jfriske11

Our staff is currently assessing our offensive performance from the past year, and one area we see we can improve on greatly is our backfield mechanics, ball handling and faking overall. Do any of you know of a coach or coaches who excel in this area? Who are the experts in this aspect of the offense that are accessible and willing to share their thoughts and practice ideas? Thanks in advance for your help!

For those guys out there who measure these things…What is an acceptable number for offensive play efficiency in your program? We measure efficiency as: 1st down—4 or more 2nd down—1/2 of remaining dist. 3rd down—1st down 4th down—1st down Do you all use the same criteria? What do you strive to achieve? What percentage of that play needs to be successful in order for it to be called "efficient"? Thanks in advance!

We just completed our season and were able to mix a healthy blend of UC and Gun into our offense. One of the challenges we had was making the rules for the OL consistent for both the UC and GUN. One play specifically that was an issue was the Buck Sweep. Without a filling FB, the C had to adjust his rules to cover the BS A-Gap, and it was pretty frustrating for him until we ironed it out with repetition. Do any of you out there have a system that keeps things consistent across the board for the OL rules if running Gun and UC? Thanks in advance!

We've played 3-4 teams the past couple of weeks, and they have been successful in defending our TE/W with a gap exchange with the DT/DE and PSILB. DT & DE crash to the B & C gaps, and the ILB scrapes over the top to the D gap. The safety to that side also comes down to fill the alley. We had limited success with sweep, but are looking for other ways to defeat this defensive adjustment. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Great videos coach. On Sally, are you telling the Pulling T to just find a hole and lead through? What are the rules or keys for the PS OL? Thanks!

Hey guys, We just wrapped up our season, and lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs. On the whole it was a good season, but toward the end, it looked like our gas tank was hitting E. We tried to keep Mondays all mental, and back down on practice time during the rest of the week, but we just seemed worn out. What have you all done, or what are you doing, to keep your players fresh into and through the second season? Any and all ideas are welcome! Good luck to you all as you wrap up your seasons and push through the playoffs!

Magic Boot? I have Wes' books, don't remember this one. Please explain!

Love the concepts...can you refresh my memory on what the "2 man" rule is exactly?

Denny, On this play, and the other plays in the series, is the QB turning his back to the "play side"? Is the DE the pitch key on Option, or is it the OLB/SS? Is the DE the kickout on Trap? Is the DE logged on Pass and Option? Thanks!

When you make the "Tackles" call, does the PSHB take his same path, or does he now insert into the C gap? Thanks!

If you get a shaded nose guard to the TE Side, does that change the rules? How do you account for the 1 technique or 2i that can exploit the gap left by the pulling guard? Thanks!

Keep it going coach....traffic slows down at this time of year as we get to the end of school and all of the business of wrapping up and starting again takes over.....Learned and continue to learn a TON from this site!

Yessir!

Denny, Do you follow the "smart splits" rule for all of your series, or just this particular one? Thanks!

How do you block the under front with this play? I'm assuming it's more of a 2nd back through front, but if you had to give it to the FB, who is blocking the PS ILB? Thanks!

Coaches, Do you ever run into a situation with so many formations that you also cannot predict the defensive alignment? We love the idea of formations to force the defense into confusion, but it also leads to confusion on our end. How do you fight that? I appreciate any help!

Question for Jim: Do you run this play only to the TE like the video shows, or will you also run it split side? Thanks!

We're playing around with the idea of running Power as our off-tackle play this season, and not using the 20 series....but with hesitation. 1 issue I see is the lack of a FB trap game (unless we just run it with jet/rocket motion), but the other more important issue is WAGGLE. We love the play, have gotten a lot of production from it, and want to keep it. I have done it from jet/rocket action, and it hasn't worked as well. Is there a way to marry the Power series and the waggle? Any help is greatly appreciated!

@buckeye7525 Yes and no. It did make our half-line segments way more productive, b/c we could do 1/2 line on the Strong/Quick and bank a lot of reps going both ways. Team/inside run didn't really change. We would have an emphasis of the day, and really hammer the plays both ways, as we can look with a very critical eye on the strong/quick and work the heck out of coaching points. You have to really get pass protection ironed out. Make sure you keep it consistent with who is the playside/backside. For us, we match it to the run scheme. EX: If Strong is the playside for bucksweep, then they become the backside on waggle. We want to line up in a "sweep" look, and waggle away. Not too complicated. You can actually get a lot more done in indy time too, b/c if you can get 2 guys to coach OL/ it makes their job more focused, and the reps multiply over time. I'm really considering going back to it. Our kids played fast with it, and the learning curve was shortened. As S73 said, there are gives and takes. Just have to know what you're willing to give or take. Good Luck!

To clarify, I don't think you have to necessarily flip the play, rather get into a play that you like against your look. EX: Power/Sweep check. The play call is power, but if you get a red, check it to sweep. Bama/Miami, same idea. For what it's worth, its only a theory, b/c we did not run it last year. You would need to really coach up your QB, and give him lots of confidence, but it could be a great concept if done well I think.

@buckeye7525: We give each side a specific lists of plays that are theirs to run. When we call the play ex: "29 Buck Sweep", the Strong Side knows that they are the call side on sweep, so they align to the left. If we ran 10 Midline, then the Quick side knows that they are the call side, and align to the right. Coach can call any formation he pleases. There is a little confusion in the early days of camp, but after a day or two, it goes pretty smoothly. @nstanley: I have been out to see Coach Wright and attended his clinic and find his thoughts on R/W/B to be very solid and am really thinking about employing them. To that end, I think the system can be run with a S/Q flip-flopped OL, but you would be forced to have a check system in place to get into the best play possible. I've toyed around with how that would look for us, and may look at it again. In that case, it might be more than we want. I think the really big challenge is teaching the coaches! Good Luck!

We have done both. Last year we filp-flopped, all other years we have been R/L. There are benefits of flip flopping, and the drawbacks have been listed. You can train your smartest G to be the "flex", as well as your smartest T, so the depth issue can be resolved. As for the formation issues listed above, we sent the OL to the play. Our TE and back field were not affected in the least. We were able to run TE/SE side belly, TE/SE side buck sweep, jet sweep, etc...I don't think it has to be strong with TE only. Just my thoughts. Good luck!

For those of you that run a quick and a strong side of the line, I have some questions: 1. How do you structure the offense? 2. What are the qualities you look for in a Quick side vs. a Strong Side lineman? 3. Do you find other teams are able to read your line and stack up against you? Why or why not? Thanks!

Looking for some feedback on how you all utilize the weekend time during the season. Currently, we break up our weekend in this way: Friday Night: Game, upload film, decompress Saturday AM: Coaches in at 7; Players in at 9; Lift/Run/Film out at 11. Coaches gameplan until..... Sunday: OFF, but gameplanning happens. The problems we are having are with the gameplanning on Saturday being rushed, and guys really worn down. Lack of ideas, getting irritable, etc....turns into a wasted time. Also, it falls back onto coordinators to formulate the bulk of the plan, but it's tough in our situation to communicate that plan before Monday practice. How do you break up the weekend? Is it working? Thanks in advance for your ideas and assistance!

The only question I would have is on the insert to the PSLB. Who is now responsible for that piece of the play? Would you fold your TE? Any thoughts are appreciated!