We caught up with Cody Alexander at AFCA and sat down with him at the Catapult booth to recap what we saw in 2022 as well as what he expects to trend in 2023.

Cody Alexander is the creator of MatchQuarters and the author of five books on defense. A former Texas HS Football Coach, and FBS Defensive GA, Coach A has a vast amount of experience at all levels of football.

Before returning to the high school ranks, Coach A was the Defensive Graduate Assistant at Baylor University under current North Texas Defensive Coordinator, Phil Bennett. During Coach’s tenure at Baylor, he assisted with the development of the corners. In addition, he was placed in charge of opponent breakdowns while overseeing and assisting with defensive recruiting, discovering All-Big 12 LB Eddie Lackey. While at Baylor, Coach A was on staff for three bowl appearances (Fiesta, Holiday, and Alamo) and a Big XII Championship (2013).

High School Trends:

-Move to the 3-3-5

-Wing-T and Power type concepts

-Pin & Pull

-Getting bigger O personnel on the field

-The Odd Stack

-Using “Spread” defense to defend bigger personnel

-Bigger Sam linebackers

-Slice/Inverted Sky to boundary

-Less emphasis on Pressures more on Coverage

-Benefits 7 on 7 

College Trends:

-Uptick on 5-man pressures

-More internal pressures to collapse pocket

-Zone-it and Match-it sides

-Internal pressures vs. protection help

-Early down pressures structures that are good vs. run

-BOSS front/overloads

NFL Trends:

-Coverage rotations

-5-man pressures - hugging the back    

-Will we see more pistol?

-Nickel with the passing strengths

-Advantages of back in sidecar

Tools and technology for coaches:

-Emphasis on analytics

-Win rate data

-Creating objective look at what you are doing real-time

-Understanding efficiencies

-Analytics for practice planning

Related:

Cody Alexander - Trends at all Levels in 2022

https://soundcloud.com/user-804678956/defensive-trends-at-all-levels-in-2022-cody-alexander-match-quarters

Match Quarters and Hybrid Defenders:
User-804678956 – Match-quarters-hybrid-defenders-cody-alexander

Simulated Blitzes:
User-804678956 – Systematic-blitzes-cody-alexander

Self Scouting - Cody Alexander:
User-804678956 – Self-scouting-cody-alexander
Positionless Defense
User-804678956 – Positionless-defense-with-south-dakota-defensive-coordinator-travis-johansen

Match-Quarters in 2023

https://matchquarters.com/

Match Quarters SubStack

https://matchquarters.substack.com/

Twitter: @the_Coach_A

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