The No-Huddle Offense

In this segment I want to describe how and why to implement the no-huddle offense to your high school football team.  The no-huddle offense has grown in popularity over the past few years, because of the pace of plays and lack of the ability of the defense to sub players.  By definition the no-huddle offense is just as it sounds, an offense that doesn't huddle.  Many teams run this offense where every player has a wrist coach, and the offensive coordinator just yells out the play number before play.  I find this system to be very ineffective, due to the difficulty of communication and the fact that the defense can pick up on certain numbers for certain plays.  Below I will explain the more modern way to run the no-huddle, and then why you should run it.

Photo by Ethan Hyman

The no-huddle offense utilizes many individual parts to run efficiently and effectively.  First lets talk about how the players know what formation to line up in.  A common method used for this is using big boards that have a variety of pictures, numbers, or words.  These represent individual formations that the players should recognize.  Look at the photo below, this would be the type of thing held on the sideline.  The players would know which part of the sign to look at, like the bottom right for example.  That is a picture of Shaq, who is big, this could signal the players to get into the big or heavy formation.

Photo by Michael Henninger

The second part of the no-huddle is the hand gestures usually done by players or assistant coaches.  In a normal no-huddle offense their are two to three different people making signals on the sideline.  These signals represent the play that will be run and the responsibilities of the offensive line, skill positions, and quarterback.  After the players look at the sign to know the formation they look to the coach/player that is assigned to them.  This coach/player does a series of hand gestures that represents the play.  Sometimes even words are used to specify the play.  The key to this process is putting many decoys in place to make sure the defense or opposing coaches can't catch onto what you are doing.  This can be done by setting a specific player or coach to make fake play signals every time, or fake words used.

Photo by Robert Willett

Now that I've explained the basics of how to run the no-huddle, I will explain why to run the no huddle.  First benefit is it makes it harder on the defense to huddle and call stunts.  With the limited time between each snap it becomes increasingly more difficult for opposing defensive coordinators to get a call in and the defense to get lined up correctly.

Second benefit is the defense gets fatigued.  This is due to the up tempo pace of the offense the defense has less time rest.  Now you may say that the offense will get tired to, but you can control how conditioned your players are.  But, the defensive players are probably not as conditioned.  Also, when you practice the no-huddle you are already gearing your players to last during the game.

The third benefit is that the defense has difficulty making substitutions during a drive.  This is again due to the high paced plays, the defense just doesn't have the time to make the substitutions.  This also helps with getting the defense fatigued, because they stay on the field the whole time. 

The forth benefit is this offense knocks the defense off balance.  If you can get a passing or running game going and you turn up the speed, the defense begins to get confused and usually starts making the wrong reads and gets themselves out of position.  This can also be attributed to the fatigue on the defense.

The fifth and final benefit I will discuss is the amount of plays you can run in a game.  With the no-huddle you are able to almost double the amount of offensive plays that your team can run during a game (assuming you can move the ball).  This also takes the play-clock out of the question (so no more delay of game penalties).

To recap, the no-huddle offense can be very effective if your players fully understand the play calling system and are conditioned enough to last during the game.  With the no-huddle you can compete with the opponent on stamina, which as a coach you can control.