How ‘the flex’ is altering the way in which protection dictates video games

GREENSBURG, Penn. — When COVID-19 shut down the world within the spring of 2020, Kevin Might was like most coaches. He was bored.

He’d been employed because the defensive coordinator at Division II Seton Hill a yr earlier to match his distinctive scheme — the flex — with a group in want of an enormous improve.

The preliminary outcomes had been predictably combined. There was some delicate success, however the system was new, and gamers typically struggled to get a deal with on it. Then COVID-19 put all of it on hiatus, and Might, an avowed soccer nerd whose spouse, Shelby, jokes that the game is his lone ardour, discovered himself needing one thing to do.

“So we went to Lowe’s,” he stated, “and acquired a bunch of white boards.”

If necessity is the mom of invention, boredom is likely to be its father, and what Might invented throughout COVID would possibly now be essentially the most dynamic, aggressive and confounding scheme run by any group within the nation.

The flex is run by only some different groups at any stage today. Might realized it at Wyoming from longtime coach David Brown within the early 2010s. It is advanced, it is complicated for offenses, and, as Brown and different originators of the system typically scolded, it is to not be modified.

“I used to be at all times advised,” Might stated, “by no means to mess with grandma’s recipe.”

However within the spring of 2020, there was no soccer, Might’s home was affected by playbooks and drawing boards, and there was grandma’s recipe, simply ready for some new elements.

At its core, it is a system designed to disguise the defensive entrance, typically with one or no down linemen, and almost at all times extra defenders within the field than the offense can match. However the flex, because it originated, additionally had its weaknesses, notably a reliance on man protection on the again finish. Might figured he might add some layers to the bottom system, so he began learning. He devoured textbooks, talked with offensive coaches about their blocking schemes and watched on-line clinics on YouTube, generally at 4x velocity, in search of any small element he might exploit in his new system.

Briefly, Might realized the principles everybody else adopted, then designed a protection that broke almost each certainly one of them.

“The neatest guys we’ve got within the room go towards this for 4 years,” stated Daniel Day, Seton Hill’s head coach and O-line coordinator, “they usually nonetheless say, ‘I do not know what they’re doing.'”

Since getting back from the COVID shutdown, Might’s protection has taken Seton Hill from the dregs of Division II soccer to one thing at the least approaching rivalry.

Seton Hill is a small Catholic faculty about 35 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, with an enrollment of lower than 1,700. In 2018, the yr earlier than Might arrived, the Griffins ranked 157th in Division II in scoring protection, 159th in rush protection and 152nd in sacks. After the group returned from COVID in 2021, Seton Hill completed the season twenty seventh in scoring protection, ninth in rush protection and almost tripled its sack complete. Three years later, Might’s protection has had back-to-back convention defensive gamers of the yr, an All-American linebacker, and in 2023, was fifth amongst all D-II faculties in sacks and tackles for loss. Within the two years earlier than Might arrived, Seton Hill had a mixed 1-21 document. Final season, the Griffins completed with a profitable document for the primary time in 15 years. Extra astonishingly, the majority of gamers liable for this success started their careers at Seton Hill as walk-ons.

And but, getting into his sixth yr at Seton Hill, Might’s system largely stays relegated to this sleepy outpost in Western Pennsylvania, as larger faculties calculate the risk-reward of making an attempt one thing so outside-the-box and proceed to want the established order to a giant swing.

“It blows my thoughts that individuals do not wish to run this,” Day stated. “In case you ran this at Alabama, with one of the best of one of the best, I do not know the way you’d cease it.”

MAY IS CERTAINLY not the primary teaching savant to attempt to disrupt the mainstream strategy to Xs and Os.

Mouse Davis and June Jones created the run-and-shoot at Portland State within the Nineteen Seventies, then noticed the system flourish within the NFL a decade later. Hal Mumme and Mike Leach refined the Air Raid at Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State earlier than it grew to become an offensive staple at each stage 25 years later. Extra lately, Zach Kittley took Air Raid ideas to develop his personal scheme at Houston Baptist, then helped Bailey Zappe rewrite the NCAA document ebook at Western Kentucky.

“You must have folks above you which have some concept what they’re in search of and brave sufficient to truly undergo with it,” stated Hal Mumme, the originator of the Air Raid offense who spent the early years of his profession toiling in Division II, ready for an opportunity to show his system might work wherever. “I needed to do it at decrease ranges like that as a result of no person would rent me to do it at a better stage.”

Even those that have not rewritten the ebook at greater ranges — Kevin Kelley (by no means punt) and Bob Stitt (West Coast offense with a twist) — have seen at the least parts of their playbook copied within the trendy recreation.

What’s distinctive about Might is that he has gotten little fanfare regardless of a scheme that begs for consideration and, not like all these different coaches, he is doing it on protection.

“There’s been progressive guys,” Mumme stated. “There’s simply not fairly as many as there are on offense. Defensive guys are typically extra conventional.”

Conventional, on this case, is likely to be a synonym for danger averse. On offense, taking photographs for giant payouts is solely a part of the DNA of most coaches. If it hits, the replay finally ends up on SportsCenter. If it would not work out, nicely, there’s at all times the subsequent play or subsequent sequence. On protection, the method is often reversed. It is the busts that get talked about by offended followers and proven on the opposite group’s spotlight package deal.

However Might disagrees with all the premise. His model of the flex is not excessive danger, excessive reward. He prefers to think about it extra just like the triple choice, however for protection — a plug-and-play scheme that nearly anybody might run with success, however but nonetheless so exterior the norm that different groups wrestle to arrange for it.

“That is the primary defensive system I’ve ever seen that does dictate [to the offense],” Day stated, “as a result of it simply breaks so many guidelines.”

A model of the flex was popularized within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties by former Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry, whose personal gamers typically complained about its inscrutability regardless of the group’s dominant efficiency. Dick Tomney’s Arizona Wildcats ran a flex with Tedy Bruschi within the Nineties with nice success, too. However the flex had largely fallen out of favor on the highest ranges as a result of it inverted almost all the pillars of typical soccer Xs and Os.

That is precisely what Might appreciated about it.

“Now we have non-traditional gamers aligned in spots the place they usually do not align, they usually have the flexibility to do loads of non-traditional issues,” Might stated. “Each offense has a playbook with all completely different appears to be like they’re prone to see. They are not going to see an image of our protection in there.”

Of their base alignment, the nostril deal with has his hand on the bottom, and two different defenders are standing simply off the road of scrimmage with two “flex” linebackers standing a few yard again. These are the wild playing cards who can do nearly something. Two extra linebackers are standing about 5 yards off the ball. Three DBs are lined up throughout from a receiver, and one security is deep. Any one of many seven gamers close to the road might blitz. Six of them might drop into protection, too. And Might will present that very same entrance and run an array of performs out of the identical look. Typically, he’ll name a play he is aware of will not work early within the recreation simply to see how the offense reacts, setting the stage to name one thing completely different from the identical package deal later within the recreation. It is chess when most offenses are caught following the principles of checkers.

Not often a recreation goes by, Day stated, when some opposing offensive coach would not strategy him within the handshake line, shaking his head and muttering about how glad they’re to not face Might’s protection once more till the next yr. One O-line coach final yr admitted in pregame warm-ups that he had completely no clue easy methods to block Seton Hill’s entrance.

“And we hadn’t even performed the sport but,” Day stated.

In his first season as QB coach at Mercyhurst in 2022, Eric Acciani thought he had a great plan to beat Might’s flex. The system depends on loads of man protection ideas, and Mercyhurst had its share of receivers Acciani thought might win a one-on-one match-up. He schemed that week solely round exploiting these mismatches on the surface.

Mercyhurst was sacked eight occasions and failed to attain.

A yr later, Acciani had utterly reconsidered his strategy. He’d spent hours through the offseason centered solely on Seton Hill, and after being battered within the trenches the final time, he was now sure the important thing to a win was taking away the Griffins’ go rush. The sport plan was constructed round 10 personnel — with 4 receivers on the sphere — and prioritized getting the ball out of the QB’s arms as shortly as doable.

“We thought we had a extremely good deal with on it,” Acciani stated, “however Kevin made a pair changes and, once more, we did not rating.”

Two years, two utterly completely different approaches on offense, and two shutouts.

That is, maybe, the true genius of the scheme. The offense retains the phantasm of dictating the motion, however Might’s already thought three strikes forward.

THE QUESTION POSED to Seton Hill rover Quinton Posey is pretty easy. Might’s scheme is all about disguising fronts and adjusting on the fly, so what, precisely, goes by Posey’s thoughts pre-snap as he makes his reads and decides what changes to make?

“Nicely, we’ve got loads of keys,” Posey stated. “I imply, I additionally cowl loads, too. I’d line up on a receiver enjoying man. Additionally, I blitz loads.”

In different phrases, it is likely to be simpler to ask Posey what he is not fascinated by pre-snap.

And herein lies one of many key issues with Might’s system: It is just too sophisticated. Posey says when he first arrived as a freshman, coming from a highschool system he known as “fairly easy,” it was a water-from-a-firehose scenario. It was a yr, possibly 18 months, he stated, earlier than it began to click on.

Might slots every of his gamers into classes: One-, two-, three- and four-dimensional gamers. The bottom stage guys are nonetheless determining the nuances of their particular place. The 2-dimensional gamers perceive their entire place group. Three-dimensional guys grasp all the protection, and the highest tier are the important thing veterans, who not solely know all the pieces Might’s protection needs to do, however nearly all the pieces the opposing offense is making an attempt to do, too.

When Might first arrived at Seton Hill, Day requested for a listing of top and weight necessities at every place group for recruiting functions. Might did not have one.

His objective on protection is not to get guys who look the half. He needs guys who can play the half, guys who, after a yr or two, shall be three- or four-dimensional.

At its core, Might’s protection features like an algorithm, stuffed with if/then instructions that often depend on the identical fundamental underpinnings however with minor adjustments primarily based on the look the offense presents. Every participant has his algorithm and responses, refined over time, and when it is all clicking, these gamers who barely sniffed a Division II supply elsewhere appear to be absolute superstars.

“Watch all 11 guys one after the other and also you most likely would not really feel so anxious about it,” stated Ancini, now the offensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech. “However then you definately watch them execute collectively and the way they play off one another, they simply do such an unbelievable job and it is completely different than anybody you play towards. It is actually easy for them however as an offensive coach, you’ve got acquired to spend so much of time on them.”

Take that age-old drawback of leaving your DBs in man protection. That is the half that terrifies most DCs. A nook alone is a nook ready to get beat.

However that is not how Might’s system works. The protection typically presents as man protection, however in actuality, gamers within the field can drop into protection, and at the least two defenders will at all times have eyes on the QB, providing assist beneath or excessive. Each DB understands the place his leverage is and when to go off a protection to a different defender, which means he is often simply liable for masking half the route tree. And, maybe simply as importantly, the defenders dropping into protection, the leverage, and the route tree a DB must cowl — it varies from snap to snap, and the opposing QB can by no means be fairly sure what he is seeing earlier than snapping the ball.

“He is acquired such an unbelievable understanding of what offenses do,” Ancini stated. “Offenses are constructed to discover a weak spot, so here is how we play it. Loads of coaches have that information however he does one of the best job of getting his children know that as nicely. They’re at all times very dialed in. Everybody on that protection is at all times on the identical web page. Loads of coaches have actually good concepts however they can not talk with their gamers like Kevin can.”

If there is a secret ingredient that makes the entire thing work, that is it. Might is an Xs and Os nerd, however greater than that, he is a coach who merely loves his gamers.

Seton Hill’s signature set piece on protection is a battered trash can — “the takeaway can.” The can is emblazoned with the phrases “Code Purple,” the defensive mantra that applies to all place teams. It was Might’s spouse’s concept. She donated it to the group in 2019, and it has been by some wars.

“It is damaged and battered and sharp, and we have to place duct tape on it,” Might stated. “However I like it.”

After each takeaway in apply or a recreation, a participant will get to dunk the group’s particular “code pink” soccer, then indicators his title onto it. Whoever has essentially the most signatures at yr’s finish will get to maintain the ball on the group’s awards banquet. The group loves it.

However it’s not only a takeaway gimmick like Miami’s turnover chain or Oregon State’s chainsaw. It is half of a bigger philosophy of group constructing. Watch the sport movie, and it is simple to see how a lot enjoyable the gamers are having on protection, however what’s missed from the all-22 copy is what occurs when a play ends.

After a defensive participant makes a giant play in apply, Day has instructed his digicam crew to remain skilled on the protection and seize the aftermath: Gamers dancing, celebrating, leaping into one another’s arms. It is a get together. Day remembers just a few early practices with first-year offensive coordinator Blaise Holzer when he needed to maintain his new coach from going ballistic in frustration from the protection’s seemingly overzealous celebrations, reminding Holzer, “you are going to love this on Saturdays.”

“You will not see anybody apply the way in which we do wherever at any stage,” Day stated. “However it’s all as a result of Coach Might’s greatest facet to the gamers is you rejoice collectively. It is not simply the performs, however how we apply, the tradition he is constructed to permit these dudes to have some enjoyable.”

MAY IS SKIMMING by some movie, displaying off just a few of his favourite performs. There’s one the place he has seven defenders within the field, however solely his nostril deal with has his hand within the dust. Each Seton Hill’s flex defenders are lined up on the identical aspect of the ball. The offense is clearly flummoxed. The QB appears to be like to the sideline then checks into a brand new play. Might’s D instantly checks, too. The middle turns round and yells to the quarterback. Neither has any clue what’s taking place. The ball is snapped. Two field defenders drop into protection. The middle and guard pull — within the fallacious path it seems. The nostril deal with has a free line to the QB for a sack.

“My favourite image in America,” Might stated, “is 2 or three offensive linemen blocking no person, and the quarterback getting sacked.”

He freezes the movie and, positive sufficient, there are three offensive linemen doing the soccer equal of the mime-in-a-box routine.

There are drawbacks to all this, in fact. Day notes that apply may be difficult, as a result of his offense cannot merely work towards his D, as a result of the offense won’t ever see something that appears like this protection all yr. For Seton Hill, the scheme has been a boon for recruiting as a result of the Griffins do not want stars. The scheme could make anybody a star. However on the greater ranges, distinctive schemes can scare away prime recruits. That was at all times the knock on the triple choice. And whereas it is a pleasure to look at opponents strive to determine what they’re seeing every week, there is a real problem in guaranteeing all the blokes enjoying D at Seton Hill know precisely what they’re doing always.

And but, draw up a listing of execs and cons, and Day eagerly pronounces a transparent verdict for his group. Seton Hill is best — a lot better — due to Might’s protection.

It is not not like what Mumme and Leach confronted early of their careers. They had been completely different, and it was safer to lose wanting like everybody else than to roll the cube on one thing utterly new.

However the Air Raid stored working, and finally, extra folks started to imagine.

That is Might’s hope. The movie speaks for itself, and all the chance aversion on the planet cannot trump the underside line. The system works. Ultimately, others will comply with.

How can Might make certain?

Manner again when Might first acquired to Wyoming as a graduate assistant, he was a skeptic, too.

“The primary time I opened the playbook, I believed it was configured fallacious,” he stated.

Then he noticed the outcomes.

“The extra I realized it, all the pieces else I knew about soccer was out the window,” he stated. “This was completely different, and it was profitable.

“There’s nothing like the joys of studying soccer and evolving.”