Blend Your Youth Football Cover 2 & 3
Coaching youth football defense is an interesting proposition. For starters, it is nothing like coaching a high school or college defense. The same could be said for offense, but at least the offensive run game can look similar to high school football. Here’s why defense is so different. A youth football quarterback cannot hurt you with their arm the way that a high school quarterback can. Stopping the run game is not just priority number one, it is 95% of the job. However; today we do want to look at blending in some Cover 2 with your youth football cover 1 and cover 3.
There is normally no real reason to ever play two deep safeties in youth football. Especially if you are really talking about our definition of “youth football”. Youth football is defined by FirstDown PlayBook as players 12 years old and younger. That extra safety is normally being wasted playing half of the field.
We have been adamant about this here at FirstDown PlayBook over the years for a variety of reasons. Mainly, FirstDown PlayBook believes that teaching youth football fundamentals far outweigh any importance of a youth football coach “out-scheming” another youth football coach.
In our opinion, unless the quarterback can expose your secondary, at least one safety should be down defending the run. Most youth football defenses are better playing any eight man combination linemen and linebackers, similar to what you see above. We have a strong opinion that 95 percent of youth football quarterbacks cannot take a game over with their arm. We are still waiting to be proven wrong.
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Over the past 16 years we have seen some youth football leagues require playing two safeties in the name of safety. Pun is totally intended and so is the absurdity of thinking that having a defender run downhill into the box is safer than playing them there to start with. If this rule is in your Pop Warner league, it is 100% to help the offenses have more success.
Thankfully this does not seem to be the norm. However; if your league does require that you play two safeties or you are facing a very mature Pop Warner quarterback, we have a two deep suggestion to mix in with your normal cover 3 defense.
Before You Install a Youth Football Cover 2 Defense, Look At The Quarterback
The quarterback will almost always be the best athlete on the field at the Pop Warner level. When the ball is snapped, if you are defending the field instead of the ball, that is a big mistake. This brings us to our point today though. What if you run up against a 12 year old quarterback who throws the ball like a 15 year old?
The FirstDown PlayBook youth football version of cover 2 is a hybrid cover 2 man look. This way you are getting man coverage on the wideouts. You are also getting five defenders committed to stopping the run. The bonus comes with your two safeties. They are playing ten yards off the ball and keying the quarterback.
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These two safeties will key the quarterback on or off the ball. If the quarterback drops back to pass then they are extra over the top to break on the pass. If the quarterback pulls the ball down to run or hands the ball off, then they will rally to the ball. This essentially gives you seven defenders to the run game. If you want to drop a safety down and play the run pre-snap, this look makes it easy to do that too.
As you read this, remember that at best, combining your youth football cover 3 with some cover 2 is a changeup. Mainly, If you are required to play 2 deep or you are facing a mature quarterback. If that’s the case, this version of two safeties might be the way to go.
