Spread Option Questions??

Coach,

We line our fullback's heels at 5 yds. I suppose it could be closer depending on the speed of your fullback, but if he's that slow he shouldn't be playing in the GSU style. They look for strong backs that can give you that +50 yd. run. The slots are in a 3 ft. by 1 ft. split. Some defenses won't adjust to the wide side and some do. When they bump over or you need to run counter option/ counter speed to the backside. Same holds true for people who fly guys to the ball when they see the tail motion of the backside slot back. You also need to throw the backside post or run the midline playside to slow down that alley player. Your P.A. game will help a bunch.

In our offense the fullbacks heels are at 4 yards, and the wing backs are a yard outside the tackle and a yard back. We line the fullback up closer to explode him into the line of scrimmage, and get quicker hitting plays IE midline.

If you're in the spread you won't see a 4-4. If you do, forget the option and throw uncovered right now.

Coach,

I'm not sure I'm following you....you say that an 8-man front can stop the option? Maybe against a Pro Set, but if you're running spread option, it increases your chances of getting a big play. I don't mean SPREAD as is twins to both sides. You can't run option out of that formation consistantly. I'm talking about two SE's, two WB's and a FB. The only way the 8-man front opponent can stop the option is to get the free-safety involved, opening up the middle of the field for the Play Action Pass, or to whip individual blocks, in which case they'd stop whatever you ran.

You can handle an 8 or 9-man front if you're an OPTION TEAM. But if you're a team that just RUNS OPTION, you can't. Big difference.

Coach -

I think you affirmed by point. No, we do not run a double tight slot option...we do run it out of a true spread look using motions to set the option. My point is that when the defense begins to screw down safeties and presents an 8 man front, the option game, although still a threat, becomes less of an alternative for us and we convert to either play action, sprint out or quick set passes. Keep in mind that when in a 4 wide set and with the defense in a 7 man box with 0 coverage....speed option, midline, inside veer and freeze option are still viable plays...however, we read that as a legitimate opportunity to throw the ball vs. man coverage to one of our best athletes...the pass therefore becomes a better alternative than the option. This year, our offensive line was not very good at run blocking and defenses recognized this and would play with a soft box. This opened up our option game and we succeeded on most occassions with it. The combination of running the option and the ability to throw allowed us to average 420 yds and 35 pts a game. pdow

It really all depends on the opponent.

If they are an even front team who is consistantly putting the 3-tech to the field, you can either bring a TE in and try to force the 3-tech to the boundary, or you can line up balanced and run to the boundary. If you have a strong SE who can sustain a stalk block, running to the boundary sometimes can lead to a good play.

I think it's a matter of preference, really. I think staying balanced will keep the defense honest, but lining up unbalanced can also give you advantages.

Coach, We line up our Fb 5 yards off the ball. Strictly a 2x2 no-huddle set.

Good book on spread offense id coaching football's spread offense by tim stowers(university of RI) and barry butzer. The detail their basic run package. The use a half dozen or so runs and strictly run option. Another great coach running the GSU system is Coach Johnson at Navy. He is the man in that arena.

We run the same set up and run option exclusively. ML, Veer, Speed, Counter, and Wide Veer. Our no-huddle allows us to read defenses and call motions, shifts, and plays from the sideline or on me for our qb. And we run that wide vesus 8 man fronts with great success. Of course if they are really aggressive we go to our quick,screen, and PA games.

Any questions let me know. Good Luck

Just so you know our passing game is strictly 3 step, sprint out, PA, and Quick 1 step. Remember we are no-huddle and use wrist bands. Our slots are 1 yardX1 yard off our tackle with the SEs between 12 and 17 yards from the slots. We use number to identify the route combinations in the 2x2 and 3x1. We run between 3-5 different combinations in the 2X2. Some of my best over the years have been our (stated in Slots/SE or inside out) Banana/Slants, Seam/Hitch, Banana/Fade, arrow/arrow. We then run plays like (seam/hitch-and go) off of all the with hand signals. Our third receiver to the side runs a combination route that changes from week to week or defensive scheme. If a team rotates to C3 on motion or shift our kids make the read and a call out load to the qb so we are on the same page. In the 3x1 we like to pick on the #4 kid. We rub him Banana/Slant/Slant or throw quicks (bubble screen) at him in the 3X1. Our single kid will get alot of looks on rotating or man coverage like the slant, hitch, slant corner.

Hope this helps.

Coach Kramer