I see a lot of different offenses, primarily at the high school and
college levels and sometimes I find it difficult to understand what
their underlying philosophy is. So let me share with you a few
thoughts I have on developing an offensive scheme and maybe you'll find
them helpful.
1. Have a base play. This is a play that you have a lot
of confidence in, that suits your personnel well. It should be the
very first play you introduce in spring practice. At one school I
coached at this play was I Right, 56 Power. A basic power lead to
the strong side. For most teams their base play will be a run
play, for some it will be a pass.
2. Build on that base play. Consider what a team would do
to defeat your base play and then teach a play that counters that
defense. For example: If you start with I Right, 56 Power, teams
might shift strong-side to defend it. Linebackers will start
flowing more aggressively to the strong side when they see strong-side
run action. You might use I Right, 55 Counter as your next play in
the book to take advantage of those defensive reactions.
You might also use I Right, 55 Lead (a weak side, lead play) to keep
the defense from shifting strong side too much.
Add I Right, 56 Power Pass, Y Pop -- a play-action pass, quick dump
to the tight-end. This takes advantage of linebackers filling too
aggressively on the run action.
Add I Right, 56 Power Pass, 626 Max. A play-action pass that
gets a little more downfield with post routes by the outside receivers
and a shallow crossing route by the tight-end.
From there you can flesh out the rest of the series with fullback
dives, pitch, trap and maybe some drop-back passing. The key point
to remember is to start with your base play, then go from there working
in the complimentary plays that take advantage of what defenses are
going to do to try and stop your base play. Counter takes
advantage of the over-pursuit, play-action pass takes advantage of the
defense creeping up against Power, Lead and Counter. If they
reduce an end inside the TE to try and stuff the 6 hole you run 58 Pitch
to take advantage of the easy blocking angle your TE has to secure the
corner.
3. Watch the game. It's not enough to have an
intelligently designed series. You have to watch the game, watch
for specific triggers, and use your complimentary plays to take
advantage. For example, if the backside inside linebacker is
overpursuing on Power, that's your cue that it's time to run Counter.
If the safety starts sneaking up in run support that's your cue to run
play-action pass and get over the top of him.
I have an assistant coaches or two, of if coaches are scarce, a
backup QB or other smart player, who are tasked on each play to watch
something specific. They're watching to see how the strong safety
reacts, for example.
I see games where the play calling seems almost random. They
line up in the I and run Power, then they get into single back and
throw, then split backs and call a dive...and there doesn't seem to be
any rhyme or reason to it. Have a plan, work your base play, work
your complimentary plays when the defense adjusts to it. Do a few
things and execute them very well, rather than trying to run 6 different
offenses. Some of the best teams have only a handful of plays.
Thru practice, repetition, and intelligent design they are able to
execute those plays with a great deal of skill and so those plays are
very successful.
You don't need to have 500 plays in your playbook.
4. Evaluate the results. Never stop learning. Watch
the film and see how good a job you did of watching the game, responding
to defensive adjustments.
5. This doesn't mean you only have one play series. You
can have an I series, and a split-back series, and a single-back series.
If you feel your team can execute those plays well, don't be afraid to
introduce them. But make sure you can run your base plays at a
very high level of skill before you start trying to introduce new
things.
Questions? Comments?
thecoach@coachschorr.com
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