Any good FB plays?

Coach,

Some great FB plays out of the I formation include:

FB Counter Trap: Block it just like a "FB Trap" from the Wing-T Buck Series. We will have our FB take a crossover step directly at the backside guard. Then, as he takes his next step at the backside guard, he is receiving the handoff. He bends back and follows the trapping guard (which would be the guard he originally stepped to), hitting the blocking scheme hard. The TB fakes Iso action to the butt of the backside OT. We find this creates much more realistic flow than a fake toss or option route by the TB, especially if you are a good "Lead" team, as any I-formation team should be! QB reverse pivots and quickly hands the ball off to the FB, while tracking the TB with his eyes. He then extends and makes a great fake to the TB.

FB Dive G: Run a G trapping scheme with the PSG trapping the playside DE. The PST and TE combo down and away from the POA. Reverse pivot and belly the FB off the outside hip of the PST. Simple and effective.

FB Dive or Inside Zone: Just basic smashmouth football. If you block it right and hit it quick, you've got your bruiser breaking into the secondary before the defense knows what hit them.


Coach, if your FB is a key player, it may also be benificial for you to run some offset-I as well. Gives you the ability to do some different things and / or get him out into the passing pattern a bit quicker.

My favorite FB play is what we call our 722 Trap.

Out of the I formation, we fake the pitch to the left. The QB will reverse out and fake like he is tossing the ball to the tailback. We tell the tailback to "flash hands" - to get his hands up as if he is receiving the pitch to further sell the fake. The FB will step to the left as if he is leading the tailback on the pitch, but then step back to the right and cut in front of the QB. The QB will pull the ball back from the faked pitch and then give the ball to the FB on an inside handoff back to the 2 hole. The LG will pull on this play and trap the 2/3 tech on the right side.

This play works really well if you establish the pitch to the outside. Eventually, the defense will start to overpursue and that usually means that the FB, cutting back across the grain, will be darn near untouched until he gets to the secondary.

FB Trap against the flow can be great. Govertical just described one way, here's another. If you run outside zone offset the FB say to the right, start the footwork as OZ right, FB takes a hard jab right, QB hands off to the FB running behind a trapper going left while the QB and TB finish off their OZ fakes. Do you Bunch? Squeeze the Bunch down, fake the toss like GV suggested and handback to the FB who was #3 in the bunch.

Does he have speed? Split the backs and run an old classic you never see anymore, the quick pitch. And don't forget him in the passing game with swings, shoots, bootleg routes to the flat, etc.

Govertical,

Agree totally with wanting the defense to see THE FAKE PITCH. Something to think about on " high balling" any kind of fake. Check with your DC and pretty certain he will tell you the same thing as I'm going to mention here. Any time a well coached D sees a QB handling a ball in such a manner as to make it highly visable, vis a vis "High Balling" it is an instant alert that something is up! ANYTHING THAT A QB DOES WITH THE BALL THAT IS NOT CONSIDERED REGULAR, OR THE WAY HE USUALLY DOES IT, IS A DEAD GIVEAWAY. Think about it, if your QB is going to make a real toss on the sweep, does he accentuate getting the ball up where everyone can see it? No, of course not. I'm sure you see the point I'm trying to make here. So, in the actual handoff to the FB in your play described, imo, you would not want the defense to see the ball. If they see it, the real purpose of the cutback to the 2 hole has been defeated in as much as any misdirection play that requires ball handling by the QB is to get the D confused and going the wrong way, and thus my sugestion of keeping the QB's body in such a position as to disguise the handoff. As always, just a suggestion.

Coach Easton

Coach Easton

Tiger One,

I can't agree more on your "high balling" technique. We NEVER run this technique because it looks nothing like a real pitch, and it is an immediate tip off to well coached LB'ers that it is simply a fake.

We tell our QB to execute the pitch fake at belt level and make it look IDENTICAL to our regular pitch, with the exception of not releasing the football. Similarly, we do not have the RB over-exaggerate his reception of the pitch. We have him track his eyes from the QB's hands to his own outside hip, and tuck as if it were being carried in the outside arm.

We'd much rather fake IZ, OZ or Iso action to create misdirection than fake a pitch. The fake pitch always looks...well...fake!

Coach Easton -

Good points. I appreciate your input.

Groundchuck-

I agree...veer would be a great compliment to our Belly play.

Tiger One / Govertical-

You are exactly right. I also used to coach the exaggerated fake to try to sell the flow even greater. I got so angry that it wasn't working, and I couldn't figure out why. Careful study showed that nobody was biting on our toss fake. That's what institgated the change. It simply wasn't working for me. Now, I've seen other teams over-exaggerate the fake and still have a VERY effective counter game. I just couldn't pull it off as a coach, so I decided to go with the more realistic and controlled fake. It seemed to work. But really, nothing off of toss fake works as well for us as something more downhill (IZ, OZ, or Iso), so we actually just stick to that.

It's all in what you coach best, what your kids execute best, and what you have come to believe in through various experiences.

I have definitely learned that there is really no "wrong" way of doing things!!

Most of the posts have plays where the fb trap is run off of other actions. If your fullback is going to be the workhorse of the offense, you may want to make the trap the base play and run complimetary plays off of it. The fb trap has been our base play for years, and there are several compliments you can run off of it. Just my opinion, but if your trying to sell other plays to run the trap off of, and your fullback is your mainstay, defenses can key on him and slow you down easier.

The posts were great and I think all valuable. To answer the rising question on why not the VEER; is the base plays will be simple Blast plays Leads, along with Zone plays and Toss. I'm a Veer guy and love the veer but the head coach and I agree that if we don't make the Veer the mainstay of our offense then we shouldn't run it considering the amount of time you must invest in running an effective Veer/Option offense.
Again Thanks for all the posts...