One-Back Power Game: Separating the Defense

By Mike Kuchar

Senior Research

Manager X&O Labs

Researchers’ Note: You can access the raw data – in the form of graphs – from our research on the one-back power game: Click here to read the Statistical Analysis Report.

 

uwline power1Ah…the battle tested Power O.  It rivals the veer option as perhaps the most utilized offensive scheme in football.  It’s tried and true – tracing back from the days when Woody Hayes fed the ball to Archie Griffin behind a stout fullback and those dominate offensive lines at Ohio State.  “Four yards and a cloud of dust,” was not just a mantra but an offensive creed to live by.  Even nowadays it’s rare to break down five minutes of game tape without seeing some remnants of the play show up at least a handful of times.

But, it’s the form of the scheme that we see changing.  As coaches, we have all gotten frustrated banging our heads against the wall trying to run the scheme against an 8 or 9-man box.  It seems as soon as you put two backs on the field, defenses will play some sort of eight-man front canceling gaps.  But, the play is too aesthetic and too authentic to be dumped – its smash mouth football at it’s finest.   So how can you run the scheme without comprising its integrity to the game or its downhill style?

As researchers we wanted the answer, so we searched to find it.  The coaches we spoke with believed that instead of feeding the defense what it wants (by lining up and running right at them) they are finding ways to spread the field by eliminating that fullback-type and still keep the structure of the play the same.   We’ve seen Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn “ride” the concept out of shotgun sets to a national championship using Cam Newton as his weapon.  We’ve seen Rashard Mendhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers use the scheme to gash the rest of the AFC for over 1,200 yards this season during their race to Super Bowl.  So while it is possible to run the scheme with one-back, in order for your production to be probable, we’ve found you’ll need to conquer these certain problem areas.

Case 1: Creating Conflict With the Play Side Defensive End Without uncertainty, we’ve found that it’s that pesky EMLOS (end man on line of scrimmage) that could cause the biggest headache when running the scheme.  We realize that plenty of teams have now started to adjust the scheme by running it into the A/B gaps (which we will explain later) but if you don’t get the proper hat on that edge player the play could be squashed.  We’ve found that how you block that player most likely depends on where he lines up.  For all intents and purposes, we’ll use the following numbering system to declare his alignment:

  • 7-technique: inside eye of the tight end
  • 6-technique: head up the tight end
  • 9-technique: outside eye of the tight end

Since we’ve found that the 7-technique causes the most concern, we will start there.  A gap scheme by nature, the power play is designed to “create a wall” by using down blocking from the front side of the play.  Coupled with a back-side puller that kicks out (can be a guard or an H-back) the play is designed to be run outside the down blocks and inside the kick out block.  It was Jim Tressel, the head coach at Ohio State, who used to tell Maurice Clarett to get “cheek-to-cheek,” meaning split the butt cheeks of the kick out blocker and the widest down blocker and run the ball in the alley.  While Tressel may be brave enough to tell a talented back like Clarett where to run the ball, most of the coaches we spoke with aren’t as specific with their directives.  Plus, defensive ends now are taught to wrong-arm all blocks to push the ball to the perimeter, which can make a kick out block next to impossible.

One way to diffuse this problem is simply to block down on the 7-technique with the tight end and eliminate any kick-out scenario.  Our research found that 50.7% of coaches teach their tight end to do exactly that.  Sam Pittman, a 26-year coaching veteran who is now the offensive line coach at the University of North Carolina, made his money with the likes of running back Michael Turner and Garrett Wolfe running the scheme.  Pittman makes it real simple – he has the tight end handle the defensive end…period.  No chip and release.  No pass set.  Just plain ‘ol block him.  “He (tight end) is responsible for C gap and when we teach the power scheme gaps always override people,” says Pittman.  The main coaching point is for the tight end to reach block the 7-technique by getting his back-side shoulder down and cutting him off from the gap.

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Add Passing Efficiency with the Sail Concept

By Brian Hayes

Offensive Coordinator

Anna Maria College (MA)

 

coachhayesEditor’s Note:  Coach Hayes have been a quarterbacks coach and a coordinator at the collegiate level for the past 8 years. Prior to being named as the offensive coordinator at Anna Maria, Coach Hayes was the quarterbacks coach at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Assumption College.  Brian has worked with a lot of great coaches from all levels and credits them with helping him develop as a young coach in this great profession.

 

 

Introduction:

The Sail concept for us has been a very successful one to us over the 3 years that I have been a coordinator here and Anna Maria. We are able to use our running backs in this as the third receiver in the route progression. We averaged 16.2 yards per completion with this concept.

Our Sail concept is primarily a 3 X 1 concept but we also have variations where we run it out of 2 X 2. We will run Sail against any coverage and we like it in a 2nd and 3rd and medium to long yardage situations.  The great thing about this concept is we use it with a few different protections. The majority of the time we sprinted to it but we will also use our drop back protection and playaction series.

Slide1

We also have a few adjustments to this concept using our motions and using free releasing our back out of the backfield.  We will line up in a 2X2 set and use our scat protection which alerts our running back to free release and now he becomes the 3rd receiver in the concept. 

Slide2

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Stressing LB’s with the Down/Bubble Concept

 

 

 

By Joe Ginn

Offensive Coordinator

Choctaw High School (OK)

 

Editor’s Note:  Joe just finished his second year in 2012 as the Offensive Coordinator and Receivers Coach at Choctaw High School.  Prior to serving his role as Offensive Coordinator, Joe spent 3 seasons Coaching Receivers at Choctaw.  Before coming to Choctaw, Joe Spent 4 seasons (2004-2008) as Defensive Coordinator at Tecumseh High School (Tecumseh, OK.)Joe played 1 year of College Football at Bethany College in Lindsborg, KS; and 3 years of Football at East Central University in Ada, OK.

 

 

choctawGreat offenses are all about deception.  Recently, there is a trend to package plays to allow for defenses to be wrong / confused regardless of the playcall.  One of the most common ways that we have been able to do that within our offenses is to combine the age old buck sweep play from our Wing T roots with our 1 and 2 back shotgun formations.  From there, we package plays in a way that the quarterback can make a simple pre-snap read to decide which of the plays in the package attacks what the defense is giving up. 

The key to the success of this play/concept is to attack the opposing linebackers.  We know that they will have been coached to read our guards to locate the ball.  Since we know what they are reading, we are able to use that to our advantage as we package the plays.  Our goal through this process is to make sure that the opposing linebackers begin to doubt their coaches early in the game and that this confusion will slow down theirreading  andreacting to our guards.  With that said, here is a look at how we make this happen within our “down/bubble” package.

Down/Bubble Basics

In our offense, the “Down” play is simply an old Wing-T Buck Sweep play that we adapted a bit to run out of our one back shotgun.  We had utilized it very successfully during the 2011 season, however, we had a few hiccups with it towards the end of the year as teams began scheming to take it away based on formation.  We wanted to come up with an answer, because it was far and away our best play that season.  We came up with our down bubble scheme as an answer to teams over playing the wing formations we utilized to run the down.  We figured we could make them give us one or the other, most defenses couldn’t align to take away both of those plays, and if they did somehow, they would have to give up somewhere else.  We feel like we are dictating a little to the defense this way.  You are either going to take away our best receiver on a bubble, or our TB on the edge with two lead blockers out in front of him.  We feel like this is one way that we can hand cuff the defense a little bit. 

This concept is a way we can stretch the field for width and make the defense attempt to defend the field from sideline to sideline.  An added bonus to using this approach is that we also get a kick out of seeing Linebackers who are keying our guards chasing them and not our fastest kid who is our Z Receiver. 

QB Read

For the play to work, your QB must determine pre-snap which of these schemes the defense has chosen to give up.  He is reading leverage and numbers just like he would in any passing game concept.  His basic directives are to attack the side where the numbers are in our favor or if numbers are even we want him to attack the side where we have won the leverage battle pre-snap.

The key to the success of the play for us to make sure that there is no doubt about what needs to happen.  The QB is told that if he has any doubt we want him to stay with the run play.We want his pre-snap thinking process on Down Bubble to be something like this…

Question1: Do we have a numbers advantage on one side or another? 

Question 2:  Do we have the defense outflanked on one side or another?

 We can help him by film study by determining specific kids that the defense chooses to be run first or pass first.  Diagrams 1-4 show some common defenses and our typical scenario vs. that defense. 

Slide1Slide2Slide3Slide4

 

Down/Bubble Blocking Rules

Blocking Rules(Diagram 5)

Slide5

Player

Assignment

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Long Beach Poly’s Situational Special Teams

 

 

By Luis Hayes

Special Teams Coordinator

Long Beach Poly HS (CA)

 

Situational football, this is term that we coaches hear about all the time and incorporate it into our weekly preparation.  As coaches there are countless situations that we all prepare for.  During the season many teams script out situations so that they can see how well their team can execute their scheme in a specific game-like situation.  This is true for most offensive and defensive coaches.  Unfortunately, the one area of the game that often does not get to work situational football is special teams.  This can be contributed to time factors and practice configuration.  However, the one situation that no coordinator or head coach ever likes to been in is when you only have 10 men on the field.  This is especially true in the kicking game. A special team’s coordinator nightmare is only having 10 men on the field and then having to explain to your head coach why you burned a timeout, took a penalty or were just flat out undisciplined.  If you have ever coached special teams you may know exactly the feeling I are referring to. The question now is as a special team’s coach how do you prepare for those unique special teams situations?
 
 As a special teams coach you must always be evaluating everything, specifically your personnel, scheme, and weekly preparation. These are three key factors that will enable your players to be successful on game day. 

PLAYER EVALUATION
 
The evaluation of your players is something that a special teams coach should be doing year around.  This is because a special team’s coordinator could potentially end up coaching every player on the roster before the season is over.  Whether it’s the starting QB as your holder, your left tackle on PAT or the 9th string wide receiver who happens to also be your best long snapper. As the special coach you should know your roster better than anyone else and you should also be a great evaluator of each player’s individual talents.  While many staffs debate about which offensive and defensive starters should and shouldn’t be allowed to play on special teams, the determining factor should always be effort.  It is very easy to know who are the fastest or most athletic guys on your team but every coach needs to know which guy is incapable of playing more than one phase of the game.  The evaluation of talent begins in the weight room.  By evaluating your players in the weight room you will be able to predict how certain personnel will respond to certain situations. This will also help you to predict who you can and can’t count on in the kicking game.
 
Observing your players in adverse situations when they are fatigued will tell you whether they can play on special teams or not.  When evaluating players it is very important to remain honest and objective about each player’s individual limitations. A player might have the biggest heart in the world but as a kid starts to exert himself past his mental or physical limits it is not only detrimental to the team to play him but it may also be detrimental to the safety of that player. Instead of riding your best players until they reach fatigue, play young talent that will take the field with fresh legs and enthusiasm.  Special teams are an opportunity to get as many of your developmental or upcoming players involved in your program; it is not the part of the game where you want to push your best players to their limit because a mistake on special teams could cost you a game.   

The other thing that any coach can evaluate about a player in weight room is responsibility.  Our punt team consists of most responsible guys who were also the guys that never missed a lift, and never missed a practice. These are the type of guys that are purpose driven individuals and hard workers.  Responsible athletes are also usually responsible students.  This is the type of kid that you want to use on your special teams because they are mentally and physically dependable.  They will keep their head in the game, know the situation, listen to the call and do their job.  A lot of this information can also be gathered by looking at an athlete’s attendance at school and in the weight room or by just talking to your strength coaches.  The ability to collaborate with the rest of your staff will make your special teams stronger and make managing your special teams easier.
 
SCHEME EVALUATION

Constantly evaluating your scheme will allow your players an opportunity to showcase their talent.  The evaluation process begins by finding out what your players do best. Then as a coach you must be flexible enough to incorporate those skills into your scheme. For example, in 2011 we had 2 excellent kick returners, in fact both of which ended up returning kicks as true freshmen at their respective colleges; UCLA and Arizona St.  My personal philosophy on kickoff return has always been to be a vertical downhill runner. The scheme that compliments this philosophy the best is double wedge however both of these return men were shifty elusive runners. For the first four games of the season I forced a scheme on these two seniors which also forced an unnatural running style on these athletes. Consequently, our double wedge return was average at best. However, after listening to my players and staff we added a sideline return that allowed our return guys to be an athlete and run in space. Needless to say our kickoff return became more explosive and dynamic. Conversely, in 2012 we had true vertical downhill runners, so we ran double wedge with great success. 

By altering the scheme to fit our player’s talents we had much more success in the kicking game.  We also had more guys willing to actively participate on our special teams and be genuinely excited about our kicking game because they were heard and valued as individuals. When the players are excited they look forward to the situation and this eliminates a lack of focus which also naturally makes them better prepared for all special teams situations.  This all stems from knowing what our athletes do best, the ability to be flexible and to also allow our players to evaluate the scheme. I always keep in mind that the players have to execute the scheme with a maximum amount of effort and desire.  By building off their strengths and providing each special teams unit with a certain level of autonomy and ownership they now have the ability to master the scheme and execute it with great success.

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Grand Valley State Redefines What It Means To Be Open

 

By Sam Nichols

Managing Editor

 

 

X&O Labs Editor’s Note:  Perennial Division 2 Powerhouse Grand Valley State University was kind enough to invite X&O Labs Managing Editor out for an exclusive look at their practice.  While there, GVSU’s Quarterback Coach Jack Ginn went into great detail on how they coach their quarterbacks and receivers to make explosive plays in the passing plays in unconventional, but highly effective ways.  The following report includes an exclusive interview with Coach Ginn and an in-depth  practice review that shows how GVSU has built its practices around its vertical passing attack.  

routeGrand Valley has always been able to score points.  Dating back to its emergence on to the national stage under now Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly, they have done much of this scoring by pushing the ball downfield in the passing game.  I have personally set through multiple clinic talks by Kelly and his successor and now Notre Dame Offensive Coordinator Chuck Martin where they detailed both the importance of throwing it vertical and the schemes they use in that part of the game.  I was always amazed at how they were able to be so consistent in creating big plays with these relatively simple schemes.

So the question is… how are they able to be ranked 5th in the country in passing efficiency in 2012 and 1st in 2011 if they are so focused on throwing vertically.  That is what I set out to discover as I visited Grand Valley and sat down with their Quarterback Coach Jack Ginn.

Interview with Jack Ginn:

SN:  Coach I know that you guys are big in throwing the ball down the field.  Throughout practice today, you guys worked it deep and often.  Give us an overview of how and why you guys do this so effectively.

 

Well here is what it all comes down to, we will always be throwing the ball away from the defense.  For us, it is almost like a two play call or a read option.  When we throw the vertical passes we think that if we are isolated one on one there is no covering our players.  We will always throw it to space where our guy can get it.  We encourage our guys to not run the play like it is on paper, but instead to throw it where they are not.

When we talk vertical passing game, we are working to get the ball to the outside of the field.  The only exception, of course, is when the defense is in a 2 deep look.  We recruit that as well.  We want tall guys that can go up and get the ball down the field.  We really think this works well because you don’t have to have a great arm or great speed to make it work.  What you really need are guys who can track the ball.  They need to have depth perception and need to be like outfielder.

SN:  How do you drill that stuff coach?

Well one drill we really like is to run our screens (diagram 2) and then follow it up with the go routes.  Our players get so ingrained to the short outside throw that our DB’s start playing for it.  At that point, it becomes a battle of wills as to who can be the shortest and most outside person on the deep balls.  We counter that be moving from the short routes to working the go routes down the field with a focus on working to get vertical and beat someone.  Don’t get me wrong, it is very rarely that we do blow by someone and run in open field, we don’t have a single guy running a 4.5.  That said, we need our guys to work to it to allow the play and spacing to develop underneath.

So how do we go about getting the reps?  Well it is simply what we do.  We start pre-practice with go routes on air.  The majority of our routes in 1 on 1 drills are go routes.  We hang our hat on our ability to make those plays.  If we can’t win the deep balls then we will not be able to control the pressure.

SN:  So you guys really use the deep ball to set up the rest of your game and control how the defense tries to attack you.  That makes sense coach.  I saw that throughout practice.  So what are you telling the quarterbacks as they are throwing these routes?

We tell them that they should either drop it on his head or throw it outside of him.  But of course we can’t do that if the corner is outside.  I explain by comparing this to a basketball player posting up in the lane.  As long as the post player has the defender on his hip, then you lob the ball to the open space so he can go get it and win the 1 on 1 matchup.  If the defender moves to a different position, they lob to a different spot.  In our passing game, we never throw to a spot.  We will always throw away from the defense even when it isn’t a vertical route.

Here is the thing that is interesting… In the history of Grand Valley is Brian Kelly came as the Defensive Coordinator, became the head coach, and then ran the offense.  Same for Chuck Martin, came as the DC and became the OC when he became the head coach.  Matt Mitchell, our current head coach, was the defensive coordinator and while he didn’t become the offensive coordinator when he became the head coach, he left the guys in place that had been running it so really our offense was built by defensive guys.  They learned the game from the other side of the ball and applied it to their offensive philosophy.

SN:  That is interesting coach.  So if you are throwing to space, what are you teaching the quarterbacks to determine who is “open?”

Well here is a diagram we use to teach that concept (diagram 3 below).  In the upper left you see a guy bracketed by 4 defenders.  It is going to take a hell of a throw to get him the ball and have the ball not be toward any one of those people.  If you take away one of those players (upper right) then we think we can get that guy the ball if we throw it where the defender was removed.  Similarly, if you take away two of them (lower left), we then it almost becomes easy.  If you take away three (lower right), then we have all sorts of options.

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Open Field Tackle Drills – Lewisville HS (SC)

By William Mitchell

Head Coach

Lewisville High School (SC)

 

Watch a few games any weekend and you are bound to see an abundance of missed tackles. And just in case you don’t see them, the announcers will make sure to talk about how “bad tackling has gotten and how coaches just need to get back to the fundamentals if they want to win.” As a defensive coordinator for the past 12 years, I come at this from a completely different angle. I don’t necessarily believe that we (defensive coaches) have started to blow off fundamentals as much as it has to do with the changes in offensive schemes and overall team strength & conditioning.

Think about if for a second…Offensive football, whether it be Mike Leach’s Air Raid or Urban Meyer’s Spread Option or even Paul Johnson’s Double Wing, has become a game where the best coaches seek to create more one on one match-ups out in space. This requires the defensive players to make more one on one open-field tackles than before. In addition, athletes are becoming stronger & faster at the lower levels of football than they have ever been before.

And while these changes certainly do change the game is played, they haven’t always changed the ways that we prepare. In many ways, the traditional tackling drills that have been used for decades are not preparing our players to succeed in the modern game. They are more focused on “tackling in a phone booth” so to speak instead of making the player a better open-field tackler. Sure the old “Door Drill” and the “Eye-Opener Drill” certainly still have their place, but do they really help a player get ready to tackle Percy Harvin on the bubble screen?

For that reason, I go into every off-season looking for new drills that can specifically prepare my athletes to tackle in space. Ideally, these drills should be effective with or without pads so we can use them throughout the off-season yet translate well onto the field. Here are the two best drills that we use and that I believe can improve your teams open field tackling in a short amount of time. The first I learned from Tyrone Nix when he was at Ole Miss and the second I picked up from a Florida high school coach.

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Two-Gapping the Read Zone Game

 

By Mike Kuchar

Senior Research Manager

X&O Labs 

Coach Aranda comes to Utah State after four years at Hawai`i, the last two spent as the Warriors’ defensive coordinator after coaching UH’s defensive line the first two years. Last year’s Hawai`i defense led the Western Athletic Conference and was tied for 15th in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in sacks with 35 (2.7 pg), led by linebacker Art Laurel who ranked third in the WAC and tied for 24th in the nation with nine sacks.

As the defensive coordinator at the University of Hawaii last season, Dave Aranda would get his weekly dose of read zone schemes from teams such as the University of Nevada and Utah State University – which is ironically where he’ll call the defensive shots this season.  So, he’d get frustrated at times watching offenses pre-determine who they were reading in the option game based on pre-snap alignment.  Aranda, who runs a 4-3 base quarters package used to play single-gap control defense and wind up getting gashed for big yardage on zone wind backs because of a numbers advantage on the offense because of his two-safety look.

“No matter how you draw it up, the offense will have four guys at the point of attack – the QB, the tackle, the guard and the running back.  If you’re a one gap type team and you’re playing it that way, whether your have a five and a 1-tech or a 3- and a 5-tech it really doesn’t matter because it’s four on three,” says Aranda.  “You have two DL and one LB.  The DE gets the shaft because he has to play two aspects – the dive, the bend of the dive to the inside out to the QB.  You’re cheating a guy.   An easy answer is to use someone from outside the box and bring him inside the box.  The problem with that is the bubble screens and the now screens that are thrown by these offenses.  Teams will read the LB that is walked out.  If that LB steps up and reads run on the play action to handle QB on zone read.  Once the QB sees him step up, he disconnects from the RB and throws the slant over the top of his head.  It’s a tough play (diagram 1).  I found you needed to get four and four and equate the numbers post-snap.”

So, after years of toiling with it, Aranda has changed to a more unconventional methodology when attacking the read zone schemes – and it comes in the name of equating numbers in the run game by two-gapping players across the board.   Now, we must say it takes a ton of teaching, but if you see this across your schedule like Aranda did in the Mountain West Conference, it may be of interest to what you’re doing.   He calls it getting “four-on-four” concept in the run game and like any other defensive preparation it starts with dissecting which kind of zone read team you are seeing.

 

“Zone” Read Teams vs. “Zeer” Read Teams

When Aranda starts prepping for a read zone team, he makes two vital distinctions.   Are they a zone read team or a Zeer read team?  Sounds like science fiction?  It did to us, at least until he explained it.

  • Zone Read Teams: This means the back is aiming for the outside foot of the guard.  Zone teams cross the center and go to the opposite guard.   There is no real threat of a bend back.  It’s an away side play.  The QB is a threat to run it if you’re not honoring him.  Most teams that run the pure zone read these days will have the back even with the QB because there is no real threat of a wind back – they are looking to puncture (diagram 2). 
  • “Zeer” Read Teams: This is a combination of veer/zone read schemes. These plays hit downhill like a veer.  Now it’s a read because they try to put a two on one conflict on a DE. Many of these schemes are run out of the pistol or the broken pistol formation (diagram 3) that we’re seeing so much of now in the college game. 

“There are two ways teams block it – they zone it or man it,” says Aranda.   “Zoning it is better for offenses.  People will zone the front the LB’s will run to gaps and it would be 4 on 3 and a crease for the back.  Guys would just run to gaps back-side and the Zeer play would hit front side.  You need to have 2 guys take two for one up front and have a LB to fall back.”

 

So when playing the Zeer read teams, Aranda plays with two 2-techniqes who “pre-snap” play B gap responsibility, two 5-techniques who play C gap inside out, with the Mike an A gap player inside out (diagram 4).  But once the zone is declared the back-side 2-technique is the back-side A gap player.  The Guard and Center wind up blocking one 2-techniue while the guard and tackle block the other 2-technique.  Aranda talks about it being the same type of block, but how he coaches it is most important to learning the two-gap scheme.   Since he feels the tackles are the most important component of the scheme, we’ll start there. 

2-Technique: Using the Hard-Shoulder Technique

Aranda aligns his defensive tackles head up the offensive guard and he calls them his read attack player.  His job is to play the back-side block of the guard.  “We will either get a surge to the right or the left,” says Aranda.  “The guard is trying to set him up one way and the tackle will try to knock him out one going inside or the center will knock him out going outside, depending on where the play is going.  The tackle will try to knock him and try to work up to our Mike LB (diagram 5).  He wants to go hips, hands and feet into blocker.  We talk about lifting blockers; we want to block the blocker.  Take him where he wants to go.  As the guard sets up inside, I want to take him inside at a 45-degree angle. We talk about fighting the hard shoulder.”  

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Beating the Blitz

By Mike Kuchar Senior Research Manager X&O Labs

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Most of the spread coaches that we spoke with stress the value of patience.  They want to be patient with their play calling, choosing to methodically march down the field blocks of yards at a time.  They want their quarterback to be patient with his reads – quickly diagnosing coverage before peppering defensive secondary’s with intermediate throws.  They even want their running back to be patient for gap displacement when running those zone read schemes synonymous with spread offenses.

But, often times patience can crumble – coming in the form of a speed rusher off the edge or a defensive tackle looping around for contain on zone pressures.  While offensive coordinators teach patience, defensive coordinators demand quickness – sending as many rushers to the quarterback as possible without compromising coverage.  Eventually, the offense needs to get plays off in a hurry – and in the face of the blitz.  We’ve surveyed the coaching industry to provide you a report on how to be effective in the eye of the storm, when that zone pressure comes.

Case 1: Identifying Zone Pressures When covering the topic of zone pressures, there is one common denominator amongst all defensive coaches we speak with.  They all tell us the first thing they teach is to “keep the shell” and disguise rotation.  What this means, is that pre-snap the defensive secondary should always resemble some form of a two-safety defense.  Eventually, one of those safeties will need to get to his landmark and coverage responsibility by the time the ball is snapped.  The question is when.  Good coordinators teach those safeties to disguise as much as possible – often dropping a split second before the ball is snapped.

Before we address what we discovered as some of the top defensive indicators to tip off a zone pressure, we went the extra mile for you, offensive coaches, in order to help you better disguise your snap count.  If you’re a shotgun team, the most frequent indicators seem to be some sort of hand or leg movement – such as crossing or clapping your hands so the center can see it or lifting or moving a leg (similar to the classic John Elway move).  If you’re more of an under center quaterback, we’ve found many teams will start their movement when your head comes back to the middle of the formation after looking right and left or the drop of your head immediately before the snap is delivered.

We’ve found that defenses have their “dead giveaways” as well before they start to rotate into their fire zone coverage.  While the majority of offensive coaches will key one of the deep safeties to see who drops pre-snap (54.5 percent of our coaches say that’s the first thing they look for), we’ve found there are a few other indicators that hint at a zone pressure coming your way:

  • The 3-technique DT is in the boundary: Almost all four down teams place their 3-technique to the field or offensive strength.  If he lines up to the boundary and if he’s wide (because he becomes the contain player on pass) chances are a pressure is coming.
  • The nose guard is in a shade alignment rather than a 2i on guard: Again, most four down teams play with a 2i and not a shade.  If he’s in a shade alignment (outside shade of center) there is a good chance he will be crossing the center’s face to get into the opposite A gap.
  • The five technique DE is to the field: Many zone pressure teams blitz from the field (there is more room there, obviously) and that defensive end needs to spike into the A gap.  If he’s tight on that offensive tackle, you can bet he’s coming inside.
  • The spin safety starts to creep: Like we mentioned earlier, he will eventually begin to spin down to take care of his pass responsibility if he’s dropping.  If he’s coming, expect him to creep a lot sooner.
  • The deep safety changes alignment: If the ball is on the hash and that inside safety is now inside the hash and over the center (as opposed to playing his deep half responsibility in most cases) he will be rotating to the middle of the field.  QBs need to see that and expect some sort of three deep, three under pressures.

We were able to spend time visiting with Shawn Watson, the offensive coordinator at Nebraska, who really simplified his methodology in how he prepares to attack zone pressures.  “Really, there will only be three types of pressures you will see,” says Watson.  “You have external (outside) field pressures, external boundary pressures, and finally internal (inside) pressures.  Once we identify those it’s easy to attack them.  Even at our level, rarely is there a balanced pressure team that is effective at all three of those types.  They believe in one thing or another – they won’t do all.  I see a ton of field pressure teams for the most part – where they will overload the field and bring pressure.”

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Create Angles with an Unbalanced Line

 

 

By Justin Webb

Co-Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach

Tioga High School (LA)

 

 

 

 

Tioga LineUnbalanced formations have been around the sport of football for hundreds of years. This concept has been and is being used throughout football in numerous styles of offenses. It all began with the Unbalanced Line Single Wing. Eventually, the Straight T and Wing T came along and were popular in the 60’s and 70’s. It was at that point, formations became balanced with two tight ends and even number of linemen on each side of the ball. From there, we saw the development of the Wishbone Option/Veer offenses from coaches all over the nation. The one concept that all of those offenses and schemes have in common was the utilization of the Unbalanced Line formation.

The Unbalanced Line is identified by the use of an extra offensive lineman on either side of the ball.  This could mean using a “Tackle Over Set” by placing a Offensive Tackle at the Tight End Position or even an extra Offensive Lineman on one side of the ball to create an “unbalance in numbers”. Teams all over the nation and at all levels (pro, college, high school) utilize this concept to create a numbers or strength advantage both in the running game and passing game. Some teams that I enjoy studying and watching employ this tactic are Wisconsin and Michigan State who both employed 5 Offensive Linemen on one side of the ball late in the 2012 season. Option teams such as Georgia Tech, Navy, and Army make use of this tactic pretty regularly as well. Even passing teams such as SMU and Missouri utilize an Offensive Lineman at the TE position to help with pass protection or provide some size and strength for the running game in a predominantly passing offense. There are numerous other teams that employ this strategy and most of those teams were covered in a previous article on X’s and O’s labs a few months back.

“What We Do”

The focus of this article is going to be a little different in its approach to this long-time formational strategy. I am going to show you how we use this strategy to our advantage at Tioga High School. We are an Unbalanced Direct Snap Single Wing offensive team and have been for 1 full season. Our overall philosophy is to outnumber you at the point of attack and create blocking angles to counteract the defense’s overall size and speed. Each and every week defenses must change the overall structure of their defense to defend us. That in of itself is a major advantage for us. This philosophy is a major reason option teams are who they are. We do not devote any time to perfecting the option game. We simply line up running the same Power Off Tackle plays that every run oriented team runs, however we run them out of an Unbalanced Line.

We operate out of our base set, which we call “Right” (See Diagram 1). Our positions are (starting from Right to Left) the Tight End, Outside Tackle, Inside Tackle, Strong Guard, Center, Quick Guard, and Split End. We operate out of this line structure about 85-90% of the time. We have ways of balancing up and getting into a Double TE set, but our bread and butter is the basic Unbalanced Line alignment. We can adjust our backfield and our formations to present a number of different looks in order to outflank and outman a defense at the point of attack. But, the constant variable is that we use an Unbalanced Line.

Slide1

Technique

The secret to any scheme are the fundamentals up front. This is not a “magic pill” offense and/or philosophy. As a whole, we are no different than college teams such as Alabama, Wisconsin, or in many ways Auburn. The key to any offense is that you must be successful up front with the offensive line. These guys must be coached up on fundamentals, steps, and scheme. The most difficult aspect of adopting the overall philosophy of an Unbalanced Line is to make blocking rules and techniques match up to what you coach day in and day out. We are a 100% gap/down blocking scheme. Our feature play is the Power Off Tackle play. Our technique that we implement is Severe Angle Blocking (SAB). We execute 2 different types of techniques with our SAB technique (see diagrams 2 and 3 below).

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Overload to Reduce of Punt Pressure / Returns

 

By Tommy Acklin

Defensive Coordinator

Frankfort HS (KY)

 

frankfortAs a Defensive Coordinator, I spend a great deal of time with my defensive unit with adjusting to motions and shifts.  We define motion as one offensive player moving to change the demographic of the offensive set, and a shift is when two or more move from one side of the formation and reset on the other.  Motions and shifts attack the Integrity of defensive structure.  This is done by moving the strength of the formation, to deceptively camouflage attacks to and away.  I’ve applied this same concept with our Punt Protection unit. 

Our base formation is Quads, in which we have the ability to align right or left.  Quads itself places a great amount of stress on a defense; however, the potency intensifies when nine players with eligible numbers are constructed into the formation (Diagram 1).

Slide1

Complementary Formations

There are a variety of ways we can change up this formation using Quads as our base.  These have developed over time as we have added new wrinkles to confuse defenses.  The most basic of these complimentary formations are Load and Heavy.  In Load, we would place the Quads (4, 5, 7,20) to our right.  In Heavy, we will bring #44 and the Quads over to our right, and declares our snapper eligible (Diagrams 2 and 3). 

 

Slide2Slide3

We also have a few lesser used calls that we can tag on to the formations above to create additional looks.  Those tags are as follows (use the diagrams / number above for reference on the alignments of the tags below):

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The Double Wedge: A Simple And Effective Kick Return Scheme

 

By William Wyrick

Defensive Coordinator

Harnett Central High School (NC)

Editors Note:  Coach Wyrick is in his 5th season at Harnett Central(NC). During his coaching career, his teams have been quite successful including playing for the 4-A State Championship in 2009.  During his 34 year coaching career, Coach Wyrick has been a high school head coach, a defensive coordinator at both the high school and college level, and have also been a head coach in track, tennis, and golf.

When I entered high school coaching, after spending many years as a college coach, I was determined to do three things relevant to designing a successful scheme:

  1. Find the best way to execute schemes that were not dependent upon the talent available to be successful- we all know this can change by season.
  2. I wanted a scheme that could be used on a game to game and year to year basis without a lot of adjustment or additional teaching.
  3.  I wanted schemes that were easy enough to execute to avoid penalties.

We believe that Special Teams are still the best way to out scheme and out coach our opponents. One of our goals is to win the field position battle and as we all know, special teams play a huge part in this. We wanted the Kickoff Return unit to set the tone to open a half or regain momentum after a score by our opponent.

 

When we looked at the Kickoff Return, we were never able to make the wall returns work consistently due to the inconsistency of the kickers we faced. The crossing returns by the front wall were not good to us as we either missed a man or had too many holding or blocking in the back penalties. When we looked at the Double Wedge return, we believed that it gave us what we were looking for without the problems we faced using other returns.

We liked that this return would allow us to return any kind of kick (deep, directional, pooch, sky, squib, even onside), anywhere on the field. It was simple to teach, and simple to adjust week to week. The results were more consistent (field position, touchdowns, lack of penalties) regardless of our talent level.

We have had success with this return on both good and bad teams. We have had two young men tie the state record for returns in a game with two. Just last season, our returner took four back for scores for the season (second in state history).

Double Wedge Philosophy

  1. KISS principle (Keep it Simple, Stupid)– One return for all kicks, get good with repetition.
    1. Maximize practice time- we practice this return on Wednesday and Thursday in season
    2. Most sound scheme for good blocking angles.
    3. Have a coach for each wedge and one for the returners- and coach it as hard as you would your primary position.
  2. Soften coverage by having good position on coverage personnel.
  3. Punch a big hole in the coverage by knocking them down and forcing them to go to the outside of the wedge.
  4. Return man force ball North/South as soon as possible.  To do this, he needs to have confidence in his blockers and accelerate to where you see opening (this is the key element in making this return work).
  5. Expect onside kick every time, but especially after a penalty against us.

Key Factors Determining Success

  1. Sprint to landmarks for good position on blocking angles.
    1. Front Wedge always see ball kicked over your head before you move.
    2. Get shoulder to shoulder and do not trade one for one on your blocks.
  2. No foolish penalties.
    1. Biggest factor in poor field position.
    2. If you can’t put your shoulder in his chest, pass on the block.
  3. Returners have clear communication with each other.
    1. Want Returner (deep man) to catch ball as much as he can by using “You/Me” calls – He is the call guy.
    2. With the Middle Wedge, he will yell “Go, Go, Go” within seven yards of the wedge.

Position Requirements

Front Wedge

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Safety Adjustments in Quarters Coverage

 

mount doraBy Ben Bullock

Defensive Coordinator

Mount Dora High School (FL)

 

 

At Mount Dora High School, our base defense is a 3-4 quarters system. We believe the 3-4 is a perfect fit for us based on several reasons, chief among them being that this three down system perfectly fits our personnel.  Typically, we have many more linebackers and safety type players than defensive linemen. In addition to the way the concept fits our players, we also have found that the 3-4 allows for seamless adaptation to any offensive formation/scheme without forcing us to change our fundamentals.  Much of this change starts with the safeties and the rules that we have in place to keep them in the right place be it run or pass. 

Base Coverage

Our base coverage is a quarters system with half field support calls. The base coverage is built to aggressively stop the run while matching any passing concepts especially play-action. The coverage allows our safeties to be the 8th or 9th player in the box while supporting the point of attack. We make our support calls based on half field formations. The safeties are only concerned with the surface on their half of the field. Our basic defensive alignment is shown below (diagram 1).

Slide1

The entire defense aligns to a field call which we refer to as the hawk call. The safeties look at the surface and make the appropriate support call which is communicated to their half of the defense. The base support for a tight end/wide receiver surface is called READ and the support for twins is called FLIP. We will discuss the safeties responsibilities for each support.

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Inside Bobby April’s Kick Off Team

 

 

 

By Mike Kuchar

Senior Research Manager

X&O Labs

 

 

 

bobby april

Now entering his 22st season as an NFL special teams coach, and his first with the Oakland Raiders, Bobby April has been known as one of the premier special teams coaches in the country.  His units with the Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints and now the Raiders have been consistently among the most productive in the league during his tenure in each of those organizations. Recently, X&O Labs’ Senior Research Manager Mike Kuchar was granted exclusive access to Bobby April. This Q&A reveals the details of that meeting – a meeting focused on building a dominating kickoff unit.

  

MK:  Coach April, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. Please identify three to five qualities you look for when selecting kick coverage players? 

 

BA:  The first thing he literally has to be able to run fairly well because there is so much space that has to be covered.  It’s an open field play.  Generally they are going to be more like defensive backs or linebackers taking on a screen.  The point is they have to be close to the ball in order to have any success.  You don’t necessarily need the toughest guys because your toughest guy may be your left tackle who weighs 300 pounds.  You always have a dilemma between toughness and the speed factor.  We’re not talking about combine speed or 40-yard dash speed. I mean functional speed.  I’m looking for guys that play hard, and are explosive, sudden with decision, sudden with separation from blocks.  They may only run a 4.8 but they run at a franatical pace.  You may have a guy that runs a 4.5 but doesn’t want to get down there every kick.  Most teams don’t have enough of them, so you are going to have put guys in fold or contain positions to fill out the team.  We want to strike and be sudden with taking on blocks.  They may not make the play but if they’re the first guys down they may be able to disrupt the dynamics or disrupt the pattern of the return.  You have guys on your team like that and you have to get them on your kick off team. 

 

MK:  What is your general philosophy behind kick off coverage?

BA: You have to treat kickoff coverage like it’s a goal line play. You need to get people up the field.  As you take the best path to the ball, you have to make sure you have inside and in front leverage to the ball.  If you don’t, that’s not the best path.  You have to arrive at the ball with inside shoulder force and inside leverage on the ball.  If there is an obstacle in your way, you have to make a decision on how to evade or beat that obstacle.  If there is a great distance between you and the ball, you have more freedom to use space to your advantage to get away from him.  If the ball carrier is to one side of the blocker and you are opposite, if I’m going around him and going backdoor I can do that as long as I can recover and take a best path to make a play on a head across tackle (similar to a pull scheme as a down lineman, come underneath).  You’re not going to get 10 trained killers on there, so you’re always trying to nurture those guys more than anything else.  It’s more about coaching attitude than technique.  Special teams have more mental obstacles than anything else.  It’s always been obstacles that players have to overcome to realize special teams are important. 

 

MK:  What is the negative stigma that surrounds special teams?  Does it still not get the attention it deserves from coaches and players?

BA: I tell them right from jump street, ‘look, you have not been rewarded in your career from playing on special teams – there were no scholarships for you.  You got a scholarship because of offense and defense.  Nobody rewarded you based on how you blocked on the front five.  In fact, none of those coaches probably even seen you block on the front five.  We drafted you in the second round because of how you played linebacker, not how you covered kicks.  But we still need your talent to go out there and bust your ass on this play.  Your reward is a win. Mentality there is ‘no, I’m here to play linebacker. That’s their mentality.  That’s what you need to overcome.  That isn’t any different now than it was in 1991 when I came into the league. 

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Interview with Jim McNally

 

By Mike Kuchar

Senior Reseach Manager

X&O Labs

 

 

Editor’s Note:  Jim McNally has been alluded to as the “grandfather of offensive line play” during his 41-year tenure as an OL coach.  Continually known for being on the cutting edge of blocking techniques and fundamentals, currently McNally serves as an offensive line consultant for the Cleveland Browns, after having the same position with the New York Jets.  Much of McNally’s resources- including information on his yearly clinic- could be found at coachmcnally.com Mike Kuchar, X&O Labs Senior Research Manager, spent some time talking with McNally this off-season on the newest trends in offensive line play.    Coach McNally and the drill film included in this interview come to us courtesy of SOTL/FBU.  Check out more from them at:  http://www.sotl.com . 

 

MK:  Coach, you always preach that Offensive Line play always starts with the stance.  How have you found lineman to be more effective based on their stance?

JM:  You should get into a stance in which you can get the job done, as it refers to the stagger in the feet.  The Right Tackle in a right handed stance and has to go to his inside and his right stagger is too deep for whatever reason.  I think you need to get more parallel or get in a right handed stance and drop your left foot back because you can’t get to where you have to get to because a coach mandates that you have to have a stance that is a certain way.  Who cares who sees what you’re doing if you have to shift your inside leg a little bit?  I feel that too many coaches worry about giving things away.  Who cares?  They don’t know which scheme you’re running.  In the NFL the guys have so many assignments and responsibilities that I’m not so sure if they can tell if a guy is going left or right.  Whether it could be a reverse, counter, etc.  If it’s third and long and you’re a right tackle, stay up and put your right foot back as deep as you can.  I do know that it’s easier from the left side to put your left hand down and your left foot back in pass pro because it’s easier to get the kick slide on pass protection.  On the left side it’s tough to pass block someone who is wider so the left hand and foot is back.  You don’t want to cross over your body with your right hand. There isn’t many colleges or pro guys right now that are not left handed on the left side.  I think you can play the whole game in a two-point stance.  When you’re in a two-point stance you take that first step you can lower your center of gravity.  Except on third and one or on the goal line- I wouldn’t use the two point in that situation.  The reason I like it is because you can vary your splits pre-snap when a defense shifts.  As soon as you lock yourself down with your hand you can’t make any adjustments.   

MK:  How can offensive lineman gain an advantage by using their splits?

JM:  Unless the defensive team does a lot of stemming, I’m not sure that you should vary your splits.  If two guys have to work together I don’t care if they get foot to foot.  So much of offenses now are double teams and combo blocks.  Well, get foot to foot so that you can execute the block.  The guard sets the integrity of the split.  The defense may know something is up, but they don’t necessarily know that you’re on the backside of a zone play or the front side of a double team play.  If my backside guard is pulling on the power play I don’t care where he lines up.  Just get off the ball.  You may have a bootleg, reverse or naked where that guard pulls.  Do what you have to do to get the job done.  Conversely, if the backside is off the line of scrimmage, the front side should be on.  They need to be able to maneuver their blocks or the pulling guard may not be able to see his assignment if the front side gets knocked off the ball.  The pulling guard has more time and space to see his assignment.

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Defensive Coordinator Research Study

By The X&O Labs Staff

This installment of our Self Scout Your Career focuses on the many complex decisions that are made throughout the season by Defensive Coordinators.

As we mentioned before, survey is still ongoing (if you or your staff hasn’t taken it yet, check it out here), we wanted to share some of the insight that the surveys have unearthed. We also recognize that while many of you have already taken one survey from selfscoutyourcareer.com, you likely have not seen the results of the other 10 surveys. In addition to the Defensive Coordinator Coach Research Report you are currently reading, we will also be releasing our Special Teams Coordinator Research Report this week.

Here are a few of the highlights you will find in the graphs and questions contained in the Defensive Coordinator Survey results below:

  • 51% of DC’s surveys also serve as their teams linebacker coach.  2nd highest was DB coach with 30%.
  • The 4-3 defense was the most common base defensive front use by the coaches polled (37%).
  • 58% of the DC’s stated that they want their individual periods to last at least 11 minutes.
  • Two thirds (66%) of DC’s carry either 2 or 3 fronts into each game.
  • 56% of defensive coordinators tell us they usually go into each game with between 4 and 6 different blitzes.

 

Check out each of those questions and their responses below and see how the information compares to your team. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on the data presented in this report. Please feel free to share your opinions and thoughts in the comments section below.

**Note: The data shown below is the current information from our ongoing study. It will likely change over time and as that happens, we will be sure to keep you apprised of the trends as they become apparent. Again, if you or your staff has not already participated, or if you want to just take a different survey (you can use the same email address without a problem) please CLICK HERE.

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