The Quarterback Dilemma

One of the biggest mistakes I made as an OC that I see offensive coordinators make is their personnel at the quarterback position. You get to put 11 guys on the field, and you need to put your best 11 on the field. Too often we get caught up thinking we have to play a "quarterback" at the quarterback position. If your quarterback is not one of your best 11, then he does not need to be on the field. 

If you have a kid playing quarterback that doesn't throw well or run well and doesn't put any pressure on the defense, you need to evaluate if he gives you the best chance to win. We have all had quarterbacks who were great leaders that maybe didn't throw well or run well, but your team was it its best when they were on the field. 

But if you have a kid on the field that doesn't run well or throw well, and the defense doesn't have to account for him, then you might need to look at playing a different kid. Then you need to adjust your system to fit your best guys being on the field. 

Adapt To The Skillset 

If you are an air raid team and you don't have a quarterback that can execute air raid concepts, you have two choices. Put a kid at QB who can execute those concepts, or put one of your best 11 at the quarterback position and build your offense to their skill set. The same is true for any offensive system you might run. Great offensive coordinators are able to find a way to get their best 11 on the field where they can capitalize on their skillset. Adapt your play calling to the strengths and skills of the guy taking the snaps. 

QB Touches The Ball Every Snap

Your quarterback is the only player who is going to touch the ball every single play. If you have a kid who can do dynamic things, then it is okay to snap him the ball. I understand that not every kid is capable mentally of the responsibility of communicating the play and taking a snap. But if you are struggling on offense and your QB is putting any sort of pressure on the defense, you might consider changing who is taking the snap every play. 

Who gives you the best chance to win the football game? Who is the guy you can put at quarterback that can increase your production numbers? 

It might be that you don't have a quarterback who gives you the best chance to win, or it might be that your starter is injured. Your backup may be a great kid, but does he give you the best chance to win? 

We went through this a couple of times in my career. We had a kid who had come through our system as a QB. He spot played as a 10th grader, and then was ready to take the starting job as a junior. He worked hard and did everything right. Three games into the season we were struggling to score points. We were doing our self-scout analysis and realized we had most of our explosive and productive plays when we were in our wildcat personnel. We went back and watched all of our first three games and looked at the data. The data said we were averaging 4.4 yards per play with our QB taking the snap, and 8.2 yards a play when our "wildcat" was taking the snap. 

We made a decision to retool our offense to give our wildcat the majority of the snaps. We already were a read based offense that had elements of misdirection. We decided to do more of that with a better athlete taking the snap. He had a decent arm, but he was not going to be able to throw us down the field making progression reads. We set up our pass game with more "him" balls. A him ball is where I tell the QB to throw to "him," or a specific player. That took pressure off the QB. 

Building Concepts 

We ran inside zone, outside zone, counter, and power. We built our concepts to play off each other as a series. We ran outside with the back in a sidecar position. To complement this, we ran counter off of outside zone action with the QB carrying the ball. This was simple for our guys to execute, but stressed the defense. Below is our QB counter concept. 

The QB is going to ride the back as the back accelerates through the mesh. The QB is going to pull the football get downhill. The guard is pulling to kick, and the Y or H back is going to wrap to the PSLB. This is a very simple concept. We can also wrap the guard and kick with the Y. The linebackers cannot fly on flow as they must read the guard. 

We then built a boot concept as a play action component off the QB counter. When the safeties added themselves to the box, we were able to take advantage of space. The blocking looked the same, with the BSG pulling to account for the unblocked edge player. The QB is going to sell the OS Zone fake to the back, take one step as if he is pulling to run counter, then gain depth and width. 

He was going to have a two man read, looking at the flat first, then the crosser. The key was the timing of the routes and the QB understanding the timing. If the QB does not have the flat or the crosser, run. 

If you have a kid who can run the ball well that can take snaps, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. Even if he doesn't throw particularly well, you can build concepts into your pass game that simplify things. We used sprint out and boot concepts where he had a simple high-low read. If the read wasn't there, he could run. We would throw fast screens as an extension of the run game, and would throw hitches and verticals.

The big thing I want to get you to think about is simple. Do we have our best 11 on the field? Are we married to a system, or are we married to production? 

This is just a small example of a simple way to put together a series. There was more too this, but this is how it started. As you begin to look at what you are doing and put together a package for a more dynamic player, build off what your kids already know. Take that prior knowledge and build a simple series of plays that complement each other. 

Importance of Preparation

One of the biggest parts of our success was our preparation. You have to do a great job of game planning for your opponents which will greatly improve your play calling ability. If you want to be more prepared each week, I highly recommend you check out my game and practice planning resource. I spent much of my career as a coordinator. I was an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, and coached at both the high school and college levels. I have made available all of our game and practice planning resources that helped us win more games. These have everything you need to be more prepared. They are editable and customizable, and are available as an instant download.  https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to weekly practice plans and scripts, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! This helped us be able to be prepared to attack the defense and put more points on the board. It also helped us be much more efficient and targeted on the weekends when we were game planning. 

Using a SWOT Analysis With A Struggling Offense

There is nothing more frustrating for an offensive coordinator than not being able to move the ball consistently. It is frustrating when you can't get first downs to keep the chains moving. You want to give your defense a chance to rest, while also controlling field position. Ultimately, you need to put some points on the board. 

When you are struggling on offense you have to look at why you are struggling. This is where I recommend a SWOT Analysis for coaches. SWOT stands for:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities 
• Threats

This is a tool that has been used in the business world for decades, and also can be a powerful tool in sport. 

Listen, if you are struggling on offense I can tell you that I have been there. I have been in situations where we couldn't buy a first down. The SWOT analysis helps you to figure out what you are during currently, and what you need to change and adjust to improve. This is a valuable tool used in the business world that is also a valuable tool for coaches to use. 

At the end of the day you have two choices. You can keep doing what you have been doing and get what you have been getting, or you can make some adjustments and strive for a better, more desirable result. 

Before we perform the SWOT analysis, we are going to answer some overarching questions:

• Are you doing simple things that it takes to be successful on offense?
• Communicating the play to the unit, then QB/OL communication pre-snap
• Lining Up Right
• Base fundamentals- Eye Discipline, footwork, etc
• Are you getting your best players touches?
• Are your taking advantage of space?
• Are you running into a loaded box?
• Is there a particular front or coverage you are struggling with? 
• Are you running your identity concept?

These questions will give us some background information we will use for our SWOT analysis. Great leaders Analyze, Adjust, and Adapt. 

SWOT Analysis

Strengths and Weaknesses

The first thing we are going to to is talk about our strengths and weaknesses. We are going to look at our personnel strengths and weaknesses, our concept strengths and weaknesses, our practice strengths and weaknesses, and our process strengths and weaknesses.

Personnel

With personnel, I want to look at our best players and our best position group. We are going to rank our offensive players from top to bottom with their position. Next we are going to rank our position groups. This helps us to determine our strongest and weakest players and position groups.

Is our offense designed to play to our strengths of our personnel? Are we doing things that ask too much of our weakest personnel or position groups? Are the best players on the field? Are we finding ways to get our best 11 on the field at the same time? 

Then we going to look at our data. Are we getting the ball to our best players the most? If so, what is the result of their touches? Do we need to change how we are getting them or trying to get them the ball? If we aren't, what do we need to do to get them more touches? Are we taking shots? This is a big one. We want to take a couple of shots each week.

I like to look at each player and look at their average yards per touch. Sometimes the really good athlete isn't as good with the ball in his hands, and the guy we think isn't as athletic is actually more explosive. We are going to look at that to determine if the right guys are in the right places, and the ball is getting to them in the best ways for us to gain the most yards.

Concepts

This is a great segway into our concept analysis. We are going to again look at the data. What concept has been our most effective? Who is the personnel involved in that concept? Do we have better personnel to execute that concept? What concepts are not effective? 

To determine effectiveness you need to have a metric. I look at average yards per play, negative plays, and explosive plays. We want a run concept to average 5 yards, with less than 5% negative plays and 15% explosive. With pass concepts we want to average 10 yards per play with less than 5% negative plays and 25% explosive. For fast screens we use our run metrics, as these are an extension of our run game. We look at each of our concepts and then rank them. Then we look at how many times we called each concept. 

Here is an example of an analysis on our run and pass concepts. You can do this with Excel, or you can use a report to find this information. We use Recon Football to generate this data. 

Are we calling our most effective concepts most? If not, why? How can we adjust our play calling so we call our best concepts more often? Do we have the right guys getting the ball? 

If we see that we have a bunch of negative concepts, we are going to figure out why. What do we need to do to fix those concepts? Is it a personnel issue, a practice or drill issue, or is it an issue that we can't fix. If we can't fix it, we are going to scrap the concept. 

In the image above we can see that when we call a run, 35% of our runs result in a pass. This is because we use pre and post snap RPO's. I can see that we need to look at some concepts in our pass game to figure out why they are less effective. Is it a formation issue or a protection issue? Is it a scheme issue or a coaching issue? What adjustments can we make to improve these concepts? How can we coach them better? 

In Season Self-Scout Reports

One of the most important thing you can do as a coordinator is your self-scouting report. 

In my 20+ years as a coordinator, I evolved greatly in how I performed a self scouting report. In the early days of my career we did everything by pen and paper. I had legal pads filled with information and I had to do a lot of math. 

After a couple of years we evolved into using Excel. Then video programs began adding reports that could give us some actionable information. From there we began using Recon, which transformed the data in actionable dashboards. The key word is actionable. You don't need data to have data. You want to have data that you can use and has meaning. 

Everything we do has a purpose, or a why. We don't do things just to do things. Looking at our self-scout reports helps us to be able to find valuable information that benefits us greatly in our game planning. There are three things we will focus on today. 

1. Our tendencies that opponents will find
2. Which concepts are most effective/least effective
3. Which formations/personnel groups have led to the most success/least success

Every defensive coordinator you play is going to look at data on your offense. They are going to look at your most recent games first. Most coaches are going to include at least 3 games of data in their scouting report, and many will include every game they can get for the season. I want to know our tendencies and find the same data the defensive coordinator is looking at. I want to see what he is seeing. 

The defensive coordinator is going to prepare his defensive calls based on the data. He is most likely going to break it down by personnel group, down and distance, and field zone. He is probably going to look at our formation tendencies, trying to figure out what plays we run from each formation, and what formations we run from certain personnel groups. If we know what data he is seeing, we can then make adjustments to our game. 

The first thing I run is look at our run/pass percentages for the last three games, as well as for the season to date. I am going to focus on the data for the last three games when we build our game plan. When the playoffs start I am going to look at our last 5 game tendencies and compare them to our tendencies for the season. Below is an example of an overview report for 3 games. This is from Recon Football, which saved us several hours each weekend with our data breakdown. Recon Demo

This gives us a global view of our play calls, and shows us our Run/Pass Percentages. Overall we run the ball 64% of the time. 1% of the time there was a penalty. The conversion rate is the percentage of plays that result in a first down. I then look at our run/pass percentages based on backfield set, field zone, down and distance, and formation. I also look at our play frequency to see what plays we called most. Looking at our data I can see some tendencies that we might want to consider. 3rd and 1-3 we are 100% run. We might want to look at play action or a boot concept. We have some formations that we are over 80% run. We might want to look at throwing some play action from those formations. 

If I just looked at this data, I would have some actionable information. But I know our opponent is going to dig deeper. They are going to look at every formation we ran and put every play we ran from every formation on their board. I know that they are going to look at more specifics of what we do from each formation. I am going to dig deeper into our down and distance data and formation data. and look at how we can break some of our tendencies. 

I am going to look at our formations to see if there are tendencies that might give away what we are doing. I am also going to look at our hash tendencies. I also like to look at our pass game and run game. 

After we look at our tendencies, I am going to focus on our concepts. Which concepts have we had the most success with in the run game and pass game? I want to know if there is something we are doing well that need to more of, or if there is something we aren't doing well that we need to fix or do less of. 

I can see here that when we are on the right has we don't throw short and intermediate passes into the boundary or middle of the field. This is something we need to look at. We want to know why this is, and is it something we can adjust? I look at what concepts we call the most, then I sort by completion percentage and average gain. I want to see what pass concepts we have the most success.

Call The Touchdown Play

There are two things every man thinks he can do. Every man thinks he can run the BBQ grill, and every man thinks he can call offensive plays. Most people don't understand the preparation that offensive coordinators put into calling plays. They think its like Madden, where you click a button and the play is executed perfectly. Most people don't understand what goes into installing and building an offense, or the work that goes into preparation. Everyone wants to call the touchdown play, and hopefully I can give you some insight today that will help you all more touchdowns. 

What I want to help you with today is being more efficient with your game planning, and ultimately, using your preparation to call more explosive plays. A lot of coaches I talk to and work with are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data that is available, and they get overwhelmed. That can be a difficult struggle when you are trying to prepare a game plan. There is so much data, that it becomes difficult to know what is important.

I talk to coaches who love my game planning resource. They love how it helped them to be more organized, but they sometimes struggle with the call sheet. They don't know what to put in the call sheet, or how to manage it during a game. That struggle comes from not having easily accessible data that you can easily understand. Data always tells a story, but there are times I felt I was illiterate. 

A big part of great play calls is about having great data. I am going to make a much better play call if I know what the defense is going to do. If I know when they are going to bring pressure, I am going to make a better play call. If I know what coverage they are going to play on a particular down and distance, I will give us a better chance of calling the "touchdown play."

For several years I spent hours on end putting together excel spread sheets and trying to manipulate the spreadsheets to determine what a defense is going to do. In 2018 I ran into Danny Davis, who was a field artillery officer. He was taking data and analytics used in the military to make strategic decisions, and working on applying that to football. We got hooked up with him, and it revolutionized what we did. I want to show you how it saved us hours on the weekends, while giving us actionable data that helped us become more explosive. 

The data we got from Danny gave me a very clear picture of what we were going to see from our opponent. We were able to know what front they were going to be in, what pressure they were bringing, where they were bringing it from, and what coverage they were playing behind it. It helped us call more touchdown plays, without having to spend hours putting the data together. 

He built two dashboards for offensive coordinators that helped me to desegregate the data in a way that it made sense. It made it easier to understand what the data meant, and more importantly, gave us a much clearer picture of what the defense was going to do. No longer did I need to filter, sort, use VLookup, or any other excel function. I wanted to share this with you to help you to be a better play caller this season. If you want to schedule a demo with Danny, Click Here 

Before I fill out my call sheet, we need to enter the data into our video program. We are going to enter all of the typical data, Down, Distance, Hash, Yd Line, Play Type, Result, Gain Loss, etc. We need that data to be able to build tendencies. The next part of labeling is we are going to add the formation, motion, and play name for every play run against the defense we are scouting. The reason we do this is we want to be able to look at what defense they played against each formation. 

Once we label those three columns, we are then going to label the defensive information. We create some custom columns to get the data we need. We label the Front, Stunt, Blitz, Coverage, and then # of Blitzers. We then add some blitz direction data. To/Away is to the back or away from the back. Strong/Weak is strong or weak. Field/Boundary, is a blitz from the field or boundary. Those columns only get labeled if they blitz a second level player. 

We divide and conquer to input the data, and we try to do at least three games. We want at least 180 plays if possible. The bigger the sample size, the more reliable the data becomes. Once we enter the data, we export the data to an excel spreadsheet from our video program and upload it into Recon. Once the data is in Recon, the magic happens. 

This is what the Blitz Dashboard looks like, giving us a complete picture of the defense. This was from an opponent that we had broken down four games on. On the left we can see how many times they were in each field zone and what hash they were on, and we can see how many times they faced each down and distance situation. In the middle, we see their coverage and stunt percentages. On the right we see the number of times they brought 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 rushers. On the bottom right shows where the pressure came from. They are an odd front team who bases out of 1 high. 

5 Keys to Offensive Success

Regardless of what system you run or what level you coach, there are 5 things you need to do if you want to be successful on offense. These five things make a huge difference in the level of success you will enjoy. 

Before I get into the five things you must do, I want to focus on perhaps the biggest mistake we make as offensive coordinators. One of the easiest ways to jack up your offensive game plan is to try to do too much. It is very easy to draw things on the board and come up with a million great ideas. Those ideas always look good on paper and on the board. Then you get into the game, and your players don't execute them very well. You find yourself scratching your head. How come this concept didn't work. 

When you add too much into a game plan, you are going to be frustrated. It is very difficult to be good at anything you do, because you can't rep everything. The most important thing you can do when you build your game plan is to cut things out. Find the best of what you like and build from there. 

Think about this. You are going to snap the ball somewhere between 55 and 75 times a game, depending on how fast you play, how much you throw, and how much time your opponent has the football. If you play fast, and you play a team that plays fast, you might get 85 or 90 snaps. If you play a team that runs the ball and eats clock, you might get 45 or 50 snaps. Even you get 80 snaps in a game, you aren't going to need to run 80 different plays. In fact, you are going to repeat things that are working, and cut things out that don't work. It is okay to run the same play back-to-back, and even three or four times in a row. In 1999 we ran I-Right 42 Iso 16 plays in a row. For 2 straight drives that is all we ran. We scored both drives. We had had an advantage on the right side of our line, and our fullback was better than their Mike. 

If you have something they can't stop, run it again and again and again. As you game plan, look for formations that give you leverage, numbers, and green grass. You may find that team lines up different than you expected to a set, and they don't have a force guy, or they are a hat short. Once you find this, exploit it. 

10 Things Offensive Coordinators Should Do At The End Of The Season

At the end of each season, there were a number of things that helped us to use the season as a catapult for future success. No matter how good or how bad the season went, we were going to need to analyze what we did, how we did it, and who we did it with. We were then going to find areas we could target for improvement. 

In my 20 plus years as an offensive coordinator, I found there were 10 things that I had to do at the end of each season. I call this the end of season analysis. This was developed early in my career and evolved over time. These 10 things gave us enough information to use to improve as coaches, and helped our program to improve offensively. 

1. Run a Self-Scouting Report

    The first thing I did was run a self-scout report. I analyzed our formations and personnel groups, down and distance tendencies, run/pass tendencies, field zone tendencies, and time remaining tendencies. I also broke down our first 3 play calls for each game. While we ran a self-scout report each week, I wanted to look at it after the season as well. One thing I looked for was how well we scouted ourselves during the season, and find where I was tendency heavy. 

2. Make Cut-Up Lists

    After our self-scout report, I made cut-up lists. I made lists by concept first. Next I made cut-ups by formation. Then I put together a red zone cut-up, goal line cut-up, and a backed up cut-up. I then put together down and distance cut-ups. Then we made a cut-up of sacks and negative plays. I wanted a cut-up of turnovers. I also wanted a cut-up of positive plays, touchdowns, explosives, and momentum plays. I did this so I could go through and watch things in groups. Then would mark good and bad plays. These would be watched later by our staff to talk about changes we needed to make in our teaching. 

3. Watch Every Play From the Season

    One of the most valuable things we did was watched our cut-ups of every play of the season as a staff. We did this nearly every year. It typically required early mornings and some evening work to get everyone together. We would talk about each play call, evaluate the call, and talk about what was good and bad about the execution. While we do this, we will take notes on things we need to work on as we begin to prepare for the upcoming season. We also take notes on what defenses did against us, and adjustments they made.

4. Make Notes On The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

    I make a list of what we did well, didn't do well, and things we need to make changes to for the upcoming year. I will make a list of everything from concepts to techniques. I will look at everything on a very detailed scale, drilling down to the small details so we can correct things and improve. 

Using Formations To Create Leverage, Numbers, and Grass

Using multiple formations can give you an immense advantage on offense. The goal on offense is to create leverage, numbers, green grass, and matchups. Every defense you face will have formations they don't align well to, or that you can find a favorable matchup. Most defenses are well versed at aligning to two back pro sets, doubles, and twins open. It helps to have a formation system that allows you to align in sets that defenses don't see as often. 

When you align in multiple formations, you can create problems for the defense. They have to be able to identify your tight end or tight ends, your running backs, and your receivers. When those guys always line up in the same place, the defense can easily line up and make a strength call. When you change formations and move your personnel, the defense not only has to get lined up right, they have to get the strength call right and identify your personnel. They also have to make sure they have a force guy to each side, and be gap sound. If you have a dude, they have to have a plan for that guy. 

Something very important that goes with this is being able to align in multiple formations from each personnel group. If you are in 11 personnel, you want to be able to align in more than just 11 personnel sets. We have always prided ourselves on being able to line up in everything from 3 backs to empty with each of our personnel groups. Having a simple system of communication makes it easy on your kids, but complex for the defense. Defensive coordinators often make calls based on which personnel group is in the game. We want to force them into bad calls, and make defensive coordinators more vanilla. Certain pressures they run can only be used against certain sets. We want to keep them guessing, and unsure of how we will line up. 

The other aspect is that we are dealing with 16, 17, and 18 year-old young people. The more we can make them think, the slower and less confident they will play. We want to give them multiple factors to think about. We want them concerned with personnel, formations, and conflicting strength calls. 

Four Advantages To Using Multiple Formations

1. Create plus one opportunities

In a plus one opportunity, we have one more gap than the defense has hats. We can force them to have to invert their secondary, or two gap a defender. We can also use formations to create a plus one on the perimeter. We can align in formations that force the defense to have to make choices. When we find a formation where we can have numbers and grass, we want to use that formation. Sometimes we will have numbers in the box to the tight end, sometimes we will have numbers away from the tight end. We also can use formations to have numbers on the perimeter. We want to have a plus one, and we are going to find formations to give us the best opportunity for that. 

2. We can create conflicts within the strength call

Using nub sets, 2 TE sets, and sets with a sniffer can force the defense to have conflict within their strength call. Not everyone calls their strength the same way. When we scout an opponent, we want to know where they call the strength. Some teams call the strength to the most receivers. Other teams call the strength to the tight end. There are teams that have a run strength and a pass strength. Some defensive coordinators change the strength call based on 1 back or 2 backs in the backfield. By using multiple formations, particularly nub sets, we can create conflict for the defense calling the strength. 

3. Leverage and Angles

We often find certain formations that give us the best leverage and angles for running certain plays. We define leverage as an advantage. That means we have an advantage at the point of attack over the defender assigned to that area. We use formations to create leverage opportunities, where we can have a better angle to run certain plays. 

4. Create Matchup Problems

When you have a really good receiver, teams are going to find answers to take that receiver away. Using different formations where your best player moves around, forces defenses to have multiple answers. If they are going to bracket your best outside WR with the corner and safety, you want to be able to move your WR inside to a slot. You can find formations where teams are going to give you single coverage on your best wide out. 

Formation Into The Boundary (FIB)

Before we look at formations, I want to talk to you about the importance of setting the formation into the boundary at times. There are teams that are going to make field/boundary calls. When you set the formation into the boundary, you are going to have a numeric advantage. This gives you an opportunity to create plays to stay on schedule, and to get back on schedule. Never be afraid to set your formation into the boundary against teams that are going to defend the field. 

The other aspect of putting your formation into the field is how the defense will play coverage. They are going to play 3 receiver to the field different than they play three receivers into the boundary. They are more apt to rotate their coverage to favor three receivers to the field. When you put three receivers to the boundary, you are often going to have an uncovered receiver on the boundary side. As you go consider the importance of multiple formations, don't forget to look at setting your formations into the boundary during the course of your game planning. 

Looking at Formations (3x1 Sets)

Let's look at a couple of formation examples and how they give you an advantage. I believe everyone should run a Trips Nub Set and a Trey Set. In a trips nub set, you have the tight end on the line with his hand down to one side, and three receivers to the side opposite the tight end. This forces the defense to have to line up to the tight end, while also accounting for three receivers away from the tight end. We find many teams have trouble aligning to Trips Nub. 

Above is an example of a trips nub set. The defense must determine whether their strength call is to the TE, or to the multiple receivers. Often we can find ourselves with an advantage in the box, or on the perimeter. 

The figure above shows a typical even front defensive alignment we saw. The defense was going to walk a linebacker down over the tight end and roll the corner back. They would roll a safety down over the #2 receiver, or between #2 and #3. This look gave us a 3 on 2 advantage to the trips, and a plus one in the box with our read game. 

In the figure above, the defense is using a 3-4 structure. They walk a linebacker up on the tight end and roll the corner back. The defense is one gap short unless they 2 gap the nose or move the front.  If they move the front they have to borrow a secondary or perimeter player to add to the box.

Trey Set

In a trey set, we are going to have our tight end aligned to one side of the formation with his hand down, and two receivers outside the tight end. The trey set forces the defense to make decisions on what they want to defend. They have to be gap sound in the box, and also have a free tackler to the trey side. 

Above is an example of a trey set. The defense has to account for the extra gap the TE creates, and account for the 2 receivers to that side. This can create conflicts for the defense. 

Above is an even front against a trey set. This is the look we saw most often against our trey formations. In this alignment, the defense has no definitive force player away from the tight end. To the Trey side, the defense is a gap short. They are asking the invert to be a dual responsibility player. He has a pass responsibility, and a gap responsibility. This can be difficult for defenses to adjust to. The main adjustment we see is the defense to roll down to play cover 3. 

The picture above shows the defense rolled down to play cover 3. This gives them a way to defend the tight end side run. But the roll down makes it more difficult to play pass coverage. We still feel like we have numbers for the run game as we can get a hat for a hat. We also get a matchup on the backside. When you put your best receiver to the single, the defense has to decide how they will align to the trey set, and make sure your best receiver is accounted for. 

Ace

Two tight end sets are difficult for teams to line up to. Most defenses have a strong side and a weak side. When you align with two tight ends, you not only create an extra gap, but you force the weak side of the defense to have to play strong side techniques. Typically the weakside outside backer is not as good at playing a tight end as the strong side inside backer. 

Above is an example of a base two TE set. This forces an extra gap for defenses to defend to each side of the formation. It also forced defenders who typically played away from the tight end to now have to know TE side rules. 

The picture above shows the typical look we get from a 3-4 defense when we align in an Ace set. The defense has to have the safeties get very involved in the run game. The Ace set gives you the ability to create an extra gap for the defense, and can give you expanded running lanes inside. 

Wing Sets

Whenever you install a wing set, you now give your defense another letter gap they have to account for. They now have an A gap, B Gap, C Gap, D Gap, and an E Gap. This often forces them to use a corner as a force player. If they don't use the corner as a force player, they are having to build in additional rules for their defense. 

One important note is that you don't have to be a Wing-T or Slot-T offense to install a wing set. You also don't necessarily have to personnel your wing. You can slide a receiver in to be the wing. This opens up several possibilities for different concepts you can run. When your wing is a TE, the wing set will be different than when the wing is a receiver or running back. This poses problems for the defense as they have to prepare for multiple personnel groups when you use a wing. 

The figure above shows a wing set from 11 personnel against an under front defense. They defense has to roll their secondary weak to be able to have a force guy. The corner now has to cloud to the wing side. We now have forced their corner to play the E gap. 

You can also get into a Trey Wing Set. Now you put your wing and a receiver on the same side. 

This forces the defense to make choices. They have to be able to have enough defenders to account for 5 gaps strong, and cover your pass game. Often you can create a 1-on-1 matchup to your single. You also can force teams to vacate an invert weak. This means the defensive end or inside linebacker becomes the force guy. If the defense aligns in a 2 high look, you are going to have one more hat than they have to the TE/Wing side. 

Empty Formations

Another way you can stress defenses is to get into an empty set. If you have a mobile quarterback, this can put a lot of pressure on the defense. Defenses typically only have 2 calls against an empty set. Most defenses either drop 8 or bring 6. They usually don't have a variety of calls for facing empty. You can get a very predictable look. 

Using empty sets with a TE can give you an advantage in the box. If the defense loads the box, they are short in coverage. 

In the picture above, the offense is in a trey wing empty set. This forces the defense to make some decisions on how they align to make sure they are gap sound, while having enough defenders to cover 5 potential receivers. 

A formation that really causes the defense problems is going trips nub empty with a wing. You put 3 receivers to one side and a TE wing opposite the 3 receivers. Defenses have to align to the wing, especially if your QB has some running ability. Because you can motion and run jet sweep and some misdirection off jet, you can get defenses having to communicate and adjust quickly. I love the set above to throw the football to the trips side. Often you end up with a zone look to trips, giving you an opportunity for high percentage throws. If the defense plays man, you can find a matchup. 

Using formations can put the defense in a situation where they misalign. We can cause problems because they have to be able to communicate the front and the coverage. When using multiple formations, you can often get a defense in a situation where they are -1 in the box, or -1 in coverage. You can create matchups, and give yourself opportunities for big plays. 

Unbalanced Sets/Formation of the Week

Adding unbalanced sets creates issues for defenses. They have to have rules in place to defend your formations, and with unbalanced sets you gain huge advantages. I like to have a new formation each week that is some sort of unbalanced set. This is something the defense hasn't seen before on film. We used to call this our formation of the week. We might run one or two things from it, but we were going to show it early and put it on film. 

Above is an example of an unbalanced set with the formation into the boundary. When you go tackle over, defenses often have to make a special strength call. They have to have a call to identify that the TE is not on the strong side of the formation. They also have to identify who is eligible. I love this set because we have all of our two back run game, and we almost guarantee we are going to get a safety spun down, giving us man coverage on the outside. If your QB is a runner, this formation becomes even more dangerous. 

Using Reports

After each game run a self-scout report and look at what formations you ran, and the concepts you ran from those formations. Self-Scouting lets you see tendencies for both run/pass, down and distance scenarios, and where you attacked from each formation. Your opponent is going to look at these reports to prepare. If there is something you ran from a certain formation, you may have set up a complementary play. You might have been in a wing set and ran buck sweep to the wing three times. Now you have set up a reverse off buck sweep action, or something working opposite the buck. Formation reports are an important part of your self-scout. 

Final Thoughts

Having multiple formations can cause issues for the defense. With that said, you have to be careful not to put too much into your game plan. You don't have to run every formation each game. Depending on your opponent and matchups, you may use certain formations one week and not use them the next. The cool part is that your opponent still sees these formations on film, and while you may have only run them two weeks ago and not last week, they still have to prepare. Make sure you maximize your formation efficiency, without overloading your own players. 

Last year I got hooked up with CoachTube, and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points! 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

Additional Resources

A few years ago I was speaking at a clinic about our game planning and an FBS coordinator asked me after the talk to go through what we do. I shared with him our offensive game planning resource and he used it through the spring. He emailed me back that it was a game changer. It was an honor to have him use these documents. After speaking at clinics and hearing that more coaches didn't know where to start, I decided to make these available.

Here is a link to my offensive game planning documents: https://sellfy.com/p/AndN/ 

It includes everything from a scouting report template, to practice plans, to a two-sided color call sheet, and more! Each of the nine documents are fully editable and customizable! Order today and start preparing for your first game right now! At one time this was $99, but it is available right now for less than $13!

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you what our call sheet looks like: 

This shows you a small portion of it. It is a fully editable, customizable two sided call sheet. It gives you the ability to better organize and be prepared on game day. It helped us to be better play callers on game day. There are eight other fully customizable documents! Some of the top high school programs in the country use this, as do several college programs!

When I was a defensive coordinator we adapted this to our defensive preparation! 

Here is a link to the defensive game planning documents. It includes 12 fully editable and customizable documents. https://sellfy.com/p/AY1u/ These are what we used to post 6 shutouts when I was a defensive coordinator. Defensive coordinators at all levels of football are using this. Again, it is less than $13 right now!

And finally, I put together a special teams resource. This has everything you need, included drill tape, practice tape, and game footage. It includes teaching presentations and scouting forms just for special teams! https://sellfy.com/p/tJwz/ This helped us to build dominating special teams! 

I wanted these to be available at a very reasonable cost. These can help you to be more successful on the field and more efficient in the office! 

Over the last several months, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote a new book about faith and purpose. The book is available as a paperback on Amazon, and as an eBook for the Kindle App. The cool thing about the Kindle app is that you can read the book on any device. I invite you to read it, and discover the power you receive when you make a decision to walk with the Lord. Here is a link to the book: Finding Faith

Since publishing the book, I have received numerous texts, calls, and emails, from people who are going through similar trials and tribulations. They were feeling many of the same things I was feeling. The found comfort in the book. They also found they had a desire to change and to live better. They wanted more joy. 

I would invite you to read the book and discover the possibilities that God has planned for your life.

 

Combining RPO's and Tempo to Create a Dominating Offense!

I am on my way to talk RPO's and Tempo, and I thought this was a great time to share some thoughts! 

Football is an ever evolving game, with coaches at all levels trying to gain an advantage. Coaches attend clinics, visit other staffs, and communicate via social media to share thoughts on how to best attack their opponents. Over the last ten to fifteen years we have seen huge innovations that have led to explosions in offensive football. The two biggest elements affecting this are RPO's and Tempo. Teams that use either of these are increasing their explosive plays and scoring more points. But the schools that are really blowing circuits on the scoreboard... are the teams combining these two elements together!

Not since the forward pass have we seen an innovation that will change the game for generations. Offenses that have the ability to change tempos and play very fast put enormous pressure on the defense. When you combine this with Run-Pass Options, the defense is in a serious bind. Offenses aren't running new plays to score more points, they are simply running tried and true concepts faster than ever before.

Let's start by introducing a simple RPO concept. RPO's are simply run pass options. What we have done, in a nutshell, is built in a pass concept with every single run we have. If we call a run, someone is running a pass route of some sort. We build them into our calls, and a one word call says it all. 

My favorite base run concept is the inside zone read. The inside zone read attacks the inside gaps of the defense, while allowing the quarterback to "read" a defender. Typically this will be the backside C gap defender after the snap. The reason we say "after" the snap, is because the player in the C gap presnap may not be the C gap player post snap. 

With our inside zone read concept the offensive line is going to use covered/uncovered rules. A covered frontside lineman is going to work in combination with an adjacent uncovered lineman to account for the down lineman and linebacker. It is a two tracking two concept. Below is a diagram showing this principle. 

In the figure on the left the defense ran a gap exchange stunt. We coach the offensive lineman to read color. If color comes to me I block color. If color goes away I help secure the down guy and climb to backer. In the figure on the right, the defense plays their base gaps. Before climbing to the backer the center helps to secure the down guy. We have two simple rules. Secure the down guy first, and don't chase backers. Their landmark is the playside jersey number of the down defender. We want to dent the line of scrimmage and get movement. This pairs well with outside zone because the defensive line doesn't know initially if you are trying to lock the box or get vertical.

Inside zone read in itself is a great concept, but when you build a pass concept into it, it becomes much more difficult to defend. We are going to build in a quick game concept to both sides of our inside zone read. From a 2x2 set we are going to build in what we call quick. Many call this Smoke or Now. The #1 WR is going to show fast feet and fast hands and step back behind the LOS. The #2 WR is going to take a flat angle of departure and read the MDM or Most Dangerous Man. Below is a diagram of the Inside Zone Read RPO concept from a 2x2 set vs. a 4-4 defense. 

The quarterback is going to make a very quick presnap read. If we have leverage on the edge we are going to throw the quick. If we don't, we are going to execute the run. If he feels like we have leverage to either side, he is going to catch and throw. He doesn't have to say anything to anyone. The offensive line is going to block the run. They assume we are going to run the ball every play. The receivers to both sides assume we are going to throw the quick every play. This can be called with one word. You do not need to tag the quick game concept. 

Before we married our run and pass concepts, we hated to see a loaded box. Teams would leave the boundary receiver uncovered and get an extra player in the box. Below is an illustration of what teams would do to get another defender in the box. 

We were not going to be able to account for the 7th defender in the box if we ran the ball. But with our RPO concepts, we immediately can snap the ball and take advantage of the perimeter advantage we have. It becomes very difficult for the defense to have enough players in the box while still defending our skill players. 

What really takes this concept to another level, however, is the ability to use tempo. We use six basic tempos in our offense. One of those tempos is what we call Nascar. Like a lot of you, when we go Nascar we are going to go as fast as we can. As soon as the play ends our players are hustling to the ball while looking at the sideline. As they get the signal for our Inside Zone Read at Nascar Tempo, they are going to sprint to the line and execute the play. The defense has to decipher the formation, make their strength calls and communicate coverage, and get their hand down and get ready to play. Our goal is to snap the ball with 32 seconds on the play clock. We want to snap the ball as soon as the ref's hand is out of the way.

The defense now has to defend 6 gaps. They have to have a dive and a quarterback player, and they have to account for 2 receivers to each side. That in itself is difficult. But when we go at Nascar Tempo, that is a game changer. This is why so many defensive coaches hate the game being played fast. 

Each time you run your inside zone read RPO the play is going to be different. We once ran this 7 times in a rowing a game. The first time we threw to the right. The second time we threw to the left. The third time we threw right. The fourth time we executed the run. The fifth time the defense had 13 men on the field because they were trying to substitute. The next play we threw to the left. The smallest gain was 8 yards. Below is a diagram of our first down play.

The outside backers were hipped, so our QB threw the quick concept. The outside receiver made the catch and got vertical, working back to the sideline. This was a 10 yard gain. After giving up big yards on the quick, the backers lined up wide. We ran the zone read. The read player squatted to play the quarterback and the pistol back gained big yards. This is illustrated below.

It is very difficult to defend the inside zone read with 5 players. The more tackles the safeties made, the better. Every tackle they made was in the secondary. Because we played fast, the defense could not get a new call into the game, nor could they make an adjustment. They were chaotically trying to get their linebackers and secondary to change alignments, but no matter what they did, we had an advantage somewhere. 

Here is a video clip of the Inside Zone Read Concept being used at Nascar Tempo. The clips shows two plays. In the second clip you can see the defense trying to run a 12th player off the field. They are frantically trying to get a timeout. The crazy thing was this was not nearly as fast as we can play. That was our first game installing this! The amount of pressure you put on the defense is enormous! And, we don't have to guess whether we should call a run or a pass. We make a call and let the quarterback choose the best place to go! 

The greatest part of this is how simple it is to communicate. We can use one word calls that tell everyone the formation, play, and pass routes. You can use any word you want. Today's generation uses acronyms and processes things in shorter bursts. The days of having 9 word calls that told everyone what to do are long gone. We need to give them bits of information in short bursts. This allows them to play faster, and it allows your offense to play at a  pace so fast the defense cannot catch up. 

People ask me about whether their quarterback can do this. I tell them nearly every quarterback is capable of running this concept. We are throwing a pass we complete at about 98 percent to a good athlete in space. The quarterback simply needs to be trained on what he is looking for. They will make some mistakes early, but with experience they will be able to make these reads in their sleep.

A big key to our success is knowing what the defense is going to do!

Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan!

AI can help you be more explosive on defense by supercharging your game planning! Imagine how much better of a play caller you will be if you know what the defense is going to do! If you know they are playing zone coverage, you can make a call to beat zone. If you know that they are going to play cover 3, you can call a cover 3 beater. Instead of guessing, you are going be able to call more touchdown plays! Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan will completely revolutionize your game planning! It will save you several hours each week!

This is available at a special price. That price will be increasing, so don't wait. This will give you everything you need to use AI. Whether you are a beginner to technology, or you are a technological guru, this will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Here is a demo of AI in action! 

Instead of spending hours combing through reports, you can have all of your information in one place, allowing you to quickly make decisions and build your game plan. Use the code AI at checkout to save $15 for a limited time! 

Back to RPO's

This is just one of the many concepts you can use to build RPO's into your offense and play with great tempo. If you want to learn more, I have written two new books. I wrote a book RPO's and a book on Tempo. I want these books to be accessible without worrying about $$$. They are available as an apple iBook and on Amazon. The iBook version contains embedded video! These two books will revolutionize your offense! 

In my RPO book I describe in detail a systematic process to install RPO's. I go over first level, second level, third level, and multi-level reads. I show you how to scaffold the install and build a system that will fit what you are already doing. 

Here is a picture of the cover with some quotes from other coaches on the book:

Here is a link to the iBook version of my RPO book: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959

If you have an iPad or iPhone, buy the ibooks version! If you don't have an apple device, you can order the paperback version! It is available on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1520447485

Also, I have a Kindle version for sale on Amazon. Here is a link to that version: Kindle Version of Coach Vint's RPO Book on Amazon. The kindle version has everything but the video.

The other part of this equation is adding Tempo. A lot of coaches ask me to help them install different elements of tempo into their offense. The book I wrote will take you through a detailed, systematic process of building tempo into your existing offense. Here is a picture of what coaches are saying: 

The iBook version for the iPad, iPhone, and Mac contains over an hour of embedded video! I give you a systematic process to build tempo into your offense. I show you multiple ways to communicate your concepts, including sign boards! Here is a link to the iBooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1075902270

It is also available on Amazon if you have an Android or Windows device. You can find it here: Coach Vint's Book on Tempo on Amazon

Combining Tempo with RPO concepts will change the game of football for generations. Any offensive system can adapt these principles without changing the structure of you offense. The biggest issue many schools face is simply thinking they can only use RPO's part of the time. You never have to call a run again that isn't protected by a pass concept. 

I hope you have found something of value in this post! I wish you the best as you prepare for your season! 

 Last year I got hooked up with CoachTube, and put together three courses for offensive football coaches. I put together two courses on RPO's, and a course on Building An Elite System of Communication. All of these courses will help you to score more points! 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint

All three of these courses are detailed, with everything you need to be more explosive and to score more points. 

The course on communication gives you a detailed approach to your gameday communication. I give you a system and a process to improve the quality of conversations, leading to improved play calling on game day. This course has received outstanding reviews from coaches at all level of football. A coach with multiple state titles told me this course helped them to be much more efficient and explosive this season. 

My two RPO courses take you through a systematic process of installing RPO's into your offensive system. RPO's put the defense in conflict, forcing them to defend all 53 yards of width and all 6 skill players every single play. I not only give you a system, but I teach you the methods to develop your own RPO concepts. 

https://coachtube.com/users/coachvint