By Tommy Shoemaker
Head Football Coach
Central Arkansas Christian School (AR)
Twitter: @TShoe43

Introduction

Like many coaches, I am always interested in an innovation or wrinkle that could give my team an edge in preparing for our opponents. As a Hurry-Up No-Huddle (HUNH) offense, that wrinkle for us has ironically been a huddle – the sugar huddle. This concept and many of our sugar huddle plays were “borrowed” from Gus Malzahn and his offenses at Tulsa and Auburn. In this clinic report, I will explain the advantages of the sugar huddle, its implementation, and a few plays that we use out of the sugar huddle look.

Sugar Huddle Advantages

While the core foundation of our offensive philosophy is using a hurry-up no-huddle, we also believe that mixing in a sugar huddle can provide us with some unique advantages. Many of the advantages that we gained from an up tempo attack are evident as well when using a sugar huddle.  The two main advantages are preparation and panic. Using a sugar huddle adds additional prep time for our opponent and is not easily simulated. Adding to the difficulty of preparing for a sugar huddle is the fact that we typically change our sugar huddle plays weekly. It is tough to prepare for something you have never seen. Another advantage is the tendency for teams to panic trying to get lined up. Many times the defense will still be adjusting when the ball is snapped. This sense of panic can often cause the defense to lose its aggressiveness.    

Sugar Huddle Mechanics

The mechanics of the sugar huddle are simple, yet require practice to achieve the timing of the plays. One of the most critical parts of using a sugar huddle is aligning quickly and getting set before using motion or snapping the ball. The center will set the huddle 1 yard from the football. Both of the OGs and OTs will align in a “U” so that they can quickly turn and get set. If we are using a TE, he will huddle and lineup similar to the lineman. Any player who is split will huddle next to OL, since they will be released early.  The Backs and QB will huddle at the back of the huddle. The QB, or whoever is receiving the snap, will call the play and say “release.” This command will send the split receivers out of the huddle to line up. The QB will pause to give the receivers time to get to their positions and then say “Down.”  On this command the remaining will players will quickly line up and get set. Once everyone is set, the QB can begin the cadence. This may involve bringing a player in motion first. Our cadence is simply “Set, Hut.” 

Practicing the Sugar Huddle

Like any part of your offense, it is important to be intentional about how you organize, install and practice the sugar huddle component. When installing a sugar huddle, we give each play a name, such as “Diamond” or “Pistol.”  This one word name indicates the personnel grouping, formation, motion and play. This allows us to be very specific, yet simple when utilizing these plays.

On a typical game week we use Monday as a walk thru for our game plan. We will install any new plays and review the sugar huddle plays to be used that week. We typically go into a game with 4-6 sugar huddle plays. On Tuesday, we will run through all sugar huddle plays for that week at the end of our normal offensive script. We practice them at the end without tempo so that we can emphasize the execution and the details of the plays. Wednesday is the day when the plays are dispersed throughout the script. The emphasis is on changing personnel groups efficiently and scripting the plays based on field position or down and distance situations. Similar to many teams, Thursday is a run thru of our game plan. All of the sugar plays are worked into the script based on where we intend to call them on the field. 

Designing & Implementing Sugar Huddle Plays

When trying to determine what plays to use in our sugar huddle package, we put the plays into 3 categories:  shots, short yardage and momentum plays. The shots are intended to be passes that attack down the field. Shots are typically called in very specific situations such as after a turnover on the opponent’s side of the field, 2^nd and short, or when backed up inside the 5-yard line. The short yardage calls are obviously for 3^rd or 4^th down and 1-3 yards and on the goal line. The momentum plays are intended to spark our offense. In a HUNH offense, getting a possession off to a fast start can get the momentum rolling for a series.

By Tom Lewis
Offensive Coordinator
Plymouth HS (OH)
Twitter: @Shortpunter

Introduction:

The no huddle can be run many different ways, but we have found great success using the wrist card method. Getting to that point was a process, but I think the process validated the results. So for that reason, it is important to start by looking at how we got to where we are with our wrist card no huddle system.

I have always run multiple sets and styles of offense, whether it was single wing based, triple option style or variations of the wing-T. When I returned to Plymouth as the offensive coordinator, I began to blend my newer offenses with series that were already in place. This created many word and number combinations. To call a play, I would often need to use five or six words to get the formation, motion, action, and blocking scheme. My first attempt to simplify this vast offense was to create a series using a three digit number system. The first number would indicate the series; the second number the ball carrier and the third the opening or hole.

Although this system did cut down the amount of information the players needed to process, it did not solve the whole problem. We quickly found that there were wrinkles and variances of certain plays that we wanted to run. To solve this issue, we added a key word or series of words to the numbers system. This defeated the purpose and caused a lot of confusion especially for our linemen.

From there we still felt we needed to take advantage of our athletes in space. Running a spread offense was the obvious choice. We also wanted to control the flow of the game by using tempo, so we developed a no huddle offense using three panel wrist coaches that every player wore. While this is not exactly unique, it was what we eventually did with the insert cards that made all the difference.

The Rational for the Multiple Wrist Coach System

Our first adjustment was to simplify the massive amount of offense knowledge on the wrist coaches was to create a separate set of cards for the line. The linemen traditionally had to learn what to do on every play or listen to a string of words and/or numbers trying to pick out the one piece of information that applied to them. The solution was to eliminate all the non-essential information on their cards.

We block our Outside Veer (reading the end man on the line) exactly like we block our Blast play (kick out the end man on the line with the running back). So on the wrist coach for the line, it simply says “Base” which is our name for the scheme. This base scheme has the play side block down and the backside guard pulls and funnels to the inside of the hole. We use that same scheme for the inverted veer, QB power sweep, and jet blast play. The end result was the line has the same assignment on their wrist coach for all the plays and nothing else. The backs’ cards have the series and play direction, but no scheme.

Trial and Error

In our first attempt at using wrist coaches, I simply numbered the boxes and signaled the number. We found that players found the box, but often struggled with the signal. We used a body clock like many coaches, but found that some players got confused by the number of the box and the play number. I would signal a 3 and a 4 which was a toss sweep and some players would try to run 34 which was an ISO play at the time. It never occurred to me that this would be a problem, but apparently some players see 34 and would think 34 instead of finding the box 34 on the card.

A second problem was fitting the box number and the plays on the cards so they could be read easily. The solution was to create a three column by ten row card that was color coded. This eliminated the need to search for the number all over the card, but only in the column of the signaled color. (Diagram 1)

The Signals

We developed a hand signaling system for the colors and a type of body clock for the number to get the information in. The color narrowed the card into a third and the number dictated the row number. We signal in color number plays in all group and team practices. Coaches will walk and talk the actual series names, descriptions and play technique during individual coaching periods, but never during team.