Help with 44 and 46 defenses

Here is Malcolm’s rebuttal:
DC wrote:

1) Why is the HS freshman team running a 4-4? The answer is to start training the defense to make reads. It takes a long time to teach the defense to read the offense. But the only way you can teach a 4-4 to read is if the offense is actually giving the defense reads. IOW, the opposing offense must pull guards. If it doesn't, the players in the 4-4 learn nothing because they never actually get to practice using it.

Wrong! LBs in a 4-4 read backs and backfield flow. The ILBs in my 4-4 read flow. If that begins to hurt us in any way (like when teams might counter with backs crossing, we simply cross key the backs. If we face a team that does pull OGs a lot, then we will key backs through the OGs. But the primary key is backfield flow.

The OLBs read backs, too. The Sam (who we play in a 7), slams the TE and reads near back. The Rover (weak side LB) usually plays in a walk-off alignment and reads near back.

The defensive front is designed to keep OL off ILBs to allow them to attack the ball.

And, BTW, I’m not coaching my team to develop HS freshmen. If that happens, fine. But most of my defenders, especially the front 4, are not usually going big enough to play as HS freshmen in the DL. Some of the LBs do make it from time to time, and some of the DBs might.

Then DC wrote:
Unless you're opponents are running 1) the DC Wing T or 2) DW, you're not likely to see pulling guards. So youth 4-4 players seldom get to practice their reads in a game.

Wrong again. Many teams run wing-t with pulling guards, but it may not be the DC wing-t.

DC also wrote:
And, while a 4-4 defends the wing T 900 and 100 formations with admiration, if you see a DC Wing T team or a DW team, you're going to have a tough time stopping them with a 4-4. The DC Wing T team and the DW team will simply go two TE's, spread the four down linemen, and kick your ass. A 4-4 was not designed to defend against two TE's (Insert Malcolm's disagreement here.).

Here is Malcolm’s disagreement
I disagree once again split 40 (4-4) WAS designed to defend 2 TE attacks.
When we see 2 TEs it does spread us thinner across the front, but the theory of the defense doesn’t change. We align in 3 techs on both sides and now both OLBs are in 7s. Each OLB slams his respective TE, keeping him off the ILB, while he reads his near back. The 3 techs attack the OGs and keep them off the ILBs. So, if this is done properly (and often it is), the only O Lineman who can block the ILB is the OT. When teams think they can block the 3 tech with an OG by himself, the offense finds the DT making lots of tackles inside out.

DC also wrote:
How many youth two TE teams will be on your schedule? Each one you face you can count as an automatic loss unless the other team simply has no talent.

Haven’t lost to a 2 TE team in a long time. Agreed we don’t see a lot of them, but they don’t scare me any more than anything else I might face, and probably a whole lot less them some other things I could name.

DC said:
2) Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. If your youth team fails to win with a 4-4 (see above), your players will develop the habit of losing. They won't be on the HS freshman team when the opportunity comes. A kid with winning habits will have the position ahead of them.

I agree that winning (or losing) CAN BE a habit. I strongly disagree that a kid with winning habits will automatically make a team ahead of a kid who was on a habitual loser. That’s a stupid statement and fails to take into account size, experience, speed, agility, and a host of intangibles. That kid who was stuck on a loser might be an all-state player because he is now surrounded with talent he never had the luxury of before in his football experience.

DC further expounds:
Kids who win games and make tackles are more likely to succeed than kids who don't win games or make tackles. The 4-4 does not teach how to win or how to make tackles.

Again I think this is a ridiculous statement.
While I will agree that kids who do the right things will probably have a better chance to be successful, I surely don’t agree that the 4-4 does not teach kids how to win games or make tackles. Our post-season team runs a 4-4 and we had a total of 11 days work to get ready for our tournament. This happens each post-season. We have won this tournament five years running and we make lots of tackles. In fact, in our last 4 games we have allowed zero points. This season we played 2 DW teams running 2 TE sets. We were clearly better than one of them, but the second one was a pretty even match. They, in fact, switched to a 4-4 because we have had so much success with it over the last several years.

DC said:
It teaches how to read. There's a big difference there. If you run a 4-4 and your kids go on to the freshmen team, if their coaches move them to a different position, then all the time you spent teaching him that position is wasted. He has to relearn an entirely different read and reaction all over again. And if he's competing for this new spot against a kid who came out of a 46, he's going to get his ass kicked.

I cannot agree here either. This is a blanket statement that has as much chance being false as it has being true. What are we talking about here cloned kids who are the same size, same speed, same mental ability, same IQ, yada, yada? How are you going to tell me that a kid, just because he played in your, or anyone else’s 46 for that matter, is automatically going to beat out some kid who happened to play on a 4-4 defensive team?

And, most kids end up getting moved to a new position in HS anyway. No, I definitely do not agree that the 44 kid will get his ass kicked by the 46 kid. What a generalization.

Finally DC said;
That 46 kid will have the ability to run down, and tackle, anything that moves. He's so used to reading on the move, that he'll pick up doing that in a 4-4 fast. He'll look at his read and when the ball is snapped, he'll be moving. The 46 eliminates HESITATION. The 4-4 initially develops HESITATION in a new player. He who hesitates is lost. A kid moved into a 4-4 defense into a position he hasn't played, is guaranteed to hesitate because he's THINKING on the snap. That leads to action - read - pause -react. "Pause" is there based on uncertainty.

What 4-4 coach really wants is a bunch of 46 players. He wants a bunch of players that can do everything, with no hesitation. Then he simply says "Now! I want you play just like you've been playing, but make your read after the snap." For a 46 player, that's easy. He makes a presnap read and a post snap read anyway.

No different for a 4-4 defender on my team. A pre-snap read comes first and then the post snap read follows.

DC’s all wet on this one IMHO.