4×1 Triple Post Concept

By Rich Holzer
Head Football Coach
Mount Saint Joseph High School (MD)
Twitter: @CoachRichHolzer

Introduction:

Here at Mount Saint Joseph High School, we as a staff adapt our version of the “Air Raid” offense to what our personnel dictates on a yearly basis. However, one of our new concepts just installed this year, is our version of the Triple Post concept. It was developed off of a similar concept run by the well-known Head Coach of Pulaski Academy in Arkansas Kevin Kelley. This play is adaptable to beat any and all coverages. Since it is run primarily out of 4x1 it places a lot of stress on defenses. It has been my experience that when aligning in 4x1 offense are either trying to isolate the single receiver, execute QB runs or throwing quick game/ fast screens to the 4 receiver side. We use this concept to counter act those tendencies.

Base Concept

The Triple Post concept can be expensive to teach because of how we adjust our route running based off safety structure. However, our staff feels it has been worth the investment. We start with the outside routes we call a “Bail Out” route. We always have one to each side of the field represented by the Hitch routes of the X and F in the above diagram. We then have our three Posts coming from one side of the field usually the wide side.

Against a single high look or MFC, we are going to have the QB read the MOF safety. The general rule of thumb for us is whenever the FS crosses the ball regardless of the SS alignment we treat it as 1 high and he becomes the read.

Whenever we get a 2 high or MFO, we read the strong safety. Our QB operates under the premise that the inside post will pull that backside safety as he works across his face.