I didn't want to put this on the regular board because honestly I dont think there is anyone outside of this board that I would respect enough to actually listen to. I watched a lot of football this year, more than I ever do mainly watching spread offenses (PV in general). Teams seem to have so much trouble stopping it, why?
PV has a poor to average line, which is why I think the move to the spread was made. PV can throw short dump passes, hitches, screens, and slants allowing the ball to be thrown on quick three step drops. You'd think these plays would go for short yards, well yes and no. PV has had huge success in the LPD with this scheme, except in a few special cases. Two of which are Norton, why? Norton could make the tackles and could force pressure not allowing the ball to come out. GC was able to stop it only twice and that was in 03, when they had such an Un-Godly line I dont think it mattered what PV ran, they were only down one at the half in the Playoff game and lost 27-12 in the regular season to a much better GC team. PV faces huge problems out of conference outside of Lee High we cant beat anyone out of conference. This in my opinion is due to the athletic ability of these AA schools, they make the tackles. Local teams allow 10 yard hitches to turn into 50 yard td's.
To stop the spread this is in my opinion what must be done. You must have athletes, unless you can build up a great line like Giles had this year, Norton has, and GC did have your not beating the spread in the LPD with the current group of athletes PV has. If you have the athletes run a 3-4, and you have to get pressure from your DT's. With your extra LB, you can vary your blitz packages from your LB's and drop them in coverage depending on down and distance. One of the most successful plays out of the spread is the QB Draw, with Mitchell at QB teams should take their most athletic LB and spy him on Mitchell. If your LB is successful you've stopped the biggest threat. Play mostly man and blitz like crazy, pressure (especially at the high school level is huge) if they complete a pass you have to count on your kids to make a tackle.
For the non great athletic teams, this is what I would do. Take your two most athletic players and play them on defense one at MLB and the other at FS. Thus spying the QB and stopping the big play. Again, play a 3-4 defense, however this time run mostly cover 4 which is mostly a bend but dont break defense. Your going to give up yards but not huge plays by doing this. Once the team approaches the red zone switch to a 4-4 defense and play a Cover 2 again spying the QB with your MLB. Teams who run the spread have a huge problem scoring in the red zone, the field gets shorter and there isn't as much room to work with. Dare them to the run the ball at you, you know how have 8 in the box with your most athletic player on their best player one on one, if you win that battle you have a great chance of stopping them and in high school football field goals are a rarity.
Obviously, athletes are key however I honestly feel like we should've lost two more games this year than what we did. Those are both CW games, CW had a big enough line to over power us the problem was in my opinion they played man the entire game and gave up huge plays. The only real great run PV had was a QB draw and they lit that up everytime he did take off, however it was after some good yards.
I used PV in this example because thats who I know most about and watch them weekley. I will also say this people criticize Coach Robbins for switching but from what I've watched and seen on tape I dont think we would've went to state in 04 or won region this year without the spread. He's hiding his weakness, and nobody in the LPD has yet to pick up on it (except Norton, who's had athletes galore the past two seasons)
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