Learning to teach your quarterback to call his own plays
Staying in one formation has benefits
Welcome to Learning to Teach, a weekly newsletter where I explore different strategies and topics to help us all become better teachers of the game of football.
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Firstly, there is no such thing as a perfect play. But there are better plays than others and usually the play isn’t the issue — the rigidness of the play call is.
As the coach, you’ve got your big laminated sheet of paper with all your plays on it. You’ve prepared all week to use it. It’s marked up and color coated so your eyes can find the perfect play right when you need to. Red zone, third down, openers, it’s all there. You’ve studied it for hours and almost know it by heart. In fact, you almost don’t even need it. You’ve memorized it in your preparation.
But in this preparation, we must always keep in mind that we don’t play the game. The players play. And even with a “perfect play” relayed from the grand play sheet to the quarterback & co. nothing matters more than giving your players the ability and tools to navigate non-ideal defensive looks, defensive misalignments, and unexpected defensive reactions.
In other words, if your offense can’t adapt on the fly (even during the middle of a play), your offense is at a disadvantage (adapt or die). Hence why the Triple Option and its grandchildren (RPOs) will never go away. Option football can’t and won’t ever be forgotten in this great game.
I’ve been a part of it too many times. You call a play and the defense isn’t what you anticipated and your answers built into the play aren’t enough. It’s not that your answers are horrible and always result in no gain or negative plays. It’s that it happens too many times and your players don’t consistently have the freedom or ability to take advantage of where the defense is weak.
Today we’re going to look at how Homer Rice gave his quarterback a tool to adapt on the fly within the structure of the offense.
Let’s begin.
Back to our dear friend Homer Rice
Homer Rice has a particularly interesting chapter in his book (book overview here) that covers the “Check With Me” concept. This concept gives the quarterback a two-step process to put the offense in the best play possible.
Step 1: The Direction
Before deciding on a play, the quarterback decides which direction is best to attack. Using their “Cincinnati Formation,” the offense forces the defense to play to one side or the other. Take a look:
Remember that dear Homer ran the Triple Option. Because of that, the defense is really in a bind when deciding where to allocate its resources.
A Simple Counting Tool
By teaching the quarterback the safety’s positioning using the numbers 1, 2, and 3, Coach Rice gives the quarterback an invaluable tool. Interestingly, this tool is similar to how Coach Dub Maddox, creator of the R4 System, breaks down the defense for his quarterbacks.
When I wrote about teaching your quarterbacks a pre-snap process, I mentioned Coach Maddox’s “Hard Deck Scan” as a part of the process. That scan begins by locating the boundary safety (the same safety that Coach Rice is keying his quarterback on) and continues to the field safety to the field linebacker/nickel to the boundary linebacker.
While the Hard Deck Scan is much more than what Coach Rice is doing, Coach Rice’s method is a great example of doing something simple, yet perfectly aligned with your goals.
So let’s put those numbers to use — back to the drawing board.
Coach Rice’s process is ridiculously simple and logical: the direction of the play should go away from that safety. So if the safety is in spot number 1, we should go right (or to the formation given that the formation’s strength is right in this drawing). If the safety is in spot number 3, we should go left (away from the formation). If the safety is hanging out in the middle (spot number 2), then the spot of the ball on the field will determine if we should consider him as a number 1 safety or a number 3.
If the ball is on a hash, the quarterback will consider him a number 1 so he’ll work to the formation (or to the multiple receivers). If the ball is in between the hashes, then he’ll consider him a number 3 safety and work away from the formation (or to the single receiver).
It’s that simple. Next up: run or pass?
Step 2: Run or Pass
Once again football comes down to counting. Keeping the Cincinnati formation as our example, let’s start to the formation’s strength (the 2 receiver side).
If you’re a good throwing team, the defense is probably playing with a “plus-one” mentality in the passing game. If you put 2 receivers out there, they’re going to put 3 defenders. They’ll double your single receiver. The modern passing game accounts for this, but a great way to combat this outnumbering is to run the ball.
Well, not just any run. And of course, you can’t run the ball every time you get this plus-one look. But when you run the Triple Option against this look, you give yourself a real fighting chance to consistently put the defense in a bind. The outside linebacker/nickel that’s the third defender out there becomes the odd man out.
So the quarterback’s decision is simple. Is that odd man out playing the run or pass? We’ll do the opposite. This process is practically the same as most modern-day pre-RPOs that target the nickel. Instead of running the Triple Option, the quarterback might throw a slant, hitch, or screen.
This process works away from the formation too. Is the single receiver receiving single coverage? Then the quarterback should take that matchup (assuming this makes sense in the game plan). If he’s being doubled, they should run. It’s all about numbers.
The Case for Running One Formation
A quarterback will only be able to go through that process with a firm understanding of what his plays accomplish and how the defense’s alignments relate.
Many coaches like running multiple formations with a few concepts. And this is great because you can protect your plays by creating different angles and setting up favorable matchups by getting in different formations. Constantly forcing the defense to align properly can create a huge advantage.
But there’s also an argument to be made for staying in 1 formation up and down the field — especially if you’re involving your quarterback in reads consistently. By staying in the same formation, your quarterback has an established frame of reference in which to compare the defense.
Take the nickel’s positioning from the example above. If you stay in the same formation (or at least consistently stay in a similar formation), the quarterback can see the differences in the nickel’s alignment much easier. In other words, the sameness of the formation highlights the differences in the defense’s alignment.
These clear differences then allow the quarterback to make better decisions in attacking the defense because he has a better understanding of where they are and where they aren’t.
Final Thoughts
This tactic is great for switching back and forth between a concept like Coach Rice’s adaptable passing concept (I haven’t even talked about his “Air Option” attack), and the ever-deadly Triple Option. And like I said, running one play from many formations is a great way to play too. But there’s something to be said about involving your quarterback more in the process by setting him up with the same picture over and over again.
I was greatly surprised at the similarity in the process that Coach Rice taught his players to what many coaches are doing today with RPOs. To give your quarterback the freedom to navigate between different calls though requires him to have a great grasp of where the defense is. Staying in one formation is just one way to help him.
Until next time —
Emory Wilhite