Coach Seto Presentation on USC Secondary Play

Friday March 28th 2008

On Friday  night after the USC practice session the Trojan football coaches put on clinic talks in small groups for visiting coaches and interested parties. This year I picked the secondary session to attend since I wanted to get a better sense of Coach Rocky Seto and the USC coaching concepts on secondary play. Here are my summary notes.

 For those that don’t know his background Coach Seto has truly worked his way up the ladder at USC through hard work and effort. After attending Arcadia High School and playing football he moved onto Mount San Antonio JC and from there became a walk on player at USC. After earning a scholarship as linebacker he graduated and stayed on with the program in various volunteer roles. Coach Seto performed time in the video department, and as an administrative assistant to the coaches before becoming a graduate assistant. Eventually he worked his way into coaching the linebackers and safeties before becoming the main secondary coach in his current capacity. Coach Pete Carroll is a former secondary player and coach and has spent lots of time I suspect with Coach Seto. Coach Carroll also walked in on the clinic session for a few minutes to answer questions. Below I’ll summarize the main contents. Unfortunately I had no remaining battery power at this point in time and was unable to record any of the presentations. As such any errors in summation are my own.

3 Main Principles of USC Secondary Play

#1 Eliminate giving up the big play
#2 Out hit the opponent on all plays
#3 Get the ball. Either strip the ball or make the interception when in position.

Scheme Related (Note: this was not an official principle listed but much received much description in video).

#1 Eliminate the big play

Giving up big plays will cost you the game in either the pass or run department. There is no such thing as a perfect defense. Every scheme either man or zone or combination based has weak points. USC chooses to defend the middle third of the field in particular and that is what all incoming Freshman secondary players must first learn to do well.

A recent unpublished NFL study conducted in recent years again concluded that giving up explosive plays (+16 in the passing game, and +12 in the running game) has a major effect in determining the outcome. Give up either an explosive run or pass play in any given drive and the opposition will score over 75% of the time for the period studied. Conversely if the defense limits the opposition to 3 big plays in the game or less the offense will only generate 8.6 points per game on average. When that happens the team in question on defense has an overwhelmingly good chance (but no guarantee of course) of winning. Sorry math and stat phobes. USC coaches both track and hang their hat on this notion and it is the #1 base principle for secondary play. USC annually leads the Pac-10 in not allowing big pass plays on defense.

#2 Out hit the opponent

Teams are going to complete passes on any defense. Shorter underneath throws are not as bad in terms of impact however since odds are the opponent can not consistently string together 10-12 play drives and go the length of the field. A safety can make a good break on any ball thrown over a 22 yard ceiling. They key is reading the QB and reacting in a timely fashion. Coach Seto showed good examples of reads and breaking on deep balls. The key was correct reading of the angle of the QB shoulders and the transfer of weight into the throw and not biting on superficial pump action tricks.

When the safety in particular can not get over in time to help the corner or arrive in time to disrupt the pass the emphasis then switches to delivering good clean hard hits on the wide receiver. Multiple film examples were shown where completed passes were rendered incomplete by the quality of the hit put on by the DB. Also even when the ball is completed the hit put on the WR has the psychological effect of making them tentative in the future. USC will out hit the opponent.

#3 Get the ball

Under Pete Carroll USC has had tremendous overall success in taking the ball away from the opponent despite the past two years.  Taking the ball away both stops the opponent from scoring and gives the USC offense more chances to score.  It also has a big shift in terms of altering game momentum.  Scoring probability after a turnover is much higher than on regular drives.

USC practices daily drills for DB’s in individual practice periods with both cornerbacks and safeties breaking on different balls. Coaches throw hitches, slants, outs, fades, seams, post, corner, and go routes. One DB tries to catch the ball one tries to bat it away or make the interception. Much attention is put upon footwork, hands, and hip motion and direction in turning.  In competition drills this switches to USC WR’s versus DB’s with the QB throwing the ball under game like conditions as possible. Players are put in a position to practice and compete just like in games.

Stripping balls from WR’s is emphasized as well in drill and in actual scrimmages. They key coaching point is to get the hand onto the tip of the ball and find a way to rip it out. This has to be emphasized and practiced or it will not just happen. Dislodging balls from behind is also practices as well. When two players tackle a receiver if possible one should hold him up and pin his arms while the other strips the ball away. This takes team work and not just going for the big hit.

Lot’s of good film on tackling technique was shown as well. A part of practice in most sessions involves tackling drills and taking the right track toward the ball carrier. The key point is to track the near hip of the opponent, strike the near pectoral, wrap up while making good upper cuts and get the defender down. Several text book examples from both USC and the NFL level were shown on film.

 Scheme Related Notes

Lastly I’ll touch upon the concept of what defense USC plays in the secondary. Don’t expect to learn much on this text description or from watching TV due to the limited viewing angle or listening to the announcers. Seto points out that USC normally aligns in a 2 deep safety shell but then rotates post snap into a different coverage on about every play. Seto commented that aligning in a two deep safety look pre-snap does not fool the opposition. (Note: It sure works to fool most announcers and casual followers of the game though). Opposing QB's know a different look and scheme is coming post snap and subsequently watch for the next read key.

Overhead game footage was shown with all of the following schemes. Cover 1 (Man Under), Cover 2 Man Under, Cover 2 Zone (Corner responsible for flats and sink on balls thrown less than 16 yards), Cover 2 with inverted safeties, Tampa 2 (like Cover 2 but with the MLB also dropping into the middle or covering the TE) Cover 3 Sky and Cloud, Cover 4, ¼, ¼, ½ Combo Coverage, as well as various different odd ball or robber coverage schemes. Then there are specific coverages for when USC runs a zone blitz package, etc. USC has to play all these coverages each week in practice as well to prepare the USC offense for what scheme they’ll see that upcoming week. When I asked which one was even considered base secondary coverage Seto shook his head and said it is not even that simple most weeks. Each game depends upon the opponent and what their offense tries to do the most. He commented that Coach Carroll is a secondary expert and takes great pride in this part of the defense and is very meticulous as well as demanding.  Good luck to the opposition in figure it out. Here is a link to recent USC performance in terms of YPA, YPC, and a few other defense metrics.


Other Comments 

The other interesting tidbit of information was that Coach Seto thinks the addition of former player Kris Richard to the staff will play big dividends. Richard had excellent corner technique while at USC and should help in teaching the corners. Also Richard throws an excellent deep ball and this will help on drills where a QB is not available in practice. Seto admits that neither he nor Coach Carroll throw the best deep ball so this will make practice even more game like.  

In the evenings final wrap up Coach Seto and WR Coach Morton showed more film on sessions where DB’s and WR’s work against each other in practice. Examples on video included:

  • Slot drill (practice on defending different Hi / Low routes)
  • Level Drill  (practice defending certain smash routes)
  • Stalk Block Drills
  • 1 on 1 (Make a man miss drills, Route defense drills, etc.)
  • Crack and replace drills, etc.
  • Tackling drills (focus on proper track, aiming point, and form)

A rough allocation of time for Friday’s practice in shoulder pads and shorts looks as follows (click here).