him, the answers to the spread that we so seek. In the meantime offensive coaches have exponentially grown the spread, spawning honorable men and fresh ideas, like Gary Patterson and his 4-2-5 defense. In my opinion, the 4-2-5 is the best defense played in the college game today that can manage the spread. It is as close to an answer for the spread as I have seen this decade; but who in the top 25 runs it other than TCU? It saddens me that offenses have devised schemes and philosophies that allow for over 100 plays of offense a game, as well as averaging 1 play per 10 seconds or less. Actually this is an accepted norm by some defensive coaches. However, I must put my foot down and tell my defensive colleagues, it is not! Tim Murphy is both the Head football coach and offensive play caller at Harvard University. In my opinion he is one of the best offensive play callers in the country. His call sequences are an amazing piece of work. I have encountered his offense that was 50/50 in every single category from personnel, to hash, to down and distance, to formation, and to run/pass ratio. Needless to say they won several Ivy League Championships during my tenure as a defensive coach and coordinator in that league.

For all you smart guys who call defense out there, if you face a play caller like that, who can maintain that type of balance, and at the end the game accomplish a 50/50 run/pass ratio, you can you look like a novice; but only if you are not prepared or even worse, unaware. So where do we start? The first thing we need to do is reduce the amount of variables we are using during the opponent our break down. I have found it very useful to stop looking at formations so specifically but rather, look at them in a generic manner. Instead of making yourself and your players memorize non-systematic formations, make it easy on yourself by identifying these sets as either even or odd. It is determined by the location of MO whether a set is either even or odd. Instead of looking at a single specific break down scenario as; 2nd and 8, left hash, 11 personnel, QB Gun, Ace right? You can look at it like this; 2nd and 8, even set by result of a 1st and 10 run. This allows you to study the results of the previous play in your break down with more examination rather than locking yourself to the dynamic of the current play pre-snap. This can dramatically reduce the amount variables that offensive coaches know that we use. They take advantage of our slave mentality and ultimately earns an offensive play caller 110 offensive plays a game I have done a lot of work on this defense and it will take several articles and clinics to disclose the finer points of it going forward. I fell it is the answer to the spread offense. The first thing I decided to do was to eliminate the traditional lettering of the defensive positions. I think is important to have them as references for your play book. By doing this you now have eliminated a step in the whole equation that will help as I will explain further. Instead of the Will linebacker being aligned in a 30 technique, responsible for A gap with flow away and responsible for B" with flow too, and in the passing game, responsible for the hook to curl; but rather you are now a 3 linebacker who always has A gap and is responsible for apexing between the declaration #2 to #1. That it is much cleaner statement and turns you from coach to teacher. I will not be able to get into particulars in this first article but the 5-3-1 Triangle has allowed me to merge both the alignment with assignment. In this system for all defenders including the secondary know how to align to offensive line leverage points. Ask yourself why a 3 technique cant be a Tackle, Linebacker, or a safety? Now a 3 linebacker just simply does what 3s do. We as human beings ask questions for two reasons. First, we ask a question to get an answer. But we also ask questions to simulate thought. I have created this defense by asking one question; Why is football an 11 man game?