Such a Tease: The History of the 3-4 Defense and Another

Preview Shot
by Todd on Jul 1, 2009, @ RollBamaRoll.com

In writing the 3-4 defense primer for this year's edition for Yea Alabama, I was forced to cut a lot of the
"history" aspects due to space limitations (and the fact that OTS's O-Line article went twice as long as originally
planned, with sexy awesome results), but a lot of it was fairly interesting stuff that I enjoyed researching and I'm
sure a lot of you would be interested in. But, being the doofus that I am, I didn't bother saving the unused text
after the article was submitted so....yeah. Thankfully, NFL Gridiron Gab has a great rundown on its history and
some interesting notes on our own beloved Nicktator and his development into one of the top coaches in the
country under Bill Belichick.

When Belichick arrived (in Cleveland after a successful stint as DC of the New York Giants, a 3-4 team), he
began dismantling not just the team but, in many respects, the entire Browns organization to be able to rebuild
it. From changing the way the Browns practiced, traveled and even ate, there was nothing he didn’t put his
hands on.

Sound familiar? Not only did Saban learn about defense from one of the best defensive minds in the NFL, it
would appear that the groundwork for The Process was laid in Cleveland as well. Further:

"Bill found a defensive coordinator he really liked in Nick Saban," said current Virginia HC Al Groh who was
an assistant on Belichick’s Browns staff. "Even though the defense was the part of the team that Bill felt the
most passionate about, he felt comfortable in putting Nick in charge of it. And Nick’s expertise was in the 4-3
— that was consistent with his background, that’s what he was familiar with — so that’s the defense he put in."

Two things to note here: First, Belichick was comfortable enough with Saban's abilities that he turned over the
part of the team that got him the HC job in Cleveland to begin with, despite the fact that Saban ran a different
defense than the one that had taken the Giants to two Super Bowl titles in five years with Belichick (and
Lawrence Taylor) wreaking havoc on NFL offenses. Second, Saban continued to use the 4-3 scheme he was
more familiar with from the time he took over as DC for the Browns up until his move to the Miami Dolphins.
If you'll remember, Saban's defenses at LSU were 4-3 based defenses (you can actually download one of his
LSU playbooks here, and every base diagram calls for four down linemen), and even during his time at Miami
he was essentially running a 4-3 defense though most of his time with the Dolphins. I would happily wager that
Jason Taylor, a prototypical "Jack" linebacker if there ever was one, had more to do with his move to the 3-4
scheme than anything. Taylor, who played weakside linebacker for Akron before moving to defensive end his
senior year, was a versatile enough athlete to play with his hand down and standing up and gave Saban the
ability to completely disguise his defensive front, something the 3-4 is tailor made for (and a topic I get into in
Yea Alabama). Anyway, it's a great read and it ties in nicely with this Yea Alabama tease, so go check it out,
right after you pre-order your copy of Yea Alabama '09 (remember, you need 42 copies). As for the tease:
 ...ooooooooo, pretty diagram...

ed.- Since I wasn't able to show a lot of the text that goes along with the diagram above, several astute
commentators over at the tidesports forums have noted that the gap on the weakside is open, leaving the
defense prone to a counter. The diagram is meant to illustrate the responsibilities of the Mike and Will in run
support, i.e. filling any open gaps left by the down linemen. In this diagram, which is a straight power run to
the strong (TE) side, the ball is already snapped and the defense has ostensibly read the play and is flowing
towards the ball, meaning the Mike fills the open gap on the play side while the Will is left to "scrape" the play.
Should they read counter to the weakside, the Will steps up to fill the open gap while the Mike trails or,
conversely, if the back sees a cutback in the open A gap on the weakside, either the Will cuts back with him or
one of the safeties comes up to make the tackle. Just to clear up any confusion...