Adapt or die. Anything and everything adapts and evolves with time, and you, from the beginning of time you are left with two choices. Adapt or get left behind. Now most coaches (especially ones in Kansas) are not at the forefront of the evolution of football. Coaches typically go with what they know, what they have grown up with, and what they have practiced. They use archaic stats to judge how good teams are like total defense and scoring defense etc. They use false statements like “you need to establish the run” as a basis of how they build their teams and run them. But why? Why do most coaches just go with the status quo instead of experimenting to try to find an edge? Why do coaches try to fit kids into a system they may not be able to run, instead of fitting a system onto kids that they can run? Just look Emory & Henry college a DIII school that implements an offense that divides linemen and receivers into 3 groups of 3.
Coaches in Kansas for the majority run the flexbone offense, and it makes no sense. People argue its easy to run and you dont have to gameplan offensively and blah blah blah. They fault back to this simplistic offense because of time restraints and the thought they can just plug kids in without having to teach much. In my opinon though is it not harder to run block than to pass block? Run blocking requires strength, quickness, intelligence, and a certain nasty attitude. Pass blocking there is no driving your man back 5 yards, no trying to block a smaller quicker man in space. Just stay in front of your man and cut block if you have to. Coaches try to fit a square peg into a round hole all the time instead of trying to find a new peg.
Now same thing can be said about defense. There is 1 single dominant defensive scheme ran nation wide and its the 4-3. 3-4, 4-2-5, and 3-3 stack are the other ones that round out the popular ones but nothing comes close to the 4-3. The same philosophy in the 4-3 is used with the flexbone. Assignment sound football and wait for your opponent to make a mistake. But that is not how modern football is played. Its about being sound in your assignments while attacking your opponents not waiting around for them to make a mistake.
So in comes the attacking 1-5-5 amoeba defense. A flexible attacking defense that disrupts old blocking schemes by not declaring what the defense will do or where they will be attacking from. It gives defensive coordinators the ultimate ability to adjust on the fly to what opposing coaches are doing. It puts speed on the field and the ability to read and react to everything all while looking like a disorganized mess to the offense. It allows your defense not to be gap fixed, zone fixed, or man fixed. SO here is a quick little preview before more in depth
Typically the 1 down linemen is in a 1-tech or a 0. The “1” down linemen doesn’t even need to be in a 3 point stance necessarily either, its just easier to described saying 1-5-5 as opposed to 0-6-5
The second level of the D the linebackers are the thing that make this defense go. Preferably wrestler types that dont mind running full speed into O linemen and gaps. You can use a simple numbering system to tell them who is blitzing ala 34 attack would mean that the players you labeled 3 and 4 would be 2 of the guys you blitz. Now you can take your linebackers and marry them to gaps with your 1 down linemen to make it simpler for them to know where to attack but that kind of defeats the purpose of the defense.
The safeties and corners are going to be in man coverage the majority of the time. Id use a 3 high safety look with my middle safety (STAR) is about 7 yards off the ball and stems hard, sees pass and will look for the running back out of the backfield or start dropping to help with 4 verticals. The other two safeties are maned up in a 4 wide set and would have C gap help in a more old school un-innovative offense
will put up more later