The Modified Virginia Tech 4-2-5 Defense for High School: Installation, Base Sets & Alignments

with Lew Johnston,
Western Branch HS (VA) Football Consultant/Assistant Coach (former Head Coach);
5x District Champions, 4x District "Coach of the Year";
former Nansemond-Suffolk HS (VA) Head Coach;
2015 VISAA Division III State Champions

High school offenses across the country have taken to attacking defenses with multiple formations and by getting athletes into space. Old school defenses designed to stop power running attacks are no longer sufficient, and simple pass coverages get easily exploited by well-coached quarterbacks and wily offensive coordinators.

Your modern high school defense needs an answer, and Lew Johnston is the coach to give it to you! Having been mentored by the likes of coaches like Bud Foster (Virginia Tech Defensive Coordinator), you will learn the very best strategies, coverages, and blitzes that will help you dominate offenses on game day.

Using an informative slide show with detailed instruction and game film, Johnston demonstrates the necessary steps to adapt today's popular college football defense, the 4-2-5 (used by teams like Virginia Tech and TCU), and modify it for the high school game.

Alignments, Assignments, and Techniques

Johnston gives you his keys to managing personnel, as well as multiple fronts (odd and even) that will keep your team gap-sound while confusing opposing linemen. Additionally, you'll get stunts that further frustrate your opponent by pressuring gaps before or after the snap.

To wrap it all together, Johnston provides play calls and communication lingo that will allow your defense to quickly adjust to motions and shifts.

From Philosophy to Game Film

Coach Johnston dives into multiple fronts to keep your defense flexible, innovative stunts that can exploit weak gaps on the line, and, provides valuable play calls to make sure you have an unblocked defender at the point of attack.

You'll get fronts and adjustments such as:

• Even fronts, standard 4-2-5, "Nickel package"
• Odd fronts, modified 3-4-4, "Dime package"
• Proper alignments against spread offenses from doubles, trips and empty sets
• Split field pass coverage to frustrate QB pre-snap reads

You'll also see Johnston use a well-designed slide show presentation to break down each defensive front with diagrams and discussion.

This video has everything you need to know about defending pass-happy spread offenses. You will learn the personnel, alignments, stunts, and the system of communication that will counter your opponents' spread offense and render their 'athletes in open spaces' useless.

89 minutes. 2018.