One of the key aspects of our offense is controlling the tempo of the
game. We do that in several ways but one of the key concepts is
pacing. We have three speeds that we operate in during the game:
(the colors can vary - if our school has three good, distinct colors we
can use those)
Green - Green is our
regular pace. No special adjustments.
Yellow - Yellow is our slow
down pace. This is what we'll use in the second half, if we have a
good lead and we want to use up as much clock as possible.
Generally a "good" lead for us would be at least 2 scores. We're
still going to try and score but we're going to make a few adjustments.
Notably:
-
Our QB will use as much time as possible between
plays. In some cases he may go stand next to the referee and
ask the referee to tell him when there are 10 seconds left on the
play-clock at which point he will walk to the center and snap the
ball.
-
Our backs and receivers understand that they must
stay in-bounds. Even if that means sliding, diving or dropping
to a knee to stay in bounds they cannot allow themselves to be
knocked out of bounds.
-
Our quarterback is instructed that he is to run with
the ball rather than throw the ball away if he doesn't have an open
receiver on a pass play.
-
Also our QB understands that when it comes to
audibles he is to be reluctant to audible to pass plays.
Red - Red is the opposite
of Yellow for us and most of the adjustments are as well.
-
Our QB will hurry to the line. Sometimes we'll
call the play in the huddle, but often our QB will yell "Check Check
Check" as a signal to the rest of the offense to get to the line and
that he'll call the play there. Our snap counts will be quick
and when we do huddle, if the clock is running, our entire team
knows that they need to move quickly in and out of the huddle.
-
Our backs and receivers know that it is important
for them to work the sidelines and get out of bounds rather than be
tackled inbounds.
-
Our quarterback will throw the ball away rather than
take a sack. He is also reluctant to run with the ball unless
there is a substantial gain to be had or he thinks he can quickly
get out of bounds.
We communicate our current pacing to the players on the
field by use of caps. Generally our backup QB stands by me on the
sidelines charting the plays and he will wear a ballcap. He has
three caps, one in each color, and I'll instruct him when to wear
which hat. The paces don't change often, we'll usually start a
game in green, and we may stay in green all the way well into the second
half. The players can readily tell which pace we're in simply by
looking to see which cap he has on.
Quick Start
One of our other pacing trademarks is that when we get
the ball back on a kickoff or punt, and even sometimes on a turnover, we
usually have the play already called on the sideline. Our offense runs
onto the field, directly into formation and snaps the ball. This
forces the defense to hurry out, gives them less time to discover which
personnel package we're in (4 receivers, 3 RBs or whichever) and
requires them to get lined up quickly or else we'll snap the ball before
they're ready.
We find that by calling the play on the sideline and
hustling out to get the play run like that it gives us several
advantages.
-
It's unsettling for the defense. Makes them
feel rushed and magnifies any confusion or hesitation they're
having.
-
Frequently we do catch somebody out of position.
Especially if the ball is located on our hash the defense has to run
further onto the field to get ready. We've had uncovered
receivers before; we've had running plays where the defenders were
not able to get into a good football position before we snapped the
ball and thus were more easily blocked.
-
The other team has to prepare for it during the week
which takes practice time from them.
Our quick start plays are often big plays for these
reasons. We started the 1991 season running
Abe 7 Sweep on first
sound and our QB gained more than 20 yards on that play.