Post by Coach Campbell on Jun 27, 2014 13:12:29 GMT
Brandon Dematto
The "Option on Me" offensive approach is one that has obvious benefit to any football team. This approach is a surefire way to ensure that your offense is calling the best play possible for the given defense. In its essence, the philosophy is based off of three plays: veer, midline and load. These three plays present four different checks for the quarterback. The quarterback can call an Inside Veer or Load Option to the openside of the formation or he can call Midline or Load Option to the tight side of the formation. According to some very simple reads by the quarterback, one of those four plays will be called to ensure that the offense has the best opportunity to create positive yardage.
The first check our quarterback must make revolves around the outside inverts. These outside inverts are typically outside linebackers or safeties that position themselves outside of the tight end and outside the openside tackle, off of the line of scrimmage. When approaching the line, the quarterback will initially look to the openside of the formation. If he sees an inverted player outside of the box to the openside of the formation, he automatically moves to his second check. If he does not see an outside invert to that side, he becomes aware that the play must be run in that direction. The quarterback is then responsible for identifying if the invert player has moved onto the line of scrimmage and reduced the defensive end, or if he is just missing. If the outside invert player is missing, the triangle (used to show the necessary defenders to account for stopping the option) is broken, which signifies they are unable to account for all of the players necessary to stop the option. This means that the quarterback checks into the Openside Inside Veer play to take advantage of their inability to to cover the dive, the keep, or the pitch. However, if the invert player has moved onto the line of scrimmage and reduced the defensive end, then the quarterback would call an Openside Load Option.
In the instance that the quarterback notices that he has an outside invert on the openside of the formation, he immediately knows that he will take his option to the tight side of the formation. Upon figuring that out, the quarterback looks at the first down lineman past the center. If he sees a 3 technique, then he checks the offense into a tight side Midline play. If the quarterback sees that the down lineman is in a 5 and 7 technique combination or 5 and 9 technique combination, then he will check to a tight side Load Option play.
The pros of this approach towards the option game are pretty obvious. If perfected, the offense will never find themselves in a poor play call. This yields a great advantage to the offense because they are configuring their plays according to the way that the defense sets up. In addition, this type of approach would completely negate the ability for scouting against your team. When the play is dictated by the defense, the only tendency that you can find from that is how often that defense is in that front. And if teams see that you are running a particular offense versus a particular set, they will find find that their scouting isn't very useful, as your play against their defense might be completely different.
The cons to the "Option on Me" offense falls within a couple different areas. Number one, the quarterback that you are using this system with must be a very football savy young man. He must understand the concepts and understand the idea of exploiting defenses. At the high school level, having these types of cognitive athletes seems to be very rare. In addition to that, the learning curve for this type of offense is existential. Not to say that it cannot be done, but the amount of film, practice, and critique necessary to become good at this concept is significant. However, a bit of that can be combatted early by running a "Check with me" offense from the sideline to help facilitate the same concept, except the coach will be calling the play versus allowing the quarterback to. Lastly, the other con to this particular concept is that you must have a quarterback that you can trust to make the right decisions in that situation. Quarterbacks that don't make the right decisions can really hurt this type of offense because they are, often times, setting the offense up in poor plays versus the ideal play like intended.
While there are a few cons, I think the pros will outweigh the cons. I believe that if you integrated this type of system very early in the year you could have success. Early in the year it might be most advantageous to call the play from the sideline (Check With Me) and then progressively pass the responsibility over to your quarterback once he has shown that he has mastered the concept. If that doesn't happen the first year, then that is something that can progressively be worked on throughout the system.
The "Option on Me" offensive approach is one that has obvious benefit to any football team. This approach is a surefire way to ensure that your offense is calling the best play possible for the given defense. In its essence, the philosophy is based off of three plays: veer, midline and load. These three plays present four different checks for the quarterback. The quarterback can call an Inside Veer or Load Option to the openside of the formation or he can call Midline or Load Option to the tight side of the formation. According to some very simple reads by the quarterback, one of those four plays will be called to ensure that the offense has the best opportunity to create positive yardage.
The first check our quarterback must make revolves around the outside inverts. These outside inverts are typically outside linebackers or safeties that position themselves outside of the tight end and outside the openside tackle, off of the line of scrimmage. When approaching the line, the quarterback will initially look to the openside of the formation. If he sees an inverted player outside of the box to the openside of the formation, he automatically moves to his second check. If he does not see an outside invert to that side, he becomes aware that the play must be run in that direction. The quarterback is then responsible for identifying if the invert player has moved onto the line of scrimmage and reduced the defensive end, or if he is just missing. If the outside invert player is missing, the triangle (used to show the necessary defenders to account for stopping the option) is broken, which signifies they are unable to account for all of the players necessary to stop the option. This means that the quarterback checks into the Openside Inside Veer play to take advantage of their inability to to cover the dive, the keep, or the pitch. However, if the invert player has moved onto the line of scrimmage and reduced the defensive end, then the quarterback would call an Openside Load Option.
In the instance that the quarterback notices that he has an outside invert on the openside of the formation, he immediately knows that he will take his option to the tight side of the formation. Upon figuring that out, the quarterback looks at the first down lineman past the center. If he sees a 3 technique, then he checks the offense into a tight side Midline play. If the quarterback sees that the down lineman is in a 5 and 7 technique combination or 5 and 9 technique combination, then he will check to a tight side Load Option play.
The pros of this approach towards the option game are pretty obvious. If perfected, the offense will never find themselves in a poor play call. This yields a great advantage to the offense because they are configuring their plays according to the way that the defense sets up. In addition, this type of approach would completely negate the ability for scouting against your team. When the play is dictated by the defense, the only tendency that you can find from that is how often that defense is in that front. And if teams see that you are running a particular offense versus a particular set, they will find find that their scouting isn't very useful, as your play against their defense might be completely different.
The cons to the "Option on Me" offense falls within a couple different areas. Number one, the quarterback that you are using this system with must be a very football savy young man. He must understand the concepts and understand the idea of exploiting defenses. At the high school level, having these types of cognitive athletes seems to be very rare. In addition to that, the learning curve for this type of offense is existential. Not to say that it cannot be done, but the amount of film, practice, and critique necessary to become good at this concept is significant. However, a bit of that can be combatted early by running a "Check with me" offense from the sideline to help facilitate the same concept, except the coach will be calling the play versus allowing the quarterback to. Lastly, the other con to this particular concept is that you must have a quarterback that you can trust to make the right decisions in that situation. Quarterbacks that don't make the right decisions can really hurt this type of offense because they are, often times, setting the offense up in poor plays versus the ideal play like intended.
While there are a few cons, I think the pros will outweigh the cons. I believe that if you integrated this type of system very early in the year you could have success. Early in the year it might be most advantageous to call the play from the sideline (Check With Me) and then progressively pass the responsibility over to your quarterback once he has shown that he has mastered the concept. If that doesn't happen the first year, then that is something that can progressively be worked on throughout the system.
