Integrating Linemen with
Backfield on Pass Defense
I will give you our terminology of the
swing linebacker defense we use at
Oregon State University. This defense is an
even defense that has a lot of the same
principles of the odd monster or rover
defenses that are used in all areas of the
United States. We stunt all the time either
up front or in our secondary. We chose the
even defense with our swing linebacker
over the other alignments because we feel
it is a little more flexible to all of the differ-
ent offensive sets that we meet during the
year. Although we chose this alignment, we
do not feel in any way that an alignment is
as important as aggressiveness and exe-
cution. We try to get our personnel in the
best position to meet the different offensive
sets and then execute, responsibility and
fly to the ball. Never pile on — pile up.
Diagram 1
Dee Andros
Diagram 2
Head Coach
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Ore.
Diagrams 1 and 2 above will give you an
example of our defensive numbering sys-
tem and then how our swing linebacker will
go to strength by counting linemen or
backs within one yard of the line of scrim-
mage from the offensive guards out. Or we
will send him to the wide side of the field or
to our opponent’s tendencies. It is very
important to our team defense that every
man know where our three man lines up.
We teach our defense toward or away from
our three man.
Coverages
We have five basic coverages that we
use in our defensive scheme. Basically in a
normal situation we are in Cover I most of
the time because we feel that we get a bet-
ter force both ways on flow with our defen-
sive alignment. Cover I tells the secondary
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2000 •
that we will only rotate one way — to be
determined by the three man and the direc-
tion of the ball.
In normal play with flow away from the
three man, the seven or eight man away
from the three man is the forcing element
on flow toward him.
The alignment for the seven and eight
man is one-and-a-half yards outside of
the end man — keys the near back and
ball — on flow toward him, get upfield
and force the passer to pull up and throw
quick. The six man lines up on the out-
side shoulder of the tackle force inside
out. One and two men line up inside eye
of the guards. Check for counter, and
draw then rush — six man — step across
and get as deep as the ball and trail.
Seven men rotate slow, checking for
counter or reverse, then rotate back as
deep as he can get. Four man — cover
the hook away from the three man.
Three man rotate back through the mid-
dle ready to settle and play the tight end
on a delay pass.
Diagram 3: Flow away from three man.
Diagram 3
We also use an Omaha stunt to the
short side about 50 percent of the time. It is
a switch of assignment between our six
and eight men.
Diagram 4: Omaha Stunt — flow from
the three man. The rest are the same as
Cover I.
Diagram 4
Eight Man: Drive for the outside hip of
the end man on the line, closing the off-
tackle hole and reacting to the ball.
Six Man: Will hand shiver the end man
and shuffle out and become force contain
man.
 Flow Toward the Three Man
When the flow is toward our three man,
our secondary will not rotate, but play the
three deep zone — on flow toward the
three man, he must get upfield and become
the force contain man.
With flow toward the three man — the
seven man will drop off and cover the flat.
Five man will close to the inside and react
to the ball.
Diagram 5: Flow toward three man.
Diagram 5
One and Two Man: Normal play inside
—six man becomes the trail man. Four man
plays the hook area to side of flow. Three
man becomes the force contain man.
To the strong side we have a switch
stunt, which is an exchange of assignments
between the three and seven man.
Diagram 6: Switch stunt. Flow toward
three man. Cover I.
Diagram 6
Seven Man: Will become the force con-
tain man, and the three man will drop off
and cover in the flat.
Against teams that like to screen a lot
we like to use the Double Omaha, which
we feel we get better force, and get our five
and six men to screen area quicker.
Diagram 7: Flow toward three man.
Double Omaha stunt. Cover I.
Diagram 7
Seven and Eight Men: Will drive hard
over the outside hip of end man on line of
scrimmage. Help close the off-tackle hole and
react to the ball. Give us a reckless rush.
Five and Six Men: Toward the three
man. Line up three feet off the ball — on
the snap of the ball go through the head of
tight end with inside shoulder and move to
the flat.
Five and six man away from the three
man. Hand shiver the man in your area and
shuffle out while reading the play — when
ball goes away, back out and rotate to 1/3
of the field.
On straight dropback passes, we
become a four man rush with the three,
five, seven and eight men dropping off and
playing the short zones.
Diagram 8: Dropback pass. Cover I.
Diagram 8
If we have an Omaha or Double Omaha
called, we go ahead and execute the stunts
on a dropback pass.
Cover II is the same rotation for the sec-
ondary as Cover I with the switch or
responsibilities of the two, four, six and
eight men. This is a change up for the short
side, which gives us an excellent inside
and outside force.
Diagram 9: Cover II — Flow away from
the three man. Secondary rotation same as
Cover I.
Diagram 9
Eight Man: On the snap of the ball, drop
steps to the inside and if ball is getting off
the line — drops back to hook area, if ball
stays on line, get quarterback.
Six Man: Hand shiver the tackle and
move upfield to force contain ball.
Four Man: On flow runs throw between
the guard and tackle.
• AFCA Summer Manual — 2000 •
Two Man: Shoot the gap to his inside.
One, Three, Five and Seven Man:
Their play is same as Cover I.
Cover III Rush: We like to use this
against teams that use the dropback pass
a lot. From this, our secondary defenders
cover their respective 1/3 regardless of the
flow of the quarterback.
We have several calls in which we use
to give the offense a different picture in
putting pressure on the passer. One of the
calls is Cover III rush — seven and eight.
With this call we are giving up the flats.
Diagram 10: Cover III rush seven and
eight. Secondary cover their 1/3 of the
field.
Diagram 10
When we are using this defense and
with the different calls, we are giving the
offense the flats or the hook area — but
feel it is sound because of the change up of
the different areas we are leaving open —
our three and four call — run the lineback-
ers through. With this call we are leaving
the hook area open.
Diagram 11: Cover III rush three and
four. Three man cheat in before the snap
Diagram 11
We have the combination calls four and
seven which is an end and linebacker rush-
ing — or we might have any of the individ-
uals call of the three-four-seven, or eight
men to rush. Also the Double Omaha,
which was explained earlier in the speech,
is an excellent stunt from this set.
Cover IV: Our man-to-man coverage,
with a six-man rush and our safety is freed
up to play the ball. We feel we can play a
split receiver tougher and get help from our
safety out of this defense.
Cover V calls tells the three deep to
rotate to the side of flow. With this rotation,
we have used a different alignment with our
Dee Andros at a Glance
line and linebackers — which we call a Experience: Assistant Coach, University of Oklahoma, 1950-52;
split-six alignment. Assistant Coach, University of Kansas, 1953; Assistant Coach,
Diagram 12: Cover IV man-to-man. Texas Tech University, 1954-55; Assistant Coach, University of
Safety freed up. Nebraska, 1956; Assistant Coach, University of California, 1957-
59; Assistant Coach, University of Illinois, 1960-61; Head Coach,
Diagram 12
University of Idaho, 1962-64 (11-16-1); Head Coach, Oregon
State University, 1965-75 (51-64-1)

Career Head Coaching Record: 62-80-2

AFCA District Coach of the Year Awards: 1967

Notes: Led the Beavers to four second-place finishes during his tenure at Oregon State
... None of those teams participated in bowl games due to a Pac-10 rule that permitted
Diagram 13: Cover V. Split. only the conference champion to appear in post season play at that time ... His 1967
team recorded road wins at Purdue and UCLAwhen both schools were ranked No. 2 in
Diagram 13
the country and beat No. 1-ranked USC at home as well, handing the Trojans their only
loss in what turned out to be a national championship season ... Served as director of
athletics at Oregon State from 1976-1985.

Diagram 14 Diagram 15

Our alignment for the one and two man

is like the alignment used by Notre Dame
inside people. They are split, aiming in at
the rib of the offensive guard and closing in
on the snap and reacting to flow. The align-
ment for the five, six, seven and eight man
is the same as our normal defense.
Three and four men line up according to
the splits of the offensive guards and react
on the flow of the ball. We also use our
Cover III with this alignment with the same
types of stunt.
Diagram 14: Cover III — In Stunt.
Diagram 15: Cover III — Out Stunt.
An out stunt (Diagram 15) is with our
one and two men going through the gap
between tackle and guard with our line-
backers going through the gaps between
the center and guards.
We feel with these coverages and our
stunts that we are sound, plus it gives us
a number of changes to throw at our
opponents.
Again, I want to thank you gentlemen for
being such a very fine audience and I appre-
ciate the opportunity of speaking to you.
I think this is a great honor any time a
coach is asked to speak to a bunch of his
cohorts and I hope that I have given you
something today that might help you in
what you’re trying to install in your defen-
sive plans.

Don’t Predict Game Winners

The AFCA Ethics Committee reminds members that predicting game winners is a violation of the
AFCA Code of Ethics. Many times, this occurs on coaches’ shows or at the request of the news
media.

In addition to providing an expert’s opinion to gamblers and others, selecting game winners also
creates bad feelings among fellow coaches.

Requests to pick winners of football games can be deflected with a simple, “Our AFCA Code of
Ethics does not allow us to predict game winners.”

• AFCA Summer Manual — 2000 •