The Enduring Appeal of the 3-3-5 Defense in College Football
For much of its history, football was played in a homogeneous way. For the better part of a century, it was played a certain way - in one form or another, taking the ball and trying to run it down your opponents’ throat. It took place in condensed space, mostly in the middle of the field, and in order to win, you had to be tougher than your opponent. So, the bigger and stronger your players were, the more games you’d win. The problem was, there were only so many bigger and stronger players to go around. This talent scarcity drove innovation at the lower levels of the sport, which slowly but surely trickled upward. The Run and Shoot, the Spread, and the Air Raid all evolved from tinkering done by desperate coaches who would pick up things here and there, experiment with them, tweak, and fit them together until they had something new - something that let them compete with, and beat, more talented opponents. Defense was no exception. With power running games dominating the sport, what if you can’t get four or five big, strong defensive linemen? What if all you can recruit to your small school are undersized but quick players? How do you stay competitive? One answer to these questions is the 3-3-5 defense.
Origins and Evolution of the 3-3-5
The 3-3-5 defense is a defensive alignment consisting of three down linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs. The 3-3-5 defense can also be referred to as the 3-3 stack or the spread defense. It is one form of the nickel defense, a generic term for a formation with five defensive backs.
The idea of it first started in New Mexico in 1980 under Joe Lee Dunn, on a staff that included Rocky Long, but it would be years before it would be realized. New Mexico’s undersized players kept getting swallowed up at the point of attack. But undersized also meant faster, and Dunn wanted to take advantage of that. The proof of concept later came in 1987 when Dunn was the defensive coordinator for a South Carolina defense that averaged less than 12 points allowed per game. In 1991 Dunn used it to upset the 16th-ranked USC Trojans with Memphis State (now just Memphis), and Dunn perfected his 3-3-5 “Stack” defense at Mississippi State in 1999, a defense that finished in the top five nationally in points allowed.
“If you've got a bunch of people that can't tackle, you're not going to stop anybody anyway,” said Dunn. Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) was preparing to face the University of Southern California in 1991. “We were a small Division I school. I thought the only way we could compete was to drop our defense ends back off the line. Thus, the 3-3-5 defense saw its first action in college football Sept.
Long, with some help from Dunn, installed the 3-3-5 at Oregon State in 1992, but made his own significant changes to the scheme, including the creation of the safety-linebacker hybrid position he called the “Rover.” The Beavers’ defense improved tremendously, and Long took the defensive coordinator job at UCLA in 1996. He transformed that defense too, and in 1997 the Bruins finished 10-2 and in the top five of the AP poll. While there, he recruited a linebacker named Tony White, a freshman on that 1997 team.
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The next year, Long would parlay his success into a return to New Mexico, this time as its head coach, where he would spend the next decade tinkering and tweaking the 3-3-5 into something that could last. It didn’t hurt that the Lobos had a player perfect for the Rover position. His name was Brian Urlacher. Urlacher would record 178 tackles in his junior year and would finish his collegiate career as an All-American.
After his playing career was over, White became Long’s linebackers coach in 2008. When Long left to become the defensive coordinator at San Diego State in 2009, White went with him as his cornerbacks coach. Long would eventually take over at San Diego State, and White coached with him until 2017, when he left to be the cornerbacks coach at Arizona State under Danny Gonzalez, a fellow coach under Long at San Diego State and a player on Long’s inaugural 1998 Lobos team.
White’s first game as defensive coordinator came against Florida State in the 2019 Sun Bowl, where FSU QB James Blackman threw four interceptions against the Sun Devils. White would splinter off on his own the following year to be defensive coordinator at Syracuse and then Nebraska (Long took over as defensive coordinator for the Orange when White left) and now, finally, at Florida State.
Despite the Choctaws victory last season, McMurry still improved from the No. 9 passing defense in the American Southwest Conference in 2008, to the No. 2 pass defense in 2009 under Dunn. Dunn hired Barris Grant and Kendall Roberson to join Mumme's staff at New Mexico State when all three men made the move to Las Cruces in 2008. “They haven't been separated from it that long,” Dunn said of them coaching the scheme.
Core Principles and Tactical Flexibility
The 3-3-5 is fundamentally a flexible scheme designed to be built around the players you have, to fit to their strengths. It is an attractive option for those schools that cannot recruit the biggest and strongest defensive linemen. At the time it was conceived, bigger programs still recruited the biggest athletes it could find in order to dominate running games, so the 3-3-5 took advantage in recruiting speedy “tweener” athletes. It was not built to combat modern spread offenses, but the soundness of the idea behind the scheme - that you don’t need bigger athletes to stop a power running game - has been proven over and over again. But to Long’s credit, the scheme has endured because it is adaptable and has evolved with the times, to the point that you could forgive the average fan for assuming it was created in response to the proliferation of spread offenses.
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This alignment is generally used when the defense is trying to confuse the offense by applying different blitz pressures on the offense while playing mostly zone or sometimes man coverage. This alignment is rarely used as a base defensive scheme as it lacks a fourth lineman or linebacker to stop the run like the 3-4 or 4-3, but is used by many high schools to counterattack the spread offense scheme.
To effectively play the 3-3-5, the "Front 8" (i.e., the eight defensive players closest to the line of scrimmage) must be physical and tough. The three down lineman must be able to control the running lanes, execute an effective pass rush, and be able to keep the opposing offensive line occupied so that the linebackers can make plays. The two outside or "Stud" linebackers must be effective at pressuring the offensive line and reading and reacting to the play as it develops. The defensive secondary must be equally capable of pressuring the offensive lineman and dropping back into pass coverage.
Gap Assignments and Defensive Line Techniques
It all starts up front. First, some background. The gaps, which are designated by letters, denote the spaces between offensive linemen. Each side of the center is labeled the “A” gap(s). Then outside the guards is the “B” gaps, and so on down the line. Every gap represents a space for an offensive player to run through. Every blocking offensive player essentially creates two gaps, one on each side of them. Power running games, like the kind Mike Norvell and Gus Malzahn like to run, will often “pull” or move offensive linemen, usually guards, to move gaps around in order to try to outflank a defense. In their heyday, fullbacks were also used to insert gaps, attempting to create one that the defense did not account for.
For the defensive line, where they line up is designated with numbers. If you’ve ever heard of a defensive tackle as a “3-tech”, this is where it comes from; they lined up just outside the guard’s shoulder. That’s usually in a traditional 4-3 front.
In the 3-3-5, it’s often called 505 because the two defensive ends line up in the 5 technique, shaded just to the outside of the offensive tackles, while the nose guard is lined up directly heads-up opposite the center at 0 (zero).
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Dunn liked to run his 3-3-5 in a “Stack”, in which his three linebackers lined up directly behind the defensive linemen. This helped to keep opposing offensive linemen off of the linebackers so they were free to chase the ballcarrier. White, from Long, likes the Odd Stack, and his linebackers can line up anywhere.
Another tweak of the 3-3-5 is the Tite front, which White can sometimes use depending on the offensive formation. It sets the defensive ends to the inside of the offensive tackles, essentially lined up in 3 or 4i technique, while the nose tackle is still at 0. It evolved specifically to combat spread offenses, and is used in order to clog up the A and B gaps to shut down interior runs and cutback lanes for the RBs and force them to run horizontally to the outside. It makes it difficult for offensive linemen to successfully execute double teams on the defensive linemen.
White has said that every purveyor of the 3-3-5, of which there are many these days, have tweaked the scheme and made it their own.
Tony White's Odd Stack Three-High Hybrid System
White’s philosophy can be summed up succinctly. He wants to attack offenses. He believes he can do that by being multiple and by being aggressive.
Being multiple means his unit won’t line up in the same front or base coverage play after play. He wants to be difficult to prepare for, so he will show many different looks.
One principle defensive coaches have, or used to have, is marrying the front to the coverage. Meaning, if you run a particular front, such as one that includes a blitz, that blitz dictates a particular coverage behind it. That’s not how White sees it (separating the front from the coverage was pioneered by Gary Patterson at TCU in the late-aughts in response to spread offenses). White believes that you can select a blitz and run a variety of different man and zone coverages behind it.
In being aggressive, the 3-3-5’s flexibility lends it to being able to blitz any of the 11 players on defense, or any combination of defenders. It marries being multiple with being aggressive. One principle of enduring schemes on both sides of the ball is simplicity for the players but something that looks complex to opponents.
To that end, White has both unbalanced (overload) blitzes and balanced blitzes. His overload blitzes, where he sends two defenders in the same area to attack an offense, can be executed in a variety of ways. Sometimes it may be called based on the formation of the opposing offense, such as to the strength of the formation, or to the weakside. It can be keyed to a particular offensive player in the backfield. If that player shifts in pre-snap motion, so does the blitz. Other times it may be called based which side of the field White wants to attack, to the field or to the short side of the boundary, so the offense’s formation/motion doesn’t matter. He can send two linebackers, or any combination of linebackers and defensive backs. All of his unbalanced blitzes can be tagged in the above ways.
His balanced blitzes are just that - two defenders are still sent, but one on each side of the offense’s formation. Which two are sent can vary. Which gap they attack can vary. The thing is, pre-snap both the balanced and unbalanced blitzes look the same to the offensive line.
You can see how this can be confusing, even for the most experienced and athletic offensive lines, especially if they only see the 3-3-5 once a year. Remember, White can play a multitude of different coverages behind these blitzes, which can also confuse quarterbacks.
Key Player Roles: Rover and Jack
The Rover is the safety-linebacker hybrid and essentially acts as a third, middle safety, meaning this defense is a sort of hybrid 3-high system. The Rover should be aggressive coming downhill against the run but should be able to play both the run and the pass.
The Jack is another hybrid tweener player, and can rush the passer or drop into coverage, similar to a LB/DB hybrid. They are essentially the overhang defender, or similar to a nickel back. However, due to how offenses began to attack this position, it may currently be evolving into something of a LB/DE hybrid where he drops down to create a four-down front. Shifting the defensive line, including having a 3-tech, means White’s defense can have both Odd and Even fronts (depending on whether the 3-tech aligns to or away from the strength of the offense’s formation).
The 3-3-5 in Action: Examples and Adaptations
Boise State, West Virginia, BYU, SDSU and Arizona have used this formation with success in college football. Michigan ran this formation during the 2010 season. TCU uses this as a variant formation; its base defense is a different nickel set, the 4-2-5.
However, Dunn's new and innovative alignment did not immediately become a main stay. “I went back to the 5-3,” he said. Dunn dusted off the scheme and implemented it as his base defense for the Bulldogs and coached the nation's No. 1 defense in 1999 and helped MSU to back-to-back bowl wins in 1999 and 2000. “You can't imagine how many phone calls I got from coaches wanting me to help them utilize it,” he said. “It's really become a mainstay at the high school level. “I'm pretty old, I don't really think about all that,” Dunn said. While Dunn doesn't concern himself with other coaches who are running his system, several big college football programs still run it including West Virginia and Wake Forrest.
Iowa State was 18th in Quarters usage last year in the FBS, while K-State, which has a much more diverse coverage menu, finished 44th. The Cyclones were 14th overall in split-field (open-post) coverage as well. The Wildcats run a lot more man coverage than the Cyclones. Iowa State finished 116th in man coverage usage (PFF). Although similar, the two defenses are not the same.
Jim Knowles at Ohio State, also a former Big 12 DC, created a four-down three-high structure to combat the Power Spread schemes found in the Big 10. That gave three high defensive coaches more ideas on how to combat 12- and 21-personnel offensive packages. Even Nebraska (another former Big 12 head coach) got in on the trend last year. Hopping into a four-down structure allows the defense to spread its anchor points out and get bigger bodies on the line of scrimmage.
When facing each other in Ireland, the Cyclones and Wildcats had two separate philosophies to counter their opponents. Iowa State used Odd Stack defensive alignments even when K-State tried to get big on them. K-State featured some four-down alignments, especially against unbalanced formations.
The "Bend But Don't Break" Philosophy
The 3-3-5 defense is often called a "bend but don't break" defense in that it often gives up big yardage, particularly "between the 20s", but gels in their Red zone (gridiron football). This is best exemplified by the 2008 West Virginia Mountaineers football defensive statistics; on average the team gave up 328 yards per game, but lead the nation in red zone efficiency, allowing their opponents to only score 68% of the time.
Florida State's Implementation of the 3-3-5
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida State Seminoles brought in the No. 27 transfer class this past cycle, which included Southern Miss transfer Chris Jones, Jr. Jones, listed as a three-star transfer, initially committed to the Ole Miss Rebels before ultimately signing with the Seminoles. With an emphasis on beefing up the front seven, Jones brings the size and speed needed for success.
Florida State let go of former special teams coordinator and linebackers coach John Papuchis and promoted from within, former FSU linebacker and first-round NFL Draft pick Ernie Sims, who has been with the program as an assistant, now entering his third season with the 'Noles.
Jones said his relationship with both Sims and Norvell changed his mind about leaving his home state of Mississippi."I felt like Florida State was home, and coach Ernie Sims is a legend here. We built a great relationship, and that's really the main reason I came here," Jones said to the media on Wednesday. "Coach Ernie Sams and coach Norville, and that relationship we built over the whole recruiting process, and it landed me here at Florida State. I'm ready."
In two seasons with the Golden Eagles, he made 22 appearances with 13 starts. Last year, he ranked among the top 10 tacklers in the FBS, racking up 135 total stops to go along with 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, a forced fumble, two pass breakups, and an interception.
Florida State defensive coordinator Tony White's 3-3-5 scheme utilizes three down linemen, three linebackers, and five defensive backs, which emphasizes speed and disguise to create flexibility against modern spread offenses. When asked where he fits in White's defense, the 6'2'', 230-pound linebacker says he wants to play both the Will and the Mike position, and the coaches are pushing just that.
"I'm trying to learn both positions: the Mike and the Will. I'm a sideline-to-sideline backer, so I feel like they're going to put me in positions to make plays in that aspect," Jones continued. "And I can do both things. I'm not going to limit myself to just learning one position. I'm going to learn both. Coach White has a great scheme as it allows the linebackers run sideline to sideline and make plays. And that's what I do best."
Having an aggressive linebacker who can play in space will be critical for Florida State's success this upcoming season. The front seven seemed lackluster in 2025 and the addition of Jones should bolster what White is trying to accomplish this upcoming season.
"Coach Sims, he doesn't want me to just learn one position; he wants me to learn both. And, with White's defense, it allows you to run sideline to sideline," Jones said. "And they got a lot of good packages, not just in the box, but outside of the box, too. He can put me at Jack, he can put me at Mike, he can put me at Will, and just give me a chance to be all over the field and make plays."
If he can translate his FBS-leading tackling numbers into consistent impact in the ACC, the Seminoles’ front seven could take a noticeable step forward.
What this means for Florida State. The point being, White’s system is truly multiple, and can take advantage of multiple tweener body types, should they be on the roster. He can adjust to four-down fronts to still fit the run against teams who try to attack his scheme with heavy personnel in order to try to overload the defensive front with the power running game, while still keeping three safeties high.
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