Great article on the impact of a coach

Didn't know how many saw this on Yahoo.  Thought I would share, amazing reading.  Get the story here. 

Duece

The Point Method-Part III

Ok, so we know the history of the Point Method, and we now know the methodology of the Point Method as it relates to the Inside Veer (ISV), but how about the other options that are out there?  Well, that's what this article is about.  There are some coaches out there who use the point method on ISV only and then use RD for everything else.  Well, I'm here to tell you, the Point Method is for any mesh option out there.  I did it out of the shotgun even (though I find it far less deceptive in the gun, but don't get me started on that) running both ISV and midline.  Basically put, any mesh option can use the Point Method.  In this article I'm going to explain some of the differences and adjustments you have to make when utilizing this technique with both Midline and Outside Veer (OSV). 

Midline
The midline is my favorite option play in the book.  Some coaches run it as a double option, others run it as a triple option.  No matter, the Point Method can be used for this type of option play.  The main difference is the steps.  The only thing I did differently with the steps, was to reverse them from what I taught on ISV (see here).  When running ISV, the QB steps with the playside foot first gaining ground and pointing the toes at 2 o'clock (if running the play to the right).  The 2nd step, or "come to balance" step, is in the ground at 1 o'clock.  So on midline, the QB will just reverse that order.  If running midline to the right, the QB pushes off the right foot, setting the left foot in the ground with the toes at 1 o'clock, and then gets his 2nd step in the ground with his right foot being pointed at 2 o'clock.  Again, we want the QB's feet to be pointing into the LOS, so that on a pull read, the QB can attack the defense downhill. 
Again, we have the QB extend his arms at the handoff key and read the far shoulder pad, and earhole to get his read.  More experienced QB's can make "cloudy" and "clear" instead of fixing their eyes on landmarks.  None of the reads change for the QB from ISV to midline.  This keeps things simple for your option QB. 
The most important coaching point is getting the QB to "clear the cylinder" of the center so the FB can run the midline unimpeded.  A good test of this, is have your QB take a live snap from center and take his midline steps.  With the ball extended at the handoff key, have him drop the football.  The ball should hit the center in middle of the buttocks.  This way you know, your QB is "clearing the cylinder" so the FB has a clean shot at the midline track. 
One alteration we did the past few years was to have the QB actually "hop" backwards setting his feet in the ground with the proper relationship.  I had a QB, who was actually just a backup, that had trouble with midline for some reason.  He was always getting dinged or bounced around from being to close to the mesh.  I saw Georgia Tech utilizing this hop method for their QB Josh Nesbitt, and thought maybe I should try it for midline and see what happens.  Well, it worked, and many of the other QB's used it from then on out.  I taught both, but most of the QB's preferred to "hop" instead of step out.  All of the QB's who used this hop, said it helped them get their reads quicker than stepping.  Nothing like building a better mousetrap!!!

Outside Veer
The OSV, for me, was a little used weapon.  That had to change with the reemergence of some odd front nemesis such as the 3-3/3-5.  Rarely did we use a TE in our offense, as we usually never had one, so our answer was to use Navy's "Heavy" formation, or for us what we called "Tackles".  Basically put it's just a tackles over unbalanced formation. 



Tackles Over Formation (Navy/GT's "Heavy")



From this set, we ran the OSV.  I will honestly say, we cheated on this one here!  What I did was instead of teaching my QB all new steps, I reduced the distance he had to travel, yet kept the play hitting 1 hole wider than ISV.  Our offensive line was taught anytime we were in tackles, the heavy side was to reduce their splits down to 1 foot.  This put the mesh between the QB and FB at the exact same position as ISV, however the way we blocked it was for OSV and we read 1 defender wider than ISV.  This kept things simple and easy, so that the QB's steps were identical to ISV.  I'm no genius, I stole that idea from, what was formerly a free site to go and exchange flexbone ideas, the Flexbone Association.  Don't expect to get anything from there if you don't want to pay for it.  An even better site is The Option Football Society.  Sites like this helped me see, that OSV doesn't have to be real complicated.  I can honestly say, it was a big ticket item for us against those odd fronts, and it really made their lives miserable defending that play from our Tackles formation.


In my next post, I'm going to go over some of the drills and techniques I used when coaching the point method to the triple option QB.  Keep yer' ears peeled for my next installment!

Duece

The Point Method- Part II

Ok, now that we know what the point method is, and a little history behind this method, we need to know how to teach it.  To me, this was another very important selling point on the technique, it is super simple to teach.  As with any football technique, you begin from the ground up.  I'm going to take you through a step-by-step process, starting with the feet and ending with the eyes and the mind of your option QB.  This way you can coach them up, from the ground up.  Remember, you don't build a house starting with the roof right?! 

Footwork
As with any sporting technique, everything relies on proper footwork.  To start, I teach QB steps in the option game, based on the face of a clock. 

I teach that the QB is standing in the center of the clock, and we work the footwork from there.  Now, I teach the Point Method for both the inside veer, outside veer and midline.  For purposes of this article, we will focus on the inside veer only.  In a later post, I will show you the slight variations for the other 2 option plays.   For our example, we will be running the inside veer to our right.  I will not go into the fine details of the QB's stance, as I feel that is not a part of what I'm teaching here.  So here are the steps for teaching the footwork of the Point Method.

1. QB should transfer weight from a balanced stance, to his left leg (remember we are running inside veer to the right) where he will push off, taking a step long enough to get him into the mesh, but not overextend himself.  This is the tricky part, because every QB is different in their stride.  The key here is repetition, not distance.  It takes some time to find the sweet spot in terms of steps.  In another segment, I will talk about drills that can help facilitate your QB's stride to get into the mesh.  Anyhow, back to the footwork!   The toes of the right foot should hit the ground pointing at 2 o'clock.  As this step is being made, the weight transfer is shifting from the left leg now to the right leg.  Once the right foot is in the ground, the left foot is brought with it, and the toes of the left foot should be pointing at 1 o'clock.  What this does is put the QB into the LOS.  This is very important, the QB cannot be pointed down the line, or into the backfield as this will cause him to belly off the mesh.  Bellying off the mesh, forces the triple option to run lateral, or backwards, 2 things any offense can ill afford to do. 
2. Once the second step is in the ground, the weight should be back to balanced.  The QB is on the balls of his feet while he is making his read.  The QB should also not elevate, but stay in a crouched position.  What I look for is no change in pad level from snap to mesh.  This is important, because you want the football to be held at the same point for all the FB's.  When I first started this method, I noticed that since there was no connection with the FB, sometimes the ball was hitting them at the top of the pads, or the bottom of the numbers.  This was mainly due to lazy QB play, and the QB standing up, instead of staying low and crouched.
3. As the QB gets his read, the weight again begins to transfer to the rear leg, or the right leg in our example.  We want the weight on that leg, because I always taught our QB's to accelerate off the mesh, running to the hash, numbers, sideline for the aiming point.  We did not teach the "option alley" as some option coaches do.  We just wanted our QB to "haul ass" off the mesh.  By transferring the weight to the back foot, this allowed us to get more into the LOS and get downhill, thereby putting greater pressure on the defense.

Now, a special note, some coaches teach a "gather step" after the mesh, or a step that will clear the mesh so the QB does not get tangled up in the handoff key tackling the FB.  I did not do this, except for on midline, and even then, it was subtle at best.  I just don't care for my option QB going backwards.  I did not have any problems with our QB's getting tangled up in the mesh by not teaching so I didn't worry with it.  This is all personal preference here.  I do know this, the taller and lankier the QB, the more you do have to work on this little "escape step", as some call it.

Arms
Now that the footwork has been established, the next most important part of the Point Method is the QB's arms.  The arms are important, because we tie the QB's eyes to his arms, so to speak, to help him with his reads.

1. The QB, upon receiving the snap, should not seat the football!  This is the number one item I have to correct from day one with young option QB's, especially those that have never ran the triple option.  The ball is to be extended immediately with the arms being rigid.  As the QB takes the steps mentioned above, his trunk and torso will turn to face the handoff key.  As this occurs, the arms, extended, should take the football, and literally point it at the handoff key.  This is the where the technique gets its name from.  The biggest  coaching point for this is not to short-arm the ball.  The FB will adjust his path as to where the ball is, so the QB is simply to extend his arms and point the ball at the handoff key.
2. Regardless of a pull or keep read, the QB will execute the following technique.  For this example, I will speak as if the QB has pulled the football.  As soon as the QB gets his read, he will snap the football, back to his chest.  The ball should be at heart level, as we preach "pitch the ball heart to heart".  Pulling the ball back to the QB's chest does 2 things, first it allows the QB to clear any of the tackle by the handoff key in the mesh.  It also has the QB ready to make an immediate pitch in the case of facing a back-to-back stunt (see here and here to read more about handling the back-to-back stunt).  It is very important that the option QB come out of the mesh ready to pitch the football immediately.

Eyes
I teach our option QB's to let their eyes follow their arms.  This is an important step and a difficult one to teach.  The QB, familiar with non-option offenses will want to look at the FB in this process instead of the handoff key.  The Point Method, allows the QB to have a landmark (handoff key) and a means of helping him getting his eyes to his landmark (the arms).  The eyes should look right down the forearms of the QB as he extends the ball and points it at the handoff key.  The eyes should fixate on the far shoulder pad of the handoff key.  I teach my QB's to give the ball every time unless the handoff key's far shoulder and earhole come down to take the FB.  The eyes have to be trained to see this.  Some defenders will turn and squat, so the eyes must be trained to see the far pad, and earhole come down inside to take the FB.  Like any skill, this takes repetitions, but can be taught to even a junior-high school QB.  As your QB progresses, you can then teach him "cloudy" and "clear" reads instead of having him focus on the shoulder pad and earhole.  Once this progression is made, the QB, will still point the ball, however he will use his peripheral vision to see the hole and whether or not it is "cloudy" (closed), or "clear" (open).  This method is for experienced option QB's only, and should help your QB make the reads even faster.

Mind
The QB's eyes will gather what the QB is seeing, however the mind must process this information in a split second or the play will not work.  I give my QB what I call, an "unless" rule.  He is going to give the ball every time unless the far shoulder and earhole of the handoff key comes down to take the FB.  I ask our QB when making this read to ask himself a simple question, "Can the handoff key tackle the FB?"  If the answer is yes, it was a pull read, obviously if the answer was no, the QB should give the football.  Some common things young QB's do with their mind is guess.  This read happens a lot faster than they are used to seeing things happen.  This is where you give them an "out" by telling them, to give the ball unless. 

Some Particulars
The number one reason I switched from ride-n-decide (RD) was the turnovers.  I constantly had FB's and QB's doing what we called "hanging up in the mesh".  This was where the QB made a long read, or the FB gets impatient and squeezes the ball too early in the mesh.  These are all eliminated in the Point Method.  Here are some additional coaching points to add to the above techniques.

1. Better a wrong read than a long read.  This is a saying stolen from Coach DeMeo (see his site here), who many credit with the invention of the Point Method.  I took it a step further, and built in a system where this long read, simply cannot happen.  What I tell my QB's is if you feel the FB touch the football, give the football, regardless of what your eyes are seeing.  This prevents any hang up in the mesh, and also goes along with the give the ball any time unless rule we teach.  The FB's are taught from day one, to run over the football, and if it's there when you get there, it's yours.  If the FB feels the football, he takes it and runs with it.  This greatly reduced our "hangups in the mesh" problems, that RD teams quite often have.
2. If the QB pulls the football, and he's made a wrong read, turn up and follow the FB.  I have, in more cases than one, seen this actually go for decent yardage.  This also gives your QB an "out" in case he makes a misread, which inevitably will happen.
3. If the QB opens to the handoff key, and for some reason, the handoff key gets blocked, he is to give the football.  Again, this is a simple "out" the QB can always use to help him with his read.  Defenses like to pinch 4 techniques into the B gap vs. triple option offenses, and this puts the 4 technique right in the path of the veer blocking tackle.  I teach the tackles to block the inside gap 1st, so the slanting 4, which by rule is handoff key (first down lineman outside the B gap)ends up getting blocked.  We simply tell the QB to give the football in this case.  Again, a key your option QB can lean on, when his read is "fuzzy".

Tony DeMeo

The Process as a Whole
To reiterate the points of the Point Method, the first thing is setting the feet properly.  The feet must be set properly so the QB is in to the LOS and can attack the defense off the mesh.  The arms, must extend to present the football to the FB, and be pointed at the handoff key.  The eyes follow the arms and distinguish what the handoff key is doing, and relays this information to the mind of the QB.  Once the information is processed the read is made, at which time the QB snaps either the ball or his empty hands back to his chest and accelerates off the mesh attacking to the hash, numbers, and on to the sidelines. 

I'm adding some video my good friend Brophy (check out his blog here) sent me of Georgia Tech's Option drills and a video of some Carson Newman highlights.  Compare the 2 videos, especially the QB at 0.23 seconds into the Carson Newman video.  You can see the difference in RD vs. the Point Method at that mark.  Take a look and decide for yourself which one you like better.

In my third installment of the Point Method I will talk about the other options such as midline, and outside veer.  Stay tuned!

Duece

The Point Method-Part I

I'm going to write some short excerpts on coaching the little understood triple option mesh, known as the point method, or the "no mesh, mesh".  Very little is out there on this technique, and I want to try and establish a basis for teaching this very beneficial method of reading the mesh in the triple option run game.  My first piece is simply on the nuisances of the technique, what I know about it, and how to get started teaching it.  I plan to provide some step by step resources as well as some online resources to help the old "ride-n-decide" coaches out there convert over. 

First, where did the point method come from?  Well, to know this you need to know a little triple option football history.  The initial mesh that was taught for years (and taught to me) was the famous "ride-n-decide" which I will abbreviate RD for writing purposes.  RD was utilized by teaching the option QB to reach the ball back as far as he could putting the ball in the bell of the FB and "riding" the FB into the line of scrimmage (LOS).  I will not knock this technique as it has been around for years, and has several merits which I'll allude to later in my writings.  In my research, the only credit I find for the point method, is Carson-Newman College.  Carson-Newman, for as long as I can remember, has been a split-back-veer (SBV) team.  According to Internet research, Carson-Newman came up with a new mesh technique called the "no mesh, mesh".  Basically they did not mesh with the FB at all on the triple option.  This, at the time, was a new way of thinking, and many thought it would revolutionize triple option football.  There are some that will argue that Tony DeMeo was the first one to utilize this technique, and he may very well have been, however, he did not officially "tag" the concept, as did Carson-Newman.  Despite the claims to who started this thing, the "no mesh, mesh" or Point Method as it was later named by triple option coaches, was a new way of thinking in the triple option world. 

So, let's look at the two techniques from a business standpoint...pro's and con's.  Here is a look at the pro's and con's of each method:
Ride-N-Decide

Pro's

1. Very deceptive, defense has a difficult time discerning between give and pull.
2. Tons of information on footwork, how to teach, and videos
1. Still in use by Georgia Tech and the Naval Academy (ease of access to information on how to teach)

Con's

1. Prone to fumbles
2. Confusing to FB as whether or not he's getting the ball or the ball is being pulled
3. More difficult to teach
4. QB more prone to "belly" off of the mesh due to steps not attacking the LOS.

Point Method

Pro's

1. Easy to teach, very simple reads and reactions
2. Easy for the FB to learn, no guessing as to whether it's a keep or pull.
3. Less chance for fumbles.

Con's

1. Not as deceptive as RD.
2. Playaction not as effective
3. Easier for the defense to read

Now that those have been established, I will end this excerpt by stating, I chose the Point Method because of Pro #3.  I know this point is argumentative, but it's the whole reason the point method was devised...to reduce the amount of turnovers in the mesh.  I'm big on not beating yourself, and turnovers are the number one way to kill yourself offensively.  I felt the Point Method gave us a better chance at securing the football, even if it was not as deceptive as RD.

In my next post, I will go over the reads and how to effectively teach the Point Method to your triple option QB.

Duece

Special Teams- Middle Onside

One of the most dangerous weapons I've had as a coach on special teams is the middle onside.  The past few years having been at a school that was the underdog 99% of the time we played, we had to find ways to gain more possessions than our opponent.  The middle onside was our ticket.  In 2008 we recovered an amazing 5 out of 8 attempts on the middle onside, going 2 for 3 in 1 game!  In 2009, we kept our streak alive going an impressive 4 out 8 that year.  This past season our numbers dropped some, but after doing it for two years, people began to catch on to our scheme a bit.  We still finished going 2 of 7 this past season.  When executed properly, the middle onside puts the kickoff return team at a disadvantage.  Most special teams coaches I know, when asked "What is the number one thing that breaks down on your kickoff return team?", the answer you will get more often than not, is "The front wall".  The main reason for this is the distance covered, having to run with your back at the defense, or at the very least having to try and run looking over your shoulder, and lastly, having to stop your momentum, setup and take on targets moving at full speed.  All of these things, even on the best coached of kickoff return teams, will stand out if you have the middle onside as a weapon.  The reason, you slow down the first wall.  They can no longer cheat back, or align off to get a jump in setting up the wall, they have to honor the middle onside!  This post is going to look at how we run the play, and a couple of other variations when teams jump what you are doing.

Middle Onside Rules

First off, we number our guys right and left, and we call the front wall of the kickoff return team by offensive linemen terms (center, guard, tackle, etc.). 

L1/R1- Both of these players are to take out the center.  A big coaching point here is they do not look for the ball at any time, they strictly aim to decleat the center.  This is very important, because the center is the only player the return team can really utilize to destroy the middle onside.  Each player should aim at the near shoulder of the center, and be ready for one heck of a collision (see video below)

L2/R2- These 2 players are to cut off the guards.  They want to key the guards inside shoulder and attempt to cut the guard off from the football.  Again, the key coaching point here is do not look for the football.
L3/R3- These do the exact same thing as L2/R2, however they have to take more sever angles to cut off their defenders.  Again, the key is the inside shoulder of the tackle, and do not look for the football.

L4/R4- These are the "scooper's" who funnel inside in case the ball gets batted around by the return team.  As soon as the L3/R3 player moves these two are heading right down the line and looking to turn up where the L1/R1's were aligned before the kick.  Their job is to get square and be ready to do one of two things.  First, be ready to recover a batted ball, or be ready to tackle a ballcarrier.  We did this because of the heavy focus by the 1's, 2's and 3's on blocking their man.  I saw one of these returned for a touchdown years ago on film, where the kicking team had no safety valves set in place for if the ball was loose and a member of the receiving team picked it up.  We felt the 4's could do two jobs at once, so that is why they utilize the technique listed above.  Yes, it can tip the hand of what you are doing, but as you can see in the video clips, things happen pretty fast, and their trying to go for a pointed ball without getting their heads knocked off!

L5/R5- These are the deep safeties.  We have them bail back to their respective hashes and be ready for a ballcarrier coming out of a pile or whatever else may happen on one of the wildest plays in football!

Kicker- The kicker has, obviously, the most important duty on the kicking team.  He has to kick the ball hard enough to go 10 yards, but soft enough so he can run with it as it slowly rolls to 10 yards.  The kicker does this by "topping" the ball.  Now, I'm no kicking coach, and I'm sure some will argue, topping the ball will make the ball want to jump, or bounce upward.  They key here, for the kicker, is not to drive the ball downward, but to drag his leg through the entire length of the kick.  Our kicker worked on this drill at least twice a week, if not more.  The main key here is to follow through, this is not a punch and drive type kick, but more a drag and follow through.  The other coaching point is keeping the kicker away from the ball once it's kicked.  This has to be done with repetitions so the kicker can get a feel for the speed and direction of the ball.  Great execution by our kicker is shown below:

Variations to Middle Onside

A variation to the middle onside was a kick we simply called "beam".  The reason, the kicker drilled the ball at the center like a laser beam.  Teams started to put very athletic and quick centers in the ball games against us, so we started kicking right at them.  Now we did not have to do this much, and it was mainly to slow the center down from rushing up in anticipation of the middle onside.  We did have some good one's in practice though! 

Some other variations were the standard onside kick where the kicker drives the ball into the ground and gets it to "pop" back up in the air.  Over the past 3 seasons we went 2 for 5 on our pop onsides kicks (however we did not utilize these last season for some reason).

When to use

The middle onside is a very gutsy play, and needs to be used when the team least expects it.  I went back and looked at all our middle onside kicks from the past 3 seasons and this is what I got.  This data is from a total of 23 middle onside kicks in 3 seasons (remember I told you we were underdogs).

1. The most popular time in a ball game we attempted the middle onside was when kicking off to start the second half.  We felt, especially if behind at the half (which we usually were) this was the time to "steal" an extra possession.  Out of 23 attempts we attempted 11 to start the 2nd half of the game.  We were 4 of 11 on these attempts.
2. The next most popular time for us to attempt the middle onside was when we were kicking off to start the game.  We did not do it as much here, but had excellent success going 5 for 7!
3. The rest of the attempt came after long drives that kept the opponents defense on the field for a long time.  We finished going 2 for 5 on these attempts.  Our thinking was here, keep their offense off the field, and their defense on, especially since they had just gotten off the field and were tired. 

Conclusion

I know what you are thinking, very risky play, and you are correct.  The middle onside does several things for you though.  Remember it slows them down, and when you are an underdog, there's a 99% chance your opponent is faster than you, anything you can do to slow them down helps.  If successful, you gain an extra attempt, thereby maximizing your percentage of scoring, and keeping your opponent's offense on the sideline.  It is also a huge victory in terms of the field position battle.  Even if you go 3 and out from midfield, a decent punt could easily put your opponent inside their own 20 yard line. 

Remember, we did it primarily because we were underdogs, if we were going to go down, we were going down fighting.  Roll the dice, remember it's 22 people fighting for a pointed piece of leather...anything can happen!!!!!

Duece

Special Teams- Middle Onside

One of the most dangerous weapons I've had as a coach on special teams is the middle onside.  The past few years having been at a school that was the underdog 99% of the time we played, we had to find ways to gain more possessions than our opponent.  The middle onside was our ticket.  In 2008 we recovered an amazing 5 out of 8 attempts on the middle onside, going 2 for 3 in 1 game!  In 2009, we kept our streak alive going an impressive 4 out 8 that year.  This past season our numbers dropped some, but after doing it for two years, people began to catch on to our scheme a bit.  We still finished going 2 of 7 this past season.  When executed properly, the middle onside puts the kickoff return team at a disadvantage.  Most special teams coaches I know, when asked "What is the number one thing that breaks down on your kickoff return team?", the answer you will get more often than not, is "The front wall".  The main reason for this is the distance covered, having to run with your back at the defense, or at the very least having to try and run looking over your shoulder, and lastly, having to stop your momentum, setup and take on targets moving at full speed.  All of these things, even on the best coached of kickoff return teams, will stand out if you have the middle onside as a weapon.  The reason, you slow down the first wall.  They can no longer cheat back, or align off to get a jump in setting up the wall, they have to honor the middle onside!  This post is going to look at how we run the play, and a couple of other variations when teams jump what you are doing.

Middle Onside Rules

First off, we number our guys right and left, and we call the front wall of the kickoff return team by offensive linemen terms (center, guard, tackle, etc.). 

L1/R1- Both of these players are to take out the center.  A big coaching point here is they do not look for the ball at any time, they strictly aim to decleat the center.  This is very important, because the center is the only player the return team can really utilize to destroy the middle onside.  Each player should aim at the near shoulder of the center, and be ready for one heck of a collision (see video below)

L2/R2- These 2 players are to cut off the guards.  They want to key the guards inside shoulder and attempt to cut the guard off from the football.  Again, the key coaching point here is do not look for the football.
L3/R3- These do the exact same thing as L2/R2, however they have to take more sever angles to cut off their defenders.  Again, the key is the inside shoulder of the tackle, and do not look for the football.

L4/R4- These are the "scooper's" who funnel inside in case the ball gets batted around by the return team.  As soon as the L3/R3 player moves these two are heading right down the line and looking to turn up where the L1/R1's were aligned before the kick.  Their job is to get square and be ready to do one of two things.  First, be ready to recover a batted ball, or be ready to tackle a ballcarrier.  We did this because of the heavy focus by the 1's, 2's and 3's on blocking their man.  I saw one of these returned for a touchdown years ago on film, where the kicking team had no safety valves set in place for if the ball was loose and a member of the receiving team picked it up.  We felt the 4's could do two jobs at once, so that is why they utilize the technique listed above.  Yes, it can tip the hand of what you are doing, but as you can see in the video clips, things happen pretty fast, and their trying to go for a pointed ball without getting their heads knocked off!

L5/R5- These are the deep safeties.  We have them bail back to their respective hashes and be ready for a ballcarrier coming out of a pile or whatever else may happen on one of the wildest plays in football!

Kicker- The kicker has, obviously, the most important duty on the kicking team.  He has to kick the ball hard enough to go 10 yards, but soft enough so he can run with it as it slowly rolls to 10 yards.  The kicker does this by "topping" the ball.  Now, I'm no kicking coach, and I'm sure some will argue, topping the ball will make the ball want to jump, or bounce upward.  They key here, for the kicker, is not to drive the ball downward, but to drag his leg through the entire length of the kick.  Our kicker worked on this drill at least twice a week, if not more.  The main key here is to follow through, this is not a punch and drive type kick, but more a drag and follow through.  The other coaching point is keeping the kicker away from the ball once it's kicked.  This has to be done with repetitions so the kicker can get a feel for the speed and direction of the ball.  Great execution by our kicker is shown below:

Variations to Middle Onside

A variation to the middle onside was a kick we simply called "beam".  The reason, the kicker drilled the ball at the center like a laser beam.  Teams started to put very athletic and quick centers in the ball games against us, so we started kicking right at them.  Now we did not have to do this much, and it was mainly to slow the center down from rushing up in anticipation of the middle onside.  We did have some good one's in practice though! 

Some other variations were the standard onside kick where the kicker drives the ball into the ground and gets it to "pop" back up in the air.  Over the past 3 seasons we went 2 for 5 on our pop onsides kicks (however we did not utilize these last season for some reason).

When to use

The middle onside is a very gutsy play, and needs to be used when the team least expects it.  I went back and looked at all our middle onside kicks from the past 3 seasons and this is what I got.  This data is from a total of 23 middle onside kicks in 3 seasons (remember I told you we were underdogs).

1. The most popular time in a ball game we attempted the middle onside was when kicking off to start the second half.  We felt, especially if behind at the half (which we usually were) this was the time to "steal" an extra possession.  Out of 23 attempts we attempted 11 to start the 2nd half of the game.  We were 4 of 11 on these attempts.
2. The next most popular time for us to attempt the middle onside was when we were kicking off to start the game.  We did not do it as much here, but had excellent success going 5 for 7!
3. The rest of the attempt came after long drives that kept the opponents defense on the field for a long time.  We finished going 2 for 5 on these attempts.  Our thinking was here, keep their offense off the field, and their defense on, especially since they had just gotten off the field and were tired. 

Conclusion

I know what you are thinking, very risky play, and you are correct.  The middle onside does several things for you though.  Remember it slows them down, and when you are an underdog, there's a 99% chance your opponent is faster than you, anything you can do to slow them down helps.  If successful, you gain an extra attempt, thereby maximizing your percentage of scoring, and keeping your opponent's offense on the sideline.  It is also a huge victory in terms of the field position battle.  Even if you go 3 and out from midfield, a decent punt could easily put your opponent inside their own 20 yard line. 

Remember, we did it primarily because we were underdogs, if we were going to go down, we were going down fighting.  Roll the dice, remember it's 22 people fighting for a pointed piece of leather...anything can happen!!!!!

Duece

Tom Brady's Guru | ThePostGame

Tom Brady's Guru ThePostGame

Excellent article about how much more sports can be to people, and when sports can be too much for people.  I'm usually not a Yahoo article fan, but I found this one very interesting.  Good reading.

Duece

Veer "Q"

I cannot take total credit for Veer Q, but I have to admit, that once I learned the play, it was a staple in my offense.  Veer Q was a play we ran out of  our trips formation seen below.

Most high school defenses when they see trips will do 1 of 2 things.  First they will roll the secondary to the trips, and play cover 3, or man on the single side with a 1/4, 1/4, 1/2 zone (I consider these 1 adjustment).  The other thing they will do is keep both safeties deep and slide the LB's over toward the trips to stay balanced.  I know, I know, that's not all they do, but in all my years that is what 95% of them do!  Anyhow, the first adjustment had me licking my chops as we'd just run inside veer away from trips as they had nobody on the pitch!  The latter adjustment required you to come back to the trips side to get your advantage.  So here's what I learned.

When I was putting together my flexbone play book, I had noticed that Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech was utilizing a wild deep motion by the Z back (in the above diagram) and having him twirl back the direction he motioned to become the pitch back.  This motion can be seen at 1:05 in the video above.  This seemed neat, but remember, he's at one of the top academic schools in the nation, with some bright kids he's coaching.  Not all of us have that benefit.  I scratched and clawed trying to find a way to make that motion work.  All our motions were based on the type of play (veer, midline, rocket etc.) and the cadence we used.  This new motion was long, and slow, so timing it up with cadence didn't seem right.  So, a fellow flexbone coach showed me a play they called "Veer Q".  Here are the basic rules of the play.

PST: Veer, (Inside gap, playside LB, backside LB)
PSG: Base (On, over, inside, can Ace with Center)
C: Scoop
BSG: Scoop
BST: Scoop
PSWR: Stalk
BSWR: Cutoff
Z: Block 1st overhang player, if no overhang player, check with A back for a you/me call.  Me call= block near safety.  You call= block 1st threat outisde the PST.
A: Block the 1st threat outside the PST.
B: Veer Path
QB: Veer steps/rules.  Pitch phase is dead, handoff phase is live.

Here is a diagram of the play vs. the vs. a 4-3 defense that has rotated the secondary to trips.

In this look you can see the A back gave a "me" call basically meaning there were 2 threats outside the tackle, and the A is going to take the 1st one.  This play was great, but the variations were awesome.  Here were the variations for us.

1. Loop Q- Instead of veer blocking the play, the offense utilized the loop scheme.
2. Load Q- This was basically a QB sweep play with the FB blocking the handoff-key (HOK).  The OL blocked the play just like veer, and the QB would read the FB's block, if he kicked the QB turned up inside and followed the PST, if the FB hooked, the QB kept it around the end following the A and Z's blocks.
3. Twirl motion- We did this vs. the above look, because we would run away from the trips side a bunch vs. that look.  We'd catch teams trying to rotate back into cover 2 or quarters from this look, and we'd twirl motion and come back with any of the above plays.

As you can see this play offers no motion keys, so it is tough on defenses that choose to jump motion.  Where it really opens things up is in the playaction game to the trips side.  You can now run the W/Z on numerous concepts from post/wheel, to curl/fade etc. 

The major drawback of this play was obviously it's only a double option.  However, it has merits because of what it opens up in your passing game to the trips side.  The other drawback is that it is not very good vs. the 50/3-4 looks where the DE/OLB is on the line of scrimamge.  This puts your slot, blocking a much better athlete right at the point of attack.  If you have the matchup, take it, if not I would suggest against running it at that defense. 

Just thougth I would share with you a very good play out of my flexbone days that really opened up our trips playaction passing game, and gave us another option play to run into the trips side of the offense.

Duece

The down and up stunt vs. the zone read play

The zone read is not what it used to be in college football, however in the lower levels, this play is still a staple of many spread teams run game.   I have been asked by some to share a stunt we call the down and up stunt.  I got this from my years working in option offenses in the college and high school ranks.  This was a cross between the "squeeze" stunt and the "squat" stunt utilized by many teams trying to trick the option quarterback.  These stunts are shown below.

Squeeze

Squat

As a special note to our offensive guys, more on option stunts and how to handle them may be found here:3 back option football . 

The main purpose of the down-and-up stunt is to confuse the QB into thinking one thing, when you are actually doing another.  This is nothing new to defensive football, however I rarely hear of teams utilizing this technique against the zone read. 

In the beginning, our DE's would honor the block-down-step-down rules to a tee, when attacking zone read teams.  However, we found that sometimes the QB was a better runner than the RB.  The first thing we did was add a switch in responsibilities with the DE and the LB.  This was identical to the squat stunt, the DE came off the ball, and just squatted waiting for the QB to pull the football.  The LB behind him, could them come down inside and chase the RB.  This wasn't too bad, and worked at first because teams who played us were used to seeing our DE chase.  What happened was we faced some good tackles that could cut off our LB's, and we also found teams started trapping our "soft" end and still having the QB keep it.  So this was the beginning of the down and up.  We had to find a way to "trick" the QB into pulling the football, yet keep our DE there to play the QB.  We also needed to be able to get hands on the OT, to keep him from getting a free release to the LB.  In short, this is how the down and up was born.  Now lets look more into the technique of the stunt.

The technique involved in the down-and-up stunt, was exactly the same as that of the DE's reaction to a downblock.  We taught our DE's, on a downblock read, to read down the line to up the field.  Basically looking for a puller, or kickout block or ballcarrier from the inside.  When we ran our squat stunt, the DE would never see the pulling guard until it was too late.  Now, by having him still get hands on, he could see if there was a puller coming his way.  If so he was still able to engage it, and wrong shoulder the puller (a term we called splatter).  What the DE did was, get hands on, but not as aggressive as he would vs. a normal down block.  He would still read down the line to up the field, and upon seeing no puller, he would set his feet and drive vertically into the backfield.  This technique got the DE's shoulders turned, which to the QB looked like a pull read.  However, the DE at the last possible moment, would disengage the OT and come upfield for the QB. 

To clarify, this was just a stunt we used, not something we sat in all the time.  However it gave us three ways to defend, at the time, one tough running play.  It made life miserable for zone read QB's, and forced a lot of teams out of their base play.  I know zone read football isn't what it was just a few years ago, however, this is a very good stunt to have in your arsenal if you run up against a team that is very good at running the zone read play.

Duece

Simplifying and modifying TCU's blitz scheme for lower level play.

Please note this is an older post I "revamped" to include some diagrams and a better explanation of what I was doing.  Enjoy!


With all the buzz out there about TCU's defense, it's no wonder so many people over on the Huey board have been discussing this defense.  You can see that post here: http://coachhuey.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gendefense&action=display&thread=41914&page=1 Gary Patterson has done a wonderful job getting a 9000 enrollment school on the map in major college football.  One of the major reasons is his pressure scheme, which can be found here: http://blitzology.blogspot.com/2010/06/4-2-5-resource-guide.html on Blitzology's website.  Now, Runchodhit, and Blitzology discuss TCU's scheme to a "T".  What I'm going to do, is describe the way I took this scheme and modified and simplified it to "cut down" on some of the verbage used by Patterson.  Again, this is not foolproof, but sometimes as coaches we go searching to the next level for answers, only to find schemes that are out of our league, or are too difficult to call.  I'm sure there are going to be a ton of critics about this, but to each their own.  I had to find a way to utilize the same blitz scheme, and communicate with 2 way players in a way that they could absorb, not only our defensive scheme, but our offensive scheme as well during training camp.  Here is a look at what I did.

I think the most important thing when blitzing is gap designation.  Somehow, you have to find a way to get your players to the right gap, and not end up with that dreaded mistake of 2 defenders in gap and 1 gap with none!  I had listened to Gene Chizik speak a few years ago at the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in Orlando, FL when he talked about naming gaps in his 4-3 Over scheme for their blitzes.  He named the gaps to the defense's left, by cities, with the gaps being Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Detroit.  The gaps to the right, were named after baseball terminology with the A gap being single, the B gap being double, the C gap was triple, and a D gap blitz to the right was home run.  This was very interesting, as for years I'd tried to come up with hard and fast blitz rules for the Over front (those that know me from the Huey site know I'm an Over guy by nature).  However, I never had much success in doing this.  Chizik gave me the first glimpse in how it's done.  Now, this past season, we moved to using the 4-2-5, and the blitzes are much simpler from this look than the Over front in my opinion.  What I did was to copy Chizik, however I labeled each side of the offense by the same cities.  A gap was Atlanta, B gap was Boston, C gap was Chicago, and the D gap was Detroit.  The only other tag we added was "Away" which meant opposite A gap.  Patterson terms this "Okie" in his defense, but I was trying to hold true to the word association for my players, and "Okie" did not have an "A" in it.  So from there, we just started adding in the blitzes, and the possibilities became endless!

General Rules:
Inside rushers- If you encounter a back on your way to the quarterback, grab him and take him with you, do not allow the screen or draw to beat us.  This is taken verbatim from the University of Florida's Doc Holliday when describing their "Heat" blitz they used to terrorize Ohio State in the 2006 National Championship game.  This is very important because the screens and draws were meant to slow the rush down, and this simply cannot be allowed to happen when blitzing.
Outside rushers- Outside rushers in our scheme were always "peel rushers".  Basically, don't let a back cross your face.  If he tries to, cover him man to man.




Boo-Yah!!!


Front:
Patterson mixes his stunts with his blitzes, and this is a great technique, however I felt it too cumbersome for us, so what we did was give our DL hard fast rules about when we were blitzing.  For the inside guys, the tackle and the nose, if your gap was being blitzed, you went 1 gap inside of your alignment.  This was simple and easy for them to execute.  Now it does limit you on some of Patterson's blitzes, but let's be honest, how many blitzes are you going to run in 1 game right?  The defensive ends had the same rules, except if they had a blitzer coming outside and inside of them.  We gave them what we called "bull" responsibility.  When a DE was "bulling" he did just that, a bull rush.  He was told to honor all his block responsibilities, except when on a pass rush he was not to make a move.  He was to bull the tackle back into the backfield.  The poor offensive tackle had no clue as to what move the DE was fixing to do, and if the tackle tried to kick out on the outside rusher, he got nailed in the ear by the DE, thereby allowing the blitzer to come free.  Lastly, if a defensive end was to slant inside because a blitz was coming outside of him, and that gap was occupied by another defensive lineman, he made a "roundup" call.  This told the defensive lineman to slant 1 gap inside his alignment as well.  So that's it, those are the front rules, very simple right!




Roundup Call


Bullets
Bullets blitzes were blitzes by both linebackers to the called gap.  So if we wanted to run an A gap blitz with the linebackers, we called Atlanta Bullets.  This put both the linebackers in the A gaps.  Now a lot of people would look at this and say "what about the noseguard?".  When we ran our inside blitzes we aligned in 2 techniques and told the defensive linemen to fill the gaps opposite of the blitz call.  This meant we would get in our 22 front, and the call was 22 Atlanta Bullets.  This put both defensive linemen in the B gaps and both linebackers in the A gaps.  Our favorite Bullets blitz was 22 Bullets Away.  Away, told the defense, each inside linebacker was going to blitz the A gap opposite of their alignment, so in our defense, the Mike was going to go strong A gap, and the Sam was going to go weak A gap.  We told the Mike to go first, since M comes before S in the alphabet.  The defensive linemen would both go to the B gaps and the linebackers hit the line of scrimmage (LOS) on the run, but were crossing as they went!  Very tough blitz to pick up by the interior of the offensive line.




Bullets Away


Smokes
Smokes are safety blitzes, and we ran them just like TCU did, however the rule we added for outside blitzes was do not let a back cross your face.  Again, this did 2 things.  First, we would always have an answer for the offenses answer to a blitz, the dump off to the back out of the backfield.  This also allowed us to keep the free safety free and play a lot of cover 1 looks.  We also did not give "fire" calls like TCU does, our DE's simply knew, if there was a Smoke call on, they had to rush 1 gap inside their alignment, unless there was a tight end present (we ran a 7 technique as a base call).  We also never used a "Silver" call either, but I like the idea of what Patterson is doing with that call, so I never totally ruled it out.




Smoke


Dogs
Ahhh, my favorite, the dog blitz!  A dog blitz is simply a smoke blitz with half a bullets blitz to the same side.  Now, Boston Dog Strong, seemed a little too wordy to me, so what we did was label our dog blitzes as Slash, and Mash.  Slash was the Sam and safety, and Mash was Mike and safety.  So the call would be 13 Chicago Slash.  This put the front in a 13 call, and sent the Sam into the C gap, with a Smoke coming outside.  Very good blitz vs. option teams, or against half slide protection.  Basically TCU's dog blitzes is their version of the old NCAA blitz out of the Over/Under front.




Chicago Slash


Mob
We did not run Mob very much, except for down inside the red zone.  Mob is double Smokes and Bullets.  Again, we would call the front the gap and the blitz.  So we would call 22 Boston Mob and it would put our inside linemen in 2 techniques slanting to the A gap, both inside linebackers would hit the B gaps, and we'd have Smokes coming from the outside.  Now this blitz has to be run with a coverage TCU calls "0 Cop".  We did do this, and for all the man-to-man zone blitzers out there, this is so much easier than teaching a DE how to zone drop.  Just tell him to man up on the TE if he runs a route.  This worked very well, and our DE's loved it! 




Mob Away


In a nut shell, that's what we did to modify TCU's blitz scheme to fit us and our situation.  Nothing revolution, just something to share.  Once I get this whole blogging thing down, I will try to add some videos and diagrams.  Feel free to chew me a new one if this post isn't up to standards!

Duece

Mission Statement

Like every good company, a blog should have a mission statement.  The mission of this blog is to discuss the various aspects of the game of football.  This could be anything from how TCU executes their Dog Blitz scheme to how a player or coach has had a profound impact on one another's lives.  This blog is truly dedicated to the best sport in the world...football.  I hope you'll enjoy, and by all means, please offer suggestions! 

Duece