EQualizer Points 3&4: Split/Opton

3. Bastard Split: When you go to a clinic to talk defense, the general rule of thumb on splits is that if the end splits up to 5 yards, the DE is to go out with the offensive end. If he splits more than 5 yards, jump inside and play defense from there. So my question for the defense is ‘what will you do if we split 5 yards?’ It forces the DC to show his hand on DE play. If they put the DE inside, he is out flanked and easily blocked to the inside; if they play him out over the end, that makes his gap 5 yards wide – a pretty big hole by alignment, don’t you think?

Which leads us to the point that the defense must adjust and that adjustment places all level 1 & 2 defenders out of their normal position, especially the DE. He is aligned as much as 5-7 yards wider than he normally plays. He is easily placed on an island on the edge of the defense which leads us to point 4: the Option.

4. Triple Option Football: Option offense forces the defense to play more disciplined. It limits their aggressiveness. You have to eliminate much of your blitz package or run the risk of having the dive back, the QB or the pitch back break a big gain into the hole you just created by blitzing.

So, when we break the huddle and come to the line of scrimmage, the defenders have to answer the following questions. Keep in mind these are 15-18 year old kids and they have to answer these questions and adjust in the few seconds before the ball is snapped.

a. Are they unbalanced, if so which way, how am I to line up? We tended to be unbalanced about 75% of the time. That means there was enough variance that they had to make a decision.

b. What are my option responsibilities?

c. The secondary has to think not only about option responsibilities but also pass responsibilities.

d. When we put a man in motion, the defense will have to adjust. This means that the above questions about option and pass defense have to be answered on the fly. How does that motion affect my alignment and responsibilities.

NOTE: One of the things that the spread offense coaches do not do enough of, in my opinion, is to take advantage of motion. Some coaches use motion “because it looked good on TV” and do not have a clue as to the real advantage of motion. One thing I learned for certain is that you can eliminate “press” coverage on your best receiver if you put him in motion, especially wide motion. Defenders will cushion off the man in motion. They will widen and deepen due to their fears of ‘not being beat deep.’ This give your guy lots more room to operate in.

What we did then was to think about what plays are we going to run. Over the years I ran a bunch of schemes: Wing T, Twin Veer, I Formation, and more. What I did was to think about what was the most difficult to defend. I saw it again last night on TV when a spread offense, college team got close to the goal line, they got into a jumbo set and ran outside belly option. Worked for them. Works for us.

Bill Walsh in his book said when you need to make a first down, or score from inside the 5 yard line, give the ball to your best back and have him run behind your best lineman. We just do not wait for that situation; that is what we do from the get-go.

RE: Best Back: I have been a Bigger Faster Stronger (http://www.biggerfasterstronger.com/) coach for over 30 years. What I have discovered is that we can generate fullbacks, guards and tackles, as well as TE’s in the weightroom. If we got a real tailback (which we would get about once every 7 years), we considered it a bonus. However, since we did not coach in schools with large talent pools, we had to “generate” players out of the weightroom.

There were times when we would have a good QB, probably good enough to run the spread, but no one to catch the ball. Or we would have people who could catch, but no one to throw it accurately. But we always had someone who wanted to take the ball, explode the hole, and run to daylight.

So, our offense is based on giving the ball to our best back and letting him run behind our best blockers. In the beginning we ran this out of an unbalanced I formation. The backfield would run the steps for the belly option out of the wing T – FB needed to lead, crossover, bend into the hole for the mesh. This was always a difficult thing to get down in practice. I can even remember staying out late in practice in high school waiting for Mark and Wade to get their steps down.

What I discovered by accident one day, was that it was much easier to offset the FB, aligning him 5 yards deep behind the IOT in a 2 point stance. All he had to do from there was to run straight ahead and read the block of the IOT. Made things much easier. The only thing he had to do was to step first with his inside foot – so that the mesh with the QB has an open hip. The two point stance is important because it means the FB does not get as fast a start as he does from a 3 point stance. This makes for a better mesh, also makes for better timing at the POA. It puts him in the hole when the block is being made. Timing is so very important for the offense. One of the things we stress on defense is that “Everyone gets blocked; what matters is how long you stay blocked.”

Did you ever think about how long a high schooler can sustain a block, on the average? I have found out over the years that an offensive lineman can sustain a drive block for about 1.5 seconds after which it breaks down. So it is very important to have the back in the hole when the block is being made.

So the defense not only must defend 10 areas on the LOS (horizontal stretch), they must also defend option. This accounts for 6 defenders, 3 on each side of the LOS to cancel the diveback, the quarterback, and the pitchback.

Due to these factors, the aggressiveness of the defense is limited. Their blitz package is drastically limited. We have Equalized the LOS and placed out players into a position where they can be more successful.