Nick Saban’s Cover 7 Defense Explained

Nick Saban is a heck of a coach. And he’s got a heck of a coaching tree. His defensive scheme has trickled both up and down with high school teams now running variations of his match quarters system and more and more NFL teams basing out of two-safety shells. His influence on the game - especially at the college level - has been immeasurable. He has produced a laundry list of big-name coaches at both the college and NFL level. Guys like Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, Jeremy Pruitt, Will Muschamp, Lane Kiffin, Jason Garrett, Dan Quinn, Mike Mularkey, Pat Shurmur, Steve Sarkisian, and many many more have coached under Saban. He is a fantastic recruiter and teacher.
Nick Saban’s Cover 7 uses zone with man-match principles. At its simplest, the Saban defense creates rules to allow defenders to attach in man coverage based on depth of route and receiver alignment. What’s more, no matter how many top tier players he loses to the NFL draft, his defenses keep on producing. It helps to have a string of 5-star recruits waiting in line, but that doesn’t mitigate the fact that his defensive scheme is incredibly sound.
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[@WeeklySpiral]

Saban is one of the best to ever do it. If you want to know more about the basics of football, check out my new Speaking Football course to give you the building blocks to understand more advanced schemes, thoughts, and gameplay: weeklyspiral.vhx.tv/

[@matthewscott1703]

What makes this cover 7 if it’s mostly QQH? Is there a QQThird variations?

[@evrydayamerican]

Thank you for this. I will no longer cuss at my TV as much at these young men. This is super complicated and they have to make these decisions in seconds. Amazing

[@vince7906]

This is why you always hear Saban saying “do your job.” Each man has a job and if he focuses on his job it’s still complicated, but not nearly as much so as if you have to know everything about it.

[@jimcapps5330]

No wonder CNS is always yelling at his DBs. That's a ton of stuff to get right; but when they do, Good Lord!!

[@kevinanderson263]

Then let a bunch of 4 and 5 star recruits run this defense and it’s over😂

[@WeeklySpiral]

Having elite talent definitely doesn't hurt lol

[@willbrewster976]

talent+technique and work ethic=unstoppable

[@yeildo1492]

The real "Process." Recruit the studs.

[@Smithsj82]

Weren’t they running this Defense last year. Offense is King now.

[@JohnnyJackson746]

Only drawback of cover 7 is you can run draw plays for yards.

[@troylewis593]

Love this content 👊🏾

[@CerebralIschemia]

Great stuff homie 💪🏼

[@WeeklySpiral]

I appreciate it!

[@BrianGlaze]

Fantastic content. Love this.

[@Greysky2024]

Can you do a breakdown of the Quarters defense of Iowa by Phil Parker? I would love to see that scheme played but with 5 star recruits

[@blueblood723]

We explained. Great insight!

[@kzgc8y3n]

I would like you to take a look at these new pressure packages this year that abunch of teams were using, especially the Colts and Vikings, where it was an evolved double a gap blitz but somehow there were 3 LB or DB in the middle, all walked up on the line of scrimmage, and one very wide defensive end. I'm sorry that I'm not explaining it very well. I also notice more alignments where they are putting 3 of the DL in the gaps to the right of the center for example, and isolating the 4th DL, usually an edge rusher, alone on the left side of the offensive line in a 9 technique, almost inviting a double team from the left guard. Perhaps these different alignments could be part of an interesting video in defensive evolution.

[@WeeklySpiral]

Definitely some unique defensive stuff going on. Will be interesting to see how Eberflus adapts his scheme with the Bears and if Zimmer lands somehwere. Tons of flexibility with fronts and looks -- especially on passing downs. Love the idea.

[@coreyjr1949]

U Kno sum

[@coreyjr1949]

U explaining that shit perfect

[@coreyjr1949]

Ion no the colts an Vikings are like cover 2 defensees

[@WeeklySpiral]

@@coreyjr1949 I appreciate it

[@mrmete]

Hey @weekly spiral would you be able to do Iowa State 3 high Safety scheme breakdown please? That would be greatly appreciated 👍🏾

[@rugbybitt77]

I would love to see the 3 high safety scheme too

[@juanlizardo6746]

Damnit, Jarrell!

[@drucartier2164]

I remember Bart Scott saying .. He took a ton of stuff from Rex

[@Javen2600]

What are the core principles for split backs?

[@loganstolberg2743]

I would constantly run cover 9’s and 8’s all the time if I were a coach

[@CoachBibbs]

One correction. Mod is “man outside deep” Quarters concept. Allowing inside breaking routes to be ignored. Zone off to rob 7 route from underneath

[@clayperry6516]

It's basic concepts in Cv 2 Cv 3 and C4. Nothing is new really but the terminology 😊 Aby kid can run it but you definitely need speed on the CB and OLB positions. It mks a difference...the rest is letting them GO with confidence 😊 Great analysis 👍

[@evrydayamerican]

By time you said To keep things simple I was already lost lol.

[@eugenepoon]

Are MODs vulnerable to double moves by design?

[@WeeklySpiral]

No more so than man coverage would be. Even then, unless there's multiple vertical routes, there should be help on whatever double move is being run.

[@brianadams9536]

In Cone, is the corner a low-shoulder player or high-shoulder player? It appears a high shoulder player due to the corner staying high on a dig route while the safety comes down on it.

[@jonstephanson8476]

It depends on the WR's release. The CB is an outside, low-shoulder player versus an inside release, and an inside, high shoulder versus an outside. It's all about where his help is. The issue is the CB did notcompletely hold his leverage, but it isn’t a bad rep

[@jonstephanson8476]

One of the big coaching points when teaching Cover 7 is to create a 3X3 box when a double team occurs. Each player should be on opposite ends of the box. Hi-low and inside-outside is dependent on the leverage of each player.

[@Dr_Dan7982]

So Saban really been running a 4-2-5 and then when teams go into 3 wide he uses nickel , they barely went into a 3-4 the game had changed so many tight ends are days like wide receivers, so now you need safety LB type players with speed strength and to stay one on one

[@roadrules3671]

It sounds complicated as hell.

[@Davidb212]

Can we get a breakdown of what the Eagles are doing offensively? The line rules to RPO & all that 😱

[@DetectiveLawliet]

@Wayne F. Lol

[@ayden3461]

Would his defense work against the Chiefs' last play to win Super Bowl?

[@jamard39701]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@Jxrdan_v]

Mod is man outside deep

[@popsmcgee4153]

mod is man on deman

[@yeildo1492]

@@popsmcgee4153 And some guy above said "man outside deep.' Yikes....

[@Da-Boo33]

Rolltide

[@mitchelll3879]

If it was me I would run a cover 22 spider y right on 3 left banana tailpipe..in the meantime a c gap will gobble up the top while a two deep safety high will take the top of a wheel route slot motion downhill up the rear back door double decker cheeseburger on the hitch and go double stop curl back on shooting a big wad in the heart of a two tone double clutch round the world semi comatose colonoscopy double orange doink come backer for two yards on 3 omaha

[@chanceredmond1487]

Well stated. However I disagree a bit on shooting a big wad in the heart, better places to shoot that wad

[@jtdesverdad]

Nick Saban got that D from Belichick in his time in the NFL. It's not something he created.

[@vincentlaubacher7878]

No actually Nick got the 3-4 scheme from Bill belichick but Nick is running more zone than man to man they've kind of left that I think they're running a 335 but they mostly run more zones because of the RPO in passing game nowadays that's why they kind of left the 3-4 scheme

[@jtdesverdad]

@@vincentlaubacher7878 no dude I the NFL Belichick runs many different types of coverages and schemes because it's the NFL just like Saban would. He got his match scheme from the NFL. Colleges have always run simplified versions of stuff but Nick brought match concepts which were ran in the pros to college. Match zones are zones that have rules which turns them into man coverage basically.

[@wesdavis309]

I didn't know punching women in the face was apart of his cover 7 defense?

[@batmandeltaforce]

Of course, you mean Kirby's defense. Kirby Smart taught Saban all he knows about defense.

[@Greysky2024]

😂nah. He probably had aspects of his style and showed Nick Saban but Saban was on the Browns in the day and knows a lot about the 3-4 defense already. Kirby Smart learned more from Saban than the other way around. Saban was one of the leading minds in defensive schemes, if anything Kirby Smart owes a lot of his style to what Saban and Belichick started out doing in Cleveland

[@batmandeltaforce]

@@Greysky2024 It's in the stats. Look ate BAMA and UGA, before and after Kirby... it's obvious:)

[@Greysky2024]

@@batmandeltaforce the conference has changed every two years drastically. Early on in Kirby’s first years there the SEC was heavily a pro style offensive conference. Then in 2012 Manziel and the spread embarrassed that Kirby Smart defense and then we saw Saban move to the spread offense as well as a lot of other teams in the conference. Then the defenses had to adjust to the different offenses in that conference. Kirby is a smart a$$ defensive guy, but he also was humbled a few games by some spread teams. Kirby probably showed Saban some great techniques and coverages to run and yes I’m sure Saban absorbed some of that information no doubt. But Nick was the mastermind behind the style and schematics of modern college defense. Before he was there people were running 4-3 defenses and basic nickel, he showed them to use specialized packages for certain scenarios. I think once the offenses started running spread as their base offense thats when he needed a bit of help from Kirby Smart coming up with game plans to handle that. But I’m not sure he was teaching Nick Saban a lot, maybe a few things here and there

[@Greysky2024]

@@batmandeltaforce I just think it’s a little crazy you said “Kirby taught Saban ALL he knows about defense” but I wouldn’t argue that he definitely is the reason their defenses are always so good. But even Kirby has stated that Nick is a huge reason he’s so successful, he is a great teacher. I believe Nick knows defense very very well, but I think Kirby is the one who comes up with the X’s and O’s of the specific game plans each week.

[@batmandeltaforce]

@@Greysky2024 Well, of course I exaggerated:) It's still talkin' season:)

[@qmccall0328]

This shit doesn't work anymore. That's the only problem. Either that he needs to hire new coordinator

[@Greysky2024]

It’s not that it doesn’t work anymore it’s that once teams have seen what plays you like to run in certain formations and with certain down and distance.. they can make a play or small wrinkle to attack those plays they know you will run. It’s the whole problem with being a great coach, the more years go by.. the more other coaches have seen all your plays and schemes and will try to gameplan for them. The longer you coach, the more plays that are on film to breakdown and try to scheme.

[@lexxon11]

This is ridiculous, it would take a kid 2 to 3 years to learn, i dont care even if they are 20 star