Colonels emulate Lancers' attacking-style 3-5 defense

One thing first-time Group A, Division 1 state football finalist Altavista has in common with Amherst, which will make its fourth straight showing in Saturday’s Group AA, Division 4 state championship, is its attack-oriented 3-5 defensive formation.

The Colonels switched from a 5-3 system — with five linemen, three linebackers and three defensive backs — to the 3-5, with three linemen and five linebackers, this fall after seeing the success teams such as the Lancers have had running it.

“We toyed with it a little bit last year, along with the 5-3 defense, and went with it exclusively this year,” said Altavista third-year coach Mike Scharnus, who formerly coached against Amherst when he was at Rustburg. “It fit the personnel we had this year. It just allows you to be more aggressive on defense. You still have to be sound fundamentally.”

Thriving out of the 3-5, both teams have been stifling on defense, sparking their postseason runs. As their linebackers blitz and stunt from all different angles, the Lancers and Colonels have swarmed opponents with aggressive pursuit of the football, landing some punishing hits and racking up plenty of sacks and tackles for loss.

“This type of defense is conducive to the type of athlete that we have at Amherst County,” Lancers coach Cecil Phillips said. “It’s a defense dictated around speed and dictated around athleticism.

“We’re athletic and, on the other hand, we don’t have a large number of large-bodied kids,” he added. “We have a large range of kids who have medium builds that are kind of lean and fit. (The 3-5) enables us to get more of those type of kids on the football field and give our bigger kids a break. We’re able to be productive on offense because our offensive linemen (are) a lot fresher (from not having to play defense).”

Phillips implemented the 3-5 defense at Kings Fork, a Group AAA school out of Suffolk,

“We did not have that many big kids at all that could stay in there and fight in the trenches for 48 minutes,” he said.

He stuck with it at Amherst, which had used it to win back-to-back state titles in 2006 and 2007.

The Lancers enjoyed playing the attack-style defense then, and they continue to now, because of the freedom it allows.

“The whole concept with the defense is you can be as creative as you would like to be,” Phillips said. “There’s an infinite amount of possibilities with regards to the types of blitz packages that you coordinate. It allows you to put pressure on the opposing offense for the simple fact that you can come from any direction, at any time.”

The linebackers and defensive backs can use a variety of coverages in the secondary to keep the opposing quarterback guessing, assuming he even has time to think before he throws.

“When you’re able to create pressure, it forces the quarterback into a quick throw,” Phillips said. “We’ve been able to create a lot of pressure and force teams into mistakes (as well as) limiting distance with regards to the vertical passing game.

“When you’re able to take away a running game and make (teams) one-dimensional and force them to throw the ball, you have a good opportunity at a victory,” he added. “When you put the points on the board and force teams into a catch-up mode, it allows your players to pin your ears back because they’re going to be forced into passing situations.”

The defense of the future

The 3-5 scheme is becoming more popular state-wide, with Christiansburg, which Amherst beat 23-21 in Sunday’s semifinal game, and J.I. Burton, Altavista’s championship opponent, also using it.

“We kind of picked it up from a number of different sources,” Colonels defensive coordinator Mike Reavis said. “Coach Phillips at Amherst gave me a lot of tips, as well as Jon Berlin (the Lancers’ former defensive coordinator) at Rustburg and Mike Roarke at R.E. Lee-Staunton.

“They have run this system for a lot of years,” Reavis added, and they were happy to share their insights, as well as books on the subject and videotapes of their games. “There’s not a lot that we have that is original. You get as much information as you can (from other teams). It’s what all coaches do — you fit what they do to your personnel, and maybe tweak it here and there.”

Reavis said more and more teams are shifting to the 3-5 defense at the same time others are implementing spread attacks.

“It puts your guys in better position to (cover) the spread,” he said. “It allows you to get more speed on the field than a 5-3 or a 4-4.”

Altavista, which features more two-way players than Amherst, has used the same formula for success with its personnel packages.

“The kids are comfortable in it,” Reavis said, noting the 3-5 defense is based on gap responsibilities, rather than player assignment reads. “It allows us to move around a little bit. It frees our kids up. They don’t have to read as many keys (blocks) and we don’t have as much technique to teach players as in the 5-3.

“In the 3-5, we slant our defensive line in one direction or the other and our linebackers will take the opposite gap of the line. As long as the linebackers know, if they’re going in (slanting to the right) the linebackers are going out (slanting to the left) and if they’re going out, the backers are coming in.”

He said it helps having players like outside linebacker Chris Clark, the Region B defensive player of the year, and defensive end Jerrell Jordan, who have a nose for the football and live to deliver punishing hits.

“We try to gang-tackle if we can,” Reavis said. “Most defenses do preach it, but we have to get as many hats to the ball as we can. They’re always looking for the big hit. If you can get that big hit, that’s great (but) the more guys we can get there, the better chance they’re going to go down.”

However, Clark, also the Colonels’ leading tackler, is questionable for Saturday’s final due to a foot injury sustained in the Colonels’ 14-6 semifinal win over West Point. Altavista is preparing for the worst-case scenario while hoping for the best.

“We’re planning on having Chris ready to play Saturday,” Reavis said. “He would definitely be missed if he couldn’t play. He’s a ball hawk. But we have all the confidence in the world in other players to step up. There’s a number of options we could use.”

The Colonels have relied on their defense to pull out a couple of tight wins in the playoffs, posting their first shutout of the season in the Region B semifinal win over Madison County (10-0) before forcing a few critical turnovers in a 20-17 Region B championship triumph at Riverheads.

“In the playoffs, every game it seems like it’s been a defensive struggle for both sides on both teams,” Reavis said. “Our kids won’t quit. We’ve had some situations where it would have been easy to lay down and say ‘Enough is enough,’ especially at Riverheads. It was so physical and so demanding on them and they played their hearts out. We created those turnovers by continuing to play hard and physical.”

With two and a half minutes to go in that game, linebacker Lee Miller forced a fumble that clinched the Colonels’ road win.

“That was huge,” Reavis said. “It was the same power play they were running off-tackle and he came in from the edge and took it away from him.”

Altavista can expect another defensive battle against J.I. Burton, which has posted six shutouts, including a 2-0 win over Holston in the state semifinal.

“I hope it doesn’t come down to that,” Reavis said, “but if it does, I have all the confidence in the world in our defense. They’ve stepped up when they’ve needed to and made the plays when they’ve had to.”