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BILL WJl..LSH OFFENSE

1. ST]l._NFORD UNIVERSITY

2. SAN Fru\NCISCO 4gers

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THE ZONE OR BEAT THE I IVIDU,Cl.L j',IHCH-UP.

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THIS N PERSmjNEL ~'lITH A irrv OF FOP\lvl1~TIONS TO GIVE YOU STRENGTH

VIHEF\E YOU ~iEED IT.

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\lJITH BOTr-I TIGHT ENDS SIDE-BY-SIDE AND lliE FLPNKER ON THE VlEAK S IDE, YOU HL\VE YOUR BEST BLOCKERS EXECUTING THE DOUBLE T8\\1.

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fla.·I, You r'~i\Y THE

DEF'EJJSE r U':E TO R2COGm OR "HIDDEN SPOTS" AND SEND 1H2;\i FOR A PURPOSE, IT SHOUtj)

j II THE , BUT DO NOT WNff TO GIVE THe.

l.t PEOPLE UP IN TRWITICNAL SPOTS

I T IS If/IPORTANT Tr-1AT t;;OnOtl BE USED

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A) CRE6. TE A PERSONNEL 1'11 SfA .. '\TCH

B) FORCE DEF'ErlSE INTO l\ IN COVERAGE

C) PlIT YOUR OFFENSIVE PERSONNEL IN THE BEST POSITroN TO DO rrlEIR JOB

D) CONFUSE DEFENSIVE F:SSPONSIBIllTIES

E) DISGUISE THE PUW BY BREAKING A FORJ"~TION TENDENCY

~DTIOi'1 SHOULD NOT BE USED SH/1PLY AS A COSi"1ETIC -- IF IT DOES NOT EFFECT rrlE DEFENSE OR BENEFIT TrlE OFFEr~SE, DON IT }'!ASTE TIME AT TI-1E LOS; GET UP TO THE LOS AND GET THE SNAP OFF AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

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THE: f/,QTlml CR5i\TES A 1'I:ISi/ATCH OF BLOCKERS O~j DEFENDER.

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\,IITH r:OTIOi'L SUBSTITUTH;S PERsorrlEL TO CF~EATE !>. BIGGER 3-f'l;\iCH IS NE;.:T.

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By CHAJ%lNG THE HB f!.ND FLA.NKER O:~ LINEUP J AND SErIDInG TrlE FLlI.NKER IN JON FRO"1 OUT OF THE BACKrI ELD I YOU CAt~ EJID UP \'IITH A CORNER COVERli\G THE HB AND A ill OR fS COVERING J\ VIIDE RECEIVER.

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V{HEN "Y" SHIFTS, THE OFFENSE IS NOI'l RUNNING TO TrlE UNDEI1SHIFT AND AT THE 'riEAK SIDE LB.

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YOUR tJL!;,'ZERS) AT BRE/\K,

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T THE DEFENDER C.lJ\i'JOT TELL YOU l'tH,i\T HE SEES"

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You t,1UST BE RE.6DY TO THRa .. 1 AT TrlE SN"E TIrvlE THE RECEIVER r/~4KES HIS BRE.4K--NOT BEFORE n«: NOT KTER.· IF TJ-1E DB SEES EITHER TI1E QB OR \-IR RUDY, FOR T.'-1E'T1-{\C\'/ BEFORE BOTI-f ARE RE.!JDYJ ',;THE DB CLOSES.

KNo,'1 YOUR PERSONNEL j'l~~D \'!.--10 HAS THE BEST Ci-l.4NCE TO BEAT THE I R DEFENDER. YOUR THRO::S, Sh,)ULD Bt: TO THE TOP QUARTER P,t,RT OF THE RECE rVER 1 S BODY

IT FORCES lj-iE DcFEt'f..1ER TO GO THROUSY THE RECEIVER NID INCREASES 111E DISTi'l.NCE OF REACH FOR THE DB,

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P,lWWS GIVE YOJR QB THREE POSSIBLE RECEIVERS - 1, 2,

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BLITZ, PR I r"""i\RY

SECO"4DARY OR VALVE

2) f'l4KE SURE THE (B's DROS AND T}-JE DEPTH OF Tr-iE RECEIVERS' PAnER~S TIiI,E OUT THE S,D]'IE.

3) THE QB /,JID RECE IVERS ShOULD AfSLJt<E VAN (S Iir3LE) COVERLI.GE ON EVEHY PASS PLAY, EVERY PAl H:RN S:-!O'JL..D RUN AS IF THE l'iR EXPeCTS SINGLE COVER:;,GE Z0:jES THEN CAUSE TrlE RECEIVER TO 1/ :'DJUS-r' HIS PATTER~ SIT DCkiN IN A Tr!r:\O,1 Ii'lG LANE,

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HIGH PERCENT,AGE ,~'ill PLAYS /.:?E USUl~U_Y BETTER. Do NOT AS~~ YCJJR

QB Afill REC'EI\fERS TO DO THe Tn lr,:~s Tj~;cY DO j~'~OT DO \',I=LL. !<:I'~Cld THE LliviITS

CPh'YSI CALLY AND i"iEJ'n/\u_y) OF YOU;:;: PLAYERS.

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" ttl'; [-)(3'3: vcay I') be positive

ugh, i nusras m. Enthusias tic :..,.,,'" are fUll to be around-they las in your eye and a unce in your walk. It's con-

Jcous--every morning you wake , you have a choice, are you go

be excited or be a wet blanket-e'l' .is iastic Of lear people down. ,thusi'1.sm is a skill that can be u'Jht just like any other skill, but to .? enthusiastic, you must know what rcctlon you want to go and then we a thorough understanding

.iV! you plan to attack this area. To e enthusiastic you have to feel good :\d in order to feel good you have to :t good.

Here's something interesting to -3member- iogic is not going to hange any emotion, but action will. se cause we preach success so nuch, don't be afraid to aim at the op. The real secret of success is to

tnd a need and t;:~ it \\dth pos

c'i~' '0, Ar.ything the mind can con-

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Failure

I don't think any of us in this room are failures. We may have lost a few games, but those are just temporary setbacks. Failure is when you stop and quit trying. It's when your cornmitlment to accomplish your goal is not .firm. It's when your self·image no longer projects that image of a positive and enthusiastic leader.

I am a firm believer that when a person experiences a temporary setback or something negative happens, it's for a reason. We don't always agree with the reason, but the important thing here is to learn from your mistakes. There is always light at the end of the tunnel-of course, be positive that the I ight doesn't belong to a locomotive. Seriously, l'rn of the firm belief that if .it's important enough you'll find a way to succeed.

.. , 'l'S greatest moment of happ:is 10 be tested b0yond Wh2t he thought might be his breaking point .__ and succcec."

We are involved in tr,e. greatest ssion in the v.orld. There is no

profession more crlallenging. demar.dinq. and exciting as coaching. Pe c o l e are influenced by our thouqhts, decisions and actions-d's up to us to make sure we provide each athlete with the greatest learning system known to man-it's cal!ed tria: and error. and if used properly, everyone Will become a better person. i would like to leave youwitn this

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thGu~~;ht: "Upon th·.:; \)1 :n::) of rt:.;--;iU> ; n. b!eactlcd the :JO ~j of ~ount f'::3S fTl1'!ions who. on the: r c shold otviclory sat to wait, and vhuting they died.'

if chance you are 8VGf in tho

!lui city of Rene, p!22se Slop

you for your Z1tten irs

b8'9Fl a real pleasure. LJ

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i ve been in football coaching twenty years now and at this point! think I can be coherent in lecturing to you on technical football. In my approach I have attempted to be a technician in the game of football rather than a public relations man. And I suggest to the younger men in the audience that the safest way to go is to have the technical knowiedge and knowhow.

For those who believe they are going to reach their highest ambitio tnrough a fantastic recruiting job in selling youngsters, just remind yourself that when your hair gets just a little gray, recruiting isn't quite as effective and at some point if you continue wanting to be a coach, you are going to have to kr.GW t;-,e technical part of the game. This is. ! guess, about where i am now. I thin>; I nave run out the string as a recruiter, and from this point on I arn going 10 have to be a technician.

Throuphout most of my caree ! have been involveo with n-'~ fo;wc,d pass. ,o..l Stanford Uni e r s ity suppose \\/8 emphasized He:: torv.ard

Bill WJ!sh

Head Coach, Stanford University

pass) and it goes b:1c~~~ 1 thin:--:< .to a point when 1 V.J2S an asslstant coach with the Clncinnati BengC:ols. We hid Virgil Carter as our quarterback .. Virgil was a great Brioharn Young quarterback, six feet in height without the deep·throwing arm. He was a good runner. We were contending with the Pittsburgh Steeiers, Cleveland Browns, and other teams. Our best chance to win football g2rnes \'./')s to somehow contra! the ball, 'vVe W8re

an expansion team ;3nd it Vias somehow important U make first, downs.

So \ve deve: v-~,'r'l~<.t_ ~!OIJ r(:ight

can a balt-corurcl p2ssing ::]2;;18. Virgil \/'/33 not c;fcctive :TiUj':;\ ;'.."1c],ond 20 yards beyorid the 1:;-")8 of sct irnmage. ~"le werer.'t tr·~;2.t stro:;~j c.;, o~f;:::lIs;ve line to run the ball con-

c2liec a ca \ j·COG t rol p~_:,~:. :v~ i;-;;; 0 :;r:i::. Our hope was th;-it if \l:2 cou!.:i ,:Ct;~·.~,~ twe n t ;,~fj\'e fi r s: ·CiO:ir= !-; S i ~ a C i \!~~r gaIT:8 and hao ~:;ol)d :::,D~c.iEd -::,?Zl~~ ~' ; a y ~ .? \_! i 0 U [d t<: i n ,~~ L<~;; I~: d'!; ,~, ,~-;;- _

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.c',i 'that time my philosophy has

.ore toward controlling the ball I" ,e forward pass. I can give you orne basic fundamentals that Wff! ould follow.

Number 1: With the pass you have ) have versatility. You can't depend n the same mechanical pattern time tter time like you see a lot in college )otball and practice it over and ove!"1 a 15-minute drill a day and think 'iat when it's third and three, willi gD ') this particular kind of pass? We ave to have versatility. First, ersatility in the action of the quarter.ack, We certainly throw the dropack pass and we will emphasize, to orne degree, a three-step drop patem but more often a five-step drop .attern of timed patterns down the ieid. From there we go to a seven.tep drop. Now I'm talking about the 1uarte"back. When our quarterback akes a seven-step drop, now he's ~I!owllig the rec e ivers time to nanr liver down the field. So we wi~a h. .1 three-st':'p dr<:>p prittern ~;;7l

Jil we are throwing a quickout a>:f hitch or slant and, by and large, on those kind of passes the defense ts allowing you to complete them by their alignment, by their coverage. So if their coverage allows you IDO have a clean receiver on either side, without a roltup, we car. throw a quickout or a hitch dependinq on the type of receiver we have.

If you can control their linebackees with certain play-action, we can threw the slant pattern behind people. Bart those three-step drop patterns are strictly patterns that break a defense that the defense is allowing you to complete a ball on. Any time W'8 throw a three-step pattern we have fto have a completion. We don't want to waste time with an incomplete threestep pattern because by and large on a qulckout you are going to make se':,el1 yards, on the hitch seven so Gir.,,,, and on the slant eight to twetve

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w:; IT; have thrown four or five "TA

3 'fear other than the slant ne.ar tr-:e: g02.\ line. But we do throw tS~,e

live-step tern. The five-step drop pattern for the quarterback calls for a disciplined pattern by the receiver. He ru ns that pattern the same 'Ilay every time. He doesn't maneuver to beat the defensive back. He doesn't concern himself with coverage other than a couple fundamental things. He runs a dined pattern that's same every time. The quarterback takes a disciplined drop of five steps and either throws with or without what we cal! a hitch step, and the ball is completed because of the coverage itself.

Then we go to a seven-step drop.

Now a five-step drop controls the bail. That is what Virgil Carter could do so well. Ken Anderson could do it so well, and Oils and Benjamin with Stanford. The seven-step pattern is where you try to score a touchdown. When our quarterback takes a sevenstep drop, our receivers are now asked to maneuver, to read linebackers or defensive backs, to maneuver into openings, maneuver on given individual patterns.

I recommend that if you have a drop-back scheme in your football that you isolate it in those mechanics. So often in college tootball the quarterback is either standing there waiting for the receiver or the receiver has broken before the quarterback can throw the ball. These are the biggest flaws you wiH see in the forward pass. Any time the receiver breaks before the ball can be thrown, the defensive back now is adjusting to the receiver. Any time the quarterback holds the ball waiting for the receiver to break, the defensive back sees it and he breaks on the receiver. So the time pattern is vital.

Now you can't just drop back pass.

You have to be able to do other things in order to keep the defense from zeroing in on your approach. So the play pass is vital to us. By and large the play pass will score the touchdown. The drop back pass will control the ball.

For play-actton passing we have certain blocking tundarne ntals that we use. We will show different backfield actions \f/ith basical!y the same offensive line b.ockinq. VVe will

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go to the play pass as often as '!-Ie can, especially as we get to th,C:: opponent's 25·yard line.

Of course, the third category which most people use is what we cai! the action pass, where your quarterback moves outside. There are a couple of reasons for moving outside, and I think you have to decide. One certainIy is to avoid the insi pass rush. S6 for a drop-back passing team we will sprint, or waggle as we call it, outside to avoid blitzers who approach straight up the field on us. The other advantage is to bring yourself closer to the potential receiver.

We will get outside to throw the ball and get ourselves cioser to the man we want to throw to. When you can get outside, the trajectory of the bal! can be flatter because normally there isn't a man between you and the receiver. So we will come outside with Virgil Carter, we will play pass with Virgil Carter, and we wiil basically run a five-step drop ball-control type passing. With a Ken Anderson you will go more to seven steps, with an Isaac Curtis or Charlie Joiner type of receiver. Those are the categories.

The versatility also includes changing your formations. We continuously change receiver width and spacing, We seldom will line up our receiver t\'JO or three given plays in a row about the same spacing. If we want to throw the ball to the outside, we will reduce the split of the receiver. We need running room to the outside, We don'twant the ball in the air very long. So, we will reduce the split of our receivers. if we want to throw inside, we .,,vill extend the spl it of our receivers, so that there is more maneuvering room to the inside and spread the defense. Our backs, as many teams know, will cheat to g8t where they have to be. 'vVe know tria: if we throw to backs, the first \tiing on their mind is how to release out of the backfield. We are ouite ':JillillD tc move !lie man to get the n:+:;ase ane sometimes teleg,aphlihat we are do ino Wa am cuue wiliin(] \0 CO ti,::

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wil h the idea that I'/:herl '//2 \[v~:nt ~ break ? civen tcr.ccn ~'! ','1(' s im otv lin'

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We will vary the split of the recelvc's nccordin~1 to the pattern, according :0 Hle covel age, and, of r our sc. to add versa! i I ity. The bigges t

.blnrn you will have in the forward ss IS when you have to throw the 0.311 J number of times and you find vours el] with a very limited inventory and you begin to throw the same

tern over and over. You get in trouble.

In our game with Georgid sever;:;,: weeks ago, the first time we fan a given pattern, big qain t,) the tutlback Of course they have great defensive coaching, they adjusted to it. The next tVIO times we tried it, Vie aimost got the baii picked off. So 'Ne were gambling a little bit then and had to have versatility,

Pass on First Down

The second catego:y in throwir;g the forward pass: Don't isolate it to a given down and distance. If you are going to throw the ball, you must be willing to throw on first down and not just a token pass hoping for the best but a pass that is designed to get you a certain amount of yardage.

In our ball-control passing, the Hve- 2P drop pattern we will throw a lot .,_,f that on first down, because we know throuqh the drilling of our quarterback we could get four or five dropping the bali off to a back, who is an outlet. or to a tigllt end. So we are quite wining to throw a ball-control pass on first dOV/i1. Corne back with 2 running play on 'second down, and then go to our seven-step drop maneuvering pattern on third down.

You see these things fit together for us. Next thin~J is that with ballcontrol passing it's like the rum".ing game, and ! might say this, H you were to add up the number of pass interceptions we threw this last season, our quarterback threw two interceptionsin his fast 240 passes, so his percentages were good. You !GOK at that and com ~"'are the i n:ercep tions with tile fumbles of a team that f'.Y1S ninety percent of the time and ofien you 'Nill see the team fTiDling and ;Jiving L1f; the ball more lr:on t:'e \p.:.:m

'1t is pas sine.

Of t en the i n ~ S: rcep t ion i s do'.~~~'~~: [ ~i e field ar.d the tc:::~\:e is rr<!·je an._j you

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POS'I- quick end would catch the b/a'-I--;;:'~

gain a certain amount of field v v _ r a

uon '1.0h th.Jt interception. But most fumbles are ncar the line of scrimmage, so there is a dramatic loss there.

I think the arQument that you will throw the interception has to be qualified '::ith now much you know about tlF:~ Iorward passing game ver· sus the running g2me. In our last g2~e our opponent fumbled five times and we thi '3W no interceptions. That might have been the difference in the g:?me.

Goirl] back to the pass receiving.

You have to deveiop consistent pass receiving and a big part of it is continuous orn., 2S we all know. but drilling the P:1SS pattern that each man is supposed to run. We don't stand there and play catch, thinking we are working on pass receiving. We run the specific pattern for a specific pass over and over and over. So the quarterback has a way of throwing what vIe c2:1 an ~"i Pattern. He has a way of throwinq a square out. He throws it over and over, much as a pitcher practices a change-up or whatever.

We throv. the same pattern, over and over and over. We have never used a net. The point is that when we tel: the quarterback a Z-in pattern, he is thinking about 2 type of throw. Our receiver is thinking about how he catches that c attern. When we talk to our fuiijack about an Ivi pattern, he's tlin!<:ing of a route and the ball being dropped over somebody's head a foot in front of his numbers,

INs practice OH:r and over and over just as a rGilning team wi!1 practice ths cution : against different variations So tr,:::.t part of it is vital. Receivirg dr~ !lS-'l!8 haven't used that rnar.y. We cit) know that one of the key aspscts of ~.'2SS receiving is as the m::(; ~a.::-=:~::~::. L!-:9 ball) somebody gets i:-:. Lis Wei. S:J tns t!:i:ig ! personally t':~';.jn t o :=:~\/s!c;:;· li/2S that! woulo t ~~ :. ? o r j e ·v ~ t ~.~ c' s:: a; r d u m m i e s , f t

2; L t)'J 1 ~. ~ j f -2 d 2 n (J ; i 9 (l t. ! VIO U 1 d s. t.i;: ,j : ;-i f;'":,'-~ ~ () f t} ~ ~-~ iTt::n as he caug h t Dr- 1:,';:',:0; _ ~ p::::.~t.;:·n 2,;td bust him j~~'- t 2. J h -:; (_ ~1 ".! g h t t i: c~ f) all J over and e'er il;-,j ::: 3. Our fu:lb3Ck on the

would be standing right in Iror-: him. Occasionally I wouldn't hit r at all. But we conditioned our pic] 2 as much and as often as we could ( receiving contact on the instant the catch or on the instant atterwar This is the key to it. I think that m, be the most important thing,

Don't Tamper Too Much

The other thing we allow for is e a: individual has a way of receivinc pass, You can take a receiver a: keep saying "catch it in your harte catch it in your hands" and the In, wii! graduate or leave school be to he ever catches one in his hands, ar you burn off 10,000 calories talk] about it. It might be more lrnport a to say, "Watch him catch it." Ma: sure he secures the ball the way i catches it, then slowly but sure work toward maybe a more efticre way.

Otis Taylor, one of the great pa receivers of all time, caught the b with his body every time he caught And Fred Bilitenkoff always cau; the bailout in front of his hands, t everybody wants to catch the bal: 1i Bilitenkoff. We will let the man cat it with his body. We'll let him crac the ball. We will let him catch it a way that he will begin to become cc sistent and efficient with it. slowly but surely over a period time on a given pattern we'll say, ·'1 to open your hands a little more r.: that you can catch it." So we try r to jump on people. Don't worry much about the fundamentals of :~ particular pass pattern, Those are I important things, The coach with t dummy-don't ask players to r: the dummy for when they do, v: efficiency drops way off.

In the football I have coached, coaches are involved. They hole blocking bag. Vvhen I wa3 with Oakland Raiders, I held the blocbag for Huart Dixon, arid he bust s ; every day. It kept his enthusiasrr and I got a feel of how his pads that blocki ng c urnrny, The CO~';2.c: the receiver just after the cater vital. Throwing the same pattern. :: and over and over until it reg!:."

at a \i\'idc; player rne ans and how ; ball is tIHO.'in. i tOle>.\! our fLllback 3 S~>~~son CJug t well over 50 3:::::'- 2nd did not play tn': entire

From the start spring oracr;,11 the wide flare, the wide re until a point when in the bowl me we just completed, when we d to keep the ball, we t the de on second and eight. \/./e 'n't run tiie balLlf it is incomplete, 0:; clock stops, but that's our toot!1. '\I'Ve throw it, the fuil~ack gets it d makes eightcc:l yards, We win e game, So you have to practice sse things over and ever and over.

1k About Pattr>(ns

as far as the ouarterbacx is conmed, we just don't t::l!K to a quarterck about how strof'Q his arm is. JVv! far he C3.n threw the football. vte lk in terms 0: 9i\18n patterns. When :; throw a 20·yard out 'fie don't fOW to a receiver, vre throw to a .ot. Put the ball up and Jet the ceiver come to it. Any time you are rovving the 0;;11 ft:rU,er than 15 .rds down the fieid, if your quarter-

-:s to look at tria: receiver, put iilg that's persPective ar.c put

Cd bail exactly to the receiver, he's Jin~; to be aifnln1J !hs- LIed I most 'ten there wiii be an error. Most of ose kind of patterns we throw to a 'ot if the pattern is clean. In other ords if the receiver is going to oe 'en. Not, of course, until then. So e 20'yard out is thrc'/;,n to a spot Ie man should catch the ball 17 rds deep, be n ... ?ar the sideline runng back to ihe ball.

A square out, wnich is 12 yards, INe ke five steps and t[Jo/! it on time. ,d as VI8 step to th;'::::: th'3 ball, if s ta~\8n [lv/elY, \'/9 !j it. Irs a difrent pattern, you see. So every patrn for us is 2- difrjrer,: thrO'!'i for the

plan for

opening of thL: g;l1")e. \/ve

I.) ha::e seen so many tec"fT13 march ltv::: bail beautifully but r:; t around the 15·yard line the/ are a.r c v/arming up their placekicker, O:':CCiuse riqhl at that point deL:n-:)8s C q2, the fie!cJ you can operate in char.o e s, ano sud denly their basic offense goes aii to hel! on them.

\f'Je!l, my contention is If we are on their ,ve're going for the end zone, then we wiil k!ck a r:eid goal. I don't want to try to l;;::c the [,0.:1 (rom tne.r 25 to the goal line in an everuy matched qarne, try to smash it through people. Secaus'} three out of four times, you won't make it. Uniess you 2.r8 superior. Of course if you are vastly superior it maKES very little d!f· ferer:ce how you do it. But if it is rle2\d to head, Soulrle:n Calor an Oklahoma game Stanford, when we're really scratchinq and battling then vve are going for t~e end zone from the 25·yard line.

Why? First, e';ery defensive coach in the country is going to his blitzes right about there. He's starting to get a little tight m~CK arid he's going to start bii\zin;J you. So ',';8 know the pass coveraqs, because try and large they are going to man-Io-rnar, coverage. We know that if they don't blitz one down, they're going to blitz the next down. Automat i cally. Vi/hen you get down in there, every 01 her P!3Y. They'll seldom blitz twice in 2. row, but they'li blitz 8'/ery other down. if '.'\ie go a series \vnere there haven't been blitzes on the Iirst t\vo downs, here comes the safety blitz on third down. So \"ie are looking at that point tryi:lg to get in tne er.o zone.

By the style of our fOQtLJ(j\; v.e'l: have sorncbocv to gt3t tt-·;e bali to a li~, tl C bit late-- j u ~,! as '2n cutlet to gs ~

four or five yards. try to keep it. Bu~ fro rn the 25 tot h e 1 0, 'fj e \ reg 0 i n 9 f c ~ th::;, end zone. ! believe it is eifect!ve

ffercnt throws. i~11y pcn: is he gets a attern de\'eiop,~d v/here he thinks of type vf l hrow when ;,e throws the ittern.

i'!ow !r;t's tal k ab,Jul r:: 5/ selection. -'f the Iactors involv,::od with our ,~ ;; fe\A/ ,/c:::l:-':; 2.;';::; '//i tho Cin-

continucc that \;viU~ the C:h~tr~~ers and at Stcmlcfd. My point is tiled at S[3", tore we to a point where in a given game, 'sa'l, for instance, against Southerr- California. we ran the first 12 plays \ve liad decided or, in order. o course we ran out of lists because the first 2 worked and none worked

the poi n tis \lJ ewe n t 1 2 plays in right down the ine. We went ei~.j~-d straiqi d qarnes scoring the first rime we had the bali.

ConsP;.Juently I say to you, I suqgest th2.t as part of your game plan you anaiyz e your opponent and decide on the first eight. ten, or twelve pj.2YS for that game. Of course you have your variations fer down and distance, so that you have an effect on your opponent. By the time we have completed eight to ten plays, we've Iorced him to adjust to a number of things. We've kept him off balance with the type of thing we were doino and we pretty much establishec in given series what we would come to next.

! suggest that is a good approach to offensive football. It forces you to get into that game with a certain calmness, You !\[I0W where you are going lr:)m here, rather than say "vvhat in the hell do we do now?" occasionauy they don't work. but we just keep going. ,4gainst California this year, the first three didn't work, From that point on they began to work. But we didn't Change, we didn't worry about it. We were trying to create an effect on our opponent. The effect was he had to adjust. He saw diftere~;t it-lings. He had the b3.ll run right at .him. He had the ba ; tnrov/n over his /" 101 of t:lin~s hcp,~8n· ed. ~,/12·~~IiV/h j I e 'vvhe n v/e k.r-:8 \\/ v: hat trre pjc~_'/' is go i ng to be, V-l8 see Vi hat their ti~:8nts are. V'v'e tr~,.' to ;;2t a

\fie taYs it from there,

Going for End Zone

Otherwi~;e tt181 e are l orrr.s of the forv:/arc pass that are impor.ant. i·JuITlbe·, GilP, we nave a diffs~2ni (orm

our t l ank er, .Jamo s caught'!,.. touchdown p2.SS) 10 of tne:n right ~r: that a rea.

V\,le will go V~<Ui ;=,::tte:rns there dS3:jn2d to beat b~;~2es 2~:d g) mante-rnan COVSi dge. ";-h3t part uf ~U,' f c o t ,J J.! i is i ill P ,J!::';, ~ t.

t "

,\1

<In ()pti<)n p!~1Y. './)e are look .- ball cor u o: ell fij3t 3;1d ten.

i:; y~:;"i-jS lrieu. (Jften on second and i,:':'n if you run a basic running piJ!, yO~J can gei your five, Third and five, ','h?; lire rigilt back with a bail-control p~jSS. c~urnfJ!ng to a back, and '/}Sl(S rtlc1;'\lng it. \/'-/8 said t\,NO years ago that if '//~~ C:-1n nI3;~e 30 first-downs a Qarne \'/r:; ii in. V\/e were ri t at that. Na-

tiona!ly ! think we ';'Jere the 1")0, 1 I22ni on first'dov/ils bs'cause of that

and !:w]e it would be

.;;J-b3Ck pass on fir'st C1C\Nn~ run on _:ccjnd down, balrcontrot pass on

r'_ \

',' II

much of

ur f f\,·j.:.;rd P{·3~~S is oC' C'~'.": :-~I ~~ n t s g oati i rl9

t:::j to your

c,,:f S8; ou -~\'.::; ~)t2nd)rd P3SSSS t (2, ~ t~ rc \// ~1 ~J 2 i ; ~ :~ t ,?c lin e . (J f t (; n

~hif!g l t l ct c ;).rctes~~+\of1(~1

; l-8.:3fj'_'_-:ciaJJy in

II '1,

'I

j

~~::"vays i~ tde;o. ;.~. ,.;~'3 t;'J;,; ~~~t_;~r';:)

~Jr'fJ three? If yoi, outgun the o:>(S( ['c:lnl, you don't ;-::;'/8 many of th(J~J,

'.J[ when it s tou ; 'lIitdt do 'joe

We nave a cer: a:r~ lls t 0 f runs, a c";" L3in list of P3S,ccc3, INhen v/o h;::"JC)

for the extra t~lird

th2 yO,J1 line, Too oft?n they don't ((:;3:\8 it.

fi~;ure"';:]t if we get inside that 5'Y2.fd line, h2,!f the time 'vV8 are gOing to throvJ th,2 btdL Cur pe;cent2g~JS are as good or bettsr tI-:'on most tearns of equal ability Ii you're marchinq

through sorne you can just

close your 8':3S 2nd hand the bali off. \Nhen it's ve:-y conpctit.ve, that goal· lir.e pass is \'ital. SO \VG have a series of thOS2. \f>Je v!oLdd never call them

an ere e se on the field.

The otne r caregcry i~ S)'-)(!ft

...... _ . .J

),,:;VU"

We cal: this 22-2 In. Thls is a ii,

third down. Get near the goal line age. \;~\/112n('Je tan~ about short yard-

3ge pass:

f erent 'irllngs, O;;e, W2: want to try to takes five big steps and a hitch S~

you're going for the end zone,

Strategy When 88GtiBd Up

The other category, of course, is 't.'[-,;:;t do you do when you're bacx,sd u ;c.,t SOniC point 10 win a oal: game, you're going to l-;a'/8 to throw the bdll InSide your own iO,yard line, I've been in bait games where that has won it. ;\r,d. I suppose. occas ionally lost it.

'~Ajhat passes do you throw v/hen you re backad You may have to ,>: it. You have \0 decide for yourselt .:fiJt styie of passino are you goinQ to use there and your players ha\8 10

Vi'n the 92;;2 right there and new, So any time \'/8 are around their 35'yard linc;, if we don't see somebody stanoing deep down the middle, vse are gcing to '::;,) for rh::: six points, figuring that at .n t '1,,'8'11 ei~;;8r·kjck a fie!;j goa! or pent the bail. We want to

into the end zone \//ith somebody cn23J;'Q cur c;uy, We don't want to have to shove them bad; into their ONn end z:::.r:e to 'l!:n the ball carrie.

in sr.ort )/ard3.ge 'vve'!l have a category in each ~~t(H:;:-tv,'Q cut of

:-:;:0'// it. \.\/2'11 P!~t ourselves in co si- three GameS \\'8 won't use it at

ncns all over the field, thro\\'ing ;(rorn cur own 1Ayard line \,\/ hen v/e hdve to! throv,llng trorn their 20 \vhen Vie nave tG. and most of your passes v/ill hold

constant

There is situation passing and it'S not always the same basic pat~ern t;--12t youll! uss up and dov/n tile iie-ld tn~t you bei.eve your s sate with. Ot>:::1 youl!! complete U-)2t t:c>Jkrng

uern for a couc!e of first CCY/lns

clli-'-tu~ .\'e:'re going to try to Q8t it. it's not s93rchinij ttlfOUgh tne list 10 finej out \?'irI2t \/'18 ar e going to do nov.. it's rigr.: there. It's called. VVe are go~ ing for I right new. if 'lve get third and one, \/1'::'(8 going for it.

Th,-' c't :ler category is to make it on tnird 3:;G or.e with the Iorward pass. Tna: C:1T',cS /~ir;-, ths d:S'2ip!!ne i")f c'; ..

te:l t,~.rc\\;i;:g to a back cut of the ;)2':K c;!cJ. These are all cornoina-

ru show you :-1 balt-control pass th3f Sid Giilman in;]y have dcveloped some time ago, lfs still H':8 most sf, f ec rive forwdrd p.?,ss that we used at ,Stantord~ They c;;_~Jl it HGo out fer a iong one,"

Diagram 1

and throws Oil time. Not five sic steps. The receiver splits 12 to yards, We give them a given rule fc given gaiTle. !-ie releases inside five to six yards and then bu hard to the outs ide foot of ths cor

back. VVhat he wants to do is to that cornerback 0(1 his heels. plants his cuts ide foot and star:

He'll only go in about three S' j,lIaybe four at the most, bSC8UZ got to control !insbackers. So r;

go in, p

t ha: and start in.

fv18anvvhi!e the quarterbac; taken fitle steps anrj what vye cro s sove: hitch stl::P\ u_;~d throt.' bail on time to !i-I at man 2- should catch it! 2 yards particular thing is done ove over, and over.

The fUilback runs what we Scat panGITI. He doesnt h;2 oickuo 2.nd he releases to t side, He'3 sr,oo~jng up going' the original position of the

rO'NS the ball on (ime to that rccei\/8L ! lmo'!! I can't Iced him beC:3use any time: you le;ld a receiver is running parallel to trie ball -j never catch up to the ball.

d I throw the ball to a receiver goi ng para! lei to it, bot h of them jus! keep running ri~1h Into the tunnel, You th;'O\N ths five-step drop right at the man's flip, Vie dont lead hi m on Out. V':c don't isud him on the SquareOut. If you throw into his body, the defensive back doesn't I,ClV2 any way to get to it, What we are trying to gtit here is the def ensive back giving ground this Vl3)! and ihen losing iater8! Qround this W3Y, That's on sinqle coverage. \;\'e practice it over and over and ever. We don't throv, it ()\ier anybody's hsad to get it there.

On tJ1Ls particular pattern b8~t--l receivers do the same thingJ but I say most allen the flanker gets it. The tight end takes an inside releaser goes straight up tr-e field,

funs a fu!1 speed crossir.q pattern but never crosse" the ball, The tight c·ncJ' on hi,s t asic cross.nc pattern is n°· ~ one you co to on man-under

rise. if a t:::e:n is running man"def, that kind of an out is suicide.

if ()t!r quarterback sees inside-out coverage on the v.fide receivers. r8a~.o:ic~bly close, his drop nov/ gC)8S righl to the tight end, he's Iookiriq lor ths- Ugi-it end to beat a man-under l!nGb3.ci~sr.

backs 2J:~ really the key to it. \'Ve check our backers 0:1 2. blitz aitl<.Ctugh on certain times WG can dcubls read 2. guard and g-=:~ him out. t~ie runs what V./2 cal: C3.:'*1 1,<,:uP&tt2rn,

The llback \'/;1) run L': p3ttern.

t'.'1 rn, thE: b0.ci{ sits fer an

inst~:':nt re2din~! fer the bli.z. Then he

'::_; gi·ounc\. ~1eshoujd :;,et a

and .J. r.alt OJ tv.o d~,.>2::<_:;;' t-r--1Sil ln !:;~-). o~jDinL~l tion, I \/v·CUiCj sa/ hi; is Six df3epJ turns U;) the [ield, and

loose if

u'r e in 3 pure lone

defense. \/\/8 tirrl8 a SqUl:~f'e Out.

take it a\Nc1~/, \\8 r·lold t118 ba!', slice

torward in oe

n mec+anics and pop

the ball over peGpll~ to tr.at beck.

'(au neve, make a back reach for the [)311. No matter now good he is hes no: 90in9 to go in there fo:Ui3! b3,11 \\,,' put it in nt 01 the numbers. V\'? don't want him to catch it any turth=r than tV/G yards down the Iie!d. t\s ::)ocn 3.S he Catches th2 balt.

he looks fer the liriebackers and splits them full speed_ This is where the fine pass rece ng tullback is very important. \"'13 don't ever stop ar~d dodge anybody in our DaH. '11\ 8 run b-:;t\\een peopl::' at full speed. The only tine Vie stop and dodge somebody if there's net·ody \~iithin 10 yards of us. Therl we'i, do ii. /\':;, soon as I catch trie tall, I'm \ooi,ing for the tv.o of them converGing and I split them. I war.: to run t'st\'/een people. vvnen I fall, I want my body to go down the field past tr.eir bodies. If they tackle me my body gf;tS cio ssr to

a ij~tie bit 0; difference in thro\:/ing to

your backs because those extra six te et gi';e you second and fOUf. Now you can O~i2r3.1e.

On tile

pattern the weak

. ,

\",,'!

lincb2c\<::'2i-SO:T18 of V·')U c3!1 him a oe:enS!V2 end~t2kss 8. \N 2.y the

c

o

.--. (, ,.

I q !

m 8

1

o

/\ r6li-UiJ zone \'.18 hi! In,:, ( r)': ' Square-Out. Proctice, pr~\;~t::c; ::- 2': tice. /\ zone ,vtF;;~e the bacl.e ry::._

on an ir!. \\'8 lire up on tl-:s

i ; , cr .

under deferjse~ \ve see it an':; o{:::,;~~ ~ the tight end imrnediately. Sc ~"i S i3 bail-conlroi P2c5S,

Tile rrexr thing we do is to "; t:: c;:

the halfback ;sol2tcd aCe -~::: t:-i zone. Our bac« is the :::;;':2:

receiver. VI/e're !ng to Gt)(_":_ ere.: our gu::;nJ on a tacker so thz' ;.rj G,:;'

... ,"", ... ,._! I"' .-. r"' ,..... r.!' -i- .- ; ,.--;" .;. n , !'

l',J J\.....lv(,.;.v'_; .._·.._.,l'-"'_.,....". l"''-'

b~-e2k io tr.e outside. If ?~·)·::-:jr'. crosses his face along ~hi:3 /'/2/. I sets down between peopJe.

and makes or.e perscn 2: ·3 ~ ;-tackle him. V,ie don't try to ~i:: _ ,-, ~. i__

the fie!dtoo far on this r ~ .... -

It's lone, take fi'l8 qu;c}c 3::-":3. it He sets COViF\ tnio,-V j~ r: ~._ ~ middle of nirn.

1 fit v. ere rl a;l ~ ur: d e r ~-. --i

Ic,,::~~cc;or;hjl:l,t e ti '\.-'.'-<

~ h·, ..

I"_ ,_'~ ~,-

:.:;"

cf c

a /one dc,ft:;nsc and eve 8\S(0

."rt" r:jGttirl the ball. The tight 8!1CJ

. \11 [nan wrio g08S

fist the rnan-

under people.

There ale four of five other thinns

tern Vie; teil cur receiver erns you must JO 2\ least 12 yards and ne r rno: 8 than 13 yards or the hook. Not because you can't oct open, but t'2cause n,e

like that that Vie 00 for ball-control quarterback cant wait \ a long to

jC:;]L(~(j on P2S.s

pas sinn

I will go from that to the seven-step

throw. A lot of it IS

rush. !._jever less lhafi 12, because vie

O}\. They're nut going to blitz \/ un! 8 S .s it's so () kin d 0 f a s z: ,-' salety blitz. if it's \l,e safe got trouble. So we're sitlir;~l h2:2: they are going to brii'1Q peop!e. i-)

com (;, V}e go j n to rnoti C :~i-of the rTddol'(: he CO:112S_;..\'VC\-~~'

nirn. Our spli: end is sittinc'

pat terr.. I'll SrlO\V yO\'_J ,ju~)t one can't have a hool: c}'2\.'elcD r::t 12 vih2n lOG~<jnp at I:. /'.,,3 SOC.il '::,S ll~; z.:

p th3t i~-:; sort of \'''JOITl out. our quartert'ocK tr3;<9S se'\'e:il stcP~""J" if safety rncvc, fsrV\fari_: r L;d_er:.;,,~

This is a scvenste drop and vve've alr e ady said that our receivers maneuver 0'. a seven-step drop pdttern VJe're [Joii:g to run a Biue Left

for US, !\ Pight~ \(J'hic. is motion, 3»0 V-ielr8 goin!~ 10 run a 791 which is v.ic::ak jio\'.' p;:ss protection. We're £loing to sci' >;~r-"iDok. Now )~ is ng to run a pat tern or; tl"1S v.cak side, and ti-l-8 simplest ihinG they could de: would be to drop pe op!e off. We'll pc}t a man in motion, like that tullbac« in rno tion, turn up this a!ley and set dowr: right there.

This ccu c! be 2. double-wino formation whers f":8 dr aqs and sets down. '{au vary ti:2 \vidlh of the rece.iver. He

trie receiver hooks, the quartc~bacf\ can't throw him the bali yet. If the receiver is standing there v/aitingJ sooner or later 2. dotensive man will notice hint over ih2:e .:J;-LJ go OVe! ard stand next to him.

\fJe don't come t)2C': to the: baii unless it is h.; "'ay to us. n',s,! VIP ~:,tar1 co:-n:ng Lack. Of"L2;l y\/herl you ieil the receiver to con:s [:;:::'Cf< to he ball it C',:~~;;f"3S to film so hard it corr.es off tl i s c;: sst. V';f e v·/ i!l go f r'J rn Ii i i'T) S t ationary to him as the outlet. That is dar-non tel '-~ ~J h t G han d 2. c""::,C aj n st 3 b·~~~~;ic zone cfe~c':ilse.

VVhat happens on a bl.tz? The whole

goes to the

The fulic.ack picks up, at C"0' and vIe sho'_!ld nave C\':" ::':' up unless tr!(::), fail to cover tj~;,:::. ;--:-:

So on a 79 X Hock our rc>

rl00t<.ing) h8'~; b2c:ti!lQ C. s}.'~de f en s i ve man, but i f e\h~ r~/~;'); ;'_ crowded lJ<)\~;l! in t)'i::;:r'L; 1;:':~ L hirnselt e_ll ;:\\:,,):\8 st::.~r;=irig CL::. ~: " The motior.s starts, here CC,.,i,'~ ~,3fS' .~ .--'/'Jt::·'~ie got hirn b::-~J.t.

I ]'_:.;>1. ··.'21:~ to rerr.ino 1:112 yc men in tl-;e c:u,ji8nc8 t;;2t if yc::_;~

t f.; r'-::7 sUng i r1 mar·~; n g c: :-J:' '.~ f-::

Iy Vi 3j to 'J c: i;-) 01"3 s.~· -:; ~c[ ,;G';O need out ot this bUStr~:2::;S is -~c ,:;;

every rninute Ci it Yc:_! C;~;~~-l't c : ~ you keep v.'0(cjlng accut \\;l~:'.·~ :.next job's Q0.ing to b~? I \/.i:::-,::, ,L~" y/' old bsfore I \Iras D. hS2~j cr~~~~cr,. i t_:

regret a minute of it. l-r;ere's ~;~ frustration, but it ser:::;:3 (~{)fT'; -, <-,:' \ will be paying off. Eut rr.y f-"~' -\

have patience and the >_;

V;/!~ (1 I nth i r: CJ ! S \!~/ h;.: T S t . p ~ :'':: ;-.-ssnse of foott;a!1. it's net hr...

idea is to look for the b .rz. 0-:18 of ~he you can talk. or rlOVJ rr.r.r.y pcc:- . .: v/ays to take on a blltz:l;~ team is to have recruitec, irs ; our ~'\ use backfield rJioti()!'L \.tJhen you put kr.o led~·c.; and your 2,b;;i':~'

tacker Vv2 2re t !ig to bS2t.But hf; works up t e flsldj he [Jc~s t~l':': man \\!hc ras SZ"10r-t covsrag2 G;:d turns in. V'o:2 tell h.rn to get p~:.st the V\' 2nc~ beat tre l'i~. /~3 he gets past th8 V\f, hes a'~'/2;e of \vf'j'3re he is. I Sl1~)· pose if he rT~o-/eG laterally, \//81d 90 Dii 1he ' v ")2Y L'/ hirn. but V!8 want to get b0t'/)e~n tt1cse tv.o p op.e.

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~l-e e r e ri tithe middle of t h i s recruiting t~ing (lila ~~i tat, It has

lost a sense 0 reol j If you have an outs'~n0i~g 3thlcte and he is

be heavily ,r;~cruH;:;d some college or un i ver s i • I think it: is the

duty, net so much to counsel the athlete, but to talk to his parents.

I am going to talk to you about the fan/ard pass and I would Hke to think we have some: answers to this phase of the game. By <lnd lar9~, coaches are concerned with the forward pass because they don't know that much aboutrit. There is sort

Of an era of mystery the thing- The biggest single tor In the forward

pco5S, ! bc l l eve , is rel<:t:ed to l"-:ivlnS a method of coaching it, having a method of p r.ac t i c l nq it and c t some point. Leing ab l e to utilize it in <) game,

Our whole approach is a very methodical one. One in which every particular

ski II or detail is involvcd. It starts from point A 211 tha way to point Z.

The most important thing Glbout the forward pass is knowing whtlt is going to happt;n when you call the p l cy , Probably the k'3Y to the young quar t e rbeck or any quarterback, i s the ccoch ha,ling an idea wh.:Jtwi! J hop pen on a given p l ay whe.,

that qua r t er bo ck pe r fo rms . I f~yf)u have an idea who t he wi I J do then you wi II

know when to use the pl~y.

I h0VC been with greot quarterbacks over the years that ap~~rently had great futures, bllt tnere wo~nlt any COn~i5[ency or dependabi lity in the way they performed. Consequently you co~ldn't be sure what would happen when you called Q given rlay.

The quarterback pOSition is one that can Le detailed just as closely as that of a doub l e [sam block that you teach yo<.jf I i nernan . The number or steps he takes, hew he practices those steps, who he throws the bJ!l to, how he throws It, all of those things can be catag()riz~d to a point where you can be pretty darn sure what is going to happen. Over the years, we designed passing plays to suit the quar t.er bock that vie had at that time. The same type passing game is flat going to be as e f f ec't i ve for o1)e-quarter~ck as it is the next.

If you have a rd passing 'game, you had be[t~r make sure that part of the

gzme l nc l ude s a drop back pass becaus e so much of what we do is related to 9a~ situations. There is a time in a game when you arc behind and it is your obli-

g~tioi1 as a coach to try and come back and w i n . The dr co back pass is vital.

1& You, as a coach, must have that play in. It might be a 90 pattern or a hooking

patterl1, but sor"ething right at tnt! end of a game where the f orwe r d pass is vital to you ~nd you are ready to throw it. The ~mount of time you give a drop back pOluS in p r ac t i ce miglft only be ten minutes a v .cck , bu t your players knO'-!II that they have gone through that s t ep end at s orne point. til",,'/ knot" they are able to do ; t;.

The next cat2gory of forward piJ5S that i 5 ~0 vi tal <:Jnd ,I": o t Sta:1Tord ut l i z ed

i,t mo r e tnan any other phase or t he ~as~ i f19 game 1 was the so ca J I c d r J ay pass in

vihlch '-lOU fclke a f':)'/Ofltc ,W1 u;.d tnen r r-r o.. the ball cc'"n the_: f i cl c . If I we r e

ci)ac:~i\"g a high SCh::l0l team Dg<1,n. ! \<;ouJJ ,.:,,,;-tJi:-ily hiJv'; 0 drop buGk pass in

f cr ~3te in the 92~e and 1 vfou!d have a play pass that 1 .. /G~.J1~ a ss i s t U~ in r;avi:;g

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a running Sam~.

"fhe next: (..Jt'-'9f)''1 of pass that ""e n.:lye t e l ke d duout is ·:!il action p as s . This is wh~r~ VOL move tnc b~l 1 outside tne pass rush be re you thro~ it. At Stanford

Ide WJU;C us e ," action pass a~ \-"C would g8t to\->I<:lrj GiJ'" op "s 90<.11 ! i ne where

t he s run p o s s i b i l i t l e s are more and mcr e i mp o r t e nt ,

So we hove three cotagories cf the cd pass, the dr~p back pass, which et

$';dil d , is a v i t a l ?':H't of our offense. If )'OU are prirrari I;' a r1..1nni,19 t e ern,

it "~olild be just <l minor part of your offense. ~';e io..)ve the pl<:!y puss wh i ch is directly related to running the f00tball. On the play pass, we fake specific

beckfi c l d ac t i on that appe.Jrs to be exactly that of a rW'liling play. The third

catagory 1;:8 use, of ccur sc , is the action pass where \I.e a r e moving outside.

ing outside and throwing the ball is vital if your q~artcrback is active and can r un , 1 would S<.iy that at Stanford this past yea!"', if ,.Ie t hr ew c hundred

p a s s e s , fifty wou l d be play passes, ty wo;..lld drop back pusses and ten

would be action passes. This is related to your personnel.

Virgil Curter with the Cincinnati i3engals, used.an action pass v ir t ue l Iy every

time becDuse was 5hort~r. We had to get himo~[side Eh~ pass rush so that he

'would have a view of , .. hat \'vas ha;>pening down f i e l d , Wit,. Ken Anderson. we were prlmJr; ly a drop back passing team because h2 was such Q ~ound forward passer, such a disciplined foo t bc l l pi~yer. Th i s last year with Guy Benjamin, we were

more a play pass te~m beca~s~ he hnd quick hands, cu~ld fake the bal I well

and he could get it to a mov:"g receiver. By nnd large. if you are thro~ing

the ba l l , the play pass is F,';;! t i rne to cross your receivers. You don t t wan t to cross r c cc l ve r s and dro;J back. That is one of the basic axioms of the game. If you want to hit a moving rccciv~r, you fake inside or uutside with a run play to try to attract linebackers so th~t receivers can begin crossing before the llnebacke r s arc awar e of vihat ;s happening. The drop back pass is one in which y~ want the ll nebacker-s to retreat or b l i tz and then you read hi s drop and thr~ the ball be tween people. The action pass is one the t ' s related to getting outside wi th a c l eo r v i ew of the receiver so that he can t nr ow the ball e l rec t ly

to hi rn rath'2:f tban throw it over imybody e 1 s es head. Often we go cuts i de to throw an cut pattern and 0p batk to throw hooking patterns and we pl~y pass

to throw crossing patterns ..

~~Thr.,r:e St~ - The quarterback takes three s t eo s , throws the ball on time to receivers that are taking five steps. Receivers break at five and end up at seven yards. Anytime ~e thr0w an Qutbrenk, three step drop, we tell our receivers to reduce the split to 3 yards, five steps, cross over. We don't plant and break.

r'\;1ytime you. plant and br ee k as a·rec~i'.jer, you are s t opp i nq. If you p l snt , it

gives the defensive man a chance to cover you.

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e~~s in those d~ys the ether and the

qUr-Jrt;~'rbnck \.'1:"1~:-1 :l'!.-C;: ;t p r i or tc the snap and he ',vou1d thr'--':~>qf n\:~ ('wick 0U~

r:,,:;ttC:i"n :1'.13'! rem t:,:: r ot et i on . This l,<iOri a ,lOr;.: c \cnC,'-i0 for tr,~ E"'lles

Yf~t~": i1~{Jrn~ VIJn 8rocklin l?lno pr'ob;;1bly thre~\{ two hurdred of thr:s~ ra-r'~:j('S in a ::Ji'len year. !-i,~ '::ouL:I throw S0 quickly and s ha ro l v that til,:: r,~c;ivcr wou l d :Jet the! ball before 1:~1(~ (;(')"-'1C, ¥-Io'.lid get t he rn and would run v!i~!: t he bail "3r.d get

8 or 9 yards on the qu~ck out. In this day ~nd age. or t~e pass cov~rage

you sec both corne s rol I up so the t~ree step drcp patte n is not quftn what it

,;;cd to be.

When you t hr ow the b,~11 to the ou t s i de , you have to be car e fu l . Any time

ball is goin!J parallel to the r c ce i ve r v ou NEVER l e a d the re ce i ver . You have to

be careful with the oi1:Jle of the ba l l in relation to the r ec e iv e r . Io<hen you thr()I_<.J

an outbreak pattern you never lead the receiver, you throw it right at his hip. The bal! catches up to th8 receiver. You must also be careful of the bal I being

in the air too long, If It is iii the a l r too long, it gives the cornerback a

chance to get to st. if you are the quarterback on the outbreak, don't take big steps, take t hr ee qUI steps, i-2-3 tnrC'lPt, One con t i nuous ion. Do not t e ke a hitch step.

Lnbrea~,~1lL.JatJ:.£.!:.!l - On the three dr oe on M1'~ i nbr eak , we take b l 9 steps because \'Je have rno r e time and we 'tlcHlt to look at that receiver.

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On the lnbreak. ~e split 12 yards, receiv~i 5 steps, plants and catches the

bJ! i at 9 r ds . When we break in, we PLANT. We. i ncr-ease the sp 1 it to throw

inside and decJ:.£?..i<l the s.p l i t to throw outside. V,; other words, on the i nbr eak,

t he r ece i ver has sed the split by the time he r ece l ve s that ball and on

the outbreak. the receiver has increased the spl it by the ti~e he catches the ball.

The qtiiOirterback, en the i nbr eak , takes three a I G 5; r eps and throws the ba 11. We are not afraid to use a hitch step to thi~N it oec0use our receiver is now inside the defensive back and the ball cannot be picked off on a slant unless ~t is very

ly

fl~1l_t$~ ~ ftve step drops e r e t i ree d pe t t er ns . Any tim'S we take f l ve steps,

there is a r ee s cn it. The receiver on g five s t sp p s t t e r n, generally will

catch the bali 10-12 yards deep. Tbes e are ball coo t r ol passes, high percentage

p as se s , if yO\! are thrOl'li"g an outbreak, ;t l s f i v e quick steps. If you ar e

thn:t~ii'lg an l nbr eak , it is five big s tec s •

Sauare Cut - Reduce the sollc to 8 yards. Recelvar goes 10 yards and crOSS~5

;ve:ri;12 'Iurds <lind r.:atc~es the ba'11. cuar t e r b ack s ld be 6 var ds deep

~!th h~5 f~ght root on t nos e f i ve qu l cl, steps.

DQ~'t lead the man, throw to hfs

kle I ike to th,o\?/ outs to Dl.J( left and ins to our right. Ir>'hen you throw the

out pattern to the r;~Jht, you hav e trouble throwing to the right with a tim'~d out pi;!:tern because you get too far back on yowr right t. When wise throw

t cut to the right, we 2h.;ays S toward the: throw en HH~ f i ftr. step and throN the btl11.

If we want to throw the b~ll to"the inside, we run l:'! square in.

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We I nc r e e s e the sp 1 it to 12 y,ards. The i Ii "br eak for the ouer te rback is f1 ve

BIG 5teps because we have time. The receiver PlfiildTS and comes in, in front of

the de f er.s i ve mo n . ~e throw a to right e the quar t crbeck can check th~ cover to see haH they handle the roll up, The square in pat te rn Is one In which we are trying to simulate a GO pattern, 12 yard spl it, slightly inside

release. lI't six yards we go right back cut s I'de at the man outside hlp. ~e plant

at ten yards a~d cvtch the ball at twelve y&rd~. We run the fullback on a Wide flare. if the corner 01"095, we throw to the fullback. If the corner stays, we throw to the sp l l t man. Tbe r e are other k l nds of patterns from the five yard drop. This is basically a ball control type of passing game .

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Se¥e1J.J?_tGe._.~ro2.'" This is your pe s s l nq game. This is ho..t you score. The three

step is taking advantage of a bad defansive adjustment. You get seven yards free. Fl ve step is bail control pas s l nq , timed passes. You are not trying to beat ~

i nd l v l dua l p l sye r s , you arc trying to beat the defensive cove r aoe • whatever

they do, you thrO'.<J to the alternate rece lver . You e r e trying t; make 'first downs, The seven step pas$ing game 15 what wins.

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It [~~e3 longe~ for (he iaC~tVer to get ooe~. ~ w th th2 cC:W~I'~ ~SS:5 gUYS coach it ~II Anytime }OU see hoI q~artarb~ck stA~ding

:.er~:~ !rh1iti;-::-: (~1(; (;oki;lq r the r c c e i ve r , 'leur ras,s;:"'",_; g;lti1C i s tn reJl tie ..

'-:"C1J con I '.i.: t<!:ve f: v o s ti:::pS arH1 sit t;lere and hle1; t wh i (e the guy runs t\''fer, yar ds

dG~n t~e 'ield. im9 he qoes Gcvond twelve yards, th~ quarterback must

What we want to do en our s~ven s~ep drop and Y. A. TittJe was great at t h~ would turr his back camp etely to the line of s~ri

s_~ said

that YQ~ C2nnot read the cQverage if you do this. Tittle didn1t care what the cov~rage was the first three steps because the receiver had only covered about tlve yards. He couldn't tell really anything at that point. He wanted to get

r:1C'<1i" of the l i nc of s::::ri;;Y;ld<JC. If 'lOU have '~ush! on you, often it Is your

C'Jvfl l Inernen ;:",<It e s t eb ! ish tilt:lt o u s h . You are in t r oub l c when you want to look

. dO\'ii'l field if your r.2:1 arc h,,"ckif10 up p,ass protecting and you can't see beyond

you.- >'::'Mn 0 s l ve 1 i nernen , let a l or.e the rusher. The to the seven step

dr op l s how fas t 'fOu can get back.

Wa don't time our que r t e rbc cks . I donlt see this £is be-ing·of any vs lue , 'We elln always get 3 9.3 sprinter to drop back faster than anybody else. Th~ point is

.~hat the man has to get back c l ean lv , under full, balanced control. We tell the c;u'lrtcrb.:Jck to get back quick, to cccto l e t e Iy t ern b l s back the first three steps.

You arc after five yards in three steps. The next four 5 • we only want

four yards, getting our hips around. The three biggest 5 in the first five

yardr.; and the: f.our slni!i lest in the next four yards, coming r control.

The next j mport.3'lt t h i n9 I sat some po i n t you have to get your eye back the

n e 1 d MId y~jlj have to J cok e t the man you want to throw the be 11 to. The f l r s t three steps, his back is turned. At that point his hip whIps around, his head is turned and he is looking down field. then ~ hitch step 8Gd throw the balJ.

we talk abou!: a hitch step when we throw the football. This hitch step is so i::1portant just before you thrm .. the bed I. You C~DSS Oller and bounce and get that body weight goi"9 fontard. You hope that when you t the ball. your bcdyweight is going fonr·b3rd. Sf) many great quarterbacks ove r the years, have ceE:n ccached, 'for some god elJ"ful reason, to stand erect before the ball. That is i ike <l guy \"mlting ror a rebound with his legs locked. What he should ere doing is be in d hitting position like ?ny other footbal I player you~ve got. with his

knees bent end his f e at moving. The cross over and t he hitch step is imporunt.

r ace l ver s , at that point, are mcH'l"2;UVering dc':l'l"l the field. On the seven step drop, we really vary the spi 1t of the receivers, ~e may, ~, 3 hooking pat

h~v~ O:'1f sp l i t end thr'.:e yards, s Ix 'f21 r ds , eight Y3rOS, tw'elve 'yards. according to len iine,ba'.:;k'~i ·iK.! are t,-yinD to beat. On a hooking pe t t er n, we tell our

r ac e i ve r to bc:at a spe~~lflc lll"leca r or get be tween people. Don't tell them

to g~t to the open area the coach will say you dIdn't get to the open

6ree ~nd th~ kid does not have anything to measure it by. will vary our

splits dr3Matically and manc~ver down field and beat people. kc sure that the

quarterback is ~Dt sittIng ~herc. waiting while the receive~s maneuver. TIlat's ~;>:c! the: !!'lt~i,:c~ptlor.5 c omo .

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j f YOU hav.:!l a mal"l \""i th great 5 like I ssae Curt i 5, you w.ant a comeback

p a t t ern . J~ll Issac would do h'ould go dowtl field t\'1enty yards at full bore,

plant his inside foot cH.d b back away from his direction. The ball should

be caugnt 17-18 yards deep. f'laul Brown use d to Si?Jy. "He a lways gets open.

not have him go fortt yards down the fiek1711 s like Joe Gr een changed

t he t with their tremendous pass rush. th a guy like Joe Green you would tell

Y'Q!U r e ce i ve r s to !:;O five yards down the f i e l d .

Anytlrr:e you thrOt<f a deep pattern. don't thrO'W it to the man. Throw it to a spot. lPle con p r ac t i ce throwing to that spot without a receiver. We can have a coach stand there. Guy Benjamin can do this as well as any passer football. seven step drop, hitch and hit a point or spot twenty rds down field.

- The other out pattern calls a little r.~re maneuvering and the

slower receiver seems to do it better. We call this a circle out.

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The r ec e , ver bre~ks in for seven steps then he chases that guy for ten yards . and sfully what happens With that corner, when the receiver starts In. the

cor ne r soes 111 just slightly. Now the receiver turns rignt at the corner. He

turns his oack to run with you and t he receiver breaks aw.1y fr om him. The quarterback th~~js to a spot just like en the corn~ba~k pattern.

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~ .. ':Ej':;<; ,~.: (:at ~'he {'(;(. 1\2r" to be len yards, bu t we are th;nki'lg fi ft

(~re if it i~ ~rd dcw~ and 22 y~rd~ to go. With the rward p~ss, it is not a (h3i 'd~':'Jp0~1 U"IC::'S t.+e IT:::;;"", runs ;,~ith the ba l i after he c at che s it. A big part of i::- s : ~i;'" p2s~;ir~:.: ~i3r:;:; i s j'"(c receiver catchlnJ the ba.1 and r!JfH;ing ~..;ith it .. We tell a rpc~iv3r that he ha~ to 9~t half th~ yardage on a 3rd a~d 20 situation. running

with th~ ~~Il. ~c s no way we can get a twenty yard pass to him with any

cons i s t erx;v II/hen t hev you are r::cdng to thrcv.;the b'31!. ur; hDoking t t e rns

it.;"'. :if);1't tcdl~hc n',:-;n to go three y a rd s further. Es pe c i a l l v in high s c 1,

m3ybe a fl.:'.-1 knm'l t hc yarG3ge to!"'r. b\,it by ~3nd ~21~qC, the high school guys

have e'1ough trouble getting out of the huddle, Jet alone: tr'/ing to go the d i s t erice for,!l f l r s t d'')\''I'n, The po l n t is that; you cannot: throw the hooking po t t e r n too

far dewn field. We tell him a minimum of ten or you wi II start having him

'c!osBr and closer t o the l l rre s c r irrrnaqe , but t.!f.i to fifteen. At some po i nt

th~y can be ei9~teeri to tk;eiity yards dO'fin field, trYing to get ar ouno s oneone .

On any hocking pattern we ,""ant the receiver coming back for the bali but be careful abou! running him teo fast back for the ball. Hopefully. you want to

cc t ch the ba!l with your hands out In front of you, but'don1t make. everybody do th0t. Zome of the best receivers in the game, Otis.Taylor being one, would catch

"the ball with his body on inside breaking stuff. They are not going to change Otis, He ,.."ill catch it and run the distance. The point is, you went h lrn to

catch it \.,.ith his hands, but don't fight the: body catch. let him catch some.

that is whe t ;5 important. tlever lead the receiver on hook l ng patterns. ~~hat you are trying to do on a hook!ng pattern is to have the defensive backs running one way and the receiver running the other way. On hooks. the receiver wants

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You generally score back passes.

wi th p l.ay passes and control the game wi t h

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This pl ay was pr-obab l y more e f fec t l ve for us tr,.;;jn al'i)! other play pass. What you need on a play pass !s the longer the linebacker or the deep backs wait to see wherl!: the ball 15, the longer the r ece lver s have to w.aneuver down the field to .

beat them. I formation is better for the pla~ pass than ether formations

b",C811se it t eke s longer backs to continue thai r path to the 1 i ae of sc r i nmaqe .

O~e of the best play passes we have, weak or strong, is this one. I will put it U? ~eak for YOti.

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s, ~ :i l . H'>:; ;;p'! .~~_Oj::~ \~!{;;~~t~ .. _ itl~ \/C"!(/ 0Ct.:8rd;;)S; t-:] the pass cove

.~;{~ '-r • __ . Ti'}c pi~1'l p,~ss p,Jit of ~t is v t a ! . 21110 arl!":, v ou can get the

nij,,,;!:·~r-j;~:-~~(·;( t·; h~d0 t[1C ua:')fI but you can'-t get the fakin9 t){~Ck5 to fa!<::: ~or~9

':','Jl'" ';'i,:tfs t h : k·;y. It is 50 vital that the: man fav;fl::! keep his shoulder

';;,;IG'i \:1' .: " {'J'. levL'J of t h e linebacker. He has to r un I ike he has the ball, just

1~-k,-:-_;; h.:; v, !d d~ if he ["'ad the baily r a he r than f010in9 over, wh~ch he never

does. n,:!~ ;;1;)" h:'!, if it is elaborate, l'"~Cl!ly shows piay fake. It has to be

very S :,i-;;; l e r ::0 wh~t you d0. t ime the quar t e to a • it has

to be del e,lj'; fake. ba 11 h.as- to be exp o s e d ; n front of 'the man t hen take it t;;",<,1' but l eave the hH1Q there so the defense can see this. It's just like after

u handcff, th(~ har.d <;nd e rra rnove s a"lay. It has to look r ea l , It is not hard for

t he quarterback to r;'l!4.e. The ltiho!c point is, do vou want t he opposition to

~hink he '3 th~ ba l l or d,:;c$ not have t he bill'? in certain plays YOll may want pee!)? {ol to think he s t l l 1 has th~ ball. I am not sure you really Ndnt this 11'1 a play fake. f'1y ",:hole tho ... .;ght would be, he never has it. The body is always be tween

tha 0pPQ~ent an~ the ball. We have one picture of faking and putting

the ball behInd hJm and Joe Green ran right him. Anderson lost about

five pounds on that play, but it was a great fake.

On the play :;'<:lSS YO'J ore trying to beat one or two groups. YOIU ar-e trying to

b e a t the l l nebackcr s or the deep backs. Our t way row deep is to play

k2 If we CJn get a defensive back looking i~to the backfield. We have our eye Ot; thr:: corne. and it is importi1nt that the corner keep his eye on the quarterback

trying to fi~d the ball. Probably the greatest single pass we h~d with the

igers <l few years 2g0 was just a simple go patt<:!rn where the backs would

and the receiver wou l d s t e r t a square out .and then go up f l e l d and Fouts ''1oul~ lay the bail right over the corner's head. what !tIe would try to do is to

9"';: to knc ..... the corners. if W8 found one that would his eye off the receiver

Just a second, we knew we could beat him.

."""" i

if a wer e coachln9 nisi! s chco l , ! would look' for that defensive back who would H<Ht back pedd l !ng and then stop to come up on play action, then I wcu:d threw

the pattern over his head. ~

Without going into detai I about the line bi n9 for the play pass, you will

a different kirld of re,;:::,h than·il drop beck pass. We aggressive b l ock on the play fe ke side and seal off en the back side BliT there will al't'Jays be one man th~t 1.:01 on the quarterback. He \<i1 ! I read pas s dnd here he comes. The quart e rback must knew this, there hll 11 always be one rr,ar, coml nq ,

- 1 think this is best for high schoo! where

are try ng to beat linebackers. TI~e P~5$ in the high school level or e~en

the co l l ege l eve I , l s the hooking paSS because your quarterback isn't sophisticated to t::'r()'f{.:1 cons l s t errt out 0' maybe he docs not have; the arr:1 to get it

ci:::r7'm the field \,dth <3';1 consistency. Even an ave pCls;"ei, if thos e mechan l cs

a r c r l t , can throv-I the hO(iklng pass, The play pass is the best way to threw a

,'r'$-_/"'-~--- +-«,

,,'

()2S£)(JO

-L/,

I f you put 'oge a draw 9; ay and a fake draw. Y~have " beeut i fu I pi .,/0

l s t and '0, you iW'j the dr aw. On 3rd end 10. you fake the draw .end throw

the pt'ss. On the dr aw , you have a longer t i rnc to hold the be l l , If we are trying

to bea: the middle I inebacker, we would spl it six. If we are tryi~9 to beat

the i'lCOK :S<lf(;~y, we w'C)!.:1d split "';"ider.

! .~

You hold backers on the run action and cro:;s your receivers. The quarterback

is 1 ook l rig for the weak safety. A good fake of a bas i c run and cross j ng patterns. On 2nd down end'1 0, you fake the I format i on play and thrOVi the hook. Oil l s t

and 10, you fake the I f orrna t i on play and t hr ow a crossing pattern. If you

can+t pass protect. you ccn t t t hr ow cr os s l no patterns. The only ,,:ay t o throw crossing patterns with average pass protectTo~ is with an action pass.

it. have found chances are lin going to use a l j vee used 'in spring

Ye run this as a drew play. The quarterback reveFses o~t and fakes to the fullhack. The fake dr~w acticn holds or iSQ!,tes M and the nose man. The play tf1kes a long t:i1~ to ke. This is our best thing to the weakside that we have. l s t and 10, run your 109 dr,l~·I. You will make five yards, especially if the

r goes the fullback who Is breaking in front. Also this holds the

'''''cak backer gives the tackle a chance to block h lm, 3rd and 10 you fClke it.

the 5pl 1t cra wiJl hook. When the qU<'lrterback reverses out, he l'Ooks for the

fullback \;! thf! flat ir?Y1'cdlatf:dy. if he is free, he t,hrows the bail right I1c;;.1.

if ycu \·:,:mt to score w l t h it, you CCrlTIC in mo t i on with 'your flanker ~nd break across the field.

e

You can throw v our cross 1 ng pat t er ns when you ~,iallt to score on somebody. Throw

your hook l patterns when 'IOU need the first down and you run the run play on

1 Hand ! O~

J

" DEVELUPING THE YOUNG on

------~.---- "- - _.- -._ ----'-._.

5/6/77 Bill \,'alsh

Stanford has a reputation for the forward pass. A big part of that is

related to the type of personnel we have.

I might talk to you a little bit about quarterbacking--I've coached quarter-

backs individually for the last 12-lL, years. i,f'ithout doubt, if you are going to

coach a football team you a Lmo s t have to t~:_-,=~~!:.h~§""_:E..?_~_ .. ~fl.Q1.Yi.d.lJ;aJl.-Y. Unless

~---~-.--~~-_...____..---------- '---'-"./

he really has a good idea of what you're doing prior to the rest of

beginning practice, you're going to have your problems. So I believe that

-- ~-----.------- .... -- ..... #---"...~--.,._---~ ........ ~"-

awful lot of a coach's work in the off-season is related to his

You don't

__ --------------,,--------_.

necessarily have to talk to him continuously about strategy, ~~~t

If you attempt t o coach your QB along with your other positions once fall practice

starts, you're always going to be short-changed. I think one of the bigges~

problems in attempting to operate that way is that you short-change the rest of

your team. So much of your time is spent talking to your QB on what you want

him to do that you can't give your attention to the rest of your ball club.

So, I might

start by saying that you have to begin working with your QR

at an early age,

to have ypur ime and interest in the off-season.

Secondly,

,,_,. .~.,_.,.- ~ _.---- ...

it's vital that

",hen YOll consider your QR you don't think necessaril:; of the man who can throw

the ball the longest and the farthest.

I think more coaches have been fired

that ",ray, tl~an .<:11:7 other Wdy I c a n think of, at t empt Lng to r e l a re qua r r e r t ac x t ng

--~ . ------~ ..... ...--., ~ . __ "..,.,~".7.-.;--:!.:,.">l~ .... :;;:: .. ;;:::_:::;;;:.p~~>,.~ __ ~""" __ :,~:::..':-~_;:"'~~~--..oiIi •... ,., .... ,_

with how hard a man can t h r ow a f oo t b a Ll .

When I was ~ith the Cincinnati Rengals, we had extremely good success

with Virgil Carter as our QB,and those of you who were able to watch us occasionally

could see that Virgil seldom threw the ball mbre than 10 or 12 yards down the

2

2

J

field. We lived within his abilities. but the one thing Virgil could do is

perform. Consequently, I' have to

_~~;~~~ :_1'_2_, f~:2.~2.!.]..?~~:..~! t

is going to do in a game, you're

yourself and your QB a

have an extremely good idea of what your

going to have your problems.

I have yet to see a team have real success with

an inconsistent QR.

I've seen team3 go undeafeated without any kind of a

, passing game, but I've yet to see one have suc~~1.~b._qn_:j,J1C.Q.\ls.iSJ: .. ~ ... '.:.tLQB.

\::I::I=C2:ltt'lVL.E . --.-----.---- .... ., .. -.,.---- ... ,_.-~"-- 1.

So, in deciding who's going to play that position, first look for performance;

·W"\.':;. \ (,~ L ,:1 r::>/ t,.·1 Ti to :. ----.----.--.-,---- .......

second, within your system of footbalt I think it's important that you find what ;:;..

i:--~~ c :, I(~ ;:--A'b:'"{' t.Z"> ;__ .. ;':_:.:::_::''-.",-_ .. ::_:;__'"'--._.:-''-o=-~' .~...._~,.",",-"-,,,._~~::::.:,;;::'''''- • , v .•

he can do an! what you can count on him doing. It could conceivably be the option

~-~~,!"",;-~,--",-",~",;;,:""""",_'.~~'<jO'-'r"¢.~='::::""'-:':;:'-':;:"~

play, certainly at some point you're going to have to throw the forward pass.

In analyzing your QB's ability, where 'your team may stand as far as the com-

petition is con~erneJ, the type of competition you face, you have to decide

professionally what your guy can do and then mold your passing game and part of

your running game after that QB. The biggest single mistake is to look in your

Phys. Educ. class for the guy who can throw the longest and farthest and say,

[rom that point 'on, he I s my QB, because 0 ften you'll have someone replace you in the near future. (~ __ t:..:_~ __ ~~E:2_2:~.~~_:_ta~E ... ~_~_~~ke __t:.~~c:.. p~.~f OEf)!£r~)'

' ..

Now at Cincinnati, we had Greg Cook for one year; he was probably the best

single Q& athlete I've ever seen.

I don't know what would have happened. if

Greg had been able to play; but the point is, the seyle of football we played with

Greg, those things we ernp hn s Lz cd we r e totally different t h a n those we emp.ia s Lz.ed

with Virgil Carter a Y€Jr later.

Now, the next point is, w i t h i n your system of forward passin

it's

important, at least in you: play book and from a sketchy standpoint, to have

----_ •• ~..:..__:_ .. _...:__-:.:.---;-;;::.;....;...---- ...... ~--!- •• -_. _, ... _" ......... _!:C_9't'-!'"7.:":" .. ~~~...._ .... 4- .... ..-...._::_--::....: _ .,_=:-_::::::-.:~~~.:: .: ~--~-.---:- ... ..,,-- -.---,-.,. .... ~ .. _' .,..-'--

As fa~ as we're concerned you have to have a drop back

~..,...., ·,_,__···,-·--'''' .. '"'''-_".·....,-· .. '''--...:;:::-;,~~,:J;~7

three forms of

pass at some point.

Now , it rua y be t h a t you save t ha t particular play for the

, ,
,
,
, ,
. "'j-: .... ~
,
/
I
,
\
'" 3

1.»[ pL1Y of the game when you're b e n i nd ,

J

I don't know.

But at some point you

should have an ability and your players should have some understanding of how

to drop straight back from the line of scrimmage and t h r ov a pass, because,

sooner or later. it will catch up with you if you don't.

Obviously. you're not going to give it any more time than it warrants. If

/

you're bread and butter is in running the fobtball, you'll seldom spend a lot

of time dropping back and passing, but you should have a system of drop back

passing, probably very simple: three people are going dOwTi the field and

hooking, three people are going straight down the field as fast as they can run,

but you should have that part of the football installed in your offense simply

from the standpoint of being able to meet the crisis when it occurs.

Se.:;Q.ud, we feel that the ~e.r;;;::

to throw

Most likely you design tllat to appear as closely as you can to your basic running game

Third is what we call an action pass where your QB gets distinctly outside of

the pass rush.

Those are three areas that I think are vital to you as a QB coach. Now,

which one you emphasize depends on your QB. With Virgil Carter a big part of

it was play passing because he was extremely good in ball handling and also had

nerves of'steel in standing against a late pass rush. With Ken Anderson, a lot

of our work has been on the outside with our QB ending up on the outside of eve:ry-

body because Ken Anderson is extremely active. With Greg Cook we play pa;s~d a

lot but we got Greg extremely deep and we allowed him the ability to moveluterally

to avoid a rush and then hit crossing receivers. The point is that w i t h all 3 facets

of passing installed in your offense,

_,._._-___.-_. -~-.-.- -_._ ... "...._--- _",._- ...... _ . .,. ',-- .. ",-,- .. ,~-----' ..... _" -----.--

o toward your QB's ability.

'--,-,--'"'----,,.

Naturally you can't expect to be extremely proficient in all three, but the

point is that in a given year you're going to change

's; you're in real error

4

"

if you Lllink you're going to change your style or system of football hecause

of your QB.

It should be built into your system even if it's a very, very primitive

end of drop back passing or whatever so that in a given year, you can emphasize

that particular

of it. Another thing that is vital to you is that you have

to un d e r s t andj i n "~r ~o":''.1: 1_l!i1}d, f_rpm il professional standpoint, those fundame~ s

:: __ ._.,_...~_:""__""';_~--_"' __ '''''''_.:-- .... """"", .• ", ....... _ ... "",~.i."""",,,,,,,,,.,,._,,", """., ..... ,__,_,.."....~--,___,._._~.;::_._,_.:...:.:_:..- ,,,,"-- _.:::.::::-.-:::.-::: ... ~:":::~:::!~:i~~~<),,.~:-: "" __ "'_-

that you want t9 teach

feel are vital to him.

Now, you can spend a lot of time with his feet. We don't worry nearly as

l~0~1 much about feet as we do about the level of the football, the way we hand off,

L:7 1\ -

C 'certain things that we look at as far as the ball handling aspect of it is concerned.

want to teach him. It is important that these fundamentals are taught, or at

--~'-.- .. ---,----~-.----

least gone over mentally at length prior to football ever starting. As I started

-----..____,.. . --

indicating to you, you can't coach the QB

at the same time you coach everyone

else because he'll take 3/4 of the head coach's time trying to see if he's doing

things correctly. And then, if you even go further and try to teach QB funda-

mentals at the same time the rest of your team is practicing, you're going

to have all kinds of problems. Every other time he does something, you'll say

his feet weren't right, he didn't hold the ball right; meanwhile, your left tackle

has missed three big blocks and you haven't been able to do anything about it.

So, let's·just talk about what you do in the off-season.

)S TE.k~fijl0G "

fil, I think it's darned important that the QR know your offense. Not necessarily

~'---~--- .... --~ . _<",>, __ ". __ !...;.__.:,;_,_::: .. ,,"_ .. :__.~~~-:..'t'<:.i.'~~" ,.::~-;,"t~-T5"-:O-~' j ""'_

blocks who, but r:_~_S~I_t;3:j_n,~ should know th la ture }\~~_:.aL_._;~.~::~.S,

to utilize the s count/1 he should certain] ]([10\.,> \lhat his joh will be and

who

G>

how

the me c h a n i c s of his job. Don't necessarily worry about strategy 'cause you'll

----"'-- ~-."'-''''''.. ... _- .. _ -~.-- .... ----------~,,_,_---~.- ... - .... ~-

spend the en,tir:._day worry~ng about it and t a l.k i n

'"'~ .-- ..... --,;. .. -~~,---." .. --,~ --- -'" ,,,,.-'"

with him and you're going to

call the play anyhow. The biggest single thing is that when you COS1e out to

.. --,,,,,. _. .-,._ '"

practice the first day he un de r s-t an ds wh e n you say Red Right 22 e xac t I y wha't he's

5

supposed to do. He knows what snap count you want it an, he's able to take the

c- \ " -k

;;"~-- ~ ball from the center and he's able to e xe c u t e • 509 itfs darned i t

understand

his

, the basic essentials he's

to have to h

Again I say. don't

---- __

worry so much about strategy, 'cause by and large coaches call their own plays

and it'll just ge t you in trouble I c aus e _sometime during that game he'll say,

"Coach, last spring you said every time it's 3rd and 5 we're going to do this,"

meanwhile you've called a

ter or something. Don't get yourself involved

in that as much as in what he's supposed to do.

The method of doing this C<1l1 easily be indoors. One of the vital things

the center snap. How many times have you been on the field and you can't _;~~-:=::::::.:::::::::z~

exchanged and you're wasting 22 people's time every time that ball

dropped.

So, it's vital as far as I'm concerned,

that the center and the

wo r k in the Phys , Ed u c , class, work after school, whatever, work in the gym,

That will S<1ve everybody a lot of t

The next art of it

and your cadence to the point where you feel satisfied with it prior to ever

starting any kind of practice because again you:ll get yourself into trouble;

you said it was on 2, he snaps it on 1, the QB isn't calling it lOljdlY~!.lli.lili,

~, there are all kinds of problems'. So these simple facets of it

are vital when it comes to coaching the entire football team.

Next, as far as the QB is concerned, there really is one sin~le ~onsideration

(1' m not talking about option f o o t b a L'I because we c ou l d spend a lot of t ',1\8 on it).

v

~j/Y ~~!:_ t!l!_Q_g_l_l!_:~!=:__I_~~~::_ c:.~r.~~ i~~?~~ 1!,.!~ _~_:_r~~ __ !.~::_r l_tl_llig~l,_ sc.~o().~. q~~ _ _2~_!~a ~_.~J~.~.~

_: h e ~~:':~~=._:~:_=-_~.~:.~ __ ~::,~_~:,:_:.'2.~_.e E!. ( t ~=t _r:l_~,:.~_~_~_.~.::~'y ; ) w l;~!l

t.hc center, th it , .. _",_. __ .. __ with it_t~i..~':':3Y. So, one

~,.~-.----- ...,._----~-~ .. ~-~.

take the ball from

thing you can ao indoors is have that QB take that snap aild exchaD;e. The first

6

thing that should happen is the

the m:!dse

The

QB just works on taking ~he

ret over and over.

ball should be carried out waist h

and it s

direct

waist and to the HB or FB's waist. You should not ever

drag the ball around. Why?--because of the fumble factor. Anytime you drag the

ball from one knee to the other knee, lif~ it up when handing it off, you'll

Fra.rn. that point on .Y~LJ~. forms of ball handling, ~ut anyE_ime th~ __

nose of that ball d

at all or

below the waist or above the waist, you're

going to have_Qroblems_:. l-lith Ken Anderson the first year we cou l.dn ' t break the .6\~~ habit and he'd get the ball and hand it off on a running play. It would come

~~}J

to here, then it would go back down to people and it took us the next off-season

to get it. I was in error the first year we got him for not working with him

,

on that 'cause all we worked on was forward passing. It resulted :in two fumbles,

one of which cost us a football game. It's vital that in the off-season you

work on that ball coming directly back and directly out--it'5 extremely important. * The next thing is rnechani~s....ilUUour forward pass. It's vital tq develop

___ ~ __ ~_"""._., __ ~~~""""~"'·~'-''_._4 .~~

these mechanics in the off-season. Your two QB's can go out by themselves or,

if you're isolated, I suppose you'll be;)n the field yourself. But, 121~l:..ose

mechanics that are related to forward passing the QB h2S to understand. Y·:e say

------. -- - ~,.,..,.,....,_ .... ''''' ...

it is caught by the receiver.

~~"""'.n~",_...~~

So, very s

ly, anytime the ball is t h r own , it stays on this side of the head;

it is released above the shoulder. Don't ialk to the QB about his throwing motion.

7

~7

You can spend two years trying to change rlis hrowing motion and it won't make

CA';' (;) 'fI _ (?\~Ii"f

,:?, rt ~IO:;;( t2_n:~~: ~S,,~~~~y~_::~O~in~_::r_~~gh. Sec.ondly,we

shoulder. Every time he throws the ball you don't say.

t

the

"It wasn't above the

[,{;'b shoulder, it wasn't above the shoulder. 11 At some point you work on that particular

,-

end of it. So you get two people in the gym or out on the field and concnetrate

on the ball staying on the right side of the head and staying ",':love the shoulder.

Anytime the ball is thrown, we talk about the QB t

this is when it is t h rown from behind the center area. Hhen we say hitch st

live got some

~--..........._... .. ----

film of Anderson we'll show second session;

if you stop that camerai his right

'---~~-~,-""""" ........ -----..."., .. ,"---=--,,~ ... -.--. ---_ ..... -"'" ._'"

out behind him ust before he comes forward, and what that hitch

--.------ .. ~-- ... ~.-~-,---

foot is

step means is he's going to throw off his front foot: So, if I were dropping

__ ---~ ..... -.-~'-b-"~-_~=__ .... _"" ,--,_...._._~-...,..--... ...... -L ... ~..,~~ .......... 4&

back, I'd cross over that foot. go way back. and lid hitch step over that foot

and throw it. Those are things that you can work on. You just get him in the

wrestling room or whatever, he takes the ball, crosses over, hitch steps, and

then just tbrows you a light pass. Over and over. What you're forcing him to

- .. ----""---... ....... - ..... ~-.- ...... "'~

do is get that right foot well behind him, he I s hitch stepP..in&.fQ~t',.9xr;!, throwing

___ ._~',..,....,._ ............... _ ....... __._~<.'"-- ~.~_"~_~~_ .. __ .. ., .. ~- ..... -'_. -.~ .. --. - .-,'-~-.-~ .... -_. .. ..,.- ........ --' -_,_,.. , - --,..." .. """" ... ~.:r

on his front ·foot. \.Je're still talking about things you C'1TI do in tbe gym. No

- .... ~-~..--~--.,..;..--~~.---'--.-.

big thing, but these are things you hope to avoid when fall practice ,n r i.ve s .

If you have to start talking about those things', you're going to be cheating s orncon e

above the shoulder, hitch step, deep on that r

t foot, hitch

step f o rwa r d and throw off the front foot.

8

The next

talk about is a g

\')11en we practice any kind of

forward pass. we talk about a play, we talk about 22Z in, how you throw the ball;

an X hook and how you throw the ball, a square out, and the fundamentals for that.

We don't necessarily use a receiver. If you go on the field now ~nd take a

receiver-and

, half the time you are going to be chasing the ball into the

weeds, or half the time you're going to be -t e Ll Ln g the receiver he's not running

the pattern right.

You want to be as personal as YOU can with your QB.

-----

Hopefully.

you've got more than one, but even if it's only ~he coach and the QB you'll spend

time on the field with that end of it" rather than have a lot of people. When we

drafted Ken Anderson he and I were on that field virtually every-day that spring.

Just the two of us. An awful lot can be done with that person and your talking.

pass, if you're talking about the hook pass for instance,

---.-'.-.~-- ~ .. ,---~-_""",--""",,,,,,,,,,,,,",------.-,,..---~-----.--.-.-.,,,- ... ~--,,,.,._.-._.~~

you're talking about throwing the ball to a stationary receiver. Anytime you throw

- ..... ~-->.~----..--.....-~-----. "-~..;;... .. -.--~----.~- .....

a hooking pass and that hooking man is moving, you're going to have your problems.

The QB won't know whether to bleed him with the ball, throw it to a st~t{onary

target, or figure he's stopping. So I will stand downfield and that QB will

throw the hook pass to me 15 or 20 times on each side.

particular throw just like a pitcher ractices his curve ball. If it's to a

stationary target, that throw has to feel a certain way. He has to have certain

balance, has to release the ball as we've talked. and when the ball is thrown,

_,c_''-' .--~~ ....... -,....---."".--_ .. -~.-...,-

31' •

,-ll{Z_C~,J ' '':>it--always stays above the 08 f s shoulders and is always caught above the receiver's

II-=),.'V (;: ~ --~----.--- ------- - - --'.-,-----.------.-- .---. -"----- - .. --,--------. ---.------------- .. -----~.:- .. - .. ,- .. ---- .--,.---" .. ------- .. ,,---. ----- ••

-,IJU,H ... I)I:,L shoulders as an I c a n be a coach standing downf Le Ld -d he can

_' ••. _~. __ .... _'_. ... _ •... _.,_.~ ._'" __ :!o.

n.- .. H . .,j'L

(~&" take the specific number of steps, take that hitch step, and throw that ho »: pass

",,......L- " ?)

' ... ~~?~ ,

)WJv' over and over. Then, at some point when the rec~ivers are involved, the QB knows

how that pass should feel when he

rows it. He'll know that if he's not on

balance, he'll know that if the receiver is moving, you can have all kinds of

problems. You get those k~nds of things done long before you involve any kind

of receivers.

-::::>q 5f

9

,;

If you have any kind of an out pass, the mechanics of that pass should be

rep\eated over and over. The next thing you do is say Ifm not the hook man,

he's covered.

I'm the outlet and you stand over as the outlet and the QR goes

through,his mechanics to throw the ball, holds the ball, then throws to the outlet.

He

at some

to an alternate rece

r. Now, I'm still

talk~ng about the QB throwing between the offensive tackles.

are more

throw a pass," slowl

locks his knees.

tiIDe you want to throw some-

thing, lock

"'_ - .... ,.~ _ .... -I' .. ~'" __ ,~- ..... .,..-

at the Professional-College level teach ~heir QB to drop back and stand straight

up -- how are you going to stand straight up and throw anytl:'~_ng--look at a shot #

putter or a pitcher or anyboGY else. We always bend the knees--we overemph.;l.size

~.~":.-~" -- _."" ... ----..--''''''"''''~t.-:!W;.~M4 __ ·~~_''~"o:·~_tIII

it--and we overe~phasize moving our feet.

__ _--- ... __..._""=~~~~~'~~~S'Ir~"""I<S .. l:~~

#1, if the QB's feet are moving he's

able to easily stride into a throw he doesn't have to

to do it.

knees are bent he can a Lway s step f o rwa r d and lean on t~.f..Q..Qt.~.aru.L.ti':..row

~"'""···~~-"""~~""'~~!k-~,,~,",,',:;,.::::;!·~..s:,,;,~-;'_7:';';';:~~";.':.;;~~~7~-;:,,_-_- .. t--?-I<.~~."'''''''~':;;-<-~~-'''~~'''''''''''''-'''~.ft<>"_'___...r~

a fo

But, even more so, he can go the alternate receiver. The biggest

F.... ._ , ::d,,,,._i?zsm ,:::±:::¥4b$:'L::.:..-4Wf3!:"F!::l "" _~<,;, "<I1M'''

single Droblem with your QR is he'll attempt to throw the ball to an alternate

~--

~eive'r 1 his knees \"il~~ he' 11 look ove r there and bounce the ball

to him.

He'll say, hell, that's the easiest pass there is to throw. It's only

* ~~

six yards a'v!ay and you can I t hit it, you' 11 b our ce it to him because you>: knees are

.'-;-' .... ~-- ... ~--'~---- .. __ -...... " _- ....,-- -- ...... ._., , ........ _. _. _"~'--">'$~'~ "", .. ~ "",. --'__~_~""<R

i

Lo cked and when you throw the ball the nose ofLt w i.Ll go rifht down. So,

':":"'~"""--_"''''''''~'''-''''';''' __ . ....-_ ............ ,..",,,.''''_~-'''-'''''~''''-''''~';''''''''''''''-'~~.~''''''''"""" ........ ,,~...-............_;o., .. ,."'_ F ... ----·"-··---·-·~" ... --" .. ·.....- ....... ·.'~', .-."""""--~_"... .. """",,

consequently, he'll be with his knees bent, mo.ing like this and when he wants

to find it he' 11 look right over, knees bent and throw the ball. That's a big

part of it. Yo'u sure c.an ' t do rnuc h of that in fall practice unless you keep

him after and he misses the bus home. You're going to ~ave to do it in the off-seasor

10

tj()

What we would do, for instance, if ttake a S-st

d

with Our

He')l

-~-~-.-""",

take that crossover, tha~ hitch step. and he'll be moving his feet like this.

__ '._~ .. _~_",~~_.-J''''_~- """_. __ ., __ , __ .. _ .... ~ "" .... _"""'_'...._~ __ """' .. _ .. _~~

One of the ways we do that; I. as QB coach, will stand over 5-6 yards from him

he'll have his knees bent, his

-- ........ '.~""·""""',...- .. ' .. "''''.,f''.''''"'''''~",...fIt .. ''''''''_·''''_.,.,.~r_....a

feet will be mavin

he won't throw the ball until I raise my hand. That simulates

the hooking receiver getting open. So I ~rossover, I'm waiting for that receiver

to be open, I see it, and I throw it. But I never crossover, stand there, and

wait. All kinds of trouble. Now those are the kinds of things you can do

indoors with your QB that you sure aren't going to do during fall practice.

~ork out a series of drills for that guy and every given day that

're

able to work with him you work on these

One of the big advantages in working with that guy in the off-season is that

you can talk. about one thing at a time. The biggest single problem in coaching

a QB is that you'll see him make 5 mistakes on the same play and then what are

you going to say? What you're hoping do in that off-season is work on one single

thing at a t Lme-e--do n ' t worry about everything else. ~J2.4_~~1L,.!Si,lt . .:r~~.s:J:.l..ce,

don't try to coach him on more than oneer two

--.----.--~--~-~-~,.-."-,-~.~."."-.~-.-- .. -~.~---.~.

OIH .. '1' c.OJ...(._\-\ 0</1 S 'Ti,-tlif1 (:1 .t?:: A- ",{,{"" E..

when tna

at a time.

~.:fidI'.$-_~

him every little thing he does

In a given drill say. "Now, tod~ I'm going

-.--._,.~-~~-- ...... ,"<,- .. -,,"-,,>'.~-,-~-,-,-- -_....,,~. -~ ; ...... -,~-- .... - •• -.--~~

to watch

The last time ~e did this you didn't handle this right and

~_ .. ._. _ _.-"'~ ._. ... ,_._ ... _.""' ..•• ~ .... " •• _._.___.."'-._._.,..,~ • ..,A' .... --.; ........ ·___..,.,.- ... ·=·-."_,_"',._- .. .,..,,.. ..... ~ .. "l'I ....... ~_,.,.""'*"'~:<NI'r __ "' .. _-...N

I'm going to really be lookins for this."

Your best way is to ernphasvz e specific

things to the QB in a given drill and store things in the b.rck of you,' n i nd that

you see otherwise. and then, after practice yo~'ll say, "You know, here are some

things I saw that you made error on today, tomorrow we're going to have to make

some adjustments." Be extremely careful of coaching the QB on too many things

at once. All you'll do is distract him.

-_- ~'-.-.. ~ ...... -----

"

11 L!/

Alright, getting back now to wo r k I ng with that guy individually. When you

do get on the field, you'll find yourself plac

yourself where you expect the

receiver to catch the ball. It's just you and the QB, you'll be the primary

receiver on the left, the right, you 11 be the outlet receiver on the left, the

right, you'll watch him come to it in proper sequence. In all the years I've

been coaching QB's, we haven't used a stopwatch on our QB. I think honestly

that's sort of a fabricated thing, one of those coaching gi~~icks that makes

you feel real good; 1.7, 1.3. #1, the guy had never ever be rushed. If you

rush him he's going to throw an interception. #2. the guy better not assume

that he's going to get any 2.0 seconds or 1.7 or whatever because if the pass

protection breaks dO'Jn immediately. he's going to have to stand up to that.

An awful lot of our work is the QB sensing enough time. When you work

with him individually, you'll set yourself up and the wrestl coach will b~

the outlet receiver. You'll be the primary receiver and he'll go thru his drop

and, at some point, you'll raise your hands and he'll throw you the ball. Let's

just say he's taking a 7-step drop but he ends it up and he's sitting there waiting

for you with his feet moving and, sooner or later, when you put your hands up,

-- ... ,--,~ .. ",,,,,,,,~.--.--_....._ .. --.-__...

he'll stride and throw you the ball. ~ow, he's wait

__________ ~.oIh.,...."' .. -.....,- • .:....-.-.-.~-....,-..-·- ..

with his feet moving for

. you and you never put your hands up and he feels the time

o

1em and he comes

to his outlet receiver. So, at some point you work out a system where he in-

when we that pattern develops a:ld when he

to an outlet

.,..~~"~.,.,...,,,,~ .. _<l\lU"""""""'J!'t>

feet moving as

reCt.:: ver ..

No ... ', when we throw the ball \"e always attempt to wo r k on only one s~of

~TIen you talk about throwing

/

12

the ball to a QB you talk about a th rowrug lane. He

--_ •... ,,_ ... _

wh·, t certain

people do, who can conge~t that lane. The next th

-----~...,_ .... """"'-,." ... -~"' ... ",."..,---"""_..", .... ""

here's

re--there are

"-- .... -""--~"'.--~=

here'~ the outlet.

The QB takes the dro • this man takes a certa

If he drops to this you

t ~_::_~_ t h~ t , i ~_:;~l.,::..:~?_..x.~l~_E.bl.'2!:'~i~ t . The

one man, that's you and the QS.

_--- .--~--,__,;-.-."'''"

int is, you start out with

--------

Next you, as the one man, move over to the

-,~.,.""...."""."' ... - ............... -~-~--""',-~-""'"

outlet.

He'11 t h r ov to

is get one ot_~~~r.~Qt~r coaches. He stands here. yG~ stand here, you use a

__ "....,.,._..,._- .... ~__ '''' __ ''''''"''''''~>r~_'_J ... - .. ~ -"'_, __ .. _ .... ~,_ .. _ ... '''_ .. ~, ........ ~,~_ .. -'''''''-'''_--..;'!>_ .... ,~~..,1;<~_-_.".........&IliI

0,-'2. if;e:.

_ V£'~~0i)~C~

\LO-~ Cf~~~'

hand movement as to whether you want the baIlor he should

t .

involved.

Now there's a defensive man

The next thing you do is. get a third

... - ........ -, •..• ;.- ... ~

dropping into that hook zone so he goes to his outlet or widening and leaving

the hook zone open. You slowly, but surely, work into these things.

---------- .... ,~""

;7 TC e;..:;C(2:t:_ You I ve taken them in the gym, you've worked on ~, c~e. the throwing

-'_

aspect of it as far as the mechanics are concerned, you've vor ked on the number

of stepi taken back, and then slowly but surely, you begin to work with a given

stationary receiver so that he knows, so that he gets a time sequence plan in his

....... '-~-- .... ;..,--,-,-'"~ ............. --~--~"~ ~ """""""'-'i;!J-

'*

mind as to a particular pass. There isn't any way Vall can wait and do this kind

of thing in fall prac~ou can devise drills as that QB is trying to

. ---------

learn t~e offense before the first game to help him with this.

We now have a little film where you'll see Ken Anderson throw a hall right

through a pass rush. The man is right here and he'll throw the ball fo. ~ completion.

a period of time of knowin

----- - .- -.~."-"--'- ._-- .. -~ "'_-.-. ~,,-.'

ust when to throw that football and where that

receiver will be and the type of pass you t h row , So, he's so confident in taking

- .- .... ---- .. _-- --~~.-.+-. -~---- "--~.--- .. --- '.--.<_ .--~ .. _._.- .•• , - -~~-~ ... ~ "'~~~ .. ,.._ ................... ",.......,.-~,.... _ •. ..-.

a number of steps, that hitch step, that throw. that you can get people coming

u

13

;

The only way he developed that was through hours of work; just working on the

throw like a pitcher wo

on a low fast ball by the hour until he gets it

grooved. The only way to do this is i:1 of f=-s e as on work like this.

Next

'11 take

he! 11

a ball in

we would say is Red Right

24 Double

Square out to X on the first sound so the QB would come up, held give the

first sound. he'd take the drop, pivot and go through the mechanics of the throw.

'U: \d A . He I d do t.ha t 3 Or 4 t Lme s , but the X is take~J:L_0'_:_~.~_l3_an~h~ .. ~.Q_g_o_.E.~M~he

\:;'::, \V,'1 \JLAt-..l-~-------.-.----- ... -.--- .. -.----.--.--.- .. - -.-.--.----

HB. S_::_~.:'~--.~2!:~__p?.L.!:-o-£-!-l:-~-r:!!.J-hg1-ds th~~}_L~.?mes .up ~~?__!1i~~_£_he 1,1 HB. This is all done without anybody but the c<2.?Sh ~.D-.9_J;J],~ __ QJ1. He goes through

-------'""'-.".....,._",----='- .... ~"""'.~--------,,-- ... ---=>- .. -,----- _.-- __ --,.- .... '

1

Then you'll put two

of them together and try and see if the mechanics are at least in line enough

that you are satisfied that the two men can do it. The main part of this is

I

!

I

J

I

take that hitch step and go through the mechanics of the throw. He does these I

things over and over. :~~.J~r~~e_~ti~L~:-:~.3nd :L.21J..~~5._b_?_5:_~::='}.p:;:;JITIE"f.C£t7-~ I

. i

it.-a:n.d~_2-t. _'>.Q_t2.~7J~~.i-~!.! __ w~;"~~r1?~~ _ ~~E1<:~.:?~~::;~.~~:;:_;:a~y.L~2: ,_=_:;,]OU h!:.~~.~~~~=:.t~ _~/

you'll say I RIGHT or whatever, pass HB 8X

without any receivers or throwing;

GO and he'll go through the faking of the ball, put the ball away. he'll set up,

cor.rect 1_:1~ID);;l.eCau.se _ha.'_SPf;gSL .. _through it over and over.

~--: • ,..- ~----~_.._--",--~ ~-"-,----, ... ";_-'~"";'--___;:"'=::;:"::~'':'':;'':',,";'':;_;''''.-':-.~-:.~:.",,,,;::'_;:''':::.:! -, .:,:_"':!.-~~~

~~

mentally with the QB going

Another of the drills we use is simply simulating a playing situation

through the motions of it.

As far as calling plays, I vou l d S3Y th i.s i if you h av e an extrem~\;1 strong

running game, your offense is limited to four . five plays, they've been the

same four or five plays for years and your strategy has been the same for years,

your QB calling the play can be adequate. But, if there are any real tactics

involved where lOU are going to threw the ball occasionally or there are any

special plays in your offense, the coach had better call the plays. The best persc

in the organization should call the plays; often it's the head coach, often it's

14

~

the assistant coach, occasionally it's the QB. I would say to yuu that the

most qualified man should do it.

related

to our

He!l

drill with

and a run drill

It would be related to each coach giving a

o signal. So, our QB would complete his d

:;.r"- ,

would stand there and give him directions. His feet would be ~oving and I would

his feet would be

wave him and he'd move his feet this, way. He'd come forward and then at some

point I'd run him off and then he'd turn and run, t~en I'd raise my hands, he'd

stop and turn and throw me the ball. Now, part of that is physical conditioning,

but a big part of it is developing and ifuproving on those instincts of avoiding

We practice those contingency things.

-=~--------~~~~~--

A very simple thing we work on is avoiding people.

As a QB we never want ..._--~.-

to open our hips .t,c. aLII.

1 to the right 75%

k~~.:_.::e_~;::~,"C.;l:,,~~o:i,~~h.~_t~.~2:. __ ~?Ee ~£::~~ ::c~5_~~lz...s:::-~-Q_~-.::::-~~",~::~,,:_:~go ~~~~ h t (if he t S right-handed) ~~~~:"!..~;,,!:.~3tter R~q ~l)~q;%L~~L.};2nL~cS,_S.~

One of the things that we think is extremely important as far as our QB is

---.---".- •. -~~ .. -.----- .. ~_.---.-----~---~~ •. ----~~,-.-.~-.,"H'~ __ ~ ~.--.------.-~-- ...... --_ •. _- '_-.- .-.~ --- ._-

concerned is ~.ba t,H.l1.~_~,_ge t t ing any

--- --~'-.-"'-""-~~-"-'- - -'-'- .• , .;..__---- -- ,"-'

kind of pass rush from inside, ~e keeps in

-_._----.- -.,_ .•. _ -. --~---___.,-.--.-- <_ - .----.-.~- __ .,-------- ... \ - ----.--

The instinctive

} . thing to see, if any t.h Lu g happens (:1'2 QB

,:; ):

takes the easiest access and he'll turn open hi, hips and try to run away

[rom

it,

And so it's important to us as that QB sitting there wa i t i ng , to move his feet to

avoid people. and a big part of it is moving forward. So you have a drill, the

--- ... -.-~---.-----,.--,.-~-- .... - .~ ..

QB snaps the ball, takes his drop, th2n sits there with his feet moving and you giv

mov:j,ng .. _kceping_. t.he rn .i n ._~

---,,..--

rowing position. At some point you ratse your hand and

L/

15

-j.(

be relaxes and throws you the ball.

has to move and throw a

~ (\."f.- . ,/------.-----~----:.----.---.-.

~t:L- -::: ~'C-critical point is, just before the throw, you tell him to relax. Often you'll see

.~ a Q~B~"~~::=~~·~=·d~=p=e=o=p~l=e:=.~g~eDt--o~u~tOOS·i-dae·=,~=s-e-e-m-"L-·n~g·~-~h~a~vae~a~-r~e·c~e·i=v~e~=r~w=i=d~e open, stop and throw , (I'

the ball ten feet over the guy's head because he's tightened his muscles as he's

moved; he hasn't relaxes and he just jerked the ball. So one of the d

we would work; this would be the coach, this would be the QB, he would take

------------

his drop, hitch step forward, then we'd have him move this way. this or

come up inside, I'd raise my hand and he'd

me the ball as he re

After

we've done that two or three times with the differerit drop that he takes, then I'll

.J.J

f..~c wave him off and he'll run and then when I raise my hands, he'll pull up, relax,

and throw me the ball.

We reh...sar:Qc these...J:.hin.gs_o:lLe..L.aod over and you'll notice

_- -

that we do it categorically. We don't try to throw the whole thing at them at

. ____.,.,..;,...-

-

That is a given thing that you will work on and most often this part 'of

Two or three other things we talk abollt with QB's--I could talk about throwing.

One of the obvious errors you see all the time is when the receiver is running

p~rallel to the course of the ball, the nB leads him and he never catches up with

If a man is:,,'Qning

---..u,..~-c ... · ... z_;=.t..

it right at his body. Consequently, iE we're t h r ow i.n g wha t we call an OUT pattern

~-'--------.--"......_,,-- .. -...--- ,.~.~ ,_

and if we throw out to our "ieft, hooks to our right as much as we can. The OUT

pattern to the l~ft; when the QB is open to throw it, he gets a lot more on the

ball throwing this way than in being forced to step teward the right and throw the

ball. That pulls him t owa r d t h e IJ.1SS rush and he's late t h r ow in g t t •

So we throw

out to the left, hook to our right.

16 Yb

down the rear end of the receiver rather than lead

How many times have

you seen a man open, you lead him, he's running parallel with the ball, and you

throw the baIlout in front and he can t catch it. So we throw ri

~--.

If.we're rolling this way and the

4- ..--,_.,.-__.,.-.- .• ~-n--~-----~----

rear end, he catches it here, never leadi0g.

man is running w i t h us, we'll t h r ow the ball right at him, never leading. f

-.- ._~ ,_... __ • __ ~·~_~._~_. H. ..".._"'~. _.4" ~·",...... '~ .... ·~ ··_·,,~_

throw the ball alan

'II never catch up with the ball. So

_~ __ •• .,,...._~ • __ "'"'.,,,,-...,~"'-,."""';. .... ,-"",.-..-,....-----.- ._A

you work with tile QB during the off-~eason and he'll roll and throw to a stationary

man , not leading him.

Next, after you've gone through a lot of these drills, you should be concise

-',

tlg...JillQ\.lld.-t.aka....hclQIe.._he.._dQ~L.9fly.~_l1_ing. In the running game I would worry about

the feet but I wouldn't make it such a rate mechanical thing that every step he

took was to hand the ball off because you'll spend all your time talking about 3-inch s reps. -¥ w11en it comes to t h r ow i n the for .. ard

--~--.

steps are. vital

and we I II practice tb_()_!?_~_.£{l.rJ;._t~:_uL9}:· ... d.rops_; >f I personally think th.~.J2_~_~L£.?.ss

~~-~.--.-,---...; ..... -,-.~ -, ... -< .... ~.- .. ~- ',- ... ",_,.&,,-' -"~."'-'--"--~-"-'-""---'-'" .. -.---_-

1.Je ta1k_~?-~~_'::~?::~~~.P_-~r.9p-.!>()...!, .. s:Y.I-.QI?-i"-?-.~~- as_~-~~-a..:: because if you want

--"_---

the pass pattern to develop over 10 yards dO\ffi the field, the QB should always

take 7 steps unless it's some kind of delay pattern. So we take 7 steps. How do we do it?-¥\'I11en ve take a 7-step drop 'v.'C: tell our 0B's the first 3 step,"YOU get

·-~-~~.ri-"""""'---""~'----""""'_"...;...~;>.,t-'.Y'-Ci'~ '-..,.~_.. __ ,. • _ ..•.. ,.,~_' ........ _.___ : i:.,L ...... -...-..=..~'. __ .. :::: - ';'.- :-'! .~~-~~ .. """

de

So, if, I'm a C!TI and I could have a play

f ak e involved w i t h this, when I take the ball from center I push off with my

left foot and I turn my back completely to the line of s c r Lmma ge , \<~£_wo_':l19"_.l;i.k.e

that first step to get us 4 or 5 feet. They won't ever get it, but you put them

.- ". ---._--_._ ... ._, '" '-_ .. "-- .... _-_ .. --.--.-- .. -

with a 5-yard line bellind them and what you want is for that first step to push th2ru

17 L!7

off and get momentum going backward.

we talk about 5

fourth

rtest steps I can take.

When we take a 7-step drop with our QB, 3'of the biggest steps you can take and

4 of the smallest is how we

developed many years ago.

People said that you couldn't tell

was

happening on the first three steps.

On the first three steps, nothing

.. -""'"-.-.----- ............ ,.._ .. -~~ .. -""~~_..-*-- ,""~ ..

, I

is going to happen, The receivers have hardly gotten off the line of scrimmage

.. .......... _ ..... ~-- .. -... _ ._~, .... _".,,_#> __ ... =~_-<r~_~~ .. _.. .._............_- __ ~ "'-'t ••• , .• _ .... ____

yet, So it's vital that on the first three steps you get out of there.

to forward

sing and bala~ce by the QB is when will he ever_zet

"'~----- ... --,~ ..... -~.-.---~-.,. ,~,~.--.~ .. -.~--~-----'--- ....... --.~-.._.....,... . .- --

into a stationarv Eosition? And will he have balance doing it?

__ .P--'--- .......... -L ... ~ ....... u .... '-'- .. ~ •• _"'._ ...... "s::... __ . ,-,-,~-~,-""~ ... -~._ ,_ ~ '._' __ "'''''_'~'''''.'_'_._<_. ''''_ __ '~~'''''_''' __ '''_'_ __ ~". __ , .,. __ ._~ ... ._ ...... ....:

If you're slow

gett

back, you'll never have time to

ball off because the

rush

pushes off, turns his back, takes his first three steps, now the second four he's

coming this way and when ha ends up, he's facing back this way again, T_hree,_~i:g,

four S.ill9-11.

---

ust .. VQrk._orl .thg~~. ,s.t .. E'r.s. Don I t think that during fall practice

you're going to take a QB and say, "You took 9 steps, you threw to the, wrong guy

and you d i d n lt call the snap count right." He can't remember which one you told

him. The best thing to do is get those steps down to a point where, :1, some point

J

after practice, you come out and say, "You know; all tl.a t o f f= s ea s on p r ac t l c e we

did on those three big and four small, you're losing it. We're going to have to

stay after and just remind ourselves on those three steps."

We have a sophisticated college passing game of professional. we have certain

size steps for just about every pattern. \'Ie have five big. three big, f ou r small,

seven big when we're throwing a delay; those are the things that you workoD.

18

The int is,

and then work on that.

You take those

, you take the hit£1:L5t.~P, and then

----~-,.-~.,-'.«<'- .

-.----,,~

y~~ thr~~_tl~:_~:ll. ~~~h3t~~~ a;~;_D/1r

As far as faking the ball,

-~~--------------.---,..._..,_- ._-_ .. _---- ....

sibly

can. We'd prefer never to have to open left and fake because we get ourselves

caught this way and it'll take us too loni to turn back this way. If we're faking

this way, we have to turn our back and come all the way round. We will do it, but

we'd much rather fake to our right. If we can open up to our right we Can make

__ " .... ~ . .-. ... ~"""'"'"_,.n._- ._,..~ ........ __ '_ .................. "', ............................ __

5?:-: t.: :~~ ~~ ::~._~~._?~~?rT.<];.L£!.2.E.:_...1..h.~ !<-~..Y~~_~.X._~,,~.§.~.irlJ1 ... ~E~!:.::_gB fake, it I s the man he I s f akin~ to. e •

---~_:;..

The QB can fool a lot of people, but the back is the~~l?¥~ker looks

'. ,.~_ ...... · . ..._~ .. d· ............ ·.-'o __ "'"""'.,,_..-_.....:"' • .,. ... ~,:.. ......... _.,_ ...... ...--. .• ;",-,,,~,---~.-,,---.,,~ . .--~ _.-. -".

at. As soon as that back's shoulders come up, the linebacker knows he doesn't

.......... -~;<-.'~"'---=~- ...... ~-."' .... ~---.~='.., ... -_,_"""" ~--',""" .... ~~ .... -'-_,--- ~---__..,._~..;.,-~-- ."_,---..,,., """'"

have the ball. So a big part of play passing is the fake man's shoulders being

waist high. That's how you'll do it. The back will make the difference. Unless

he's going to be an eligible receiver or a key blocker, he should be into the

line of scrimmage near the ground at the line of scri~~age going into the ground.

The point is, what we would hope to do when we fake is

<----~--~<--.,.-.~-~----

in

front of the man and before he

the man go by. If you'll look at hacld-of_Js._JILa_gi_YS'Jl_b?-ll1e, by and large when the

,,-............-~~~ -_. __ .... -'-'~-. -.-- .. -".~-', ....... ~ ... - ... _. '~. ~,-'- ,~ .. ---.-.*.' - - - . _"~~---..-___..-..._---"-

man leaves the

slightly and it swings up. So, what we've talked about in the play fake. extend

~_~ _ _...._-_..- ._- ~-.--~-".-- •• - •.• ~.- ••• -.- •.• - ._,. , •• ~.~~. o' .. , .H'~_'~ __ .~ _.~._.,,_._.'""_' __ .~ __ .. ,. __ .~~~ __ _..~._,~ ... ~_", __ .,_", __ ' "

the ball early, always operating at hin level .

•• __ •• ._ .~ _ __..H~ ... _".~'_ ...... ~_.~ _-,~_ ........ ,_~ __ .. _.,.. _'_ ~--- .. ,_e~ •• w,' - ( ,,--_.-. ~--. _,~

Now, if you "r e going to fake like this, the .ba l l is going to be bOU'-lC'!(\ off

somebody's knee all d ay , But if :Lt's 0Eerated from_yaisc 1~Y521, it's extended

_.-----

early. I,That we want to do is show the ball here, the back there, the ball between

the back and the linebdcker--it has got to be exposed between two people just for

an instant. It's got to go from here to there, now as that man comes through the

ball is brougllt back and your hand is left. ~hat part of your offense can ~e done

without a back to fake to.

19

// '(~

We'll spend considerable time with ~ur DB coming back, extending the ball,

letting the man ride, put t Ln g the ball behind you. I don't recommend, neces-

sarily that you put the ball behind you, you could very well be hit here. and

at some

t the ball has to be brought up. The point is, you can work these

play action fakes in the gym with a QB, then bring in your FB or HB and have them

walk through it. ~me you fake to a back, his far arm should be against his

stomach. That will cause you some problems if you do otherwise. So often the

-

guy will naturally really fake, he'll extend that far hand and he'll get the ball

caught up. Anytime we fake, we fak~ this way. Now the QB can insert the ball and

pull it out and there's never any chance of us losing the ball in that fake.

particular skills indoors with just you and the QS.

Again, you isolate these

(l . E:S

Y ~;-? ---oWhen you get on the

field, if you have a deep passing game or you would

like to have ,one of if you are forced to because it1s the last play of the game,

we

it ,2) \~/ \~~

another OB down the field, take the

never tell the OB to look at the receiver and throw him a pass and expect

to be completed \.;e11 down the field.

do, is t 1me the forward

lfhat

we

ass.

Weld take our QB out, put either the coach

or

drop, the hitch step, and throw the ball that distance, over and over.

He'll -

never tllrow the ball well deep if the QB's forced to. Our OB, rather than have

----------------------~----~~-----------

a receiver running down there, would throw to one spot. Now, we get the receiver

e • ~

to that spot. If you wan.t a deep passing game, that's how you do it. The

QB just sits back, waits with all the pass rus~ in front of him, finds the

receiver and then t h r ov s him an a c cur a t e pass. I've seen it done. 11'" best

way is seven steps--3 big, 4 small--hitch step~ throw to a Slot. Then yeu get

the receivers out. If we find the QB holding the ball, then throwing to a spot,

-----

it will never be a completed pass.

Our deep pass

~

is as timed as our short pass.

~

l~)at kind of percentage do we get out of the deep pass? It's not real

good unless you've got someone who can really run and people are foolish enough to

20

play one man on him. even in the zane defense. If they do that, you'll throw deep.

time

.ball going direct;!.L2._ver the receiver's head. w~ never pun a man in..!.,. ~

~~~ lot of ground laterally. We get the receiver

at some point and they work on that particular thing (ball thrown directly over

the head). If you want to practice it, throw to some spot rather than to some

guy running down the field because at some point you'll have your fastest guy

who you'll throw to in a varsity game and the next time up you'll throw to your

sophomore who runs a 5.7 or something. He'll try to judge that guy then look

at another one and judge him; get consistent with depth and think only of the

guy who's going to catch the pass in the game. If you practice it with a terribly

slow man and ihen a terribly fast man you'll never get the desir~d result.

Now we have a drill that when the OB moves laterally we te~r

~---------------------~~--------------~-------

really over. If we have somebody to the side of the QB or the QB's forced out ...______

in that direction, it's ncve r over until the QB gets to the sideline. It may

..;J ~'\(c -t.{.JL

~y- .. \ '

have looked by design at times, but you'll see the QB fLus h ed out running here .

It's never over becau~e here's a receiver; when the QB moves, the receiver moves

back tow?rd the QR and when he gets to the sidelines they throw it right along the

sidelines. We· have a drill where a QR may take his normal drop or he may be rolling,

and he'll keep going wider and wider; he knows right at that sideline he s going

to have a man standing there wa it Lng , facing out of bounds, and he'll t h r cw the

ball right along the sidelines. If you get yourself along that sidelines with

no one to throw to, you're going to be knocked out of bounds or throw an inter-

ceptioD rather than a completed or incomplete pass.

You should have some kind of drill with a Q3 mov and a receiver's move. Your

practicing, before fall ever starts, with that QB cocing back out of.there, a

receiver r unn Lrig a pattern, the QB s p r Ln t i ng , t he receiver moving, you throwing him

21

the b31 L

If you w~tch the Oakland RaiJe~s you'll see a b

PLHt of t he i r o ff e n s c

is Stabler moving 13terally away from pass rush, Blitnikoff coming back toward

him throwing the ball. You need s ome t h Ln g like t h a t in v o u r PClSS

game so

t

'11 h~ve something to think about.

It i 5 3 Td and 8

have to move tile ball, '----

the OB doesn't have anvhody ODen. what does he do? He

, -_..-:---.-:'----'------~-------

they're thinking, there's that contingency aspect of it for those r e c e i ve r s

will move with him, back toward him; he's looki~g for one, he throws the ball.

~---------------------------------------~-----------------------

At least you'll have covered that pa~t of it and you've drilled it so that

-------------------------

your players have some idea of what cheyaTe going to be trying to accomplish.

------------------------------

As far as drills are concerned, when we add our receivers we take tIle basic

pattern and run it and we take our basic drop and drop. Then we'll work against

given people.

If this were the QB we ' 11 put a weak backer in--the DE or the

co r ne r-o-und he! 11 t ak e a drop and the receiver will book off him. \ve! 11 put

in a defensive man and an offensive man. A certain amount of work will be done

with just one-an-one but we'll always try to get one against the other and, often,

we'll take all of our SE or flankers over here and one will get in that weak

backer position or one will get in the corner position so this man has someone

to read.

g_::.:;erally we have a__§tyle of football--forvard passing--for first aDd len.

On first and ten we're going to get mare blitzing, more man to man type coverage,

on long yardage we have a certain style. l~e h;:1ve passes de:§i_gl}pd fnr la..c~_y~~,

hooking type passes.

.:_--

1,.Jhen we run a hooking type 1),155, we::: tell

the recei~ers not

- ___

to worry about the def. back, you're be a t Ln g the linebackers. y,Then ,,,Ie're running

_----- -_- ... ----'---- .. ___________

a first dO\.Jf1 pass, we tell the receiver vou've got to beat. the def. back. (.;'hat

you're doing there is playing about a 50% advaqtage from your standpoint as

anticipating what is going to happen.

So, we'll work a certain play against a

def. back, then we'll take him out and work him against a back, the same .kind of

thing, so that the receiver gets some kino! of idea who he's trying to b e a t , Next

we might hit our tight end and flanker any d e f , man. What ,ye try to do is build

from that earliest fundamental I alkcd about where we're taking the exchallge and

the ball is be g brought back. Now , s l owI y but surely, we're adding one receiver,

one receiver with a def. man, then I"e're .add i n g two r e c e i.ve r s with a d e f , man

and we have yet to put them all together. \.Je have yet to try it all.

A lot of our work will be r e La t e d to these two people. We'll work wi t h the

QB and two receivers against those two and it could be that kind of pattern where

they're rolling up or they're in the" sky or whatever. Again, we're trying to

isolate it down to drills where, in the summer, you leave your- job and go out

with two receivers and ~. couple other guys and you work that little drill and

a big part of it is the QB developing those reactions that he has to have.

As far as group drills are concerned, we work a regular 7 on 7 when we get

.... _- .... -"."" ~~,~ ~ <_'

into fall practice. A big part of that when you have fEoH in number, is not

to have everyone run necessarily at once. We try to call. one side and then the

other side. So, our first group will come up and run a pass on that 7 on 7 with

il (;B and whatever we fh1V€ related to .3 weakside passing game--might be the weak

middle b a c ke r , the DE, the Corner, wh a t e ve r , we'll work that side a n d then we'll

stop and work the other side w i t h the defense on the strong side. It will get

double work that way. rather than having everybody run down the field time after

time and not get any learning done.

Huc h of our f o o t b a l L is situation football. 142 seldom go out a1'8 practice

a basic practice.

By and La r g e , everything we do is r c l a t.c-d

to a s Lt ua r Lc.n • ...wJ:::..~ll

• -_" ,,," >- •• ,. -...._.

or f o rwar d passing. \42'11 p r ac t.i.c e third a nd 3 to

'. .~ .... "", .,.""", .... ~_,_"",.~ '. co.' -.."'¥_~'''''-''' .,.,-,..0-< < "_ "~ ...... -'-'. .~

practice first and tcn

go. Right now we have a portion of our uffense set aside for third and J to go.

By and large it's a run, often it's a pass. Then we'll go third and 2, and the

last thing is third anJ inche~. Ubviously you've got a

chance of making it,

hIlt what we try to do is make sure our players appreciate our game circumst~nces.

23

Next we brought our team down on our 1 f06t yard line go i ng out, and we put our

~~-~

first defense against our second offense. six plays. Then our first offense

against our second defense, six plays. Then we brought the baIlout to the

< -~ ... - • .." =- -- -------- '--- ---_ ...... ~"'--

--

ten and went in for six. The point is, we ractice SITUATIONS.

We have a type of offense that we'll use on the first and ten--this is

important. l,v'hat do yO\1 want to accomplish? Especially defensively, With Stanford

OUT approach has to be to go after our opponent on first and ten. By and large,

teams we play are going to run the ball on first down , and we're going to have

to situate ourselves defensively to stop these people on first and ten. Our hope

is to be in a three man line as much as we can. We'll differ dramatically from

first and ten to second and ten if we stop them on the second ten, you may see

a three man line. The whole idea there is to play situation football. Hy point

is, you talk about positions on the field offensively, and defensively, you talk

about down and distance, you talk about game situations.

Each week with the Bengels we practiced the last three plays of the game.

We went through situations where a team jumped ahead of us and had a chance for

two plays.

By that time you're totally drained, you'r-e trying to call the

ploys; they went ahead, you're down and out, you I ve got two chances and I'll be

damned if you're trying to think of what to do. You call two double go passes

the lasL one is intercepted and you're embarassed. From that point on we practiced

the last three once a week. We only hit them twice each. but we know what we're

going to do the L a s t three p La y s of t.hc g arne . Don! t get c aug.vt w i t ho uc '!

contingency.

You • v ego tad own and cl i s t .::; ,1 c est y '. e () f f 0 0 r ball and i t rna y ") <:

similar plays, "hen are you going to t h r ow the f o o t.b al L? \·lhat type of throw?

With us we were going to play pass on an early down and we're going to make

sure we protect,against the blitz. We're seldom on a third and long going

to try and get it all in one play.

If you don't t h r ow much, I think you're foolish

24

to sayan third and 13, all receivers go t4 yards deep.

ve one down to

make

ten

yards or more, the pass is going to get us Cit least half, the ball carrier

'''' ..... ''"' ... «---~~''~~,.- .. -''''j .. .-.--~--~ .... -~' .... -.' -.'~' -~.~" .... ~' ...... ._.__ .... -~~. --,~-_"'-----~'_--'-"~"'''"~''''''''-';

is going to get us the other h a l.f . So, we're quite will

to go third and 13,

attempt to tllrow that hooking type pattern but go to an outlet receiver figuring

the pass will get 5 or 6 and he's got to get the other 5 or 6. Often you

don't make it but the vital thing is, in football. incomplete passes other than

fumbles and interceptions can kill you more than anything else. Psychologically

they kill you.

If it's third and 10, you miss that third and 10 pass, that other

team's got one heck of a psychological jump on you. We want to complete passes

when we throw them. Even if we don I t make enough for the down, it will build

confidence so that we make it on that next third down. They'll see us drop the

ball to the FB, they'll be concerned about it and we'll throw the hook in behind

them. So ....

(tape ends and is flipped over)

Soaner or later at this time in our spring practice everything is down and

distance. If I'm calling the offensive plays, we have the first down markers out

all the time, scrimmage or no scrimmage.

r'll call first and ten, 2nd and 7, 3rd

and 3D, whatever it is and we operate accordingly and we'll put ourselves in

positions on the field. If you want to find out about your ball club. you're going

to have a scrimmage and at some point in t ha t s c r i rnma ge take the ball and put it 3 lo.

down the field into your own endzor1c. You'd hetter be rea

to do that as it

has cost us .. In my experience, I told myself that when I'm 3 head coach \.;e'r2

going to wo r k contigcncies continuously, we're not go,in!'. to ;~et ou r s e iv . s locked

up in practicing il g i v e n play over ,:wd over not k n ow i ng the reason for USLl\g it.

)

BILL v.'ALSH

San Francisco rty N a

I ~ jUit maybe start talking a little out my background to

get U~ started. I spent three years at a high 6chool in California at I gues! one of the larger high schools and did reasorJ..ibly well and than they 3plit the school u? and I didn't do too well the third year. Then I ~ent en to college foot,:::all ~t the University of California at Stanford and n i~to professional football. I can't tell you if that wag th~ 3::3.rt::23t cove I ever c.3de or not, but I ".<?ent with the Oakland Raiders and spent 8 years with the

Cincinnati Bengals, then the San )ie6o Chargers, en I #ent back

to Stanford ag the head coach, and r:.ow I a::n e general manager and head coach of the San F'r an c i s co 49'er3 so I just wanted to remind you of that. to let you know t I have been at all levels of coaching so I ch Lnk I C2n sp e ak ,,.n th s orae aut.ho r i.t y about coaching in general.

I thi~~ there is far GOre relationship be~*een, correlation be~ween the professional footb~11 ar.d high sc~col football than there :is the college level. The college football as waive heard and continuously h e a r Ls related so much to ;:ecruitir~g, at the college level so much of it i~ related to the org~~izational a8p~ct of t ry Lng to coach a football t eam b e c aus e in college as you know you have everything from the fr e s hman to the sen-ior which is a tremendous gap in maturity from being 18 to 22. Of courae. there

is a tremenc.ous gap in ability f r om the f'e Llovs 'Mho are supposedly walk-on athletes to your highly rec~~ited graat per30nnel type of people. Of CQUr:H!, there is a tr2r=encou3 g sp in i1J .... id~~ntal ab Ll.«: ity. In other worcis,aa related to someone you've coached for three years as opposed to someone ,,,tho 1 s just enrolling on c azep us , :30 much of your work on college level is organizational. Your Team A

p rac cas against: Team B for 15 ffinut.es, then they go to the other end of the field and vc rk ag a Lns t you r 3 cour t e sm , that kind of work, where professional foo all is much c~re of an i~dividual thing, where you coach individual players aometi~es as long as 8

or 10 year! b~fore they retire or they retire you, one or the other. In high s chco l , it is ve:r:y ouch the s sme . You -'lark ~,rlth i:1dividual people and you try to develop t~2m ~~d certainly that is where we

are in professional football and many of you I suspect are high school co ache s and that I 13 ""H~here ],0'..1 are. and t':1e b Lgg e s t s Lrrg Le concern you have is the develop::;ent of given p l.aye rs , not :30 much how beautifully you are organized and I think we sp2nd a little too much t.Lme being organized. I knew coaches v i Tl lecture and lecture on orgfu~lzation rutd cert~i~ly organization is part of it, but the front line battle position is what really counts and in high school and pro ssional football. that is where we are--developing the 5kill of a given player.

1/:' i

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'1 r I.
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y /""'1-- c; L--(,~ 1" ! -;.-./--2.-

( : ~- _p.

)

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':;;/~. /.~--~,.:.:. "' >

Walsh I 2

I am going to talke this rr~rning on game plans. We can say

t the game plan at all three levels can be similar, how you approach attacking your opponent. I an going to talk offense. That is basically where I've been all through my career as all offensive coach and we can talk about a game pl~~.

One of the first things we've done. ~Jer a period of years

we've developed this, I worked for P Brown at Cincinnaci for 8

veal'S and, of course. Paul was f&COus for his play calling. He began to call plays long before anybody else in football really even thought of it. At one time it was the quarterback out there operating sort of by the seat of his c an t s .:L"1d calling playa as he saw it--throwing it if the wind is behind you and running if the wind is in your face, that kind of thing. But Paul went into professional football and I think it was the late 40 I s which is many

ye s r a ago. but he was such a stickler on -,.;hat he wan t e d done that he began using that messenger-guard thing that you've all seen or heard about and in final analysis, I ~ent to work for Paul in 1968 when the Cincinnati Benga13 were first given a franchise and we called our plays with our g~ards. Well, it was my job from the upstairs position to basically call the plays, As time went by over the 8 year period and of course::nat makes a difference spend .. ing a given aIT:Ount of time on a job. I don't want to break from my train of thought, but as I think of it I'll relate it to you. Be real careful of being the guy who changes jobs continuously because he thinks that's the stepping atone to greatnesB. You learn to become a coach most often ~~d learn to become a successful coach and have a car ee r of your o-wn if you spend considerable time on one particular job--whether you be the line coach at Temple High School or Fountain Valley, or wherever it is, or the backfield coach or the head coach. doeanJt matter, but if you are able to spend considerable time on the S8.1lle job, you as a coach can develop. You can develop a system for coaching the different categories of football, but if you are one of thoa~ people who change. change, change, all you are really doing is in the ~"'o years you spend here and there is in learning everybody's name. what time to report to work. and. that kind of thing. So I suggest to you if you are interested in naving a long career, having one at will last many years, be on a given job for a number of years so that you can develop your-

self as a coach within a system. _

The point is, in the final analysis, over a period of years we found the best way to call plays. The best way we found was to

s t a r t; the game with a certain e e r I e s of play to a point where a couple of years ago at Stanford. we would go the first 24 plays of the game. We would already have plan~ed and of the 24, most oft~n 18 to 20 or ev~n to 24 would be used almost in sequence so that when you go into a game with a game plan, the game plan is put in operation and you cen sit back just a little bit and observe your opponent and think of waht to do after those initial plays have

been -run , Nm;, obviously ~ when you this. you are going to r.eed

yard~ge plays. you don't just reveal the story of kicking on

77

eh I 3

l-ya.rd line or at the end of e tunnel at" something, but you are going to need short-yardage plays, you are going to need longyardag0 plays, u are going to need those special situation things. nut as far as op e r s t t.ng on. the fieid. ve will go right down that

11.9 tend it I S all b e en de de d on by the coaching s t a f f and certainly by the head coach and the quar t e rb s ck is well avar e or just

about of \linEl\: i3 coming next and at St-'1nforci last year that I

was there. we went 8 G traight games scoring on our first possess

the geme--8 straight weeks we scored, I think it was obviously

r e Le t e d to this approach to a g arae plan so I suggest to you that if you call the plays or even if you don't taht you start the game with a series of t h Lng s that you do rather t han pick what I s our opening play and they trying to figure out what to do next. I tis much more viable to start the grune ~ith a series. So at Stanford we had 24 playa listed. With the San Francisco 49'ers. itls close to that. This started with the Cincinnati 3engals as I related to you when

we started going to the first; four of a game. The first 4 will be this, this, this. We want to look at these things. Before long

I f cund that it took tremendous pressure off me as a signal caller to have that series and deliver' it.

Now, why would you decided on it? Well. you would want to show your opponent certain formations. There are certain things that: you know the f I r s t time you zun them you are going to have a great ch an c e of s uc c e s s . After cha t , you lose your advang ag e .

You know that if you mix your plays correctly, your opponent can come apart just a little defensively. You have all been in on the one where the defensive coach is on the sidelines and you are completing or running the ball for a series of 4 or 5 yard gains and he begins to panic and thL~k how in the world he is going to ~top this o f f en s e b e c aus e he P2...LliC8 a. little -",hen he sees you start to move the ball and Chinking how are we going to stop that play, so it is just human nature.

Our position of offense is to have a series of plays that we'll start with, we at teat point can decide the run-pass ratio that we want to use and start the g~e with that series, go right through it, and of coursep when a short yardage play comes up, you've got your first play you'll use in short yardage and second play. wnen.. a long yardage play comes up that is out of the ordinary, you know just what play you are going to go to there. So. I on the sideline with the 49'ers, for inst~nce I call the play from the sidelines. I'll have tbis list i.o front of me and, of course, at this stage of my life I have to wear my glasses to see it. but the point is, it'll be right there. Third and one. I'll go right to my first third and one play. Itm not trying to figure things out a.s the g~e develops, We'll figure things out after welv~ gone through those sequence of plays and it I S a much» much better way. Believe me, men. you can sleep ~Jch better the night before the game if you've ?ot your "openers" ~o to spe~k. ready to go.

Of all the things I va learned in football. and it took 8 years

with the Eengals to this, that is the single most val~able

~la,18h / 4.

thing you can do as fsr as the game plan is concerned-- fir3t

plays. As I any. it 18 proven to be s uc c e s s fu L when ~Ye we x e ~ .. i th Borne of theso other clubs, with Cincinn3ti, and yith Stanford because very fe~.r teams can say they w:nt 8 straight weeks scoring on their first possession. ()tlr opporien t s a1l:ong those 8 s tr s Lgh t weeks we=a OklahomE., USC, UCLA, Colorado. were some of the b,:;tter t.e ams in f oo t b e 11 and it 8 till prove d to be vc-.;.7 good. It's

best way to t ak e apart your opp crie nt; from t.h.e s t andpo Lnz of fOl"'Jla-

t Loris . We send in the plays, but we don! t send L1 the formations. Our quarterback uRen either g e t t Ln g the s Lgnzl or having a man come into the game. we r e no ...... e Lgn e l l Lng plays where at oric tiL!!e we sent them in. we're siplalling tha playa--he has a for~etion that he automatically g o e s to. If we ve r e to say 78 X hook. he would SllY

in the huddle. "Double wing right i 8 X hook. II Now he i.n h i s pregan:.e pre-week work prior to that game, he'll spend his time know!ng

the rmation sequence, so if we run 78 X hook, -we mlght have 4 C;~

5 f o rma t Lor \. and let me JUBt dra'« you an example of that kind of i

thing. I

C~L1 ~-? 1

What we'll do i. have the 8~ ~y called from maybe 4 different formations ~~d the quarterb!~~~riZC. the sequence of formation •. I persona~ly memorize the sequence of calls. but he me~~rizes the seQuenCl\ formations. Here is an example of the same play.

Dia . 2 ,

I

________ ~'"V~ o_~ ~ CD c= ~

Here are two examples of different formations for the same kind of play_ Now you do the same thing. Now these to a defensive coach or defensive team ara completely different problems, but we will, the first time we send 78 X hook into the game, the quarterback knows thig is double wing. If we call it again. he has got to reca.ll the second time we use it, I'm running it from what we call a brown formation with A motion. Now the third time it's called, we reduce the split of the receiverg

Diag. 1

Diag. 2

c::!:::>

<0

run it from what we call a blue formation and go in motion and ~~ same play_ rne next time we go from a tight w~ak side end and

Walsh I 5

the halfback out wide. Here is the halfback, here is that same hooking receiver, the halfback ends up in the same position and we r'un the same play. The point is the quarterback can have

up to 4 or 5 forTIl2tions that he r~ns the same plays from and when you send it in, he's going through his sequence of formations so we

can call S&'"'1e p Lay from 4 or 5 formations in our game plan.-·~

e qus r t e rb ack knows the game plan that ;;eek, one 'Yleek it may

5 tart from vha t we cell a ,;.;ide double ':>ling, The next week it I 11

start from a blue with C left. the next week as I've ady indi-

cated to you, going back,.;ard. i8the double wing forn::ation, the next week it could be that, so the point is weill use a numb~r of formations for the sane basic play. ~le formation sequence is related to the quarterback. The play calling itself is related to the coach from up above or on the sidelines so those are the ways we do things. Now as ',.;e do this t the opponent sees a number of things happening to him, but as far as you are concerned, it's the same exact play_ There may be a difference in the split of a receiver, but the quarterback sequence of waht receiver to look to and the order of doing it. he I s practiced for months. Nov..' he puts it into rao t Lon .

We played Oklahoma in the opening game 2 years ago and had a wonderful gaee with them, we lost-in the last minutes, but we ran

a number of formations to a point where they thought this tremen~ously diversified offense was coming at them, how could any foot">8.11 team run that many plays, but if they were to cut all those plays up, they would find out that the formations changed up by

the quarterback's call as planned and the plays came into the game as the coach had planned to call them. So I know as a coach, now we will call this particular play if whenever we are inside two minutes and I call it from the sidelines. it goes to a double wing because we want the halfback sitting on the sideline to catch the ball and step out of bounds, so he knows that at certain times in the. game which of these formations he must use. In short yardage we may go to the one "With the 1:"";0 tight ends that I showe d you with a back in motion. My point is as far as a game plan is concerned

is start out by having an opening sequence and that opening sequence can take you all the way throug? the fi~3t quarter.

You have to believe in your game plan. The worst thing that you can do as you know is depend on yourself under the stress of a football game. You as a coach and someti::nes the players, if they haven't rehearsed things, so you think as a coach, once the game gets started, I'll get warmed up to it and here I go. That's tough. There's too ~Jch stress on you as a person. So what you do just like someone doing work on a Broadway stage, you rehearse it to a point where it'g automatic during a game. You better not do much thinking during that game where you are going to get yourself in trouble. The point is you'll go through those first 20 plays alrnosc in order- and believe in what you are doing. You believe in it because you've scouted the other team. It depends on how you BCQut them. Sooa people use statistics and others U3e just their basic

1 I 6

inherent abili to feel what other team will do. retg all

kinds of ways 0 doing it and Ii combination of ways» but you have these opening pl and you go right down the lis t and don't figh t it. If they don't work, it's becau~e you didn't plan well. There

is nothing worae going in the game figuring that are so

smart that as you see that opponent that you are going to start picking h:Lm apart by making play call~. Now we've run into trouble, to be hon es t ",:ttn you. after we I ve r'un through our sequence of 20 playa. Then it's UP to me or ~hoever does it to now decide on

what to call next, then we are like everybody else. We have our problems just like you do. If you have a stronger team than your opponent, you can be brilliant. simply call the veer play or blast play. whatever it is, just blast them right off the field. The problem that IDOst of us have in the roo~ other than those people that were introduced early, we are at th€ mercy of personnel so you have to call things just at the right time at the right moment.

The more you rehearse, the more you sit down and talk prior to the game, the game ever taking place, the better youLl.be during the game. The more you T~ite down and live by the written word. the better you are. Dontt depend on it upstairs, have it written do~~. So as I go to a given gane, I'll have openers right here, I'll have 24 plays listed and it is up to me at some point to remind myself at what point I'm at on the list. lid hate to think of calling three and then calling the kicking team and calling three and calling the kicking team. It seldom really happens that way, but I'll go right down that list. We're getting around halftime about that t f.me • We might nL.'1 40 plays in a given half. but we've run through it. Then at halftime we'll go in and we have a second half list and we'll probably have six to eight plays that we won't call until the second half of a game. That sort of takes a certain amount of nerve because you want to shoot the works, but you know in the second half they won't have the time to adjust to certain things.

You have to assume the game will be close after the first half.

If you don't assume it will be close, it really doesn't matter, but assume it's close and most games are close, you know that in the second half they can't adjust so we know that if we run 78 X hook, the first time we run it from upstairs they are trying to keep a chart of the for~tiong and the plays. r.~ey've seen a double wing, they've seen a halfback in motion to the weak side and they've seen the halfback in motion ~eak from what we call a blue formation. but then in the second half» you come out with a Y doub Le 'wing formation, wow, what happens now? . How do we adjust to that? Now that is a tough formation for the forward pasa. The Houston Oilers run it. I think they got some idea of running it basically from the Bengals because we ran a lot of it. The point is. it locks harmless to start with, but when you throw the football, whols going to go out on this halfback? If the corner widens which he should certainly do. then there isn't a defensive back

Walsh I 7

Diag. 3 6

-.~

o ~

covering your best receiver that's sitting right here. The only

man who would r be in a position to cover him wo uLd be a line-

backer 2,9 we now know defenses where YOU have a man type

thi.ng or a weak s ty\ Now s all' started when we had

Df.ag . 4 I 1 c:> c:.- .Q =

'\___--=

Isaac Curtis with the Cincinnati Bengals. would run those other

formations, but sometime in the second half when the pressure was really on, Curtis would line up tight on the weak side, no problem there. then the halfback would run out and stalk outside. The corner wants to cover Curtis, you have double coverage on

B

8=c>;;===

!,CU"~$ e»

~urtis, uh oh, what do we do now? The corner comes out, course they would be sitting here looking at Curtis, safeties can't cover Isaac Curtis so we would score, so that is one way of doing it. Another way we did this kind of thing which is uper is we ran it against New Orleans the first time we used it.

:[;;AtJSON

Diag. 5

Diag. 6

00

~

AVJ~ 0 <C:)

now this looks rath ~,~fmles3 too. Now you COGe out and line uP. but your problem for your opposition is that that's the halfback and that's the wide receiver right there. Now as they line up

they see the same combination of people and often these are black athletes, so theretsnot something that's real obvious to somebody that they can spott you line up, here's Essex Johnson. here's Isaac Curtis, so they line UP. corner goes out and something is wrong here, so he covers him. Then our quarterback moves his foot like all of you would do in motion and upshiftsIsaac on the weak side. Now who covers Isaac. They've got a weak safety that runs a 5 flat 40 who is a super football player but canlt stay with him. They've got a wea..1<side linebacker. Suddenly Curtis Ls released down that rield and all heck breaks loose. Well, this is the kind of thing we do and we still do it. Our side receiver, our split end. is always our best receiver because he can get more ball. He will

lsh I 8

line up in the backf ld. get right down in a 3 point stance. You'll come up, your ~hole team is in a 3 point stance, put your hands

under center, the halfback is sitting outside, the corner goes out

to cover him, you wove ur foot, he shifts up to position~

and all breaks loose,

. 7

Q

...

'0

they don't know who covers who and when they do figure it out, it

is always a mismatch, Well, this is the k i.nd of thing we hold until the second half and we have to have the nerve to do it or in a give game it could be one of our opening sequences so the rest of the g:une, they worry about if that happens again. what'll we do, but often, the thing that will harm the opponent most, the thing you hold until the second half and I know it's tough to do, but we'll

do it. So we have what we call an opening sequence of plays. then we can see what our run-pass ratio will be.

Now IDOSt people at the high school level or at any level will prefer to run the ball. We prefer to run t~e ball successfully. We prefer not to run the ball if we're not successful. but we'd prefer to run the ball if we could. but: it do e sn I e seem to work that way all the time. You can as you line up your plays. An example would be we would go right dow~ the list and the first

thing we I d run is a 96 and we I re from g r een forma tion. The quarterback has to remember that. The next thing we're running is 78 X hook and we're going to run that from double wing. The next thing w~! r e zunn Lng is 18 bog which is that basic sweep that a lot of teams run and we're going to run that from a red forwation which is split backs. but we're going to run that motion, our flanker is going to

go in motion and we're going to run it the other way. The next thing we are going to run is a 20 halfback flat and we are going to run that from a brown formation with B motion 'which is our fullback

in motion and we'll go right down the list. The next one we would run would be a 65 which is the fullback on the weak side and we are going to run that from a slot formation.

The point is now you've seen the sequence of plays and the combination of run versus pass that you'd like to have. You also have given your opponen~ one ck of a lot to think about. You have given him a different formation on every play. This has all been decided upon prior to the game. It's very simple to do so 96. the quarterback will know that one because as he enters the field, he's got the call fron YOUi but from that point on, your Quarterback knows the formation he's to run these plays in the tirst time he runs them. So you spend all your tine with that with your quarterback. Really what it does as far as the game plan ie concerned. it doubles really what you can plan on doing. Your quarterback will spend the week learning the formations that

are to be called in the sequence of formations. He the first

Walsh I 9

he calls 65 it! s f r om what ",'e call a b-rown s t , the second

he runs 65 :i.t IS f r cm a brown t Lz h t ich is a tight 'I;.'eak side A

end. So he knows when 65 is called the sequence of for:::1ations. He V

them and he has to spend time with it. You know by putting

all in ';rrit 2; the sequence of p l s you want to r un , and boy

you hit the nent with sequence of rmations. he'a

g to h problems adjust

Now, that is just one phase of football. Obv~ougly the execution of the play and your determina.tion to make i.t work is a much larger part of it. but as far as you as a coach when it comes to the strategy of football, this part of it becomes vital to you.

All right, the next part of it that ~e talk about is what you

in given positions on the field. For one. one thing we would want to concern ourselves with and not nece3sarily in the order of importance, one is field position. wnat relation to field position? We know going from our ovn goal line, we had be t t e r have a sequence

of things ;';8 want to do from our own I-yard line about our own

lO-yard line, really it's not the 10. it's usually the 6 or 7, but from the minus 1 to the minus 10. you'd better know what you want

to run and your team had better know it. They had better know going into the gawe when ~elre backed up, when somebody plliits the ball

and it is dead on our I-foot line or you stop a goal iine surge by the opposition, we take the ball ever on our 2-yard line. we'd better know what plays we're going to rlli1, we'd better know what formations we are going to be in. Don't figure that's just the

Bame as any:hin~ else you're going to do because we've all been through that b e f o r e , You stop somebody on 4 downs on your I-yard line and now what do you do? You go out on the field, everybody's celebrating, you've had a great goal line st~~d, but now what do

you do with the ball because the next thing that happens, you're punting it and they are getting it on your .'30 and here they come again and the second time around. seldom you stop them. You get worn out physically. You can't do it physically often. So

you've got to co~e out of there, from your I-yard line. you've

got to move the ball ~~d make first dO'Hns. You've got to get position at least from which to plLnt and you better have that in mind-what playa do you run? Well. by and la.rge, in this area, we have standard things that we do. Every week as part of our practice,

we will come out from our 2-yard line in practice during the season. Now, in training camp or early seasons that you'll have prior to your first ga:ne. you'd better practice what we call a IIbacked up" offense. Practice it 80 that when the players line up in their OWTl end zone in that huddle, they've"got a lot of confidence because they know they've practiced corning out of there before in their life. They've practiced coming out. They ~~ow that. So when they come off that line of a c r Lrnma g e , they knc v what ha s to be done.

They knos ... they can I t be taken for a 10s9. They know a. loss will

fu~rder them there, either by a safety or just as bad kicking from ~()

about a "lO-yard a r e a to the end line. They know certain things have t;,.._"-

to be done. The first prio is not necessarily to make a first

jown. TIle first priority i5 to get room to have a legitimate punt

bLf

sh I 10

rmation 80 that you are not squeezed down ere a good rush will rce the kicker to kick early, so they know what priorities they've got and you've practiced fro~ your own 2-yard line. ~ow as vou practice offensively from your own 2-yard line, your own def~nse

is practicing, our ow~ offeGse was stopped on the 2-yard line, but we are goirrg to stop them right here and get the ball right back

leh they certainly can do if they do it correctly_ Everything

the defense'g favor, but those are things that you practice~

You practice them, then when you have the sheet of paper here and there goes the punt and your guy fails to field it and it bounces dOT-VU and they down it on the I-foot line, you don't say, "My gosh. all rig~t. try a quarterback sneak." You've got your backup offense and you r e 8 tanding there and it I s right on your card. and you swallow hard ... if you're not, just depends on your ball clubb but youlre ready for it. You don't die a thousand deaths trying to decide what plays to call when you are backed up in the heat of a football game because 'lOU I r e thinking hov to get out; of there and !lO.K .• call that l8Boh play," so you pull both guards, somebody penetrates and you get a safety or whatever it is. The point is, have yourself ready. You practice it and then you have an area of offense that you'll run that from.

Now, remind yourselves when you run your backed up offense in practice. re!:lind yourselves to include at least t-:;vo passes b e caus e at the end of the game, you're going to have a chance to win ite

but you are going to get the ball on your own IO-yard line, you've all been through Lhat one. You've got to go 90 yards and you better not try to get real conservative right there. You've got to move that ball, you know your opponent is going to come after you with the blitz and so you better have a pass ready_ Now, we've won games throwing out of our own end zone and when I say that, I don't mean we've won games by going, although my career like all your careers it has happened once or twice, it's not a matter of going 99 yards to score. We've won games because somebody has driven right to

that point and been stopped. You've got the ball, there's 3 minutes to go, and if they get the ball one more time, yo~ are going to

get beat because if you have to punt from your o~u end zone, they are getting the ball with that great punt return opportunity and they are going to be in a position to win it. I can recall a game "tie had with the C'l.eve l.and Browns once when I was with the Bengals and this exact thing happened and this is why I go back to the

idea that if you spend enough time on a given job, like 8 years,

7 years. 5 years some .. rhe r e , these things begin to come across your mind instead of bouncing from job to job. So we learn this one. We were 11 points ~~ead with 4 minutes to go, they drive and we stop them, we get the ball and it's on our own 6-yard line. We've got to somehow control the ball. We don't. \~e have to punt the ball, they get it: a r oun d the 50. They go in and score. Now there is a 4 point difference. They kick off. We have trouble getting it outt we are on our own IZ .. yard line. New we are down to about 2 minutes. just a couple of first do~~s. know how to use the

clock, the game's over. We canlt do it. finally have to try to

Walsh I 11

ball it's the kind of P.JSS pattern that take too

long to develop, quarterback, Ken Anderson, is ',.Jaiting too

long, Turkey Jones comes around the end, bats the baIlout of his hands, ey fallon it, get it on about our 5-yard line, they Bcor~ and beat us. t;ell. the Cleveland Bro"m-Be:1gal thing was a Lway s a big rivalry. I learned my lesson as a play tiC ler. From that point on, weld better know what to do. We'd teer know t to

do when we're backed up, we'd better know what to in last

4 minutes of a goatball game. So our backed up offense has to include a pass because we have to keep the ball. Weare not going to run the ball on 3rd and 8 and make it. On 3rd and 8 if we

run it and don't make it, we punt it, they get it again and beat you so you've got to somehow hold onto the ball. You'd better be ready to t h r ow it from yOl:1r own lO-yard line whe t he r you like 1. t or not. You'd better be r~ady to throw it. ~ow, you don't like to

do that, O.K .• there's got to be a single given pass in your offense that your players have faith in, that they practice from their own 5-yard line over and over. that your quarterback knot ..... s what to do

th the ball when he gets in trouble back there. Ha doesn't want to take the ~afety, he knows to throw it away. certain things, and then you practice it.

All right. there's two situations where you want to throw the ball inside your own 10 coming out when you have to throw it and by and large, you're sitting at 3rd and 3 and they are in a shortyardage defense, what are you going to do? You ~2Y not have the

running play to do it with, if they are a good defense. The other one is long yardage. So you have to have ~wo passes--one for 3rd and 3. one for long yardage where we're talking about 3rd and 6,

7, or 10. any of those kind of things, you have to have a backed up pass for that. Now obviously. both of these passes had better be plays that ycut d use otherwise. They are not just for that situation, but they are those plays in which you have the most C confidence. Well, waht would they be?

All right, the play that we Diag. 8

ourselves

-- ) "2.;1d.

we'll go with two tight en~~e'l~ect with the weak side tight end which we do an awful lot. Now weill go right formation when 'l.fle have the pressure on us to throw the ball. we want to throw to the right when the pressure is on us because our quarterback obviously being right handed as mose of them are can see to his right as he drops back t so on long yardage we ',.Jill run this pley. Now we figure on long yardage they are either going to be blitzing or they are going to be in some form of a. zone defense and it is our jqb to time a pass right here. he takes 5 steps which

Wa15h I 12

I'll get into later. the play itself, he splits 12 yards, he runs

Ii 12-yard pattern, he'g pracr:ice.d and practiced and practiced that. If the otrong safety retreats. we hit the fullback. If the strong safety is in a 51<:y zone up, we hit him. If they are in man CO'Jerage, weill hit hi~. Our tight end comes off the line and pickg

off the near backer, that near ,or the ddle b r~~? of

the tvm p eop so that he can I t get out in coverage and ~;~Jfctice that. Tnen \Ie practice being ready ~nrcw it away. Then wt have

a C!::::J ~ <:::> ~

a year later we I r e playing Clev~~-ns and new we I re ah ead 24 to 17 and they've got everyching going for them. We go off at halftime 21 to nothing and welr~ slaughtering them and before we

kncv it, we're at 24-17, ·";2 stop one drive when tney ~iss a field goal and we're staying about on our own lO-yard line ~~~h 2 minutes

to go. Well. we get this pass to Isaac Curtis right hefe from Ken Anderson.

Diag. 10

that pass won the grune. It didn't make any more~ it made 9 yards. but it got us the first down and, of course. the clock kept going and we won the ga~e. The point I'm making is one year we aren't ready for it and v« Lo s e., we're ahead by 11, and we lose. The next year we are ahead by 1 points and we win because we are ready for it and we "ve practiced the play arid the player. knew .,hat t~ do 80 you have to have that play on long yardage. . ,

Now, you talk about 3rd and 3, whet Ls a ~ play on 3rd rut 3. Well. any time it is 3rd and 3, 3, 2. 1 y~~d. you're hoping

to get the situation e your quarterback c n make the 2rst dv~~~ by running so we'll run a rollout p as s , '"' -~.

Again we'll have 2 tight ends and the simple rollout where he releaSeS un the f i.e Ld or he runs what ''Ie call a drive pattern, t i.gh t end releases and break! to the outside, fullback is in the flat, ha.lfback is acro8s9 quar::erback rolls. and we look to hit the full .. back in the flat and looks like we are faking the sweep so if they ar e man coverage it is ah r d for this man to get out and stop him

7.

Walsh I 13

r less than 2 or 3 yards. That'g the whole i &. So on 3rd

3 we go to our rollout. On the 3rd and 8 or 9 we've got our dropback which is a very aimple pattern always going to our right and looking to our ght because it is so critical in the ?arne. Those are e xamp l e s for you and you've got your own p l.sy s . I m not vo r r t ed about these plays, but you'd better when you're backed up have

your basic rurmLn g plays, y ou t d better have at least two p as s e a-.one for short yardage where you know you really feel in your heart you're not going to be able to run for it and the other one for

long yardage where vou know if vou don't throw the ball and cc~plete

t .;.; i .

it, they ve got a heck of a chance to win. Now as a coach. you ve

got to be very, very careful of putting all the pressure on your defense. You can save your conscience I guess by saying, "I'll

never throw from that position on the field, lid be a fool. Defense get out there." Well, the defense is tired. It's the fourth quarter. They're tired, the other team's got treIT;endOU8 momentum built up,

they see now they have the ball on the 30 and they have to go in to score on you, they are all fired up, you're trying to hold them,

you lose the game. 'lOU say after the g ane , "Ou r defense jus t r" couldn't stop them.~ Well. you can always go all the way back'

what you did when you had the ball when you were backed up. Di

you get the ball and hold it? ~ow that is the examp Le of the

backed up offense and you have certain plays. I'd ouch rather un

a roll right, fullback flat than I would some rm of an option

play because you know that some form of option, your quarterba K

has a chance to keep the ball and make the yardag~, but you c

really get in trouble with the old pitch out ~

Diag. 12

to me thatn this kind of your quarterback would run

so that kind of thing pass. Obviously for it.

The next part of your game plan has got to be that operating area in the middle of the field. I say that ooerating area is

from about your own 15-yard line all the way to your opponent's 3D-yard line. From your 15 to their 30, you can basically run the same attack with veri little change. You don't want to dissect it too much, but from your 15 to their 30, you run your basic attack. You throw as much as you want to throw or run as ouch and you function from there on field p05ition. But once you get around their 30t then things change again. How do they change?

Well. first place, you donlt have nearly as much field to operate in and so certain passes aren't going to be as successful. They know they don't have as much field to defend so they are going to playa lot tighter coverage. Itls hard. in other words. to get the ball deep down the field and do much with t t . They know at: that point that they are going to have to come after you.

88

lah I 14

So you look your opposition this is e your scout report

comes in your coaching ability of your staff or the head c~ach

as to what do they do 1.: 30. I want to know that more

than any ing else dy.

If YOU I ve taken d i. t and you are now on

their 25~yard line, here blitzes becau8~ they are start-

ing to get sperate. at coa on the other side of

the field is very cool or is the guy throwing, the ~lipboard. it really do e an it ma t t e r . He 18 going to be desperate C'ilJ._l1.d the 25

if you I ve been mov Ln g the ball. He! s got to figure .ne r e I B no s topping them. We'd better do something about it so here comes the blitz. So right around the 30~ we're attacking the blitz defense. We're looking £0= a blitz every play. Now if we don't get it one play, we'll get it the next, If we get it one play, there's a good chance he won't corne back w~th it the next. So that's where it cou~tB to your f~eling about your opposition, Some of you in certain leagues play the same coach 15 straight lousy years. You look across and see that sa~e guy over there every year and if you're smart. you try to figure out how he thinks and what does he go to

or his assistant arolli,d the 25-yard line. What psychology does he use? ~,d most often he's going to get a little desperate around

the 25 8.J,.,d here comes the b li t z , 'iJ'ell, ouz game plans when we i r e

on their 25, I'm looking at the plus 25 plays we are going to run almost in sequence. Now I won't run sonething we've run before. seldom will we do that. But weill hit them with the plays designed to ~eat the blitz because we are going to get it. All right, let's just say we run that 65 play with certain kind of motion and they blitz us. Well now in the next down. DDst often I'll say to myself, I don't think he's going to try it twice. He'll blitz about every other: down. He's smart enough to know that and,he blitzed and ?ot s:v;ay with it. he 1:3 not going to do it again the next down so we 11 run a play that I s not uece s s ar Ll y designed for the blitz, but as

soon as we get to the 25 and I see that opposition d i.dn I t blitz on

the last play. in goes a play to beat the blitz because here comes

a blitz on the next play. These are the kind of things that you

have to be ready with on your 25-yard line offense. We have certain passes, we have certain motion, we are looking for man to man co,;erage. We know if they playa zone and we dump.-i\the ball off.

we re in beautiful shape. ~ I ! ./'

Df.ag , 13 c:::o <:::> c» a e» 0 <0 )5 /' ;/

o 0" 4---- .. :::';

Aro und the 25 -ya r d line we are going r:ore and more to a c l.c s e flanker type formation. First, we like to rlli~ the wing T power playoff tackle. itls part of our football. but al s o against 1.J1i3.n to !D.2.n, we don It wan t to line up the flanker out wide where the ball has to travel a long distance and has to be thrown accurately. we bring

him .Ln so that he can get anywhe r e on the field ~.;e want. We'll

bring him in closer ag aLns t the raan to man defense forcing this

corner or ever it is to cover him. if we bring him in close.

Walsh I 15

we're going to have the ability to block with hi~ i or we 111 bring h in motion from the outside and s n

H a» =:> J;;-- _'-- _~ _

:::> b"",- - --- ~

'We do often there and use

. 14

Weire in a position to block with him and that CO!C:1er is in trouble,

the support man, because that block he better get elf up there

or we 'll make some yardage. On the other hand. h,~ can g e t ac rc s s

field real fast &~d we!d better get in position to try to

Diag. 15

a

catch him, whereas if we had a wide inside breaks by playing inside and

Diag. 16

flanker, he could stop the

of course, if you ~reak outside,

)fl

it makes a pretty good paS3 to complete it so he's got a way to

play the flanker if he's split but now in close he's in some trouble in man to man defense, zone it'g not too tough. So you'll see us

in a closed flanker and you'll see us rlli~ pass patterns designed

to break the blitz from a close flanker snd of course we combine

that with our basic power running. so around the 25, all of a sudden our team goes to a closed flanker, When we're backed up all

of a sudden, we go to two tight ends and run our offense. So, you see these are things that are related to a game plan that you fellows should be considering. Now, as far as we're concerned, and I think it held true in college football, when we played a real tough opposition, we had a real tough schedule at Stanford and probably not

the greatest pe r aorm e I in many ',,;aY3 because of our entrance requirements, but around the 25, we want to get to the end zone. We're looking to score. I'd hate to think of taking the ball from the

25 and handing those lead plays to our I fOrTIlation tailback and going all the way from the 25 over the goal line. Now, if you've

got a wonderful running back like a Billy Sims or something. those kind of things can be cone9 or a Charles TJhite. But often you

don't have that kind of a guy so we're looking to go to the end

zone. We know around the 25 or 20 yard line, they are going to be blitzing. We know we're getting man coverage. If we ever throw

the ball, it's right then and there, If we aver beat somebody man

to roan, it IS right then and ch e r e. We played Georgia in the Bluebonnet Bowl two years ago and they made the one critical error. Georgia is probably as fine a coached team as any team in football, maybe one of the top f our or five college teams as far as the caliber of coaches. They've got a wonderful defensive coach, great head coach, fine staffb but they made the one mistake because they didn't unde r s t and our concept of football. They kept on blitzing. They

stopped us in the first half. They were ad 22 to nothing, bue

sh I 16

they kept on coing it and we got a. ;<1ttern 8.3 to their bl5.tz2-S 130 as we got close, this clo9c £1 r thi~g, right at the 25, we scored four t.Lrne s just like that on four po s s es s Lon s and vlent ahe e.d and beat them because they didn't 'l:l1cerstand ou:." concept. They were go i~lg to gear up , bl i cz , and stop t r'unn i ng g ame a r o und the

25 reBS we were going for t zone around the 25 with a close

flanker, th people in rr::otion. tr)"ing to iDolate him, and that

particula.r thing "Wa~ tanto

The same at any level. If you've go~ a great receiver and eome confidence in your fo rvar-d passer. the b e s t time to chr ov the ball is right at the 25-yard line. N~4. if you haves. field goal kic~er of any con3eq~ence, any kind of field goal kicker, as you get in there, ~ou figure we're going for the end zone, then we're going to kick a tield goal. Next time we get the ball. we're going for the end zone, then we'll kick the field goal. That approach rat~er

than everybody g ...... eat i!: out and atart trying to hand the ball off and blast it in there and we've all been through those games where we do a beautiful job of moving the ball. but you peter out around the lO-yard line. Part of the reason you run out of gas is you run out of gas. Your players are fatigued. lne defense has the advantage. rney don't have as much room to protect, they don't have to do much other than hold their ground and they'll stop you. Offensive people get physically worn out. If you could stop the game

for 15 minutes or 10 minutes, get them on the sideline, give them

a drink of Gatorade or whatever you feed them. they'd probably

come back and be ablA to get in ~he end zonet but by that time

they are just a little fatigued. they don't get in there. So m7 point is~ around the 25. you need an offense.

All right, so first we have a backed up offense and we practice it. Second we have a plus 25 offense. New it might: be the 20. but you as a coach decide when to go to it as to want statistics you

get from them, scouting them what they do on the plus 25, but lid be looking right in that area--25 to the 20, they start changing their defense. They don't want to, but through desperation they will.

)

Now the thing we do is right: around the lO-yard line~

there is somewhat of a df.s adv an t a g e because they are not ready to gO' to' their goal line defense yet. so right around the IO-yard line, see we are going to thro~ here. I don't mean every down obViously. but right around the 10 ~ we are gcing to run because we know right at that point. they are still in their basic defense~

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and.every inch We;: can get out of them we are going to try to get. That 1 s when our lead plays and pO-de I' plays and all that kind of

s comes intO' play. From there, itls not ~oo hard to get

Diag. 17

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I

Walsh / 17

.h e 10 to t the :3. next i we ' ve t is a goal l i.ue

offense, and of course, we all have it, everybody, and it-obviou3ly has to include passes. Donlt be a fool about that. You have to

lude passes and you hav2 to practice them because you are gotng to need them about half the time. Now in professional football, the goal line defenses are brutal to deal with. If we play 11 opponents a year, which we do, 9 of the opponents are ing to make it alrr:ost

s s Lb l e to score with a run from the 5-yard Li.r.e in. ~iow, you can score froQ the l-foot line often, but they are go g to be tough. They deepen their linebackers, then their linebackers have a b2Ck

to key and they start £onlard when he starts forward and they meet him right at the line of scrir.;rwage. high in the air, and they stop him. The Atlanta Falcons do a super job of that for instance.

They have a way of playing so you better have some passes. That gonl line offense is good as soon as they s~bstitute, you are in your ~oal line offense, so we have it on our list. Un£orttlnately

I don t have one with me, but we will have going right do'~ the

list, we will have what we do as we move toward the goal line--

plus 10, runs, dotted line and passes. Next thing we've got is

goal line. Now, on goal line offense, unless you have a play that works every time and some people do, but if you are like most of

us, you don't you've got plays you like to rJn. you know you want

to give it to a certain back, those kinds of things, but now

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Diag. 18

you want to ~Tite down behind the play on this list of yours how many yards you're looking for, what you expect. So in our goal line area, weill. have 65 solid as a call, that's not important

I to you what that is ,but b eh Ln d it. I! 11 have t'",,;o • wei 11 have 14 lead, we want to run it to our right, we don't say run a 15 this time and 14 next time. Wetve got a very good right tackle, very good right guard--very much like the Oakland Raiders have done wi Up sh aw and--but the t"".10 of them sitt.ing there, they'll run right

behind those people, ~

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Diag. 19

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and so we rJn right behind QUI' best blockers when we t to that

paint, we don't care if they know it or not. There's nothing they can do with their defense. The.y can I t Bay, "0. K .• everybody line up over here." They still have to play defense.. so you'll run your best plar. But 14 le we'll go 1, we'll go quarterback sneak, and we 11 go inches and we'll bMO throuoh it. Now we might

8 ~ , v

have PACYS tn7re, W~ might have 6 plays. We'll have a side to

run it. We won t have 14 or 15, weill decide which way we want to TILat'g part of yo~r pre-game thinking. You dOI1't want to get

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Ish I 18

to game arid e, • we went to e right Las t;

game, ~~hy don't we t it to the left thistimel!1 You have a wa

of (~oing s , point is have a specific run that you c a 1

from the aide 3 or signal o r the qu a r t e r b a calls. if you have

him do I t , but then us e it, ~ r a.no un t of yardage "{OU n e e d .

What 11 IE,ad. P ay get 1 wt1at if we have' 3rd and- 3 on the 31

Are you to !:1..L"1 14 lea r d an d 3 on 3, 'Isle are g

to run roll rt t flat. Third and an inc:-. for 11 touch

are w-e going to rrun 14 lead or 65 solid vhe re ere is a ball of

exchange or ia our terback go g to run a ana 1 So in each one

of these situations on goal li~e offense, you your o~m mind

have wri t ten down and decided men wh L df.r e c t i.on you axe going and that helps you because all of this type of thing mak e s it much easier to sleep the night before the g~e. It's all been planned and that's

"Thy you practice all we ek . Don t t go to the g arae t hout; a lot of

these kind of things avall~ble to you. Now those are field posit n type of things. Yr.at's just field p03ition.

The next one we might talk about is the down and distance type of thing. All ri t , what do we do on down and distance. Well. obviously. you ve got f at and ten. Now first and ten is your

basic offense and can include a lot of things in that. You can

say second and seven, you can say third and four.

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~an say first and' five, you know you can give all kind of situations for your basic offense. That's your bread and butter footballt you have to have that. But now, you have to define it from there, rlnat do you do on ird and three? You'd better have a play in mind and yeur players had better have one on third down and three, yards to go because that is a brutal situation unless you're knocking the stuffing out: of somebody, t h en ;lOU don I c even remember if it was third and thre~ or third and 20, you still !'!lake your yards. 3ut if you are like a lot of people, third down and three is critical to you and the call you make there is vital. You've got to knew what will make you three yards, There are some running

plays when sonebody ?ets a tightened defense or a blitzing ~ype

of defense that aren t very good on third and three, certain option play if you are an 01' t Lon t.e an , certain p owe r plays. the double team f r ota a c l.o s e wingback type of p owe r , sometimes you don I t want to nm it because there is al~ays a chance of penetration by the time you get to the hole, things have been shut off. r~ere you d run the heck cut of it here, you may not run it here, but on third and threes have p Lay s , and your team knows it so that in early practice durin? the early fall or late s urrme r or like many of you, during June you r e going to be p r a c tieing and you will p rae tice 3rd down and 3 yar ds to go, defens 1y and otf~n8ively. The way to do it is to get your manager s $ put your down markers out there j put the chain out there.

sh I 19

t the guy wi th e 3 ck , 3rd down and 3 yards to go, we q r e ~oing

to have a 3rd and 3 s c r g e , ! 11 t'U..'1 and ! 11 pl tense,

We're going to 3rd and 3 scri~age 12 plays.

Now de f en s Lv e Ly , people get an idea on how r t ant; the e:1U

t.ack Le is, hm>l.1 o r t an t; it i13 not to let a man 1 forward and

it. s t ar z learning how to play de e it's .3rd and 3

because a poor tackle means makes the first ,so t is

great for d~fense. Offens 1ys you begin to figure what plays are best for you as a tea.I!!. Then, when you ?et a little. game and itis 3rd and 3 ~nd your team huddles up, they Ve got a good idea what is cOming into the gane, what is being sent in. and how they are going to go about getting it because they've practiced it before. So 3rd and 3 is important to you.

All right. 3rd down and 1 or 2 is your basic short yardage situation. Welve all been through it. You have your play, but 3rd and inches. You'd better be ready for that. A~d, of course. you've got a 4th, too, that sits right there with it--4th and inches. Whatever it is. you'd better have lithe" play. Don't try to pull

one out of whatever. You'd better have "thel! play that you call. Now. I'll tell you, it's better for your football team. It takes

a little of the pregsu~e off the coach. If you practice your inches play or your 3rd rukd 3 play and it doesn't work, the team comes

off the field. You are not going to have the griping and the frustration from the te~ that you often would have if you just pull 30me play that they aren't ready for and you donlt know what to do with the pressure on your mind and everything that goes with it.

You don't really know what to do when they come off the field and they didn't make it and by gollys we practiced it and didn't make it. We'd better be ready the next time around. They know they practiced it, they kn~ what play is corning, they know how to run it; if they didn't make it. they didn't make it--they can live with that. But I'll tell you the problem is when you call the play and they are saying. IIltihy did you ever. Coach. why, can I talk to you for a minute, why did you do it? How could you rlli~ that sweep when we W'ere moving theo all day inside?" Now. that's all been settled. You've already established that game plan and you have got it right here and it's 3rd and 3 and believe me. men. you find it and go to it and that means you practice it. So, there's third down and 3 yards to go. You practice those things and you decide according to your quarterback. ia the quarterback sneak or the quarterback wedge the thing you want? You may say to yourself. men, the only way you're going to make it ia to run that toss sweep. On 3rd and inches. welre going t033 sweep, I don't care if it's 3rd and 1

in~h, we're ~ot moving people, we haven't rr~ved them all year.

we re going to toss sweep and welre practicing it and so you get

out and it might be th~ day you practice short yardage. you don't have to practice much of this, but you say there are six short yardage playa and here we go. Put the markers out there. we always u s e the markers or as often as we can, all right, t he r e it is. take "':, look, men, in the huddle, you as a CO£! stand in the huddle and

// sh I 20

saYa uLook over ere, there it is, it's going to be happening to you Friday night.1I So right there, it's 3rd and inches, come out

.iv of the huddle an d be ready. Your defensive cc a che s are sitting over there, "The r a it Ls ;" You are going to be seeing it at uDOU.t 8:45 Friday night, they are going to be doing it and you better

be ready_ So you line up in it and it. You do it about six

times and boom , you b r e ak from ere, but doni t think that

really has an effect on the players, I'll tell you, it'a fed back to tne , that I s why you ",'ant to coach in the same s oo t for a number of years. You g~t to know the players, you get t~ knowing the people in town. you get to kriov i.n g these things. The players know it and you get in the huddle the next week and you point to that thing and say, "Remetnb e r las t week against Temple High . . .

Those are the things. Now how many plays would we have on

3rd and 37 We'd probably have 4 runs. ~ow when I say 4 runs, I don't mean right and left. rrle are going to r un to our right. T..le are going to run it to our left behind that tackle. We are not deciding which way we run it this tim.e. We know which way we'll run it and we'll look right at Gordon King and say, "Gordy. it's coming to you, we're running 65 right behind you and that extra right end is in there. Itlg 65 solid, we're going to block that defensive end and we are coming right there and that's you." Now, that's

one of our 3rd and 3 plays and the other one is our roll right fullback flat and fullback, you'd better not drop the football because everybody is co~~ting on it and ~e's going to get it. He's probably going to get it with about a 2-yard gain and there's

going to be s0oebody hit him as he catches it and he's going to fall forward for the other yard. You want to be that specific in front of the whole team. It'll come to you. "Quarterback, threw the ball 80 he can catch it." You see wha.t I mean. That's the kind of thing.

We'll probably have 4 runs'and 2 passes right here. Third

and 1 or 2, when '",~e get right down to t c , we probably have got . three runs here. Now, 3rd snd 1 or 2, you've got 2 passes always on short yardage. Every time you playa game, you've got ~wo short yardage passes. One of them is to nake the first down. That is your rollout, your sprint out. You always want to make it an action pass as we call it where the quarterback has a chance to

run if the receivers are covered. You always have to have that.

The other pass play you've got is one where you are trying to

m&~e a down. You }~o~ there is one time in the game where

the pass coverage is c cns t an t . That I s on short yardage. Seldom does your cppo s i t Lon say. "'o'inat: coverage do you want to r'un now , g ang , it'a 3rd and 1?!I No way, they've got a 3rd and I d e.f en s e and there's a cov;2rage they use. The guys you have scout the game or if you use a film, if you get 5cmebody's film, whatever you do. you. are Lcok.Lng for that. Th ac coverage. and you say, we are'going to have B chance to '~n the ball game on 3rcl and 1.

Of t.en y,:JU f 11 do :t t on 3rd and 1 and then punt the ball, you are

sh I 21

side the 50 80 you'll hopefully p un t it out of bounds or s omething--get them in a hole. But right around the 45-yard line or 50-yard line, on 3rd and 1, you are looking becau3e you want to

try to win the gace right there. You know the pass coverage. Now,

if you pass coverage and you don't have anybody who can

get open, why fight it? But you Rlways have a play for that situ-

ation, whether think it 5.13 goc1d to do or not because at some

point during that game, you may have to gamble and try it. You may not have any choice. You're behind 14 to nothing and it's

3rd quarter and this is really going to be your only chance to make something happen, so you'd better try it. You know if you make the first down, you still have 40 yards to go, you've only made four first dow~s the whole game so you can't figure you are going to get in there, you better try to win the game on short yardage. In every short yardage right here, you are going to have t~o passes--one to ~ake the first down, one to score with. Thatls part of your football. So when you work on short yardage with your team on Wednesday or whenever it is, you may not work a long time on. it. but you say t "Run the roll) II you roll to your r Lgh t . Whenever the pressure is on, have the quarterback go to his right. Never have him go to his left. I watched a team in a bowl g~e, one of the great teams in the country, I think they were undefeated in the Rose Bowl. but they had their quarterback goi~g to his left in the fourth quarter play after play and hets a right-handed quarterback and he had all kinds of trouble becaug~ USC had a

Juper defensive end on their right and he got to the quarterback

or pressured him every play and this particular team lost the

game.

You always want your quarterback going in the direction in .

which his arm is removed from the pressure. If he is left handed, , you want him going left. If he's right handed, you want him going right when the pressure is on him. You never want him going left, being right handed, when the pressure is on. If you want him doing it on first down, do it, but on third down, be careful. Be careful of having him run to his left and throw the ball. Now there are ways you drill it. BYU does a super job with that Marc Wilson bringing him to his left. turning him up the field and throwing, but whenever the pressure is on, you better go right with your quarterback as an example. So on that 3rd and 1 or 2, he's going right. wnat's that defense going to do? T.~ere's not a thing they can do about it except practice against the rollout to their own

left. They can't call their players over there, are not about

to try that. So on 3rd and 1 or 2, things begin.

All right, now youhave the pass to ma.ke the first down. a.nd you have the pass to win. Now the pass to win is often a play pass. Often it is one man down the field sonewhere. There is no use scattering the field with receivers. If you want to beat tnern to win, you are going to fake everybody and this, of course, one of

great plays we developed when 1 was with the Bengals was

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this in ich we football. 11 go into 2

e rotation on s rt yardage. They want e support and th

have 2 deep. Th a t seems to be vh a t mas t l e do now days and

they are in great shape. This man is ready to go up 'When the action comes toward him. This man is protecting. . . So no~ we look at this guy eve~y week. _ How deep is he, how anxious is he to get in

on the play, how fast is he? So we take our speed guy, we are bcatin~ him, we are going right at hiG . . . out and going by him and we r e faking and everybody is blocking, he's coming f o rwa r d

and do e sn 't t h Lnk of holding him up an d we I r-e putting our f a s t guy on their strong safety and welre going to get the ball up. That's an example of that play that I'm talking about. that 3rd down and that 3rd down and 1 to go. We'll take a shot at that right there.

Now there are other kinds of things. If you are going to

throw deep on 3rd and 1, you might as well give the opposition the thought that you are going to run the ball. Don't co::ne out in a spread formation. You coce out with your two tight ends or your extra tackle that you use with a second Sight end. you line up with those two guys there and you1ve got a h~rcory of doing that behind those two blockers and you practice anf~actice that eve;::y week and.

Diag. 22 . ~=

at some point you use it. It d023n t ~ y~have to use it. You might not use it for 5 weeks, but at some point you use it: because every week when you get that 3rd dOwTI and I yard part of your practice, you've got those markers out there, all right, run pass 14. flanker go. Rw1 it, run it, suddenly it comes in the game.

The players think, "Finally we got it." That's when you'd use it, but that's an example of your situations.

1 've seen every form of 'When you d Lv I de long yardage and short yardage--3rd and 5 to some teaDS is long yardage, 3rd and 8 to others. It doesn't really matter, but you know when you use your basic. You know when you use your short yardage. Helve elready talked about that. You know.3rd and 3 is a vital play and algo

you better have in mind what you are going to do on 4th down if you are going to try to reeve the ball. Don't try to think of it when

it Comes up. It's going to kill you and seldom are you right. In other wo r ds c be ready td. t h your 4 th dc.,. .. rn p lay if you are go Lrig for it. Often it is a play that you run continuously. there is no doubt about that. but your 4th down play. be ready with it so you C.:ln go to it and your playera have a good idea what it will be. Don't try to pull one: out from nowhe r e , 1IW':'l.a.t Ls Lt , 4th dovn? O.K," Then

1

Walsh I 23

~e c otarts going. you know it, only 25 seconda, you're

:ryin think w:tat to do on it, we've got to run it, and oh , "Run

a ana You've Been that one before. I've been through that be-

. Just have the play. Have it written. on your game plan so as you 9 t and there, it! s 4th down and you try to k e ep composed and u s omehow find the spot where it says 4th down and inches and you call the play and that's 'lour best bet. Now, I wouldn't have 10

plays, but I might have 2"or 3 possibilities or aD the game progresses. you Ree which thing i3 going best for you, noW' the defense i3 on the field, you eck off, If the 4th dO\ffi cOGes up, 1'0 going to run

this play, I'll be ready with it. But have thoae things in mind.

If you don't your chances of making the ri~ht decision arB very. very remote under the pressure of a game. That s why all the planning goes into the nilitary before a battle. Often they are wrong, but the point is you need the planning and you better live with your

de sions prior to the game, nut during the game.

Now you've got the long yardage type of thing. We say if we need 10 yards on a given doY~, we have an offense for that.· Ten yards on a given ·downt well. what does that mean? Well, it's second down and 20, that's the same situation. It's third do-wn and 10.

We need 10 yards on a given down to make it. Trie have plays that we'll run and ve have a list of them. I'll finish that play that

I drew up for you, that kind of thing. but we have them listed. The quarterback knows that if he's in that 10 yards on a given down situ~tion. he knows what formation to run--a 78 X hook or wh.atever it

19ht be, 22 Z end, whatever the play might be. He knows what for~tion to run because he knows his long yardage situation. his short yardage situation, those plays he has a specific formation he must be in. We are not going to try to finesse somebody at that point. We better be in just the right position to block everybody and throw to a receiver.

We also have five to six yards on a given down. NoW' it's 3rd and 5 or 6 I o bv Lo us Ly . That s I.cua t Lon , you know what you want to run there. But I split the ~vo up_ I'd have an extreme long yardage or your long yardage and have it right on a list so if you get a holding penalty on first down, it's 1st down and 25 yards to go. you know pretty much what to do, you know just about what to

do. Often you'll throw on the first down, run on the second. throw on the third. Seldom do YOU want to throw on a second down. You want to try to run the ball. That's what we generally do on those kind of situations, but that particular kind of situation, you know what you s.r e going to go for and they know , You want to condition your team on an extreme long yardage situation, condition them to eliminate the frustration of not o£king it. Be careful of the one 'i#lhere you criticize the team by saying to the receiver. "You didn 't go down the field far enough, you only went 18 yards and we needed 209 why didn't you notice that?" That's ridiculous, that's the rhetoric that's been used for years. Don't do it to your football team. You give me a receiver that can figure that one out and there "10n't be one in the National Football League, maybe there's one in

7r

Walsh I 24

a high school aomewhe r-e , but when they are trying to run a pass pattern and beat defenders and adjust to the ball, for them to know exactly how far down the field they a r e , that I s brutal, :iow J

u practice running a hook pattern for instance a certain distance, u practice it. and you can be 'I-tithin a y a r d or two of what you

want on a ing p a t t.e ru , but don l t on a long yardage situation

to get it all with "the" P2SS, In other word:J, we need 14 areIs, we 11 throw a 15 yard pass, It depend on t one. You are not going to get it done. You might get it done once and talk about

it for 10 years, but as a steady diet you are not going to make 15 yards when you need 14 wi th the pas s , So what 'We do is say, "We

can get you half of it with the pasa, but the other half of it

you have to run with the ball after you catch it. I! SO ~ if we need

20 yards, w('!lll throw Ii 10 yard pass with the'idea of our best chance of caking it, our best chance of making the 20, is the run after the catch. and we want to give the r e c e i v et: an opportuni ty to rtL.'1 after he catches the ball--not 1USC catch it and be tackled. So we'll

run plays hopefully. if 'W~ need 20 yards. we'll run the kind of

plays where the receiver is moving when the ball is caught, then

he has a chance to make it. we wen I t throw a hook pattern needing

20 yards to go on a given down because the hook will mean they'll catch it and then get t.ackled because he's facing away from the opposition's goal--he's facing your OwTl goai--so he catc~e9 it, you know if the other team falls down, helll do O.K., but by and 1arse. he'll make just about as much as the pass will give him. So ... hen

we need a lot of yardage, we ~ant the receiver running when he catches it. Now if he doesn't make it, dontt fight it. The completed pass on third down that doesn't make a first down, in other words, I completed a 7 yard pass and I needed 10, still affectg

the defense. The defensive signal caller, that coach, remembers

that play where you came close to making it. It scares them and

he doesn't Hant that to happen again and he is going to try to

adjust to it.

TIle worst thing you can have on 3rd down is to try to throw

a 15 yard pass when you needed 14 and have everybody j\rnp for it. the ball batted do·~. the receiver knocked do·~, the quarterback knocked dow~, and your offensive team stumble off the field and

the defensive team going wild because they stopped you. That's

the worst thing youcan have other than an interception, I suppose, but that's what you don't want to happen. You want to avoid it.

If we are on 3rd down situation and we don't make the first down but cOTI~lete a pass and make yards and improve our field position and come off the field. our defense won't have their heads down. They won't be disillusioned, frustrated, chsy'll say, "Drats, we didn't make it." But you give me the team where the quarterback

is hit waiting for somebody to get open way down the field or the receiver is hit as he is trying to catch it and everybody is all around the ball, that~s when the defense g2tS momentum, the ether team's offense gets momentum uhen they coce on the field. Be careful of that one. You can s till win the ball g arae if you don't

make your third down conve r s Lons . Now. the 49' e r s , lest ar I

a /

ish I 25

h we were 2nd in the NFL on at kind of thing, on thi=d down

!onversions by taking that approach. We didn't o~viously have a very good record, but that part of our f o o t b a Ll, ir8S very good because ~e didn't try the impossible and that is to try/to make all the

yards '..;rith the p as e on third down . So wh a t ' s '1 good 3:::-d down pass?

\Jell, t h e old de l ay type sti.-;,,':f often can ge5r'Y;3u s orne t.h Lng because

your receiver is moving. S P\~. .? ../ _ II 5.S

12..- B;-- c.

ago 23 B~

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Now. it depends on wha t kind of taInt you have. We often r cn with two tight ends in our offense or a squeeze down wide receiver as a split end. I wcu l d much rather run this t yp e of f o rtna t Lon than one where th2re is a standard splie on both sides that the defense practices against all week so we try to force our opponents to play against things that they don't ?=actice against. This is getting off the subject of that third dcw""n--so our receiver splits vary an awful lot from game to game because our o?ponent often doesn't practice against that. The opposing tea~ that your team is playing has a defensive practice, you know, they have a scout team or w~at<ve r they do. but the guy r unn ing the s co u t team cards, you I ve all

een it, he and the team that is running the plays don't think enough about the splits so that end up goin~ out and splitting about the same distance every time and the defensive team lines up and plays that. All of a sudden they played Stanford and that guy split 3 yards and the adjustment and the drops of the linebackers are all affected by that. ~~at do they do? They drop past where the receiver is going or do they stay? But we vary these splits is my point.

On one of the plays that is very good. I'll put our ~omenclature here--the old delay play in which if you've got a good ru~ner with the ball right here, or at least the best runner you've got, you push the back through and you pull the linebackers deep. Push the back through, pull the line~ackers deep. You start him up,

waits, comes underneath, he catches the ball right there 5 yards deep. Nmv t ha ~ is s t r Lc tly a de lay pat t e rn . Our quarterback takes a 7 step drop, holds the bal!., this man learns to adjust to whac

he sees which I von I t get into, but that is only a 5 yard pass and it IS 3rd down and 15. but what we "v e done is given our receiver a chance to cstch the ball running and have hi~ a re&~ opportunity

to run for the ex t r a 10. All r~ht, he catches it Vor 5 and rc.i.ns

for 5 and you don't make the fi~st down. 9 - 1

D g. 24

D \

Walsh I 26

you gained 10 yards for field position, now you p~~t it and you are in better position when you punt it ?lus that your team COt:'les off

field, we're still movino the ball, we're still moving it: and we'll t them next time. r?d much rather do that kind of thing than t quarterback rollout or sprint out. hold the ball, wait,

wait. wait, then finally throw' the ball dowa the field, eve

body jumps up in the air. bats it ar cund , and your de s e comes

off the field dejected so there is a. difference o e twe en that kind of thing. We will say if we are in long yardage, we will get half the yards with our pass. we'll get half of it wi.t..~ the r un after the catch. The man catching it knows it, he's got to get the

rest of it. Don't tell him to adjust his pattern according to those down t:larkers. That's a mistake. That's really a mistake I believe. Very few receivers can do it and the other thin2 it does. It destroy~ whatever timing the quarterback and reCeiver have worked out. It you believe that (and every team has to throw a pass once in a while) when you throw a pass that timing is Lmp o r t an t; to you, you can't very well time your passes by a receiver running a different distance every time he runs the pattern, 90 your best bet to

get the ball completed is for the quarterback to have a feel of taking so many steps back, holding the ball a c e r t a Ln anoun t of time, and throwing it to a receiver about a cer:ain distance down the field .... not one ~here he is varying his dista..:;ce according to those down markers and the poor quarterback is t=ying to figure out what the heck he is doing now, so that is another one.

Now, the 3rd and 5 situation, I've been talking about 3rd and 10 or more, you have in your game plan what certain plays you want to nL~. Now it's 3rd and 5 and you have a plan for that. You have 4 runs and 4 passes and when I say that. the passes are throwing

to the left or right, they are not 8 runs and 8 ?asses right and left~ they are 4 ruTIs--they are to the right or :0 the left, each one of them. The passes are a certain way, so ~~ere are 8 things that you practice, 8 plays that you practice. ~~is week you are going to be in a right fo~~tion. You are goin6 to throw to a

split end on the left a hook on 3rd and 5, 6 or 7. that area right there. This week you are going to be in left fo~ation and run

your toss sweep to the left. You practice that ~ecause you feel

you can rtm your toss sweep better to the left ~ecause of their persoLh~el as &~ example so youbelieve in going to the left this week, but that is the way you do it. You don't go rig~t and left with it ve!."Y often. So there are 8 plays you p r a c t Lc e fer that situation.

On the 3rd and 10 plus type of thing, you '!:lave probably got

4 pas sea 8 ...... rid you always want a run there. You a1",.;aY9 want at leas t one run th~t you think giVeS you some ch2nce to =a~e the 15 yards you need--gives you some chance because obviously there is a time during the gane.when you had better noc throw because if you thro~ an incomplete pass, the clock stops and the worgt thing that can

happe~ to you during t part of the ~ace is to stop the clock

because you are trying to win it. Let 8 just say there are 4 minutes

to go in t.he g2.IIl2 and it IS 3rd down and 15 yards to go and '

I

W.:l.L::Il!. I ... ,

}t a ten point lead or tever it ght be. You don't want to

the ball because if it is an incomplete pass, the clock stops gives the other tcam a chance now to use those 20 to 30 seconds 'ou might have used up so have a run r that. Often it is a trap.

fhe trap is your best bet. They are ~oing to pass you or

Jlitz you, you are trapping the~, you ve got a chance of b~eaking it. If you donlt break iti you don't break it. So often we'll

a trapping t)~e pIon long yardage.

Now. whe.n do you run the draw play? Your b e s t bet on running

the dr aw play is on Ls t down , not 3rd down . Run your on first

down. Run your fake draw on 3rd do~<'1l, but not your draw. Your draw seldom has a chance because when you come to the line of scrimmages everybody on their side of the field (even the cheerleaders) i~ yelling "Look out for the draw, " l>le 11, on firs t down you I v e go t a heck of a chance fo~,the draw because they s tart their charge, they see, "Uh oh, pasl,'" and then boom, here comes the draw. So we wi.1l r'un a d r av on f';:-ost dWi? and run a fake draw on 3rd down. Now a good 3rd down play is a fa~draw hook.

---- f5, B

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Diag. 25

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'w y~u've alr~tab~:d -t~ ~~ay. but sure as heck not .In 1st down. I-le've established on the first play of t h e game, ·.."elve nL~ a draw or we've run a draw on 2nd and 7. Those are good basic offense, the draw is a very good play--the sprint draw or the drop back P~Sg play, all of those are very good. But on 3rd down, now you want to take advantage of it, so you reduce the split of this man to 6 yards. You're always looking for a way to beat him. You tell him, now most of you run against a 3-man line, I assume most teams do--you tell him to beat him. You tell him to rJn a hook and beat the near Mis how we do it when we run a hooking pattern--

beat the near M, get past W which is a weakside linebacker, he might be blitzing, but get past Wand beat M. So he'll get past Wand hets coming up the field and looking at him. He drops. he hooks,

he drops straight back. he hooks outside, but it is his job to beat that man right there. That's his job--to zone defense. Now ~e!ve got to control the other M so we fake a draw to him. We've got to control that m~~ so we fake a quick screen there so we fake a draw~ zun a quick screen pattern, and have him right there. Now if he covers it we have to dump it off ~~d see what happens. My point

is we'll fake the dr~N on 3rd down and we'll run the draw en 1st down and establish the fact that we w~11 draw. So now it is 3rd dow-n and the other team is saying. "Look out for their draw. They ran it on us once and made 9 yards. Look out, that draw is coming. I know it Ls " sn d ve fake it and throw the hook behind it. That's

when we would run particular kind of play, but the 3rd dow~

"!ituation--you want to have. at leest one run, more likely a trap .

"ay for the 3r.-d and long, long yardage. Now f on your 3rd and 4 or

5 or 6. prob 1y "rant to have equal numb e r of runs and p as s e s

and you av€ the,:! order that you I d Li to use t hem . !~ow

pro football, we seldom can repeat a pI . In other words, it works, run it again. That e:eldom works out that way unless you are the Steeler; or sorn~bo~y that has somebody outgunned. really completely outmanned, but if :i.t is a typical pro g arie whe r e ::'t

is heed to head, the fensive players, not necessarily the coaches,

the pI recognize the plays.

I remember playing against the Steelers we had a red hot

rivalry with them. we seldom r e p cs t e d 8. p l ay and we were the one team that did not repeat a play and they all were mad at us for it because they never saw the same play C'w'ice, s o that rae an t; a long list, believe me. But the defensive players can recognize it so we don't look for chat, but we will run the draw play, then the

fake draw. Then on 3rd and 5, we seldom will repeat the play unless for instance your toss sweep is werking and awzy you go with it over and over and over. We don It n e c e s S a r i, 1y run a swe ep on 3rd and 5 because if it is read right because they ere dropping off, they can all converge on it. We like to run trapping type plays on 3rd and

5 or 6 yards to go,

~ow I talked about the down and distance and the field position.

Now there is the time e Leraen t that is aLway s a factor, What situation during a gan:e does a clock make a difference to you? Well, obviously. it makes a difference, let me start this way--the last

3. He always practice one time each week r unn i.ng the last three plays of the game. New when I say the last tr.ree plays of the ganc. there are two categories. Obviously one is to run the clock out. That's the one where the quarterback falls down and the clock keeps going and that kind of thing. You can all do that one. You should at least touch on it with everybody before a game. you know, curing the week once in a while because, especially in high school, there is always a new player in the lineup sooewhere. We don't know where he is gong to be. Somebody is going to get a t\>lis ted ank l e or something and there is going to be a new player in there. You better make sure you touch on all these ch:Lngs to protect yourself for a substitute. You just sav, it's the end of the game, your team is about ready to go in. "Let's run the clock out." So you step back, fall dowu, step back, fall down. then tell the quarterback privately, "Thd s time step back but f'umb l e the ball and see what happens. II Back away from your own goal line so that the two backs that are right behind the quarterback are alert to se~ the ball come squirting out of there. And you know the fa20us New York Gi~Lt play of ~wo years ago where they lost the gaDe on the last play Simply by not doing that. They could have won the ga:ne easily. So you do that.

Now on the other hand--the last three plays if you are behind.

The las t three p lays and you are behind- - .... ·hat do you do? We 11. you bette-r have a plan because you c an be humiliated unless you do. I don't care if you are behind 27 to 7,14 to 13» it doesn't; ma t t e r .

D3

~e t to get into the end zone Rnd 've fot to some way

you d like to t to do it. Now that is vital to

t place, it saves you from the harrassment of the news?aper 1e and the parents and people of that type because you had a

to do it. 1 r ernemb e r we p l a d the Oakland Rai o e r s one year and .arched e football the lenQth of the field with about a ~inute 40 seconds to go. we got it~and marched the length of the field,

ltiful drive, and you've seen the o~e where everybody is cele-

on the sidel e look up and the othel' team is ill2.king

t but it \,12.S a beautiful drive, ,,:8 score a t ouchdovn . Oak.land gets the ball, they have no time outs, on the 50 ... yard

.". In typical Ra e r style, Stabler t e s em from t 50-yard e in, new there is 9 seconds to go, we've got the ball, and they a po t ahead of us, After winning it, welve now lost it--9

o rid s to go. \"ell, what do we do? You better h ave a plan. We nit have a plan when this ga8E happened, S~ 11m upstairs, the

is going crazy and I tell them to run 90 double overs or Jething, try to hit Curtis down the field and they intercept the .1 and everybody goes off the field. but at that point I was rriliated--not so much by the loss, .... ze felt bad, but by the fact at we had nothing in mind. no way. 11.0 plan if that ever happened

us, So now, we have three plays that we Tllii at the end of the that are the last three plays of the game and the players know Boy, is it a relief for you as the coach. Your team is behind

to nothing, you've been through that one. You!ve got the ball .e last time. You're trying to figure, you know you want the ,Qck. let's get out of here if we can, men. before an earthquake

.: something, you know you've got t he ball, what do you do? Run. this : that? You've got your last three. You say rlli, your hook or ateral. Run your this, run your that. We tried the, they didn't ark. We go off the field. The te~ ~ade an effort on their last hree plavs. Course, I've seen them work, too, and that helps when ou've got them rehearsed. So I'd have the last three plays. One

f them might be where they put all three receivers way out wide .n d they all run down. you know you t hr ow it up and they all jump or it. You've seen that one. There are sOwe other things that

'e do. They're just our bus g9, but I would have t~e last three .lays of the game.

Thirty seconds at. half and at the end , It' s two different situItions. You've all seen the team that's really outsmarted themselves. t before the half, they get the ball again. they are ahead. Now #e are going to the old ~..;'o minute offense and it is interce.pted a71d

other team makes a t ouchdovn , You've seen that one. It happens to everybody. so your strategy at t:he end of a. half, right at the end of the half. can be a lot different thc:.n at the end of the ga:;::e you go into the last three or the;l&st drive where you have try to score a t ouch dovn . You've got to kncv what you are going to do right there .. You've got to have the nerve to tell your team,

Ire not going for it, r-un the clock out,n which Ilve Le a rne d to do. You' v e got to have the ne rve to say j !l\-cJe' r-e going to try to make it,' but we are going to do it conservatively. If But you have

Walsh I 30

to pl that

Donlt try to of the CiIDe you've drive at goes,

Two minutes to go. I don t t really knov how important that is, in college and high school foo all, I'm really n~t sure how important it is. I?m not even sure in a professional game how important that is ei r-- two-minute offense t yp e thing. Really. the two-minute offense is about a minute and 20 seconds, right at about a minute and 20 seconds is when you bO into a two plays without a huddle and all that kind of thing, but you have to practice that, but: you have a two minute.

'11 rem there arid it to be on a lis t .

up a situation comes up. at the end

got your final three. but you've got a final

One of the things we learned is we have a four-minute offense.

Now that four-minute offense is to win the game by controlling the ball because how many ti~es have you been in a ball game where if you can just control the ball, you've won it. They are red hot on the sidelines. If they can only get it one more time, they think they've got a good chance to beat you and you have got to use that clock up. Well, that is where the four-minute offense comes in because through practical experience and a lot of wrinkles and gray hair, I have found that our team had better s~art thinking four-minute offense at some point in that game when, first, we must Dove the ball because if we donlt move it, we have to kick it and they get it. Secondly in moving the ball, we have to use up the clock. There is a tremendous difference in a running clock and a stopped clock, as you know. For instance, if a man goes out of bounds in a four-minute offense, you have just giVen your opponent about 35 seconds. If you go out of bounds twice, you've given him another minute, so just stopping the clock, an incomplete p aas .. -anything that stops the c l.o ck= -a penalty against Y01.l, I don! t know how high school rules go, but anything that stops the clock destroys you. A runriing clock is worth 35 seconds to you, so what you have to do during that four-minute offense is have a series of plays you'run that you go to and the team in the huddle talks

about it, "We are going for a four-minute offense.1I Now you can call it anything you want. You can give ita name. Apache Offense .• of whatever you want to call it, doesn't matter to me. But the players have to understand what their problems are. They canlt

go out of bounds with the ball. You cannot have an incowplete

pass and in certain cases fumble, I mean obviously you can't fumble the ball, but in certain cases stopping the clock through a penalty will hurt.yau, an injured player--anything to stop that clock.

~That you want, what you have to have in this sitaution--you have to go into the huddle \lith the clock running. You don't want to go into the huddle with the clock stopped because those 25 seconds

are tal to you, 80 you want to use those 25 seconds plUB whatever time the play takes. You don't want the clock stopped. In other words, if the ball carrier gets to the sideline and is

tackled I the referee will wait until people start to get back tcvar d

ago 26

sh / 31

;2;") .

the huddle area before start th. 25 second clock BO '11

ly t 5 s~cond9 there, then you'll p~o bly get 0

seconda in huddle because in hig~ 8 1 and college, you don't

have that 30 second clock like the pros do, but those 25 easy

seconds you use up on a given play. He steps out of ds,

lose these 5 and you lose these 20 so YOU"'£: got to kncv , your

players ha.ve got to know those kinds of things. This is all m

the frustration of losing g arie s because. \"'El we r en ' t smart e no ugh to handle thie, so you have your offense. You have plays that run off tackle, you have plays that run inside, vou even have a PBBS where the quarte=back·ru~s or throws like th~t roll fullback-flat that we talked about where you can still make it, but you have certain axioms you go by where that clock doesn't stop in your four-minute offense. Now, you have to practice it. You ca~'t prectice that during the week. The time you practice that is during early fall practice when the guy s are having their t¥.'o-a-days. They get: 10 days of it or whatever amo~nt of days guys get. You make sure you go over that almost every day. Only for a few minutes--yOU don't have to spend time on it. But now men, it is the four-minute offense. We are not going out of bounds in this drill or this scrimmage. we are not going to have a penalty, we are not going to furab l e the ball, we are not going to have an Lricomp Le t e pase even if we have to pass. Somehow the quarterback has got to th~ow to a receiver that is wide ooen or run with the ball, he will never take a chance. You canlt have a fumble or an inteI:ception

or you will lose the game, but men we are going to do that and here we go, let's see how wuch time we can use up and you get a little stop watch or s orae t h Lng and say, "Sec new t he r e , he went

out of bounds, see now there, you were offsides, that stopped the clock." we can't let the clock stop and vet we must move the bnll

so we won!::, have to pur:t so that part of your football. men, is overlooked and that is gong to win. Tht right there is far mo:."e important than this part-- the t"wo-minute quote two-minute offense, last play» all that. This is more important. This is whe r e I would say 50 percent of the games played are won or lost ~ight there,

Diag. 27 A{fYti... rbKpH~)+ $:.a SeCLJiUcl. s;.

4- I\~ .2 . M:'N..h:.s

on the lust drive, the Ias~ possession, that kind of thing right there. That'a wehre all the games are won or lost and teams don't even think about it. You've sard yourself, "John, why did you go out of bounds?" r";ell you see, Lf you practice: it and he still goes out of -bounds , at least you as a coach have done the b e s t; you could to get that point across so the four-minute offense is very important to you. YLe half ti::ne two-minute offense or thirty-second

b

of n s e is Lrcpo r t an c . The thirty-second offense is important: to us because we wan t to run more t h an one play wi thou: a huddle so

we practice t hat and the guys get used to it. build it into our

system the f i.r s t C<iY of fall p r a c t Lc e we will run L'wO play!'! fr0ID

the line of scr ge. We don't have an elaborate offense. Don't

11 for the one 'w:,ere the guy says, "I r-emercbe r the game in 1963.

Cha.t.t anoo g a beat Tul s s, and the'! n eve r we n t; in t b e huddle once, II

don t t fall r t t of t hi ng . Bu t C13.TI say', "y;e t ve got ::0

be ready to call t"\IO plays ,'I so we e n d up \-lith three. \'/e get in

the hu l e t: ~e' 11 1 two p L s and the forma t Lon . the 1

thing r e a l Ly have to vorry yo1.1r821f th is the s n ap c oun t; f you run mo r e then one play. YO'JI:" en ap count should not: be ch an g e d or your 9nap count must not be on the first ~ound, itls got to be on a given sound-v our s is on set. 90 we III come to the line of scrt~age if we're running two plays, this is part of a two-play sequence, both are on set, weill call 44 Set and that way the ball is snapped, we won't get anybody moving. So nften when you run two plays without a huc:dle somebody on your team junps offsides

on the second play, just almost like clockwork, there he moves and you blew the whole thing. So we always go on set rather th£n on first sound or on a nU::lDer wnere there c.:re people yelling back

and forth, We want to get the ball in play quickly in running two plays, D'.Jt we can't go on first sound, but ,*e'll simply say 78 X

hook n~ice from double wing on s e t . We! 11 run the sane play twice) you see. We will say 18 Bob from red right, 78 X hook frem double wing right. both on set. ready break. So we can rem two plays and

we practice that--not a lct-~but we practice it a lot as part of our two-ilii.nute offense and oc c as i o n a l.Ly , one of the things you want to look for when you ,are scouting a team ie do they have an automatic defense? If' they have &"1 automatic de f eris e t in other wc r ds , the other team doesn't huddle, what do they do? Sometimes you get just the defense you want by not having a huddle. All right, they are

in a blitzing situation, you run tvo plays. You come right up and set for tr:e second play without: a huddle, the other team automatically says, "44 Covar 3, Cover 3." They are in the::'r zone, you can get: them in their zone :::!efensc very easily. All that battlix;s you

do hoping you get a Z0712 defense. you CCLl1 very easily get it by running two plays in a sequence so you can get the zone any t i.nie you want: it if you are willing not to huddle, That I s often the case. Seldom does a team run man to man as their automatic defense. They'lJ mo s t often run their zone de f er.s e , If you wan.t the zone. r'un two plays in a row, you'll get your zone on the second play, that's the way to do it. But your four-minute offense :I.g vital to you. Your two-ninute, we've already talked about. Those are situations

the last three we talked ac.out. running out the clock we talked

about. Those are the kind of you i.nclude.

So you've got a situation where you are and another thing, men, your t~o~mlnute offense in which your time :is r-unn i.ng out, you i d better have some goal line plays that you know of that a~e p Lsys you-Cd run. HO';J{ many times with 8. t'"",lo-minute offense you v e got,

you t:hro~' a hook, you run a draw or a sweep or something, and B11

W8Isn I JJ

u { /

f a sudden. you've t the ball with 35 feconds to go and you are

In the 5-ya 1 You'd better have an idea of how to atta

at situation. That'll ha?pen as much 2S any. Suddenly they

f umb Ls , you've got t.h e ball, the c Lo c k is running. 11.0 time outs, you are on their 35-yard line. Or you've got a Qinute and a half to go and one time out. You've got to t to get in the end zone, Hev€: an ides in u'r tc,;o-minute c f f z n s e a t you' d do near t ha goal

line because that's ned to teaes I've been with, too. So you'd

better at least have an i ai your quarterba an i a of what

you 1-]Dnt to do right about there. So you have a time c i.r cums t ance for your gam'::!, you have a field position Ci:::CUDstance for y01.:1:' game,

-and you have a down and distance thing. All of 2se things are a factor in the game plan. As you present it, this is your game plan. The quart e r b ack has one of a much more limi ted na t ur e , but you've go t it. You go on the field with it and you can function as a coach rather than, as many af us do, who's got th3t list of plays, where did we leave it, itlg in the locker room, O.K .. I can handle it. Wells that's one we've all been through. Yo~r best bet i9 to have that thing. if you are the head coach, have an assistant coach who is responsible (many of them aren't, as we all know! I l),but he has got the game plan and he'd better have two of them and he'd better know what both of the~ are. You've seen the one with the coaches

on the other side of the field waving yc~r game plan at youl I Have it in one of those plastic see-through things that you put in a notebook. Did you ever see one where it rains and you've got your game plan and it' S r-unn Ing down the thing? So you have that p l as t Lc

~ing and then tape all four edges so that ifit does rain or so~e~hing, it doesn't get wet in there because you've seen the one where everything does run together and that part of it. but that particular approach Dore than anything else leaves you some sanity as a coach rather than the other part of it.

I want to try to cover things that may be of interest to you.

We have ·.-!irh our f'o rwa r d PdSS offense, we "v e had a good history on forward passing. I think our team last year was the third passing in offense in the NFL and first in the NYC so we were one of the better teams in that area. we divide our oass offe~se into three categories. The first one of cOurse is the drop back pass. There's all kinds of words. back up pass, all that kind of stuff, and I would say that of our passing is of a nature w~ere the quarterback comes straight back from center and shows pass all the way. The next thing we have are play passes. This is the way we function with the play pass. I would say that 25 percent of our offense throwing the ball is the play pass and then the third category is the action pass as we call it which is the sprint out, rollout, waggle, that kind of thing, and about 25 percent of that or that

I think is a 100 percent. have diversity to the pass offense

and you need it.

All right, the drop back pass to us ~ost often is control.

He: want t-o control the ball y]i th the dr o o b a ck pas s . \.-lhen I say ~hat. I mean first down s , l-le need to wake first dC\4TTIS and so often

the drop back pass in basic offense in the mid e of the f Id

is to control the ball to e first dOWDS, not nec~ssari to throw

long t o uchdown passes--it'g to keep e ball. Our play pass is to Bcore with. That's we try to score, so when we t near the opponent's goal 1 • if we ei we can block the blitz, we will

p l ay pass as much as we can

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and in the play pass, there ar~ one of two things you are trying

to do. One of them is to fool the linebackers so when you play pass, you have certain plays to £001 linebackers. Another part of your play pass is to fool the deep backs. Now if you have a receiver with real spced--the great speed receiver, your play pass is the best way for him to score because what you want to have happen is for the =eceiver to get an edge on che defensive back by taking him on and the def~nsive back being fooled for just a step, when we play p as s we don I t expect the I1hole defensive team to j ump in one big pile on the guy you are faking to. All we care about

is for an instant they hold their g r oun d , for an instant they are deceived, for an instant the d~fensive back has his eyes off the receiver so that is what we are after. So when you play pass, don't expect tni.r ac Le s , All you want is 8..11 initial advantage that will last you about one half of one second. That's as long as any play pass will ever last. Sorne~imes the advantage you get out of a play paSS is Lw0 or three tenths of a second. but with speed in your receiving, that two or three tenths of a ~econd will win ball games. And of course, with Isaac Curtis at Cincinnati, we had tremendous success with the play pass and the ball throw~ deep to Isaac. 1111 come back to the action pass for you in a second. Talking about the play pass, first thing you want to do is have a basic scheme of

pass protection. ~ ~

Diag. 29

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and it has to include the back blocking so you have to show

aggressive blocking by your linemen on a play pass and in order to do it they generally have to block on angles. So what we will do is I.u.n the same basic pattern of blocking and then different

ac t Lons by the b ack s . So one action by the backs is cha c arid that. Another action, I'll just move this a little bit

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Diag. 30

wa..Lsn ( ")J

La that and Now those are two d i.f f e r ent; b e ck f Le l.d format

and two actions by backs and t~o different kinds of fakes but

S&!TIC exact li~e blocking which is the to the side of the

1, this is a 2 hole play pass 8 ~

f:_;6j ~

block dOi4'11 aggressively on the n{)s~gu2rd. That should pull this man fo rwar d even if only a foot forward. The back pulls and is responsible to block him if he keeps coming or he blitzes. The center hits and looks for him right there if he blitzes. This guard comes out and picks him up and the tackle has that man or they'll slide block it if they are sure he is blitzing, they'll JUBt cake the call and they'll slide block it. Now this back, the tackle has of course this man, the back coming

. 3

Dieg. 32

across would have that man right there. Now if we were to do it out of this fornation, the halfback going into the line would have that back there and the fullback

Diag. 33

I've misdra~m it, would what you get L$ we have

Di~g. 34 1

come out paSSt we

would call it pa s halfback 2

I IF

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to the pass fullback two. When ~~ay halfback 2, obviously we are going to call it out of what we c~l an I formation, the halfback is inside and we call fullback 2, the fullback is inside and new the ball handling, the faking comes off of that. Now we release the tight end and the two wide receivers. Now, this kind of action here, you are trying to do one of two things, you are trying ctS you scout somebody you are looking to see who you can fool. Some teams ceach the defensive backs to ~atch the querterback. If the defensive backs are told to watch the quarterback and youcan see the defensive backs are keying the quarterback,

you run this kind of action'and run your receiver past the defensive backs, so the defensive back is sitting over there looking

in the backfield

/D

· 35

Igh I 36

playing coverage. sees that play action, he thinks, "Uh oh, it

may be a p a s s , II then your speed receiver h a s get a r unn Lng start

(In him. Now your receiver can go by him much mo r e easily t if

the quarterback were to drop ~traight back or apr t out and the defensive back Gtarts back pedaling imwediately. So part of your plan is. if you want to throw deep end t defensive backs look at the quarterback as they are coached and that's probably the best way to coach those defensive backs. you want to play pass an d throw deep. That's what you want to do. Don't practice throwing deep to a slow receiver. Tell them we are not going to throw

many long passes to you, even if your dad is the mayor. You only practice throw the long pass to the guy that rur.s rast and so with the Bengals. I keep going back to them because I spent many years with them, we had Chip Meyers at split end who made the pro bowl. we had Ls aac Curtis at flanker. and Charlie Joiner was our man that did both. All three were pro bowl players at one point in their career. The point is Chip Heyers. a super football player» we didn't go deep with Chip. He's 6'5", runs about a 4.7 40

when he was at his best. He was super near the goal line on a goal pattern because he had a nice move. but he wasn't going to outrun anybody. Isaac was the guy we went deep to. So I found after a while, why practice throwing the go pattern to Chip, I'd just wear him out. As soon as we get to their 25-yard line, we'll throW the go to Chip because he's throw~ up quick and he'g tall and he goes up for the ball and out jumps people. But when we're in the middle of the field. Isaac gets the deep pass, so Ken Anderson and Isaac practice the go pattenl over and over and over and we practice it most often off the play fake. We use it most often when so~ebody has their backs key the quarterback instead of looking at the receivers. That's how we would use that play pass. but we would block both of these the sa~TIe except for the backfield action and then we would go to work. Now, how else would we use

the play pess7 Well. J

Diag. 36 g ~ 3 o..[_/;j;s.

~ ~

even front, the center~ll have to block back and the fullback

or the back, or the replacing back, let's just say it's this action and we get that look, there's all forGs of it &8 you know, but we can give you tant as an example. We get this, this, now the man filling has got him. It wou l d be like that. The back filling has always got the near M, if itls an Okie defense, he's got ~he M to the side of the call,

"31/

. 37

Walsh I .jl

if itls an even defense, he's got the middle backer wherever he is

80 it will look like that en he finishes. Now, the other way

run a pI pass is to beae the linebackers. Now you have to

when you go into a game which of those two you are trying to beat. On the goal pattern, don't worry about the linebackers.

I will steDd cio¥.i'l1 the field behind the defensive back and watch Steve Deberg cr Dan Fouts, these different quarterbacks they work with, watch their action for that given ~eek as the defensive corner on the left sice whould see it. It might be the next week

I move on the other side watching Charlie Joiner run his goal pattern against the right corner and I want to see Dan Fouts

action of hiding the ball against that man over there, that man over there, the free safety, socetimes welre after the free safety on certain kind of patterns. I stand down the field and see vh a t

it looks like that week. wnen he comes out of the huddle and runs that play pass, he knows he's trying to beat that corner over

there when he hides the ball. f"rrlen the back fakes into the line, he knows he's trying to beat that corner over there so that Charlie Joiner can beat him on the g\pattern so that is how you do that part: of it.

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beating the linebackers. There is nothing :::~~ tb~ beati95 the linebackers with a hooking pattern because they Cbnlt to ~neir

zones quickly enough so we're already shov."TI. that we would that:

kind of a pass with that kind of fake to beat that ~

Diag. 39

next

pass would be

Diag. 38

defensive back right there. That's part of what you are looking for every week in your game plan. The next thing you are looking for

is where a guy like Chip Meyers ~ame 0 ®

Dis.g. 40

~7Q

so the last time you saw us in a tt)l~t".formation with our t:i.ght

end on the right side and we £ the bCli.-±. "lye always want to

fake the ball to our right. Don't fake it to your left very often

/2

'-lalah I 38

because you alwaya ~&nt the quarterb to be able to keep the ball

in his right h&nd. either at his side or in his possession with

his right hand. You hope your quarcerback dnesn't have to hold

the ball for very long in his left hand whEn he fakes and I a~ amazed at c o Ll e ge football how many college t e arns because of wh2.tever the reason have their q~~r~E~ba going to his left 50 much.

I ha~e as yet to understand why they woald keep doing that unless they are t.rv Ln c to n r o v e s crne t h Ln e ""T <.,..", vant "Jm to hi" "'1 t

.~ l.~...k 0 .f-~ '- ....... i .. _ ....... .i.)_"'-:::;. .. .L.Ju;. ..... )Vi..-L.-'tQ.."i .. ;,;._lc."-d ~"£.> •

you want the ball in his right hand. You t21k out ccnfi nee and feel and being able to get your ball off ouicklYt so we f

to our right nruch ~ore than we iake to our lett. If we were to call 10 play passes in a game, nine would be to the right, one to the left. The only time we fake to our left is if there is a

specific reason we to do it.

The first thing I showed yeu was faking inside and throwing the ball to the fast receiver on the go and beating that corner. Now we are not going to do t~at. w~ are going to say the guy we are after this time is not the deep back, we are not worried about this guy any more. \'le want Chip !-~eyers on that guy, t ha t is the guy we are going to beat and it's 2nd down and 9 yards to go so

we I 11 run the same blocking s cherne , b ang , bang. bang, bang here

on him, on him, and Chip now will vary his split and he is going to beat the near end so you're faking right at that guy because you've decided in your gaDe play he can b2 fooled or he can be held or he's s l.ov en his feet. If he's slow he can't react or recover quickly, In other wo r ds , a sl.,..'per athlete her~::f~ I can

r emerabe r Mike Curtis with Ba l t Lrco r e 0 ~

Diag. 41 Q b ~

~r~~ ~o

and Nick Bonicotti with Hi.ami. th~~d of linebackers. well,· you could fool thsm and they1d still wake the stop down the field, unbelievable. But on the other hand, you get Budk:tS3 or one of those kind of linebacker~ and they are slower on their fE.:et, you know that the plny pass will hurt them ~uch more than twill Bonicotti. so you fake right at them. You hold them,#', eanwhile.

-..

Diag. 42 --

Love ~r 05 (~#J

he doesn't know Chip if; therp,1.TI other words, the middle backer is here, the guard blocks down , here comes the back, he steps up to meet it. As he steps up to ceet it, now Chip Meyers 1~ pest his' line of vision, he doesn't knc'o1 Chip is down the field. Now he sees pass, he starts back out of there, but it is too late

Walsh I j:J

because Chip hen gotten past his line of vision, doesn't even

Chip e sts until Chip bends ri t in, he's in re, then

helg out, ri t in behind hi~, he never knows he's re and t~ere

i~ catching ball. That's the other kind of pl~v uass. One

.._ .. .. I. 'I

we are going deep with it. Anot r, we're trying to beat line-

backers. So you decide in your gaoe p:an with your play pass, O.K. We'll run pnss fullback 2, double go, and we're lc~king to hit the

f1 121: on a ag2i.nst little Harry Sc hno t z playing C0rrU2r over

t h 0 K' - , ,

ere. .., a,LSO on our play pass a.n our e_,:s. p i.an , we are

to run a 1. eft f 0 nna ::: ion an d fake pas. S h a Lf~ci; k 2 rig h t l~ 1: J;):1 e s

here and we are go to put our be8~2ivers )

. 42-A

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or a split end on a hooking pac::::::::::':::rn to beat him and we are going to try to fool him and get in b e h in d him. So there are two styles o f play pass, two appro2chas. You need them both and so we will do both of those as an example, but one thing you do need on yo~r play passes is a simple f o rra of pass p r o t e c t i.on that you can us e on all of them. Then this backfield action can Change. You know one of the backs has to get a li~ebacker. the inside backer &nd one of them has to get an outside backer. That's their job but yo~ can have them do all kinds of things before :hey do it to change his part of it up, b~t the line blocking, boom, they play pass block,

lay pass bleck, and they do that. So that is your play pass style.

Now the third category we had was the drop back and I donlt need to talk about that because really I don't know how many of

you would do too ITf'.].ch of it. Play pass I would think is the mOSJ.t important scoring play you have on a high school team and on a college team because you run the ball a lot and the play pass fits together. The third one of course is the action pass. Now we run the a.ction pass much like the pl:iY pass, weill be right handed with it one heck of a lot of time. Donlt ask the young, inexperienced player to go to his left and throw his pass. Now you can drill it, you can get them better at it, but when the pressure is on. you throw your right hand, if you are a fighter. It is the same correlation in football. You want the quarterback with his arm removed from the defense, the pressure. You've seen the one where the quar t e rb ack is running to his left being cha s ed, he's right handed, he t s got the ball, here he w,mts to t hr ow it, they've got push on him, he can't stop to throw it, he can't get himself turned to throW' it and he just gets himself. r un dov .. m . Now we have lost quarterbacks to injury going to their left. We lost V+rgil Carter. we lost Greg Cook, (tape skipped) because they can t protect themselves. They want to throw the football and they are

going to their left. They are in real t r o ub Le . As soon as they rC<

S top an d decide to do it. they are hi t , trying to do it on a run. "'-

they've got to turn their body in an awkward position. If they

are hit, they are in trouble. But going to their right, they can

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protect t heros e Lve s all day. Seldom do you see a qU8r'-'I,."---_"_''_''\,.'''k--_rstt-f~;:':'~t go in g to h i 3 rig h t - - a 1 reo s t a hnq s to his 1 eft. Son 'W" e act i. yn pass, we go to our ri~ht. We don't fight going to left. jn~~

we practice it, we will practice three to one going to the rfght.

We don't like goin?, to the left. I can It 9 it too many t:1.ct;g.

Now the action p as s , the key to i.t, when I s action 11m .t., ajlt:.ing

about sprint out. rollout, all that .~

Dl.ag. 43 a ~ ~ <::l

y---- _ J

kind of thing, is for the qU~~back to have priorities. You giJ'tt him outside and he has to have some priorities as to what he doe next. All right, we 111 take that one play th.._<tt, "".it;! t~_ed about. It's sort of lost its value in recent years 'l.lt at one time it

very good ID

c:::::::> tz: c::::::> c:.::::> ~

Diag. 44

ez:» where you zun the. fullback in the flat. you release the tight end hopefully to the inside up the field 10, crosses over and breaks

out at 12. The flp~ker. if you're outside the 2S-yard line, r~s

a go pattern and clears, If you're inside the 25-yard line, he

rung a drag pattern right down the line and goes up the field 4

yards past the fullback and goes down the line. The differen~e. -' being obvious--one. if you are in the middle of the field. it !J. D . doesn't natter what the coverage is, the flanker can extend t~ ~/~ defense. He can take them do~~ the field ~~d get their back tUT~~ because he I 9 go t room to do it .. As soon as you reduce the 1 eng t.h f'

of the field. he can only t ake hlm so far and then they won 1 t t chase him any more lli~leBs they are both going to get a hot do? I

or so~ething. He's ~oing to only take him so far and then he s

got him covered. He s going out of the field so this isn't a very good tactic. All it does is take the man dov."n the field with ceL tain distance plus that as you get around, I talk about the 25-vard line offense

Dia.g. 45

if you get ar-ound the 20 t they go more man to man. Now if you know they are in !!1&n to ID1tn. you want that defensive back chaeing your receiver to open it up. The halfback cheats him just a little, bit. s p r Ln t s across behind

315

ah I 41

ago 46

and he is reepcnsible for that linebacker or you guys might call

it a de sive end if he blitzes .;:.,nd he 11 run a course and cut the Dan down, just like you run a sweep. cut him on a cross b

block. If the man crosses his face as I'm coming across, he crosses my face, I kick him out, so I run a course to hook him,

he crosses my face, I kick him out. That's my rule. I get there

&8 fast as I can. Quarterback reverses out, makes the token ~ake. and as soon as he comes around

Diag. 47

c:J. ' ._

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he'. looking for this man right here~He has to know what he is doing. If he blitzes, the quarterback pulls up. If he blitzes, these receivers are going to be open. If he doesn't blitz, the quarterback keeps on coming. The halfback comes. he leaves the line of s c r i.mma ge in coverage, the halfback then turns back and helps the tackle block that man, as he comes off the block, that halfback is there and just aggressively picks that man up so you ceal that corner there. If he blitzes, the halfback has got the linebacker. Those are the nechanics. We can all do it. Now our line has certain blocks. Often we will do it with two tight ends to backBide protect a little better, but the line blocking is rather simple. The key now, you've got a path, now .... h~~, '''"3 the quarterback do. who does he throw t01 Well. this is wrcitf, u have to do on an action pass. Give him his priorities. All1-+.·. t , let's just say it's l s t and 10 ·,.Jhen you call it. Tf qud'i"terback'g rule is for tMs given g=e this "Slay be a little Chrge, is~t

end. fullback, run, L ~

Diag. 48 If 0

--r:t; .

F.15, Ru.1..J eo if you ... ahead of t i.me , we may use this

our rollout any time we are on ~st and 10 or a basic situation, tight end. fullback, run. That! s your rule. He rSi~7es out, keeps coming, looks to him, look$ to him, then runs if~~~re both dropping off in covex , No», it's 3rd and 1, r.em "':~~~;his is a good

Bhort yardage play, say, "Fullback, run tight end,lI

call

Ding. 49

(/3. r: v-,j q:t,

I

1sh I 42

so in short yardage, the quarte 2ck reverses out and 9 working

righ t now to ge t the f u l Iback the f 1 a Co I f h(J-~ no t: there or

,.-.. "'-

f Ls g or flare c r I' m 10 ing to run wi th the bak1;-dda..eau.?,e if he' B

covered. I g en er a Ll.y can run for a I'd or two, ;:;::$.-i?'1 if I get in real trouble. I try to find the t Lgh t end do~fi\7 field. Illat I s

3rd and 1 or on the goal line. ~7e s to:fie quarterback ~2In,

''7 9 ( ---"'0 ~

Diag. 50

~ c:::;, ~

~0

fullback. tight end." So he come s a r oun d tha t corner attacking

the corner to run the ball in. If he can't get it, he looks right now to hit the fullback. If he's in real trouble, he throws over the head of the tight end for an incosplete pass. My point is you give him priorities for down and distance that he can liv~ with. Now you've sort of got yourself on the hook because you can't use the one where, "\o]11y didn I t you t h r ov it to the fullback? \ .. Thy didn't you throw it to the fullback, he's wide open?ll You see,

The quarterback says, "Coach, you said, 'Run, fullback, tight end." And coach is in trouble. The point is if you want to be effective with this kind of thing, you give him a sequence that you are looking for. You know you want him to run the ball in on the goal line, you'd rather not have to t~row it, but you'll throw it if

it 18 there. You know on Ls t and 10 you want the ball down the

fie 1 d. You k.."'10W that on 3rd and 1, corae right out. r.h e y I 11 be blitzing, hit the fullbaCK. So this is the kind of thing you hqye to deal with your action passes. Now we run all Eo rms of act ou:rpasses. that ... is one, probably one of the better ones is

the waggle action as we call

S B

Df.a g , 51 _::rh .-

c.::) ~ CJ. c:» c:» , 6

Again we like to ~kVerYtime we go OU:ide with the: quarterback, we try to seal the corner. ~le don't v an t; the waggle or the roll action ~here the tackle has got to hook

the lineman in front of him because you are really asking too much of the guy. It's brutal to try to do it because just as you try to reach out ~~d hook him. he's r~~ning a slant with a weak back or blitzing or something and geos right underneath you so we try as often as .... ze CB,n to get help to that man . You saw on the roll pass our h a Lfb ack comes across and then turns back and goes :right in to help him.

Diag. 52

17

I /

Walsh I 43

the waggle our tight end to the si of the waggle . . . his

cker and blocks him if he blitzes, but n turns right be.

in and doubles down with his head on the Okie on the side on that man so we s e a L that corner 0 f f on our r o 11 pat cern. Tha r "s t.h e

tno e t; important thing, The wo r s t thing you can get is your quarterback coming outside and somebody right en his hip chasing him full speed. That's whe~ you get him hur~. That's when you can't throw

accurately. That's when you begin to losses and inter-

ceptions J 80 we try to seal the corners. Now one of the b e s t v ays to t h r ow the out p s t t e rn is to get your quarterback working toward the rece:iver. Obviously the ball has to travel less distance than

it does if he dr0.EJt-~:'-tri:7' t back or runs a play pass. h

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t;.D t¥'- t{ ",.... /'

Se ,ond1Y...._.t.}.;:e-;. ,;. B a free t hr owi.ng rno s t riten when you move.

the quarterback. In other words, he goes dUtside, he doesn't have tn throw it over sornebody's head. HeYs got free access to the receiver so he can line the ball to the out rather than throwing

it over people's heads to get it there sometimes or not realizing where everybody is. Well, the out pattern, we want to bring the quarterback toward the receiver and we want to have a free throwing rein to get it done. We will pull an uncovered guard and turn him bacl:, but most often we will do this and pull him. We will do this kind of thing like this. you know , just to handle anything co:ning up in, but you see for us, and this is college ball more than pro ball, this man right here is a real problem if he's quick and especially goes the wrong way. If hels coming this way and you pull 8. guard, he' s going to be right down your throat. So we will pul L him if this guy isn't a factor. The St. Louis Cardinals have a~ great big nose guard

Dtag.

Dtag. 54

~ho doesn't move, Qur center can stay in front of him, but other teams have a quick nose guard, so our guard has to go to step. check his backer in case he blitzes, then he blocks dOvm, so we try to wall everybody off and

Dia.g. 55

go outside rather th2J.""1 pull somebody \-7ith us. unless -y;re think we can get away with it so we want access to this man and then our

weakside receive .. ~ . .".. --.,i_'f?~ tng l sets d~m as ","e call

Diag. 56 G1tJI~\ .....

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..----~

18