Coach Jerry Gordon
Coaching the Under Front Defense
Coach Jerry Gordon has done a fantastic job of explaining the under front defense. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to coach this defense, has to play against it or just wants to learn about it
Chris Brown
Editor
Smart Football
Jerry Gordon's philosophy and scheme related to the under front defense are through, detailed and complete. If you are looking for answers in defending the wide range of offenses that you will encounter with out slowing down your players, reading Coaching the Under Front Defense will be time well spent
Andy Rondeau
Head Football Coach
Pace University
Coaching the Under front Defense is an easy to understand manual for any coach interested in learning and installing the basics of this defense. Coach Gordon provides detailed descriptions of the techniques and reads required to be successful at each position
Tony DeMeo
Retired Head Football Coach
University of Charleston
I wanted to publicly thank Jerry Gordon for his Under Front Defense book.
Just as a little testimonial - We installed the under front (based heavily off of Gordon's book) two years ago. We had given up nearly 3000 yards rushing the year before and were at a loss to stop the run. We had a proud coaching staff that had won 3 state championships, but changes in the offensive game and just falling out of touch with some basic defensive principles had made us very average defensively.
Our first 3 games that year after the change were against primarily 21 pers. teams who dabbled with zone read. They were not the best passing teams and didn't pretend to be. We held them to -6 yds. rushing total in those 3 games. The remainder of our schedule was mostly teams with open sets, who liked to throw the ball more and who occasionally got into 2 back looks. Our "under front" morphed into a 425 look, but we played all of the same concepts (jattacking the "V" of the OL'ment, BDSD, clear/cloudy LB reads, force, read ("look") force, split field coverage, etc.) We didn't change the defense, but even guys on our own staff thought we did (offensive coaches are so fun to mess with). The key was having hybrid type players at a few spots who could play against a run-heavy look in an under front and then adjust to 10 personnel and cover some in space. We faced a flexbone team that gashed us for 602 yds rushing before we made the change and held them to negative yards at half. Didn't change the defense any, didn't even play our usual option rules.
We are so grounded in those concepts that we don't even make calls from the sideline anymore. The players understand the concepts and make adjustments to what we see on the field.
We won a state championship that year and played in the big game again this past year. We gave up 606 yds rushing total this past year and have lead our state in least points allowed the past two years (since we made the change).
Don Hogue
Chiawana H.S.
Pasco, Wa.
I read the book prior to my first season as a DC. Its a great read and Coach Gordon does an outstanding job making it easy to learn and teach the concepts. I would highly recommend it.
Sincerely.
Joshua Norton