Notre Dame - Texas A&M: Mike Elko Third Down Defense Whiteboard

Jesse has a little bonus whiteboard for us today and we are going to start this is Mike elco's 505 alignment is that right why do they call it 505 yeah so this this has you know um a couple names but this has been coined you know by uh Mike Elco as the 505 alignment and the reason why it's called the 505 alignment is because you have three down defensive lineman you have basically two defensive ends playing a five technique um so let me let me do some some better stuff here uh and get some so we can some draw some things so this defensive end isn't a five technique this defensive end isn't a five technique and then the the nose is Play Straight Up playing in a zero technique so when you have three down lineman um and you know each of them are one of them is playing a five the other one's playing a zero and then the outside defensive end is playing the five this is called a 505 alignment and all right so again you have the zero nose and two five techniques with your your defensive ends um on the outside so why is this advantageous why why the emphasis on this yeah so kind of first of all you know this it it's an odd kind of presentation you can mix and match a lot of different alignments off of it um and it's used mainly to kind of manipulate you know the offensive protection schemes because you don't necessarily know where is coming from where this is a big Mike ELO loves to run this on third down um and what you're going to do is you can mask your intentions as a defense um you can overload alignments or get into some kind of bare alignments and what I mean um by overload is let me see if I can grab this real quick it's actually kind of annoying me give me one second yeah so I'm going to move this circle so again these three guys are the basis of the defense but everyone else around them these linebackers are you know they they can be moved around you can put them outside you know the defensive ends you can walk down another defensive or sorry a linebacker down to um the to the line and now again you have one side that's really over loaded with you know four guys and maybe only you know two offensive linemen so again it's it forces um or it complements you know a lot of different pressures that you can get out of this um you can stretch the the protection by placing these you know these Ed Edge rushers on the outside of the defensive ends like I was talking about you know this linebacker over here this linebacker over here and that gets really tricky because it ultimately it forces guards to play like tackles right because they have to this this left guard and this left tackle are going to be responsible for these two outside guys so you know this left tackle is going to have to kick out hard this left guard is going to have to kick out hard and again it forces that guard to kind of play more so as a tackle so that's I guess the biggest stress that it it poses to the offensive line is that or is there anything else you know kind yeah that that would be the biggest stress is kind of ranked and order here is again it it and this is going to be a big challenge for Notre Dame's inexperienced young offensive line is it's going to kind of confuse protection because you don't know where these guys are going to be coming from some of these linebackers could drop off into coverage and you know maybe you only bring two but maybe you bring all four of them right like you just don't know what's going to happen pre- snap so again for a Notre Dame offensive line that's young this is something that I could see as a lot of you know potential trouble but how you negate this is you don't get into a lot of third and Longs you make sure that you are you know serviceable on first and second down get two to three yards just no negative plays stay ahead of the chains and don't allow yourself to get into third or long are there uh are there kind of variations of this I guess that they run yeah so you know this again this is a big third down alignment for Mike OKO but he he has Mike Elko classifies this into into three kind of packages you have the hot which means you're bringing all six of these guys let me get back into um you're bringing all six of these guys up front right um he has a warm package where you're only going to be bringing you know potentially four of these guys and in some sort of variation and then he has a cold package where he's only going to bring the 505 the three guys down on the line of scrimmage he's going to drop the rest or the eight into coverage right so that's it you have he has and that's what makes it hard again because pre- snap as as the offensive line you don't know if they're bringing six if they're going to bring five if they're going to bring three and again those are all classified by Elco as hot warm and cold you know depending on how many guys that he wants to bring so it's kind of like a Zone Blitz type package that he's throwing up there basically exactly they definitely going to play zone um off of this and again another advantageous you know uh I guess aspect of this defense is these linebackers can Blitz from anywhere right like they could Blitz off the edge they could fold in and Blitz in between this this you know five technique and zero technique these this linebacker over here um and this linebacker here on the edge they can play games and you know stunt around like it is going to be a very tough situation if Notre Dame gets into third and long and allows you know Mike Elco to get into what he calls this 505 defense um and and I think specifically you know to kind of tie it all together it it allows Elco to match the situation and the specific field Zone on third down he has you know different packages that he can run on of this based on where they're out in the field which hash they are on the field and you know essentially what kind of Zone coverage they want to play um out of it so if you're Riley Leonard like what how are you countering any of this yeah I think the the the biggest counter let me kind of undo some stuff right now because there's a ton of lines um it's a very mades scribble Fest that you have up there on the board yeah so um I I think that the the ways you negate this just kind of off the bat is you know right now you're lending with only three down linemen and playing two linebackers outside the defensive ends immediately you you look at where's the hole it's it's right in the heart or the middle of this defense right so um I think if you can essentially find ways you know to to use some of that RPO um and allow kind of that middle of the field to open I think n Dame's gonna have to to to run the ball with some success um and I I think ultimately you know Riley Leonard's legs is is what can negate this the style of Defense because when you're you're bringing pressure like this um anytime as we've talked about before anytime you bring pressure you're GNA create some open lanes and I think it's got to be on Riley Leonard to find those open lanes and kind of in those RPO schemes know whether or not he needs to give the ball or take the ball depending on what he's seeing out of those linebackers that's part of what what he has done so well in his career so far is is being able to do some of that find those find those running LS and counter some of those different pressures but to to to I guess my final thoughts on this says okay I would be really worried if I'm Notre Dame knowing you have a true freshman at left tackle and they get into a third and long and you're asking again you know nap and the the left guard here to to Really stretch out and fan out against you know a defensive end and a Lineback who are who are going to be pinning their ears back and trying to get to the quarterback at you know with at with no regard essentially they're they're they're going to be coming fast and they're going to be coming hard well I mean like we were talking about yesterday about what you do with the tight end if you're Notre aame just kind of in general do you know do you slide a tight end over there yeah to help out if it's if it's third and long just to have an extra blocker over there so you've got an extra body at least accounted for but I mean there's also you know even though that's that's the backside you know again Emil Wagner is no more experienced over there on the right side either pressure can still come from the right even though Riley Leonard's facing it yeah I think you're going to have to decide you know no Dame's probably I like when no Dame comes out an 11 personnel and they split out their their you know their their tight end so it looks like like right now what we're looking at a two by two formation and if you don't get the the look that you like you you can just motion you know Evans down to attach to the line of scrimmage on either side depending on where you see the hot pressure coming from um but again that goes in that favors into this defense because it could look like they're coming in one Direction um and and they can you know kind of bluff and and bring pressure from a completely different direction so this is something I would look for on on Saturday if Notre Dame gets into some third and Longs you will definitely see this defensive front out of Texas A&M all right really good stuff on the bonus whiteboard love it I would love to see a quarterback draw against that thing though just a third and long just nice QB draw right through the middle people come some people have mentioned it in the chat I completely agree that's that would be a huge way to kind of counteract this formation and you know and again I think it's part of the chess match when you talk about how you know Mike elko's familiarity Riley Leonard's familiarity all those different things it's just part of the chess match I think that you have in there you know who's countering who who's you know make you know who's who's like punching who's counter punching and all that different stuff it's going to be going to be be part of the fun of the matchup