Twangers-
Long time lurker and even longer time Illini (wife 88 and myself 87).
I am very very intrigued by your last sentence ...."The defense is designed to force the QB to make his read post snap which is never in his favor, especially at the college level where one read offense’s are the norm."
Can you elaborate more on how that works without giving away something that future opponents don't already know? As a long-time Bears fan, I never did really understand the Cover 2 - even when it was clearly working well for them in the mid-2000's. Thanks much
I was referring to the Cover 4 there, my apologies. Because it’s combination coverage, the QB has to see how the safety reacts to the outside WR, whether it be the “X” or the “Z” before he can either throw or remove himself from the read (Off topic but this is something Brandon Peters struggles with). There are tendencies you can pick up on tape but this also opens you up to trap coverage. Tony’s pick 6 against Purdue is a classic example. Plummer reads that as Cover 0 (My best guess) but it’s Cover 4 Trap. He can’t get that from a pre-snap look, that’s where it’s difficult for college QBs to attack. This defense can be beaten by top notch QBs. I’m a big personal Kirby Smart fan, I watch a lot of UGA ball. Jake Fromm could (Not would, could) beat this coverage, but the majority of QBs we’ll face won’t read it well.
The Cover 2, however, in its native form is easy to read pre and post snap. It’s not designed to confuse anyone. Simply put, it’s not easy to execute well against on the downs where we play it, medium to longer 3rd downs.