Video Analysis - Passing Concepts of the Spread Offense

This video is part of a series done by Coaches Choice.  The series contains many videos ranging from lecture to on field examples.  This particular video explains what passing schemes can you run the spread offense, and how you call these plays. 

The first portion of the video the speaker explains the system he uses to call his spread offensive plays.  This is just a series of numbers that all relate to different passing types.  These types include Mesh, Vertical, Smash, Screen, Flat/Curl, and Stick.  He uses odd and even numbers to show what side the play is running to, and also uses east/west for play 0 and 9. 

His plays are called using a three digit number and possibly and east/west afterwards if the play type deems it necessary.  For example the play call could be 980 west, the three numbers explain the blocking scheme, the formation, and the passing routes.  The 9 stands for standard drop blocking scheme.  The 8 stands for a double tight formation.  The 0 stands for mesh, and the west gives direction for the play. 

He then goes into an explanation of the mesh play.  The positives are that it gives the quarterback shorter route options, which are more high percentage passes.  Also the use of rub routes makes it difficult to defend man to man, and also difficult to keep track of all receivers.  This play also gives many options to the quarterback in the middle and flat areas of the field which tend to be good places to attack defenses.

This video does a great job of simplifying the spread offense passing scheme into easy to remember play names and types.  Then the video shows how utilize the  mesh play and shows why it is successful.  This was also done in an simplified form, which helps to show why it is successful.  I agree with the play calling system this coach uses, and would be all for implementing this play calling system into our footballs offense next year.

Iowa Football Coaches Clinic

On Friday March 28th and Saturday March 29th I attended a coaches clinic in Iowa City.  The clinic was run by the University of Iowa football staff and visiting speakers.  In this clinic I got to watch many great speakers, see demonstrations, and even got to watch two full days of Iowa Hawkeye football practice.  Along with this I got to tour all of Iowa's facilities, and talk with many other coaches throughout the state.

The first clinic I attended was called Implementing the No-Huddle.  The speaker of this clinic was Randy Schrader, who is the head football coach at Washington HS in Iowa.  This coach was a very good speaker and had many key phrases that he established through-out the clinic.  The first was an easy phrase, but especially important to the No-Huddle, it was "Do Your Job."  This phrase is just as it sounds.  He really stressed this at the beginning, he said all players and coaches need to do their job to succeed in this offense.  The second quote he said was a little less straight forward; "More is not better, it is just more.  Less is more."  This phrase was in reference to the style of offense he runs.  When he runs the No-Huddle he doesn't coach all kinds of fancy formations with creative plays, he just runs his bread and butter plays over and over again. 

He runs the no huddle a little differently than I discussed in my No-Huddle blog.  His No-Huddle is a system of first calling the formation, then signaling the plays to the skill position players who all have wrist coaches (each play number has a color assigned to it with two colors).  Then the quarterback makes two calls at the line of scrimmage so the offensive line knows the play.  His play sheet consists of 60 plays with 2 colors, and these are run from different formations.  He also has a Bear and Cougar series, which is the high paced No-Huddle, were only 2-3 plays can be run and they happen rapidly.

He talked about how his team practices and works-out in the off-season as well.  The first thing he said was he will practice in shells 99% of the time, but his players go 100% all the time.  He also stated that he doesn't condition his players very often and uses the No-Huddle during practice as his conditioning.  Lastly, his off season work-outs are all fast paced movement lifts.  This he stated prepares his players for the high speed of the offense.


Later that day I attended the Iowa Football practice.  This practice was held indoors with no-pads.  I watched drills ranging from 3 on 3 blocking drills, cutting drills, and down field passing drills.  The 3 on 3 was a zone blocking drill where the lineman had to flow down field and pick up 2 lineman and 1 linebacker.  The cutting drill had lineman cutting at linebackers and the linebackers had to use their hands to avoid the cut blocks.  The passing drill was basically 7 on 7, but a little more structured.  The quarterback knew which side he was throwing too, so he had fewer reads to make.

The second day I watched a clinic on Utilizing Your Quarterback in the Running Game.  This was done by Joe Ryan the head coach of Sycamore HS in Illinois.  He discussed many draw plays and play fakes that he uses to get his quarterback room to run.  An example of this is the Power Trap Draw, where the quarter back fakes the power to the right and runs basically a delayed "draw" play left.  Another play he discussed was a QB draw, which is a fake FB screen and a QB run.  He pump fakes to the fullback and runs away form him.  This coach also discussed using pulling guards as decoys to move the linebackers away from the play.  As he stated, most defenses just read guard, so the guard can take them away from the play and you can use a pulling center or pulling tackles to give you lead blockers.

Later that day I attended another Iowa Football practice.  This practice was held on the game field in Kinnick Stadium with full pads on.  This practice started with many tackling and blocking drills.  I also got to watch many of Iowa's route combinations, usually always incorporating a middle route with the tight end and a WR attacking the sideline.  They also ran some interesting tight end drills.  The coach had pads on each of his hands and the tight end had to use a variety of moves to get off the ball and find an open spot to catch the ball.

All in all, this clinic had a lot to offer from lecture about the No-Huddle and the quarterback in the run game, to watching real time practice drills.  I learned a lot of important lessons about coaching style, coaching drills, strategy, and schemes.  I look forward to apply these next year when I coach football again.