Posted by: @terrypjohnson

do you do anything differently when teams throw in a wide receiver (or two) to make the corners move out. I ask because in my previous schemes at 8U, I was a "heretic" and kept my corners on the hash.

If your Corners go downfield with the receiver every time, then you have to have a player to replace that Corner.  Otherwise, your contain man is no longer there, when they run sweep.  We don't play their game.  If they have a Wideout, our Corner goes with their Wideout for 3 steps before determining whether its pass/run.  And if it's run, his 3 steps haven't taken himself out of position for defending the Sweep.  If it's pass, and the QB decides to keep the ball and run outside, our OLB has Sweep contain.  Safeties have over-the-top responsibility and CBs have under-the-top, essentially sandwiching the receiver.  We are trying to time up our Safeties to hit their receiver the same time the pass is arriving.  Cornerback has tackle responsibility while Safety decides he will either intercept the ball or hit the receiver.  Since our Safety is running towards their receiver, the Safety has the best angle of the three (Safety, Receiver, Cornerback) to see the football arriving to make the catch.  If he can't make a play on the ball, he is to make a play on their receiver.  Sometimes we get there early, sometimes we get there late, but we always get there.  Our Safeties aren't back there for run support, they're essentially missiles to shoot down our opponent's planes that are doing a flyover.  The only time we become a blitz-heavy team is when we face a team that passes well, or is in Gun.  Then we are targeting their QB on every play.  Between the physical harassment their QB receives and their Wideouts get, offenses didn't throw well against us.

--Dave

Coverage, at this age level, is not that "Scientific" or difficult unless you're playing Bump and Run (Unnecessary at JFL Level).

You can play Press Man or Zone Coverages and maintain run support from you Corners.  For me the key is adjusting my distance from the LOS (Receiver) for Speed or Lack thereof.  Quick 3 Step Drop is Critical so as not to get beat deep. Read OT's for key to Run (Low Hat) Pass (Hi Hat).  These 3 things are key to solving 90%-95% of the Coverage issues you will see at the Youth Level.   More often than not you will be able to discern between Run and Pass within the first 3 steps of any play.  

The oft overlooked factor in coverage is the ability for the front 3 or 4 (DL) to apply pressure on the backfield.  Very few Youth OL are a Wall Tackle to Tackle.  There will be weak links.  If folks can Flip their OL to accentuate their ability why wouldn't you flip a D Tackle or D End to exploit the weakness in the OL?   

It's been a long time since I ran JJ's 33 Stack, but there is a fairly complicated read progression for your CBs that if used correctly will prevent your CBs from being "run off" in run plays. Well, it was complicated for me, anyway. This is a big reason you play your corners so deep in JJ's defense. You do NOT move your CBs out. It's an inverted Cover 2 zone, so they have the deep halves, but only if it is a pass play. They have 3 steps to determine if its a pass play. Again, it's been a long time, but I think one of the differences between JJ's 33 and Jack's 62 is that JJ has the CBs at 10 yds taking 3 forward shuffle steps while they read, while jack has them at 7 or 8 and taking 3 backward steps.

If I had to do it again, I'd put my 2 best open field tacklers at CB, which is usually my 2 best players. Scouting will tell you when it's time to worry about a WR running a "go" route.

We were very good vs the pass in that defense and very poor against off tackle. I always had the sense that our CBs weren't up to the task vs off tackle. We had kids at CB who were fast, but not exactly physical. We had 2 very fast and very physical players that we played at Reaper and Dog. They were our 2 best players. In retrospect, I'd put them at CB.