Like most of you, I watch football games with a notepad and a remote to rewind and watch plays again. I diagram plays and take notes on what teams are doing that we can adapt.
As I was watching the college football playoff games, I found three things we can use at every level of football. These three things were consistent across all of the games that were played, and many of us can relate to these three things. It is a great reminder as we enter the winter growth period in preparation for the 2026 season.
1. Games are won at the line of scrimmage
This is true at just about every level of football. In nearly every one of our wins we won the line of scrimmage. I don't think we any games where we won the line of scrimmage. In football, everything starts and ends up front. In every CFP game, the team that won the line of scrimmage won the game. You have to be able to run the ball and you have to be able to stop the run.
What do you need to to do to improve your play on your offensive and defensive lines? Do you need to make schematic changes? How can you improve your technique? What do you need to do in the weight room to become more explosive? There is no substitute for strength and no excuse for a lack of it.
A big part of your success up front is your mindset. Your players have to believe in themselves. They have to believe they can perform at a high level. They have to believe that you have prepared them to play at a high level. As you prepare for your season, what do you need to do to prepare your guys up front to play with more confidence?
2. Take Shots
This is huge. You have got to take shots down field. One of the most important things you can do as an offensive coordinator is keep a shot chart. Make a mark every time you take a shot down field. You need to take at least two shots a quarter.
When we talk about taking a shot, we are not just talking about throwing a vertical route. That is part of it, but a shot can look different depending on your system. If you are a wing-t team, your shot might be counter criss cross. If you are an option team, your shot might be reverse off veer. An air raid team might run screen and go. A pro style offense might run boot throwback.
One way we got really good at taking shots was getting better at throwing and catching. We invested time running vertical routes, throwing vertical routes, and catching vertical routes. When we got press coverage, we were going to take a shot. We had a definitive way of throwing the vertical route vs press coverage the same every time. The receiver knew where the ball would be, and the QB knew where he had to place the ball.
Take shots down field, and make sure you chart your shots. Hold yourself accountable to taking at least 2 shots a quarter. How can you get your best guy in a position to win a matchup?
I watch every game with a pad and paper and I am trying to chart as much as I can. One thing that stood out was how teams playing in the CFP did not run a lot of concepts. They ran a few concepts but changed the presentation. They used different formations, motions, shifts, trades, and backfield actions, without changing the blocking scheme.
In one CFP game, I watched a team run inside zone or a variation of inside zone on nearly every run play. They ran maybe two outside zone concepts. They ran a couple of gap runs.
Defenses today are multiple. They change fronts. They gap exchange. They bring a variety of pressures and simulated pressures. The us post-snap rotation with their secondary to disguise coverages. Teams that are successful making deep runs keep things simple for their big guys. This allows their big guys to be able to make adjustments and play fast.
Where can you simplify some things in your offense? Are you carrying too many concepts, and that is keeping you from being really good at what you do?
Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan! AI is not coming, AI is here!
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! Instead of pouring over reports that aren't helpful to offensive coordinators, you can use AI to get your data, your way!
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. 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!
Here is a video showing the power of AI!
You don't need to spend countless hours to figure out how to use AI. Use Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan and I will give you everything you need to start using AI right now! This is not a piece of software you have to renew each month or year. This is a resource that you will be able to use from day one. It includes access to the custom AI analysts I built! Remember to use the code AI at checkout! AI will help you get your time back on the weekends, while making you more prepared than ever!
Call Sheets!
A big piece of the preparation puzzle is your call sheet. 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.
Today we are going to talk about three benefits to using fast screens in your offense.
First, is finding and utilizing space.
Second is getting your best athletes quality touches.
Third, is protecting your runs.
One of the biggest mistakes I make is not always taking advantage of space. A football field is 53-1/3 yards wide. As football coaches, we tend to only use 15 to 20 yards of width on any given play. We want to find where the defense is giving us space and then take that space.
We want to find ways to get your most explosive players the ball in the space we are taking. The more touches we can get our best athletes, the more of a chance we will have an explosive play. We want to get the ball to a fast guy. I talk about this a lot when I am at clinics and working with coaches. Are we getting the ball to our fast guys?
I want to give you one very simple way you can force the defense to defend the entire field, while giving you a chance to get your athletes the ball in space. This helps you protect your runs.
Have you ever tried to run the ball into a loaded box and not been able to have consistent success? If you are successful running the football, teams will load the box to stop your run game. Below is an example of of a defense loading the box to stop the run. We are in a 10 personnel set, and the defense has 7 players in the box.
It's a Math Issue
When you have 5 blockers, you can only block 5 defenders. We can account for the 6th player by reading him. But we can't block 6 with 5. We can't block 7 with 6. The math doesn't work. Unless you are a lot more physical than your opponent, you aren't going to have many explosive plays. And in many cases, you will have increased negative plays.
Improve the Math
If the defense has 7 in the box, they only have 4 players outside the box. That is a lot of space for 4 players to have to cover. Some math I like better is to play 2 on 1, or 3 on 2. We want to look at leverage, numbers, and green grass. In the picture above, we have green grass to the field.
Fast Screens
Fast screens allow us to get 2 on 1 and 3 on two matchups and take advantage of green grass. If we are in a twins set, the defense will play us with one up and one back typically. There will be a force guy and a drop guy. If we can get the ball to our either twin receiver quickly, and the other receiver can block the force player, we have a chance for 6 yard play.
6 Yards or 6 Points
We are throwing the ball to a receiver in space with a blocker leveraging the force player. If we do a great job of blocking the fast screen, we should be able to gain 6 yards. If we can make one guy miss, that 6 yard gain turns into 6 points. This is a great way to get your fast guys the football in space. Our fast screens provide our best athletes with opportunities for momentum changing plays.
Two Keys
There are two keys to making fast screens work.
Receivers Must Block For Each Others
QB Must Get the Ball Out
First, your receivers must be willing to block for each other. They must take pride in their blocking. If your receivers are not relentless blockers, fast screens are not going to be effective. Second, you have to get the ball out quick. Your QB has to get the ball out of his hands quickly and make the throw with some velocity. We equate the QB to a second basement turning a double play.
Multiple Ways
There are multiple ways to throw our fast screens to get the ball to great athletes on the perimeter. We can throw the fast screen to #1 as illustrated above. We can throw the bubble to our inside receiver. We can throw the ball to the back with fast motion out of the box, or from a stationary position on the snap of the ball. We can motion a player across the formation to change the math for the defense.
Attaching Fast Screens to Runs
This is something you can do at every level of football to protect your runs. Every time we call an inside run, we are going to attach fast screens to the call. If the defense gives us numbers in the box, we will execute the run. If the defense loads the box and gives us numbers on the perimeter, we will take the fast screen. This allows us to always protect our runs.
If you want a systematic approach to protect your runs with fast screens, I have a CoachTube Video that will give you everything you need to do this with a very simple approach. Our fast screens helped us to be more effective at taking space while creating more explosives in both the run game and pass game.
Instaling Presnap RPOs has helped coaches at all levels of football to score more points and win more games. If you want to have a simple way to throw for more yards and get your best athletes more touches, it gives you everything you need to successfully protect your run game while creating explosives in the pass game. I show you how to install fast screens and attach them to your runs, and how to practice your fast screens.
This has helped us to increate the number of explosives we have in the run game and the pass game. Because we are taking advantage of perimeter space, defenses tend to widen their alley players. This lightens the box and makes things easier on our offensive line. We also get more touches for our key skill players, and those are quality touches in space.
This simple concept will improve your run game and give your skill guys more touches.
I also wrote a book on installing pre and post snap RPOs available on Amazon as a paperback or as a Kindle Book. RPO Book on Amazon
If you have an iPhone or iPad, I have an iBooks Version of my RPO book, which includes video clips!
Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan! AI is not coming, AI is here!
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! Instead of pouring over reports that aren't helpful to offensive coordinators, you can use AI to get your data, your way!
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. 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!
Here is a video showing the power of AI!
You don't need to spend countless hours to figure out how to use AI. Use Using AI to Supercharge Your Offensive Game Plan and I will give you everything you need to start using AI right now! This is not a piece of software you have to renew each month or year. This is a resource that you will be able to use from day one. It includes access to the custom AI analysts I built! Remember to use the code AI at checkout! AI will help you get your time back on the weekends, while making you more prepared than ever!
Let me add this... Preparation and Organization
Being prepared for your opponent is a big part of beating people who are more talented than you are. If you want to be more prepared each week, I highly recommend you check out my offensive 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.
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.
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.
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.
Coaching offensive line is a privilege for any coach. There is no other position like offensive line. In my career I was blessed to have an opportunity to coach every position on the field, and I can tell you that there was no experience that comes close to what it was like to coach the offensive line. It also helped me early in my career as an offensive coordinator. It is vital that an offensive coordinator not only understand the blocking schemes they install, but it is very important they understand the techniques involved in making the blocking schemes work.
This summer I had an opportunity to work with some offensive line coaches in preparation for the upcoming season. We were able to spend some time talking about what it takes to build a successful offensive line. One thing you have to understand is that the level of talent you have does not have any impact on your coaching. There are going to be seasons where you have better talent than other seasons. That should have no impact on your intensity as a coach. On Friday night and Saturday afternoons there are no excuses. Everything you have done to prepare your offensive line will be on full display.
If you are a new offensive line coach or you are a veteran, having a successful offensive line comes down to three things. But before I get into the three keys, I want to talk about leverage. Leverage is a huge part of success in football. We define leverage as an advantage. If you have leverage, you want to keep it. If you don't have leverage you need to go get it. We want to have leverage at the point of attack. Sometimes we are blocking a player who has us leveraged. What does that mean? It means he has the advantage. We need to move our feet to work to get our hat to a leveraged position. Sometimes we are blocking a guy where we have leverage. What do we want to do? We want to keep leverage.
With that said, here are the three keys to building a dominating offensive line.
First, you have to build unity within your group. This might be the most important factor to having success on your offensive line. You have five guys on the field at a time. If you also coach the tight ends, you might have 7 on the field for some plays. No other position has the same number of players on the field. There must be complete unity among the offensive line. They are a team within a team, and they must function as one.
There are many ways to build unity, but I have found there is no substitute for spending time together outside of the locker room and field. Have your offensive line guys to the house for dinner. Spend time with them talking about goals as a group. Each year I had the offensive line over before the season and we talked about our unit goals. We spent time talking about what we needed to do to be the best we could be. I took every opportunity I could find to help them to bond as a group.
When they trust and care about each other, they will work better together. They will communicate in the meeting room and pre-snap. They will be more vocal with their line calls, and they will gain more confidence in the ability of the guy next to them. They will not have to rely on their own strength, but they will draw strength from the group.
Whether you are a seasoned offensive coordinator, or it is your first year leading the offense, there is something important you can and should do every single week when you are game planning. We found this one thing was really good against everyone we played, but especially when we played someone who was very talented.
When you build your game plan you are are always going to look for leverage, numbers, and green grass. You are going to find the formations you think will give you a numerical advantage. You are looking for great angles for your offensive line. You want to find green grass for your skill guys, because green grass gives you explosive opportunities. You are always going to look at personnel, and today we are going to drill down to one thing within personnel that can give you an advantage.
One thing that is often overlooked is finding their 11th guy. Every single team has an 11th guy. That is their 11th best guy. Everyone, no matter how good they are, has an 11th best guy. Even teams you play that are loaded with 4 and 5 star recruits have an 11th best.
Most teams you play have at least one guy they are hiding. They have one guy they are protecting because he isn't as talented as their other players. Some teams might have two or three of these guys. When you play someone who is really good, or even someone who isn't as talented, spend time looking for the 11th best guy.
If the 11th best guy is a defensive end, figure out how you can attack him with your identity concept. If their 11th guy is a corner, find ways to match your best receiver up with that guy. If he is a safety and your best skill guy is an outside receiver, how can you adjust a formation to match up your receiver with that safety? Just because a guy plays outside receiver doesn't mean you can't move him around to match him up on a linebacker or a safety.
One example of this was when we were playing a top ranked team who was very, very good. They ran the 4-3 and played 2 high. They played base most snaps because they could. They had a dominant defensive line and their secondary and outside backers were really good. The Mike was really good, but he was their slowest defender. He was a guy who was very physical, but he didn't run well. We wanted to get him in coverage situations.
One of the most important things we can do as coaches is to get our dudes touches. Whether you are playing for state titles or just starting a rebuilding process, you have a best player. You might not have the best athlete on the field, but you always have the best athlete or athletes on your team. Too many guys concern themselves with what they don't have. You will never win a game with guys that are not on your roster. But you will win games if you focus on the guys on your roster, and maximizing their abilities when you build your game plan.
I am not going to get into the psychology of winning right now, but if you don't think you can win, you won't. If you don't think you can score, you won't. If you believe you will score points, you will score more points than if you lack that belief. A big part of building belief is putting your players in a position where they can be most successful.
When you build your game plan, think players as much as you think plays. When you begin to break down your opponent, look for leverage, numbers, and green grass. Where can we gain an advantage over our opponent? What formation will give us leverage, numbers, and grass? What concept will take advantage of that grass? And then, who is the best player to get the ball to to take advantage of leverage, numbers, and grass?
That is a simplistic view of building your game plan. The reality is, if we run are throwing a tunnel screen, the tunnel will be more effective and explosive if we throw it to a fast player who can make people miss. If we throw it to a slower player who can't make people miss, the play won't be as effective. Who you are getting the ball to is as important as the play you are calling to get the ball into space.
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.
I want to take a few minutes to talk with you about Nascar Tempo, and the value of tempo to your offense. Nascar Tempo isn't a speed we play, it's a way of life. It's how we live. What does this mean?
Everything we do we want to do with a sense of urgency. You want to have no wasted movements. You want to always be moving from one point to the next, and doing so expediently. Tempo is about being early and on-time. Tempo is about hustle. Tempo is about being determined and focused.
As an OC, I wanted to find any advantage possible to score as many points as possible. But more important than points scored, was setting ourselves up to win the game. We had to score more points than our opponent. There were seasons where our defense struggled and we had to score more points on offense to win. There were other seasons where our defense was the strength of our team, and we wanted to do everything we could to help our defense. That meant not putting them in bad positions. But at the same time, we always wanted to score. Nascar was always a part of our offense, but we used it strategically based on the situation we were in.
I look at our fastest tempo as an opportunity to play fast, but we don't just want to play as fast as we can. We want to mix up our Tempos or modes for teams to defend. I recently asked one of my quarterbacks from several years ago if he remembered how many tempos we used. He said sure coach, "fast, faster, and ludicrous speed." That made me laugh, because I showed them the luriscious speed scene from Spaceballs.
We didn't always play as fast as we could, but had the ability to. There were times we played faster than others. We wanted to have the ability to change speeds. Today I want to talk with you about playing at our fastest tempo, which most people call Nascar.
Benefits of Playing Fast
I look at Nascar Tempo as the great equalizer. We have the ability to keep the defense off balance, and not allow them to gather themselves between plays. We want to be able to dictate the pace of the game and get the defensive players out of their comfort zone. Defenses also don't have time to substitute. If they try to substitute players, they will have too many on the field. Here is an example from a game where the defense had 13 players on the field when the ball was snapped. They also weren't able to get lined up.
As you can see, they couldn't get guys off the field or get lined up.
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!
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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:
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!
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
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!
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.
Back about 15 years ago we started to experiment with RPO concepts. RPO stands simply for Run-Pass-Option. We were talking about how we would call a run and the defense would load the box. The corner over our single WR, however, was playing 8 yards off the ball with no underneath help. I really wish we had called a stop route.
Fast forward a couple of years and we were playing a team that was crowding the box again when we were in 2x2 sets. They were playing cover 3, with the OLB's playing 1x1 on our tackles. Below is a diagram that shows the defensive alignment.
We built in some uncovered rules, and told the QB to alert "BOZO" if the defense showed this alignment. We would rise up and throw to the #2 WR. Regardless of what the play call was, if the defense showed this look we would check BOZO. This worked well, and eventually the defense adjusted and started to cover our #2 receivers.
During our off-season meetings we started to talk about building quick game concepts into the call. We began to tag our run concepts with a quick game concept. Once we saw the defense was not honoring our perimeter skill players, we would tag the quick game concept. If we tagged it, we were telling the quarterback to throw it. The QB would fake the run and throw the quick. This was great until we added the tag and the defense lined up to take the quick game concept away. Below shows the defense aligned to take away the bubble.
We told our quarterback, if we tag it, you throw it. Our bubble screen got hit in the mouth. This was not very good. At some point we saw a coach at a clinic mention they were having their quarterback make a pre-snap determination of whether he would throw or run based on defensive alignment. This, to me, was very intelligent. From here, our RPO system was born.
We would build in pass concepts to our runs, and if the defense lined up to take the run, we would throw the pass. If the defense lined up to take the pass away, run the ball. There is nothing magical about this approach. It was sound in principal and in practice.
When we implemented this initially there were some growing pains. We learned we had to have specific criteria of when to throw and when to run. We had to determine how we would communicate our concepts. We had to train our quarterbacks to be able to make a good pre-snap determination. We also had to make sure we had the "right" guy at quarterback. We couldn't have a guy who was selfish. We had to have someone who would be able to make the right read because it was the right read.
Below is an example of a simple RPO concept off our inside zone read.
Over the last few years we have greatly expanded our RPO package. Every run now has a pass. When we call the run we are calling the pass. This has greatly helped our offense to be more explosive and more balanced. It has forced the defense to defend the entire width of the field while having to remain gap sound.
Perhaps the biggest benefit was the fact that we could get our skill players the ball in open space. The touches for our X and Z receivers increased tremendously. Below is an example of our inside zone read concept before we implemented our RPO concepts.
If our QB got a pull read we had to hope our #2 WR was able to block the OLB. If the OLB blitzed from depth or walked up late, our QB basically had to give the ball regardless of what the defensive end did. Our quarterback got hit in the mouth more than once.
Once we added our RPO concept, if the OLB did not honor our #2 WR, we simply threw the tagged quick game concept. This allowed us to have a high percentage throw the protect the run. Below is a diagram of the same concept with the built in RPO.
If the outside linebacker aligned over our #2 WR, we would execute the run. If the OLB aligned inside our #2 WR, we would throw the quick concept. The QB would catch and throw. If we executed the run and got a pull read, we still had to deal with the backer. The QB would replace the read and get his eyes on the OLB. If the OLB widened, the QB would keep. If the OLB attacked him, he would throw the ball to the #1 WR, illustrated in the diagram below.
Essentially we were playing triple option football, just with a twist. And if you consider our pre-snap process, we would playing quadruple option football. The quarterback could throw the quick game pre-snap based on alignment. If you look to the tight end side, our Z WR is running a stop route. If the defense gave us the stop route, the QB could throw that as well based on pre-snap alignment.
This is just one example simple quick game concept that can be built into a base run play to give you a manageable RPO. You can implement this in a couple of days of practice time, and it will lead to some explosive plays. We now have a multitude of RPO concepts in our offense.
A couple of questions I get are: Do we have lineman downfield? At times we do, but this is a concept thrown just behind the LOS, so we can have lineman downfield. Does our QB ever mess up the read? They do, but more often than not they are conservative on throwing the quick concept pre-snap.
We complete this concept at a 98% completion rate, and we average over 6.8 yards every time we throw it. It is essentially a toss sweep to a good athlete. It has helped greatly to improve our run game as well.
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!
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.
After speaking at clinics on RPO concepts for several years, and helping several schools install RPO concepts into their offenses, I decided to write a book. It is available on both ibooks and on Windows and Android based systems through the Kindle App.
The book covers everything you need to implement RPO's into your offense. Whether you want to add RPO concepts to your entire run game, or you want to start with one or two simple concepts, this book will show you how to do so with confidence. I cover everything from pre-snap to 2nd and 3rd level post snap concepts and reads. The book is written with a very systematic process to installing RPO's. Regardless of your system, this book will give you a method and a plan.
The apple version on ibooks has video embedded. Their are clips of all of our RPO concepts. The Kindle version has everything but the video clips. Both books are chalk full of diagrams and explanation. The biggest thing is that this book is a manual with a very systematic process of installing RPO's into your system.
Here is a link to the ibooks version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1078061959 These iBooks are truly innovative as the video brings the concept to life. If you have an iPad or iPhone, or a Mac, this is the way to go.
