Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Also of consideration at this point is the National Championships: Division III, 1979, 1988, 1991
fact that the offense is flip-flopped.
Therefore instead of having six sets, there Honors: 1988, 19991 AFCA National Coach of the Year; 1974, 1978, 1979, 80 AFCA
are now 12. Six right and six left. All players District Coach of the Year; 1984, 1985, 1986 AFCA Regional Coach of the Year; 1997
flip-flop except the center, quarterback, full- College Football Hall of Fame inductee
back, and tailback. The directional call
always refers to the tight end side. This the opposition positive keys on where we attempting to get the motion man just behind
system is used for several reasons. It were going to run. Something had to be and one-half stride past the fullback. The
allows a better placement of offensive line- done to help eliminate tendencies. We do most important part of the motion is to get the
men so that our team has a power side and three things to help alleviate this problem. lead blocker in position and to maintain the
a quick side. It affords a better opportunity First, we scout ourselves weekly and relationship between him and the pitch man.
to match the offensive players against the therefore, we have a general idea what the If this distance is over extended on the base
defensive players we wish to match them opposition has seen us do. We keep a com- play, the motion becomes ineffective.
against. It also means a play right becomes posite of these scouting reports through the
the same play left when the offense is season so that at any time we are able to rec- Teaching the Fundamental Recognition
flipped from right to left. Or in other words, ognize tendencies building. The scouting Because of the many articles written on the
we double the plays we run with no added report shows plays from formations, total hit techniques of the players involved in running
play learning or teaching. charts, down and distance charts, hash mark the triple attack, we will not belabor those
Every formation may be changed by charts, and plays versus each opponent. points. We do not do anything that is radically
calling “open.” The tight end then splits out Secondly, we quick shift prior to the run- different in running the plays. We have initiat-
eight to 15 yards from his original spot. The ning of a play. It is important that we do not ed some of our own theories and with that
width of the split may be pre-determined for do this every time and that the shifting back comes some slightly different methods.
various reasons, but we are generally look- fully understands when he can shift. He In teaching the true triple, the coach
ing for maximum yardage. The widest max- may shift when it has no effect on the play, must be initially overbearing on his players.
imum split for us is the distance at which but at times we have him shift when he is He must be a perfectionist. He has to insist
the quarterback can deliver the ball with full the key to the play. He shifts about once that all rules of body, steps, targets, and
velocity on a pass. every three or four plays when he is in the speed are closely followed.
On an “open” call, any other receiver power set. The quarterback may tell him to Our practice schedule involves three
stays five yards wider than the tight end. If shift if he anticipates an over-shift. The basic plays — the true triple, the loaded,
15 yards is our maximum, the end then back may shift any time by lining up oppo- and the counter option. We pre-determine
would be restricted to a 10-yard split. The site the quarterback’s formation call. It is every part of the true triple. However, our
end is kept inside the flanker in order to his responsibility to shift on time for we do practice sessions are limited largely to the
better utilize his blocking talents. not want the quarterback concerned with true play itself. All of these plays are run to
The split end side follows the same this detail. Most of the shifting is done on each side of our formations and therefore
rationale as the tight end side, except now long count plays, but occasionally we shift we practice them towards the split end,
the split end must be told when not to split. on a quick count. Because we do run tight end, wingback, slot back, and twin.
This is done by calling “tight.” everything in our offense when one back is As practice starts in the fall, we obvious-
Through the use of “open” and “tight,” we flankered, we feel capable of shifting a man ly spend a large segment of time in the pre-
achieve different looks on either side. But and then hitting anywhere with confidence. sentation and practice for this very difficult
foremost is the possibility of placing players Thirdly, we motion. We may even com- play. We want to present every minute
together in the manner that we think is going bine the shift and the motion. This takes tim- detail and have it clearly understood. We
to best serve the situation at hand. ing, but here again, we do not want the quar- break down each component of the play
terback concerned with this detail. The back and present it as simply and logically as
Shifting and Motion must be in the formation called at the right possible. We tell the quarterback what will
In establishing a total I attack, we want- time. The quarterback then starts motion with happen to him and limit it to that one event
ed to maintain the lead blocker principle a heel lift. We will definitely pick up motion until he understands it thoroughly. We then
that is offered in the wishbone. We do this and run the opposite way. We motion any move on to another problem he will face.
by using our power I formations. We were length from any set. Most of it by far is quick Our thesis is that in this way, the quarter-
greatly concerned about these sets giving motion from the power sets and we are back will have been presented each defen-