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Scout Indy
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By Javier Cardenas
Offensive Coordinator
Eagle Pass High School (TX)
Twitter: @Coach_JCardenas
Introduction
RPOs are evolving into a staple for spread offenses for various solid reasons. They give an offense the ability to get playmakers involved in a variety of simple yet creative ways. Defenses must consider additional time to develop and prepare personnel for RPOs, particularly linebackers. Defenses, in many ways, are forced to play assignment football against RPOs, especially at the 1st and 2nd level. We saw many defensive adjustments to our RPOs this past season: Cover 2 (man under), Cover 3, moving/spot coverages to remove the stationary read, straight man coverage and 4-1 box adjustments. The advantage of our style RPO is that it had answers for these and other coverages.
Our offensive identity is simple: Physical, Fast, Execute (PFE). Rather than saturating an offensive playbook, RPO’s allow us to mix our base concepts from week-to-week through personnel groupings, formations, motions, and tempos. We do not want our kids over analyzing situations; we want them to be PFE. RPOs comprise about 40% of our offense and revolve around four base formations: 2×2, 3×1, 2X1 (20 personnel) and Empty with 3×1 being most effective. Again, we do a great job window dressing RPOs from week-to-week, but the base concept never changes.
While we are not a true Screen Pass Option (SPO) unit, our screen game mimics the SPO (Screen/Pass Option) system. We embed our best menu run game into our screen game. Our screen game is a unique call based on how a defense aligns. As the defense begins to overcompensate to the run/RPO, we tag the screen. We have a variety of ways of doing this. Essentially, we take away the decision-making ability from our QB and tell him when to throw the screen. However, the run RPO element stays intact and the defense must continue to defend. This simplified our QB’s thought process while allowing our offensive line and receivers to play “PFE.” Hesitation and indecisiveness is a QB’s kryptonite! The base Menu Run/RPO discussed and demonstrated on film in this report will be the following:
- RB Flare concept
- Inside zone paired with RPO progressions from Bubble, Bubble Slant, Bubble with motion, and Stick
These base concepts then set up our screen game.
RB Flare Screen Progression- If Mike linebacker, corner and safety adjust- throw screen
IZ Bubble/RPO Screen Progression- If the defense over adjusts/soft corner- throw screen
IZ Bubble Slant Screen Progression- Defense over adjust to bubble slant- throw screen
IZ Bubble RPO with cross motion Screen Progression- Defense over adjusts to motion- throw screen
IZ Stick RPO Screen Progression- Defense over adjusts to run/ stick- throw screen
Creating Concepts based on Functionality
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By Kelly Carrier
Linebacker Coach
Lansing Catholic High School (MI)
Introduction
Run and pass fits are essential to any defense. We feel that the best fits can be accomplished by teaching multiple concepts to our players to help them filter through post snap chaos. Although reading the offensive line is our primary key, we also rely on other concepts like pre-snap gap responsibilities to get the best fit possible.
To accomplish this, we start in the summer and work all season long teaching conceptual gap assignments based on stunt pre-snap and then progress to what happens post-snap when everything moves. When working with the linebackers, I will always include offensive line reads and clear/cloudy fits in individual, group, blitz, inside run and team.
Pre-Snap Gap Concepts
We begin teaching our gap concepts by using barrels to simulate an offensive line. To keep the players honest, we do not include a RB in our drills. Instead, we work on leveraging the ball carrier during our tackling circuit, inside run period and team period. This keeps the LBs focused on our task and does not confuse them with false steps by a back.
During our individual time, the first drill we introduce is based off our various alignments based on the front (20s, 30s, 40s or 50s) and we introduce alignment depth. We set our heels at 5 yards to give us time to read and react. During this time, the LBs are getting a taste for non-moving offensive parts and gap assignments. Because we angle our defensive line, the linebackers know pre-snap which gap is theirs.
Before the rep starts, linebackers give their pre-snap communication which will include our strength, stunt, and if they are a box or spill player (this is determined by the stunt that is called). I set up about one yard behind and in between the backers during this time so I can have the same view they have. On the “set, go” call, they will fire through their gaps ripping with their left or right arm. This becomes a foundation and a fail-safe as linebackers are instructed to fill their pre-snap gaps if they miss their read.
Post-Snap Gap Concepts: Part 1
After using the barrels, we begin to introduce moving parts/gaps as it is essential that they understand the difference between pre-snap gap responsibilities and filtering through post-snap chaos. The linebackers do this by using three barrels (OTs and center) and two linebackers playing the Guards. To introduce the concept of gaps moving, the linebackers are taught that their primary read as the offensive Guard. Attached to the offensive Guard is a pre-snap gap assignment (either A or B). If the Guard moves or pulls, the offensive Guard moves the gap assignment moves with him. This leads me to ask one OGs to raise his left/right arm to identify the gaps.
Linebackers can tell me who has the gap based on the stunt called. We go through the same drill as above, but this time we have the OG/LB firing out, pass setting or blocking down/double team. Linebackers will rotate and fill gaps based on blocking. In addition to reading the offensive Guard’s movement, I will also instruct the linebackers to read on the run and find clear and avoid cloudy gaps.
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By X&O Labs Research Team
Last month, we featured a report on the growing trend of high school and small college programs “hiring” a digital director of football operations (DFO) by using the coaching tool, MaxOne. The primary duties of a DFO is to manage the logistics of a football program’s operations–things like scheduling, communication, summer-camp sign ups, texting, emailing, preparing and distributing drills and workouts, gathering materials for coaching meetings, tracking individual players’ workouts and progress, manage off-season leaderboards… and the list goes on. MaxOne is a platform that allows you to do all of these things with ONE login.
In this month’s report, we confirm the power of using digital DFOs by asking student-athletes from three different programs what they think of MaxOne. Coach McKenna of Brooklyn Tech High School, Coach Stadem of Sioux Falls Washington and Coach Swift of Gold Beach High School have made the switch to MaxOne and have been actively using the app for several months–and they are eager to share their success story.
From these conversations, our conclusion came to be:
“MaxOne turns smartphones into football coaches, with instant questions and answers right at their fingertips.”
Turning Players’ Smartphones Into Coaches
The reality of how athletes interact with one another and where they spend time taking in information is through their technology and more specifically through their smartphones. The impact technology has in everyday life, but also directly in the coaching and learning experience has seen tremendous growth. It’s time to focus on the future. There’s no better time than the present to start preparing for future success. We asked athletes how MaxOne speaks their language in terms of technology? And specifically, how does it engage them with football? The athletes believe that MaxOne translates smartphones into football coaches. One player from Sioux Falls Washington High School stated:
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By Brent Barnes
Defensive Backs
Rhodes College
Editor’s Note: Brent Barnes just completed his 2nd season at the Defensive Backs Coach at Rhodes College. His arrival in 2012 coincided with an uptick in the Lynx’ fortunes on the defensive side of the ball as the unit led the SAA in points against and finished second in total defense. His leadership resulted in first team All-SAA honors for safety Justin Toliver. Prior to his time at Rhodes, Barnes became the Wide Receivers Coach at Middlebury College. For two seasons, Barnes oversaw a passing offense that set numerous passing and receiving records and coached two different players to first team all-conference honors. Prior to his arrival at Rhodes, Coach Barnes was the Offensive Coordinator at Simon Fraser University, a Division II school in Vancouver, Canada. He led an offense transitioning from the Canadian to American game, coaching both the wide receivers and quarterbacks. His offenses finished second (2010) and first (2011) in the conference in rushing in his two seasons at the helm
Introduction
 Our starting point for coaching the secondary is the eyes. We teach eyes more than anything else with the belief that if the eyes are wrong, everything else (footwork, ball skills, etc.) is irrelevant. How many times did you see in bowl season receivers running free down the field for big gains and easy touchdowns. We call those “free yards” because you are simply giving them to the offense regardless of the talent of the players involved. Our #1 goal is to minimize free yards with proper eye technique. In this day and age, defenses are going to give up yards and points. It’s an offensive world. But we want them to make plays and not make it easy for them.
With that in mind, we use a rather defined teaching progression when we install this concept. We always start with diagrams and film in meetings before we ever step foot on the field, after that we take our time reviewing the routes in individual before ever moving into 7 on 7 and team time. The real key is taking the time needed in the individual time. Here are some points on how we have found that time to work most effectively.
- We use other DBs to mimick the routes at full speed. They know the offensive perspective from our meeting.
- By going full speed and not walking through (already done in the meetings) we can get a lot of reps here in a short period of time.
- We do not rep the routes in isolation. Instead, we line up two DBs as receivers as well as a safety and corner and rep different 2-man route combinations that we see. We feel this is more gamelike and forces them to play together.
- We use cards for the route combination from a student assistant or injured player and work two groups (one to my left and one to my right). The right group goes first and they get coached on their eyes as well as footwork. I move immediately to the left group while a new WR combo sets up to the right.
- We can get 6 reps a minute or 30 reps in a 5 minute span. I can also do this with our 3×1 sets.
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By Adam Hovorka
Managing Editor
X&O Labs
Introduction
There is no doubt that today’s offenses have made the jobs of defensive coaches much more difficult. We all have to find answers to combat no huddle, empty, trips, formations into the boundary and RPO’s. Defensive coordinators from all levels of football are trying to be more multiple in defending the multitude of things they will see but still maintain simple rules for their guys to follow.
At George Fox University, Defensive Coordinator John Bates is utilizing his base 3-3 personnel split field coverage defenses to run a three down, cover two robber hybrid to battle all the empty and trips spread schemes he sees in his conference.
The benefits of utilizing Robber coverage concepts against spread offenses are the following:
- In playing cloud support corners are able to have immediate run support for perimeter runs.
- Having a short hole defender eliminates the possibility of scrambles by dual-threat quarterbacks and allows him to break on intermediate routes.
- Having a high hole defender (along with two hash defenders) helps to combat the vertical game synonymous with open formation offenses.
Traditional odd stack schemes consist of a 6-man box with 5 defensive back types aligning based on coverage. Typically there are two flat defenders and a one high safety along with two cornerbacks. Employing this defense as a split field outfit makes it difficult because the two flat defenders never play at depth and have limited deep coverage responsibility. George Fox University will be in a two-high shell almost all of the time. But in order to do that, Coach Bates will rotate the three types of safeties between being the flat players and the deep half, third or quarter player. The nature of his structure is a 3-3 defense, by personnel and alignments. He has taken the traditional one high base coverage that accompanies an odd stack and has found a way to utilize split field coverage defense. He does this by running a 30 front cover 2- robber hybrid, to battle all of the empty and trips formations that they see in his conference.
So in Coach Bates’ defensive cover two hybrid, he places those two flat defenders deeper. The diagram below is GFU’s base defense vs. 2×2 formations.
Defensive Personnel
George Fox University will be in a two-high shell almost all of the time. To do that they will rotate one of the deep three safeties between being the flat or curl player and the deep half, third or quarter player. Either the right (Ram) or left (Lion) safeties will be the down safety, responsible for the flat, depending on where they are in regards to field or boundary. If the ball is on the left hash the Ram is the down safety to the right, the free safety is the deep half to the right and the Lion is the deep half to the left (boundary). This is very similar to how 4-2-5 teams rotate their three safeties but Coach Bates chooses to play right and left as opposed to field and boundary. Coach Bates and many other coaches around the country are hesitant to run Cover 2 schemes because of the fact that the Mike backer has to play the middle of the field and match the number three receiver vertically. With so many offenses running variants of empty and trips formations, having the Mike backer on number three would cause a certain mismatch in the offense’s favor. Most high school linebackers and many college players don’t have the speed to be a middle hole player and also play run.
Adapting the “Money” Front
So Coach Bates has countered this problem of having his Mike backer be the middle hole player in Cover 2, by running their Money front. So now instead of the Mike backer being the middle hole player, it is the Free Safety. Coach Bates runs this Money front against teams that will be in 10 or empty personnel who want to throw the ball more than they run it. It’s Coach Bates philosophy is to force teams to do things that they don’t want to do, and this case it is to force teams to run the ball.
Alignment vs. 2×2 Formations
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By Gabe Fertitta
Head Football Coach
Catholic High School (LA)
Twitter: @fertitta_gabe
Introduction
Boots and pocket moving plays have always been a very important part of our offense at Catholic. Each game, we try to have about 4 or 5 different boots in our game plan. Initially, in Spring and Fall camp, we will teach the basic boots that surely all of you have run in the past. These boots act as the starting point for the variety that we seek throughout the season. Over the last 4 years, we have averaged calling about 4 to 5 boots per game. We feel that boots accomplish a few things:
- They help to keep the defense honest in their run game/pass game conflicts.
- They act as great drive starters or ways to get the quarterback back on schedule.
- Boots also allow us to break tendencies and play with the eyes of the defenders.
- They help protect some of our mostimportant runs.
General Design Philosophy
When we look at designing boots for a game plan, we generally are looking to get the ball into the flats relatively quickly and put defenders who have run/pass responsibilities in conflict. We are not a heavy “post-snap” RPO team. We love the “pre-snap” RPO game and will run some very simple post snap RPO reads. We see the boot game as our way to conflict defenders with run and pass responsibilities and not ask too much of our quarterback in terms of quick decisions to hand off the ball or throw a pass.
Once we have figured out how we want to get the ball into the flats relatively quickly, we will then develop the rest of our triangle read. Typically this involves a deeper comeback type of route from an outside receiver and a crossing route from the backside of the formation.
In years past, we tried to come up with a steadfast rule for boots. If you were the #1 receiver to the boot you ran this route, #2 this route, etc. However, in getting creative with our boot game, we realized that trying to fit boots into this type of system was extremely restricting. Now, we simply call boots by a family of similar objects. The basic idea for us in calling/naming boots is to not make it complicated. Give the boot a name and call it a day.
Other areas we consider when planning to incorporate boots are tendencies by formation or personnel group. We know that we create some heavy tendencies when it comes to certain personnel groups or formations. As long as we know about these tendencies, then we can choose to break them when it benefits us. We generally try to add boots into our game plan out of formations and personnel groups that scream run to the defense.
For the purposes of this report, I will assume that you already are running some of the staple boots in your offense. Hopefully, the examples below will help you to add some variety into your boot game.
Solid Boots
One of the popular ways for offenses to get the ball on the perimeter lately has been what we call “solid” plays. These plays are when receivers are blocking downfield and the ball is thrown on the line of scrimmage to a player in flats. You can see many offenses that utilize this in the zone read game. These plays allow the offense to read and control the extra defender that can play in the box and still relate to perimeter passing game. We teach these reads as pre-snap decisions to our quarterback. Here is an example of a “solid” zone run from our offense. Notice the extra defender outside the box that widens with the H when he runs the arrow route. The quarterback hands the ball off and we have controlled the extra defender.
One variation to this type of boot that we have found very effective is a solid boot we run off of our buck sweep action (Diagram 2). We tell our offensive linemen to block buck sweep but to not go downfield. The receivers on the “solid” side of the boot will block the man on or over them. We slide the H or fullback out into the flat and tell him not to cross the line of scrimmage until he catches the ball. This allows our receivers to block downfield similar to a screen. We like this version of the solid boot because it protects one of our best runs, buck sweep.
This first example is the most basic way that we run the play. We pull both Guards toward the fake and slide the H underneath to a two-receiver surface. Notice that the officials threw a flag on us for blocking downfield. Remind officials in your pregame conference that you will be throwing these boots and catching them on the line of scrimmage. They eventually picked up the flag.
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By Danny Freund
Wide Receivers Coach
University of North Dakota (ND)
Twitter: @dfreund7
Introduction
We will detail our 5-yard option routes and concepts from the wide receiver position in this report. The option routes give us a chance to get the ball out quickly and allow our wide receivers to get open against different coverage looks. We will talk about some of the details we teach in reading the coverage and how to run the route to maximize yards after catch.
We had success running the option routes out of a stack (2 WR) and bunch (3 WR) alignments. We will discuss the concepts and adjustments against zone and man coverage. The first thing we ask the receivers to identify pre-snap is man or zone coverage. Determining man or zone gives them a good idea of how they will best run their routes.
In a stack or bunch set, they think man coverage if there is press coverage on one of the receivers. Another thing to look for to determine coverage is number of defenders – if it’s three defenders defending a 3 WR bunch look, then it’s most likely man coverage. If it’s two defenders versus the 2 WR stack, then it’s some sort of man. If the defense plays four-on-three against a bunch or three-on-two versus a stack, then we assume zone.
In our option route concepts, reading the zone coverage is important because a Cover 2 or “cloud” corner in the flat will adjust the option route. We typically ask our option route to read an “open” or “closed” flat versus zone coverage. A “closed” flat would mean the receiver sees a zone corner playing Cover 2 or Cloud technique, taking away our access to the flat.
Stack WR Option Route Concept
 
This concept we run from 2×2 or 3×1 formations. Our inside wide receiver in the stack runs widen departure Dig route at roughly 12 yards. He needs to stay flat at the top of the route. We widen departure for three to four steps based on our tighter alignment. If the concept is coming from the field side, we prefer the Dig to be caught around the hash.
If the ball is on a hash, we want the split of the Dig receiver to be 1-2 yards inside the hash. If we put the “stack” into the boundary, we want the split of the Dig receiver about 2 yards on top of the numbers. The split is critical because it helps spacing and throwing windows for both routes.
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By Chris Weber
Offensive Coordinator
Rockford Christian High School (IL)
Introduction
Prior to the 2017 season, as a staff, we wanted to look at the personnel on the offense and also decide what we needed to do or be able to run effectively to have more success. As with most teams we wanted to run the ball more and based on the players we had coming back we decided we needed more of a down-hill run game. We felt that adding in Iso would allow us to run between the tackles more effectively and maximize the potential of the players we had. Once we established how we wanted to run Iso we knew we would need a counter play off of it and a chance to get the defense to second guess the flow of the backfield. One of the most important factors of these plays was the blocking rule we gave to the offensive line. For game one, the team did not play the front we expected. However, we simply told the players to follow their blocking rules and everything worked just fine.
Why Iso?
We run a no-huddle system on offense so having Iso allows you to not only wear down the defense with tempo but also wear them down physically by running down-hill. Iso gives you the opportunity to have a short yardage play that can break open. For the opposing defense, it forces their linebackers to come up against the run and play physically with the lead back and puts the safety in a one-on-one situation for an open field tackle.
Setting Up-Iso:
There are two formations that we mostly use when running Iso and QB Counter which is a version of our “up-back” set (Diagram 1) and what we call “Trey” (Diagram 2). Trey gives us more of a spread look without making the lead back cover too much ground to get the iso block and the up-back set still gives the defense 3 wide outs to contend with.
 
Blocking Rules and Procedures for Iso:
On the perimeter, the Wide Receivers (X and Z) have a simple stalk blocking rule of taking the man that is “head up to inside”. This rule also applies to the slot receiver (H) or we may tell them to take the near threat to the ball. For example, they may have a Safety lined up over top and an Outside Linebacker splitting the difference between the near OT and their alignment. In this case, the H would take the OLB since he is more of a threat to the ball carrier.
In the play call, we do not designate a ball carrier number and hole number to run to. We simply call the play as either “T Iso Right” or “T Iso Left”. Once the Offensive Line, Up-Back, and Tailback know where Iso is going, they next have to identify where the “bubble” in the defensive line is. We identify the bubble as the gap on the declared side for the run where there is not a down lineman. The lead back with taking the “bubble” and all Offensive Linemen will block away from the “bubble”. This is very simple for the OL, as they just need to determine if they are to the left or right of the bubble and then block “Down and Away” from the gap/bubble.
Playside Tackle/Right Tackle on Iso Right – If the play side tackle has a shade technique on his outside shoulder (5-technique), he will simply block out or “away” from the bubble. However, if the play side tackle has a 4 technique head up, he will step inside on the snap to get inside leverage on the head-up defender and drive the block out away from the bubble.
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By Mike Kuchar
Senior Research Manager
X&O Labs
Introduction
The following research was conducted as part of X&O Labs’ special report on “Defending RPOs from Four Down, Two High Spacing” defenses. The full-length report can be accessed in the Insiders membership website.
Palms Coverage Families to Defend Trips RPO Concepts?
There are several adjustments that defensive coordinators are making to defend trips formation RPOs. Some of the more common ones are below:??
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By Mike Kuchar
Senior Research Manager
X&O Labs
Twitter: @MikekKuchar
Introduction
The offensive system being developed at the University of Texas is a run-heavy system; that has been the intent since head coach Tom Herman got the gig in late 2016 and a run-first offense has been his blueprint since his earliest days as an OC at Texas State in 2005. It’s a system rooted in the A and B gap run game, often using the quarterback’s role as a runner more than a passer. When he is asked to throw, he’ll rely on more play-action or push the pocket concepts to present a dual threat on the perimeter. The national audience got it’s first taste of this with the success of Ohio State University quarterbacks J.T. Barrett, Cardale Jones and Braxton Miller who thrived as dual threat players when Coach Herman was an offensive coordinator in Columbus. Now he’s working to replicate that same success in his second year in Austin and he is equipping himself with the assets to do so with dual threat quarterbacks Sam Ehlinger and Shane Buechele competing for the job. They both combined for over 700 yards rushing last season.
In the hierarchy of importance is in this system, the tight end sits a step, albeit a small one according to Coach Herman, behind the quarterback. Coach Herman is an 11 personnel disciple; it’s a grouping he coveted since he began studying film of his later protégé Urban Meyer while Meyer was the head coach at Utah. He has made it clear that he wants to play with a tight end (current starter Andrew Beck told us so in spring meetings this April). In fact, he thinks playing without one is senseless. “With true zone read being a dying play because the ends are so well coached, I don’t know how you run the ball without a tight end,” Coach Herman told us. “We are going to align in a two back set or we are going to create a two back running game with the use of a tight end. We are an A gap to B gap run team.” But one thing is certain; if you’re going to commit to keeping your tight end on the field, you better find one that is versatile.
With the healthy crop of tight ends that Texas has coming into this spring, using at least one of them shouldn’t be a problem. When Tom Herman got the job in Austin, he said he wanted to be in 11 personnel about 98 percent of the time. Injuries at that position may have limited that possibility in 2017, but consider the following as an indicator of what’s to come this fall: Let the following information serve as an indicator heading into the fall: the Longhorns were in 11 personnel in over 94 percent of snaps this spring. It seems now they have the tight ends to do it.
But in order to play that many downs during the course of a game, the Y must have a broad based knowledge of the entire system, because he will often be the adjustor to line up in different formations. “You can line up the first three plays of the game and play three different positions,” tight end coach Derek Warehime told us. “You need to be pretty good at all that stuff.” All that stuff is essentially every concept in Coach Herman’s system.
The good news is that the staff at Texas makes it easy for this player to learn and retain information. Each concept has a name, and each of those names is tied to a concept. They lump their run game into three types of concepts: tight zone, wide zones, gap runs and man runs. The pass game is separated into quick game; drop back, play action and pocket escapes. Sure, this may not be different than other offensive systems, but how many of those systems account for the tight end being asked to handle the following job descriptions all within the course of one game?
- Know the 56 formations in Texas offensive system that the Tight End is on the field.
- Know the 12 run concepts that are most commonly used in Texas offensive system, including the dozen tags that correspond with it.
- Know the 6 pass protections that Texas uses with the tight end involved.
- Know the 10 route concepts that involve the tight end.
Coach Herman wasn’t kidding when he said how important it was that this player be versatile. He would know; in his 12 years as a coordinator, he coached three that ended up in the NFL: James Casey (Rice), Collin Franklin (Iowa State) and Jeff Heuerman (Ohio State). The purpose of this study is to help coaches provide their tight ends with the necessary tools to be successful in this type of system, where much is put on their plate. We were impressed with the ways in which these players absorbed information in the short time we were there this spring considering many of these players were either hurt or played an entirely new position last season. Of the top three Y’s on the depth chart this spring only one saw significant playing time last season. The other two were redshirts. But the learning curve has been sharp. The unit has nearly doubled their catches (from 18 to 34) from last season seven practices into spring.
In this case, we wanted to present a general overview of the Longhorns’ system and transition into the role that the tight end plays in it. We will detail the formation classifications, the kinds of motions that this player is expected to know and the tempo in which he is asked to execute these rules. In subsequent cases, we’ll detail the specific types of blocks he’s asked to learn and the techniques he’s taught to execute them.
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By Mike Kuchar
Senior Research Manager
X&O Labs
Twitter: @MikekKuchar
Introduction
According to co-offensive coordinator Tim Beck, part of the reason why Texas is utilizing the Y so much in its run game is to attack the odd fronts synonymous in the Big 12 conference. Aside from Kansas State, the prototypical four down, two high defense, every other program in this conference bases out of a three-down front. This means there are no-open B gaps or A gaps along the line of scrimmage with perimeter support coming from overhang defenders (Diagram 6). So, if you want to run the ball against this spacing, it almost becomes necessary to insert another blocker along the line of scrimmage to create another gap. Of course, that blocker naturally becomes the tight end.
The advantage is that Y can insert anywhere along the front, from C gap to C gap. The downside is that he has to know exactly where to fit based on play concept and he has to be prepared to block any defender, from defensive end, to zero nose to box linebacker. The job description is extremely versatile. In this case we detail the top interior A/B gap runs in this system, what blocks that tight end is expected to make and what techniques he’s taught to make them. We also explain the drill work that is used to teach this technique. First, we segment our research based off the concepts that Coach Herman has prided this offense on since its inception, the A/B gap run game.
Mantras in Run Game
If you hang around offensive line coach Herb Hand and tight ends coach Derek Warehime long enough (as we did) you’ll hear two common phrases uttered on the daily. “Get the play started” and “don’t pass color.” These are the two most frequent maxims both of these coaches use in teaching their players the run game. In fact, they are written all over the meeting rooms in Austin. We did our best to define them below:
“Get the play started”: This means that there is always one blocker that is asked to generate momentum for the play at the point of attack. It varies based on concept, but basically if this player doesn’t make his block the play is over. An example could be the tight end on the Longhorn’s speed sweep or Maserati concept (which we detail in case three). If he doesn’t block the overhang at the point of attack, the play is over.
“Don’t pass color”: This one is a little more obvious. It simply means that blockers cannot pass up a different color jersey (opponent) before carrying out their assignment. This rule trumps whatever responsibility is expected of them on the play call. An example could be the tight end passing up an edge rusher that the pulling guard missed on the play side of the Longhorn’s counter or Fiat concept (which we will detail in case three).
Box Count Relevance
We wanted to know that the tight ends are expected to know as far as box count goes in the run game. Since they are asked to do so many things, we were curious to see if Coach Warehime trains their eyes to scan the box when runs are signaled. As it turns out, there are only a couple items the Y needs to understand and much of it is predicated on the Center identification. The tight ends block in the run game is directly tied to the Center’s ID. In the Longhorns’ system, the Center will verbalize only two types of front identification (Even or Okie) and gesture with this fingers- raising four or three respectively, so the tight end can see them in the commonly crowded venues in the Big 12. His eyes go from the Center to the ID count to the defender he needs to block.
Teen vs. Deuce Identification Protocol
Like most offensive systems, the Center makes his identification count based on two things: whom the combination is working to in the run game and whom the protection is working to in the pass game. But, the identification can change based on the following: run concept, which is carrying the ball and what front the defense presents. For the most part, the Center will identify the play side linebacker in zone runs and the backside linebacker in gap runs (because that is where the combinations are occurring). In the quarterback run game, the identification can be pushed a defender back because the offense can attain an additional blocker to the play side (in the form of the running back). The Longhorns will use both a teen identification (runs that start with “1”) and a deuce identification (runs that start with “2”) to alert the Center on which he should use.
In order to keep things consistent vs. odd fronts, the Center will identify the backside linebacker in both zone and gap schemes. This is done to keep things consistent for the backside Guard and Tackle whom will be asked to block the ID and the defender past the ID, respectively. The adjusters are the play side blockers. The play side Guard and play side Tackle always double team to one past the identification play side.
Editor’s Note: In each of the diagrams presented in this report, the circled defender indicates the identification of the Center- both for run and pass.
Inside “V” vs. Outside “V” Aiming Points
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By Mike Kuchar
Senior Research Manager
X&O Labs
Twitter: @MikekKuchar
Introduction
Like most offensive systems, the runs being packaged in Austin complement each other. Power is married to pin and pull, divide zone is married to divide zone option, insert zone is married to cutoff zone. The concepts are meant to look the same to the defense, particularly the defensive end that will get a myriad of different visuals when defending this scheme. This means the onus is on the tight end to be the manipulator on these runs and continually execute different blocks based on the play concept.
In this case, we are going to present our research on how tight ends coach Derek Warehime and the offensive staff train the tight end to adjust his footwork, blocking angles and strike points to block both interior and perimeter runs in this system. It starts with understanding the aiming point and landmark needed to execute these blocks.
Inside “V” vs. Outside “V” Aiming Points
Once the identification is determined and ball is snapped, the technique kicks in. We will detail all of the techniques needed to make the blocks the tight end needs to make in this system. But before carrying out the necessary techniques, and underlying premise is the landmark in which these blocks have to be made. These landmarks fall in the realm of two categories: and outside ”V” landmark and an inside “V” landmark. Each play concept requires the tight end to block one of these landmarks:
Inside V Landmark: this means the tight end (blocker) needs to maintain inside out leverage on a defender.
Outside V Landmark: this means the tight end (blocker) needs to maintain outside in leverage on a defender.
Since understanding landmarks is so important in any run game, a great deal of emphasis is placed by Coach Warehime in teaching these tight ends to get to their landmark before making a block.
Identifying Potential “Rockets”
There is a code word in this system to identify a potential edge pressure that can disrupt the run game. That code word is “rocket.” Again, it’s challenging to spend five minutes within any offensive meeting without hearing that word. It resonates with quarterbacks, offensive linemen and wide receivers alike for good reason: edge pressure can severely fracture any run concept. In fact, the “rocket” adjustment is built into each of the Longhorns play concepts in the playbook. So, not surprisingly a great deal of time is spent on the tight ends not only recognizing a potential rocket, but also on how to block them. For definition sake, a rocket is classified as a defender who is in a speed stance (stagger) creeping down towards the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.
Traditionally, “rocket” in the playbook means he’s on the line of scrimmage or he’s an overhang player. And for the vast majority of the Longhorns schemes, the Y is responsible to block him one way or the other. There are some plays (like speed option which we detail in case three) where he is responsible for a late rocket defender because there are perimeter aspects to those plays. For the most part, off the line of scrimmage is a non-rocket look (Diagram 22). “Whenever that defender is in a stagnant position and not in a speed stance we can usually tell he’s not a potential blitzer,” said Coach Warehime. “But when the Y is moving with action coming out him it gets a little more difficult to determine. It’s a discussion because you get rocket to two-man blocking surfaces more than three-man surfaces because of the shorter edge.”
“Push” vs. “Heavy” Calls
These two calls are also foundations in the Texas run game, which can change the entire blocking progression along the front. These are adjustments to deal with someone on the line of scrimmage that is not the count to the open side. Both push and heavy are also used against pressure to pull off any double team calls and are full zone principles. “Sometimes we need to pull everyone over on the play side track to block the play side rocket,” said Coach Warehime.
“Heavy” Call: The heavy call is a call used against any internal pressure such as double A gap pressure. It’s a “square shouldered” call to get linemen going north and south when double teams are required. It pulls the double teams off.
“Push” Call: This is used against play side pressure that is not in the count. Here, linemen are taught to “track” out to that defender. “That defender is not in our original count,” said Coach Warehime. “So we plus the count out on paper, but we actually track it on the football field.”
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