FOOTBALL--OFFENSIVE SYSTEM WE CHOSE

We chose to run an offensive system that would display continuity while giving all of our backs and receivers many opportunities to be involved in the play.  When I say “continuity”, I mean that we wanted certain running and passing plays to look alike so we could take advantage of the element of surprise.  We also wanted counters off of our basics to take advantage of misdirection. 

What formations should you choose?  What sets suit you best?  What plays should you run?  We had one back who was, no doubt, the most talented player but we wanted all backs to be involved and get the experience of running the ball.

We chose to use a full house I formation.  We moved our halfback from side to side, depending on our opponents’ defensive sets, to gain the number advantage.  We had the benefit of having our most talented back at the I-back position so he could use both sides of the field.  We aligned our FB within 3 yards of the LOS to take advantage of quick hitting plays.  We felt this particular offensive set allowed us to be extremely versatile in our attack, while at the same time, it allowed us to get many backs involved in the game.

Our HB was utilized extensively on quick pitches where we blocked down with our TE and pulled our OT to lead the play.  We also got a lot of mileage out of a HB counter where we would send the I-back and FB one way and bring the HB back in the opposite direction, usually with a trap blocking scheme.  We added a sprint draw series that allowed us to fake a block with our HB and then have him run a seam or post or flag once the DB’s began to overplay the sprint draw.

Our I-back ran all of the basic I formation plays from leads and Iso’s to power sweeps, counters, draws, and a sprint draw series.  The sprint draw series took advantage of the I-back’s ability to read blocking patterns and cut back if the defense over-pursued.

We utilized our FB in the power running game with straight dives, slants, and FB traps.  In our counter series we ran FB counter traps off of a quick pitch fake or a power sweep fake.

We were generally the smaller team and so one-on-one power line blocking was never to our advantage.  Therefore, we taught a system of offensive line blocking that included angle blocks, cross blocks, double teams, trap blocks, and “bump blocks” to the second level.  We believed we could over-power a bigger and stronger opponent if we attacked from the side or used two offensive linemen in a double team.  The “bump block” is very much like the zone blocking schemes that we see so much of today except we eliminated the lineman having to read inside or outside.  It was more of a predetermined assignment but it allowed us to combine a double-team block with a second level block using only two linemen.

We used motion to move the defensive players out of position as well as to set up clearing routes in the flats.  We sometimes ran from a double-split shotgun formation to isolate fast receivers on slower DB’s.  As we spread the defense, it opened up the middle for dump routes as well as direct snap traps to the remaining back.  Because our quarterback was limited in his ability to throw deep, we kept our passing game short—clearing routes, dump routes, short crossing routes and the like.

We scripted our first 15 or so plays.  Our objective was to set up plays.  We would run a TB power left so we could run the halfback counter back to the right later and also run a counter-pass off of that same action.  We would run sprint draw to set up the sprint draw pass.  We would run the quick pitch to set up the FB counter trap.  We would run double splits clearing routes or all go to set up the quick snap middle trap.  It was most definitely fun to let your own creative juices flow as well as to observe the differences in how each coach scripted the plays.