Sizing up the Stack
July 11, 2008 11:30 AM | General
July 11, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia cornerback coach David Lockwood admits he sometimes has to rub his eyes and look again when he sees the 3-3 stack defense being used on every play. This alignment has been a staple of West Virginia’s defense the last six years.
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| Dave Lockwood is back for his second tour of duty with the Mountaineers.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Lockwood, a former defensive coordinator at Minnesota with coaching stops at Kentucky, Notre Dame and Memphis, says the 3-3 stack has been a scheme he’s used in the past – just not on every down.
“Everywhere I’ve been I’ve had that package but it’s always been a sub-package and now it’s every down. It’s kind of backwards,” Lockwood said. “Now you’re in the 3-3 and you’re incorporating some of the stuff you did before as your sub-package.”
Where the 3-3 stack is perhaps most unorthodox is in run situations.
“Sometimes when you look at an edge … we were an under-front at Minnesota or your 4-3 front. When you look at that edge sometimes they’ve got a three-man surface with a tight end and you don’t have a guy standing over that tight end and it looks kind of lonely,” Lockwood explained. “When you sit there and run the film and let the play develop somebody is going to be there to fit that gap. It’s just a matter of getting used to where that guy is coming from and who it’s going to be.”
Lockwood and Steve Dunlap both bring impressive expertise to the defensive meeting room. Dunlap has been a defensive coordinator at West Virginia, Syracuse, North Carolina State and Marshall and having all of that brainpower on the field has been beneficial to Defensive Coordinator Jeff Casteel.
Having Lockwood and Dunlap reunited in the secondary should give Mountaineer fans a comforting feeling as well. Lockwood first played for Dunlap on West Virginia’s 1988 Fiesta Bowl team and then later coached under him.
“It’s a great relationship. Sometimes I sit back when we’re in a meeting talking and I think about first coming here as a player playing for Steve, then having an opportunity to be a graduate assistant with Steve and then in 2000 having the opportunity to be on the same staff with him,” Lockwood said. “A lot of what I have learned through the years is attributed to Steve Dunlap as far as my coaching style on the field.”
The two have worked well together this spring organizing a secondary that will have many new parts this fall.
“When we meet we’ll usually meet separately, but when we get on the field that’s kind of unique because he can take the right side and I can take the left side and we don’t have to worry about looking over each other’s shoulders,” Lockwood said. “The work is going to get done; we’re on the same page and we just go out there and coach the guys up.”
Lockwood said he will be positioned on the field with Dunlap observing from the press box. That will give Casteel experienced viewpoints from all angles this fall.
“We’ll see if we can get something out of those old eyes of his,” Lockwood joked of Dunlap.
Briefly:
“Never in a million years did I think I would get back here a second time and I’m glad I did,” Lockwood said.
“Right now if we were to play today it would be the same lineup we finished with in spring ball,” he said. “The guys have to do what they’re supposed to do both on and off the field and the bottom line when we look at the practice field, the guys being the most consistent and making the most plays (will play). It’s our job as coaches to get the best guys on the field at the present time.”
Lockwood admitted that the dismissal of Charles Pugh leaves a void in the secondary that must be filled.
“Anytime you lose somebody that was in your depth I think it’s a huge factor. I can’t sit here and tell you how many plays he played a year ago but he was in our depth,” Lockwood said. “At the start of the spring he was No. 1 or No. 2. Anytime you have that it’s a big loss.”
Defensive depth is an issue at other areas as well.
“There are a couple of spots on defense where you look depth wise and that’s a concern. When you play 12 games and you look at our schedule, especially that out-of-conference schedule, there are some big-time games,” Lockwood said. “Depth is a major concern at this point in time.”
“With the players you can’t do anything. It’s a situation where we’ll do some film work and work on the first few games,” he said. “It’s constantly putting schemes together and jotting down notes so when we do meet together as a full staff we have our ideas right there, throw them on the board and come up with the final solution and kind of take it from there.”
