Let me Know If I Can Help You With Option On Me

Tilden Watson

As a high school coach giving the keys to the offense to the QB has numerous benefits but sometimes it can lead to a heart attack. For majority of coaches out there we are control freaks and we hate to let lose of the reigns especially to a 16-18 year old young man. One of the main reasons why is we do not what is going on in his mind any given day. There is another issue that can happen that would be a detriment to the team and that is how you handle the time when the young man calls the wrong play (in your mind). If we are giving the keys to the offense away, we need to understand that there is going to be mistakes and we need be able to handle it in a professional way, because blowing up on him will only make him question himself on every play. But when you have that special kid that understands what you want there is not a better feeling as a coach. This type of young man has a complete grasp of the playbook and knows what plays to call in any given situation because he has become the OC on the field.



Option on me works by making the defense defend the entire field. Which allows the offense to take advantage of a weaker side or misalignments. Then throw in the multiple formation and shifts and it can make one play look like 10 different ones. At this time in the “option on me” scheme the QB can check into the inside veer, midline or load. This is the type of offensive philosophy that I run. I will change the formations or use motions to see how the defense is adjusting just to see if these two wrinkles will open up a weakness that I can run my bread and butter plays. In our basic trap play the QB has to read the D-line and if the 3 tech is on the back side he has to “check” and call “oppo” to switch the play to the other side. Then he has two passing options off of the trap one is presnap bubble to the play side and the other is post snap read of the back side Will LB for a replace slant route if he follows the pulling guard. I have had teams be able to defend this well but just adding a motion to this mix it really muddies the defensive reads and really opens up this play.