Power Run Game & The Spread
The Power Run Game and the Spread Offense – Can They Co-Exist? by: Dale L. Sprague 3 Since the popularization of the numerous forms of the spread offense in the late 1990’s and now into the new millennium, many…
The Jump Set
Ken Wilmesherr Offensive Line Southwestern College Teaching the Jump Set as a Change Up The jump set is an aggressive pass set which allows a pass blocker to get into the defender as quickly as possible. It also allows for…
RED ZONE RESCUE
Red Zone Rescue – Using a separate red zone offensive package can confuse the defense. by: Mike McDanielsRetired High School Coach© January 2014 0 Too often, teams drive the length of the field and get bogged down inside the red zone….
AIR RAID BASE PACKAGE
BY Bill Ramseyer The four most widely used passes of the Air Raid Spread Offense are the Shallow Cross, Mesh, 4 Verticals, and the Wide Receiver Screen. In addition to these basic plays, many times “tag words” are added to…
The Quick Game
by Dan KratzerRetired Coach and Consultant for Missouri Valley College Effective use of the quick game will spread the defense and make them adjust to last second match-ups. After spending two training camps with Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh…
Shallow Cross
by Sean LucasQuarterback Coach, Providence Catholic High School (IL) The “Shallow Cross” is a concept that can help your offense remain simple to your players, keep defensive coordinators scratching their heads by running it out of various formations and attack…
PACKAGE PLAYS part 2
by Rich HargittAssistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator • Ashbrook High School (NC) A run play can be packaged with a quick screen or pass play which can disrupt the defense. In Part I of this series we looked at…
How To PACKAGE PLAYS
Packaging Plays Part I Introduction to Packaging by Rich HargittAssistant Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator • Ashbrook High School (NC) Packaging plays can not only ignite an offense but also confuse a defense. All offensive play callers strive to make…
Power Play
(GAP SCHEME) POWER PLAY (GAP SCHEME) by Chennis BerryOffensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach Southern University POWER PLAY (GAP SCHEME) By Chennis Berry, Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach Southern University When we install the “Power” play, our goal is…
Maybe Your Best Offensive Coordinator is a Girl
Football lessons from a world champion gambler by Jay Stolfi Your best offensive coordinator is a girl. More correctly, your best play‐calling analyzer is a girl. She is Annie Duke, author of the book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts If you’ve ever been the play-caller in a football game, you know that making smart decisions without all the facts is the essence of the job. Duke is a Columbia University graduate and pursued a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite the Ivy League education, she is most known for her poker playing abilities. Duke accumulated over $4 million of tournament poker winnings including several World Series of Poker championships. Life, she explains, is a lot like poker. As I see it, so is football In Thinking in Bets, Duke makes the case that the thought process that leads to success in poker is the same thought process that leads to success in business, relationships and other important life situations. In poker, she says, you have to make critical decisions with very limited information…and you have to make them in real‐time. She goes on to give about 250 pages of detailed explanations, scientific data and tells plenty of amusing anecdotes regarding how the mind works and how to correctly analyze the outcomes of your decisions. All of the chapters have relevance to a football coach, particularly regarding offensive play calling, but I will focus on just a few key topics here. John Von Neumann, the noted mathematician, physicist (and poker player) is considered the father of “game theory”. His game theory revolutionized the fields of mathematics and economics. It is the study of how mathematical models can be used to understand seemingly unrelated things such as the likely interactions between opponents, how to account for hidden information, and how to account for the role of chance in the process of decision making. When asked by a colleague if he meant “the theories of games…like chess?”, Von Neumann said “No, no…Chess is not a ‘game’. Chess is a well‐defined form of computation. You may not be able to work out all the answers, but in theory there must be a solution, a right procedure in any position.” Real games, he explained, “are not like that. Real life consists of bluffing, of little tactics of deception, of asking yourself what is the other man going to think I mean to do. And that is what games are about in my theory.” Dukes recognizes that “The decisions we make in our lives‐ in business, saving and spending, health and lifestyle choices, raising our children, and relationships‐ easily fit Von Neumann’s definition of ‘real games’’’. The seeming randomness we face in our daily lives requires a specific kind of analysis …