Up to what age do you recommend the Killer Bee?

I went in and out of the KB and Jacks 6-3 my last season and changed during halftime. once I changed during a drive, mostly for fun  8)

We averaged less than 9 points per game with like 3 or 4 shutouts

My team was 7-8s

Up to what age do you recommend the Killer Bee?

7th and 8th grade was what I was thinking as the upper age when I designed it.  Yet two high schools successfully ran versions of it with huge success and so have several 7-8's.

This one was posted yesterday:

Had my first live action today, and I gotta say....the KB really impressed...we played two 10 minute quarters, and absolutely dominated...they wound up negative in yardage, and only made positive yardage on 1 play...the other coach could be heard screaming "someone, PLEASE block the MLB"...LOL...we aligned correctly for the most part except for MPP's...I. generally lurk and rarely post, but I just want to thank all the coaches, and especially Clark for all the insight given....  🙂

I'm 3 games into our season......we are running the Killer Bee with a Pop Warner Tiny Mite Team (5,6 & 7).  It's almost unfair!  We've given up 2 first downs, no TDs.  During our second game, we had to shut down our offense at the half.  The kids are having a blast, and learning a real defensive system! 

The last team we played, had a Stud at RB, a blazer....scored 8 TDs in 2 games.  He didn't come close to getting to the edge on us.  They didn't get a first down!

This was my first year running the Killer Bee and we finished 8-0 and won the Superbowl.  Outscored opponents 264-12, only one team scored on our defense, the other score came on a kick return.  In the Superbowl we played an undefeated and loaded team that straight-up killed everybody this season, we won 26-0.  They did "gash" us a couple of times but were able to keep them out of the end zone.  This defense was a "bear" to get a handle on for us coaches when we started but by mid-season it was pretty much on cruise-control.  The kids just kind of "morph" into their assignments regardless of scheme we are playing and do their assignment, which is nice.  We played everything from I formation, Spread, Jet Sweep and one-back, didn't matter, the results were the same.  We are a very small team, our High School plays 9-man in the lowest division in the State and we play in a league based an hour away with a large population to pull from.  Anyway, I was a little reluctant to switch defenses but am glad I did, I will be sticking with the Killer Bee and looking to keep improving on it.

1) Imagine you had to change defenses because you didn't have the talent to run Cisar's WT6 (And how much talent does that take?)
2) Imagine you're facing a 9-0 team for the championship
3) Imagine in the two weeks rest before this game, your opponent plays in an out of state tournament and wins it, beating two ALL STAR teams in the process.
4) Imagine this team can go five wide receivers and throw deep against your two foot tall dwarf corners with tall receivers and accuracy, including one handed catches.
5) Imagine they can run a zone read spread.
6) Imagine you beat them.
7) Now imagine you beat them 36-0!

            [move] 36-0!          36-0!          36-0!          36-0!      36-0! [/move]

This ACTUALLY HAPPENED.  It was just posted in the Killer Bee section this morning.  If there was ever an "historical win" in youth football, it has to be this one.  8)

I have requested a copy of the game film.  🙂

This is this coach's second year with the Killer Bee.  He won the championship with it last year two.  In the last two years he's given up two TD's.

Let us know how the game film comes out. I am really interested in this defense if I ever get to run the D since we pretty much have to run an even front defense due to not being able to go head up on the center.

Clark,  can this D be run properly if our league has over-restricted "A-Gap Alignment" and thoroughly enforces a "no-crashing on the center" rule?

Clark,  can this D be run properly if our league has over-restricted "A-Gap Alignment" and thoroughly enforces a "no-crashing on the center" rule?

DT's line up as "2" techs but no more than arm's length from the ball.  They run a called slant on snap either left or right but never straight ahead. 

If your league allows no "A" gap defenders and does not restrict guard splits then any team can line their OG's 10 yards away from the center and no defense will be sound.

If slanting a "2" tech into "A" could result in a penalty, Killer Bee has a nasty solution.  Killer Bee is one of four basic fronts Tom Landry's Dallas Doomsday defense could call (They all use the same pass defense).  You can just switch to what is known as "Flex I" and it will fit your rules (That call alone won two Super Bowls).  Coach MatC used the call this year to make it to his championship game in Florida (Where they take their football seriously.).

But to run Killer Bee you should face an opponent with "real" plays (such as DW/SW/Spread) and not something your opponents drew up on the back of a MacDonald's napkin with the blocking rule of "Hit somebody!"

There are defenses free on this site you can use just as easily for that. Killer Bee is designed to reduce system offenses to useless junk to where they're finally just telling their line, "Hit somebody - Anybody". 

But to run Killer Bee you should face an opponent with "real" plays (such as DW/SW/Spread) and not something your opponents drew up on the back of a MacDonald's napkin with the blocking rule of "Hit somebody!"

There are defenses free on this site you can use just as easily for that. Killer Bee is designed to reduce system offenses to useless junk to where they're finally just telling their line, "Hit somebody - Anybody".

In 2 years at 6u and 1 at 8u I have yet to face a system offense or a team with blocking rules.  I've faced one legit DTDW in a scrimmage this year and one legit CisarSW team last year in a scrimmage.  Our league is very "bush league."  But I like killing flies with howitzers... 

DT's line up as "2" techs but no more than arm's length from the ball.  They run a called slant on snap either left or right but never straight ahead. 

If your league allows no "A" gap defenders and does not restrict guard splits then any team can line their OG's 10 yards away from the center and no defense will be sound.

If slanting a "2" tech into "A" could result in a penalty, Killer Bee has a nasty solution.  Killer Bee is one of four basic fronts Tom Landry's Dallas Doomsday defense could call (They all use the same pass defense).  You can just switch to what is known as "Flex I" and it will fit your rules (That call alone won two Super Bowls).  Coach MatC used the call this year to make it to his championship game in Florida (Where they take their football seriously.).

But to run Killer Bee you should face an opponent with "real" plays (such as DW/SW/Spread) and not something your opponents drew up on the back of a MacDonald's napkin with the blocking rule of "Hit somebody!"

There are defenses free on this site you can use just as easily for that. Killer Bee is designed to reduce system offenses to useless junk to where they're finally just telling their line, "Hit somebody - Anybody".

Matt made the Championship game? Awesome. He is one guy in Florida that I knew who ran the Killer B. Glad to hear it is working out for him. Because I know he is not blessed with the best of talent.

Here's a coach I think was going to win:

So we are back in the Championship game again but this time running the KB instead of the DC-46.  We had to play back to back games on Sat and Sun this weekend and shut both teams out.  Defense has been stellar but we are still susceptible against the deep pass at times. 

So our opponent has this one kid who is simply a stud.  He lines up everywhere and is almost impossible to cover due to his blazing speed.  He runs offtackle, pitch sweeps, WB counters, TB screens, runs a deep in route as well as deep corner, etc.  All the QB has to do his throw it deep into his direction (ball leaves QB's hand in 2.5 sec) and he comes up with it.  I don't have anyone on my team who can keep up with him. Fortunately this is a team sport and with a sound defense we beat this team 16-12.  However when one kid generates over 70% of the yards, we have to know where he is at all times.  Any suggestions on how you might tweak the defense to key on one player and forcing other players to try to beat us?  Thx

You can have a really good team and have some stellar, future HS stud that runs all over it (You know the type - starts sweeping one way, stops, turns around and sweeps the other way all the way to the other side of the field to beat your entire defense to the end zone.  And, of course, he's back there for kickoff and punt return.).  I suggested he put his best on this kid and have him follow this kid all over the field.  He replied he didn't have any anyone that matched. 

And then he posted this:

We won our championship 20-18!  It was a hard fought game and we forced 4 turnovers and a pick 6!  Just couldn't contain the stud player in the 2nd half after they went into a surprise "wildcat" offense after their QB got injured and he took over.  Like you said, this kid is future HS star but we played discipline and was able to hold him off in the end.  The main difference was that we were able to convert on our extra point and we blocked theirs.  It always comes down to the special teams in big games!

Against the "Ace" formation previously discussed, I adjusted by spreading the OLBs out to bump the RBs out wide with CBs over top.  They couldn't screen and couldn't go deep because we disrupted the timing.  Will get more into this during the offseason and will share film.  Thanks for your help again this season!  Won with DC46 last few years and now with KB this year.  Both are solid, well designed defenses and I now have confidence in both. 

Learned another thing the Killer Bee does well today. In the national Pop Warner playoffs this weekend a team went to an unbalanced to attack the Killer Bee and they just got destroyed, scoring zero points.  The Killer Bee shifts down with the offense and then attacks the TE using outside leverage to eliminate him both as a blocker and as a receiver.  This is deliberate in order to just crush UBSW teams off tackle. 

UBSW teams have more than just this one play but most teams that unbalance with QB under center and two backs behind have only like three plays or so and 1/3 of them just disappeared and KB is a natural sweep and reverse killer.  This team lined up in just about the worst possible alignment they could picked.  So, if you see these kind of overloaded teams, you can just eat them up for breakfast. 

It took me this long to discover this because I generally only recommend Killer Bee to coaches facing system offenses (DW, SW, and Spread) and not just some simple overloaded power formation.  It was just the luck of the draw that an overload power team made it high enough in the Pop Warner playoff system to meet the Bee and get their butts handed to them.  This part of the KB is really fast to learn - no harder than GAM.  So add overload junk offenses to Killer Bee's breakfast food menu of offenses.

Sounds like a winner vs UBSW.  But how effective is Killer Bee vs BEAST?

Sounds like a winner vs UBSW.  But how effective is Killer Bee vs BEAST?

A valid question.  To my knowledge Killer Bee hasn't faced Beast yet.  However, the manual covers it and was checked before publishing by eleven different coaches running DW/SW/Spread, and Beast.  Both Beast coaches said it would stop Beast and one even said it was overkill (And he's on this site.).