Question Regarding Pulling Guard

Coach Easton mentioned what I believe to be the "golden rule" when asking a kid to pull, never let anyone cross your face! I think you've also touched on a key reason why I only pull on a few plays though, as I've never become enamered with just pulling linemen just to say it can be done. It certainly can be taught but if I can get a better result consistently out of not pulling one or more linemen, I'd much rather not have them pull than look great on the move without touching a soul, which seemed to be the result with many of them on many occassions!!!!

We do pull on these plays: Trap (basically a cross block pulling the playside guard with belly action in the backfield), Counter (backside guard kicks out PSDE (we only pull the backside OT if he's uncovered, we try to get him to loop/fold around the center up onto an inside LB if possible) and Bootlegs (backside guard). I don't pull either guard on Power as I prefer to zone/combo it instead.

I think another key is to also really work at the accompanying down/pin blocks needed to free your guards up to pull. Having a center block back is one thing but if you're asking an OT to block a 4i or 3 technique, this is very difficult for them to do consistently in my experience.

Best of luck with your team and offensive line coach!

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach

Coach,

This will all depend on the size of the defensive line and their speed. If you can scout the team ahead of time or even call the coach from a team that played your upcoming opponents this is your bigget step.

ie; This Saturday we played a 10 and 11 year old team that were 200 avg. def line, outweighed us by 70# on the average. This was an easy coaching decision for us. We ran shotgun spread with our 2 back as lead blocker for our qb and we rolled left and right for the first three quarters. By the time the 4th quarter rolled around we only had to contend with an outside linebacker because the big boys were tired, the cornerbacks were tired of biting on the run and watching the ball go over their head for 6 points. Early on we knew we could pull a guard safely and still get past containment, we could even have pulled two guards by the 3rd quarter. Basically you build a small pocket playside so that you can run with the two blockers or pass from the flat. This is backyard football and can be accomplished with a mid range speed qb. By running 2 receivers on each side we opened the field and made the big boys come chase us. We did not score every play and got stopped a bunch but knew we were one block away from 10 to 15 yards every play. Spread em out, go shotgun, pull one guard, get your qb in the flat and you own the defense. Good luck