Defending the wing-t and double wing offense

Question
I have been coaching youth football for 5 years now and last year, we were very successful at running the 3-5-3 defense against the 2 most difficult teams in our league. Those teams ran versions of the spread and fly offenses and wishbone as their base. But our D-coordinator, is stuck on running the 4-4 or 5-3 and they are not effective against the wing-t or the double wing as so many forums are saying they are. In our tournament this past season, we faced 2 teams 3 times that run the wing-t/double wing offenses and we lost pretty badly to 1 team and barely lost to the other, but in all three games, our time of possession was less than 1 quarter (11 min). I did notice that when our boys got confused, they would revert back to our 3-5-3 defense and stop them in the back field. That happened about 5 times in all 3 games. My question is what defense can I teach them that is a little better suited for defending the wing offenses. The advantage i had with the 3-5-3, was confusing the offense as to who to block versus who was blitzing. But i think they are going to be a little more prepared for us this season and I'm losing alot of my talent and speed. one coach was telling me about the wide 7 defense any help would be greatly appreciated.....

Sincerely,
Coach Rod

Answer
Hello,

Those offenses are tough to defend. There are a few teams who run it in a semi-pro league that I coach in. My D-coordinator just disguises his defenses. He loves to stack his 4-3 defense. With inside stunts off the stacks. We also use a floating free safety to blast plays in the backfield, normally from the weak side. Of course, this puts us in a disadvantage in the secondary.

With your kids reverting back to the 3-5-3, that is just what they were comfortable with. The truth is your defense is only as good as the talent that you have to play it. You can't run  a defense that requires speed if you don't have any speed on your defense.  Just keep working on ways to disguise that 3-5-3. That 3-5-3 can be a disguised 4-4. Can you see that? I can because we use it, and it works.

Good luck Coach.