Fellow Youth Coaches

Oneback has some posts (in Installing the Running Game, I think) on this. Basically Joe Bugel says the 'Skins ran five plays when they won the Superbowl. Go to gilmangear.com, check their videos, and get the Bugel video, it's a steal at $15. It's about 2 hours long, and he runs down what they did and why and talks on this subject a fair bit. There's also a great little book written on this (forget the title, anybody remember?) by a former high school coach that talks about 5 plays that you can build a whole season around. I've been told this by HS coaches in the area and I'm now a believer. It ain't the number of plays, it's the execution.

I sympathize with your plight. It's hard to predict sometimes what will and won't work. I just finished my second year and have tried just about everything from the I except for the option game. I've found it takes working on a play for about two weeks of reps in practice to have any chance of the kids executing it. I started the season this year to base off of the inside and outside zone plays, and they were reliable all year. Tried the Counters, they worked except against teams that got penetration. Tackle trap was a good play, and toss sweep out of a Bunch Snug was a great play along with a halfback pass from the toss look and a Cross, Post, Stick combo (from outside in). Tried some other things, but those seemed to work best and probably would have been enough.

I've got a kid with the potential to be a terrific passer coming back next year, so right now I'm planning to spread 'em out and put it up. We'll base out of the gun with passes from the spread, trips, and bunch, complimented with Gun option and zone blocking up front with a pull from the backside tackle for traps and isos. Anything else will be a bonus. The challenge is not so much the pitchin' and catchin', it's the protectin' when they start sending backers and stunting up front.

Pick 5 plays your talent can execute and use formations to give the D a different look and I'll bet you see better results. If you'd like to talk about this further give me a ring @ 804.512.8457 sometime, I'd be happy to discuss.

Well in an interview a few weeks ago Shaun Alexander said whiel in H.S. his coach said we are going to run 3 plays an dif we can run those 3 plays we can win a state championship. Now whiel you may not have a back like Alexander you are not facing Alexander talent either. I play against that team and I can tell you what those 3 base plays were.

A blast through the A gap, B gap and C gap. I was power I and with a doubel team and the two lead backs slammed up in there. At the youth level one of the hardest things to do on defense is to get the LB to step up and plug holes. He slam up in there and you'll make contact witht he LB at about 3-5 yards depth. The off tackle some times will bounce to the outside.

We went 3-3 (0-3 to start, 3-0 to finish) against some veyr good teams. In our 3 wins I ran the blast almost non stop with the counter trey and the QB boot mixed in. Looking back at my practice time (it was a B team so they did not get a lot of work live past being a scout O) we reped blast play and counter almost non stop. 2 plays reped as many times in 20 minutes as I could.

On a side note I have bene reading Lombardi on Football and if anyoen is looking for an offense it covers it. I would like to run it myself next year but we'll see. The offense is run out of 2 sets (split back and what is refered to at times as a far set).

The Plays
Sweep
Sucker (inside dive off sweep action)
Long trap (adjustment to the sweep to take advatage of the DE jumping out fast)
Weak Sweep (same as sweep except HB lead to weak side)
Veer (run out of both sets)
Off tackle
Strong side Pitch (quick pitch)
Fullback toss (toss sweep to the weak side)
Quick trap
Inside Belly
Fullback Slant

Now that is more than 7 runs so I am not sure which of the 7 are the ones refered to as his "base offense"

Some are very similar and only a slight adjustment in backfield and carrier. He ran the veer out of both set (it is an inside zone "do-dad blocking") the Weak Sweep is the same as the the normal Sweep and the Pitches are the same basicly past backfield alignment.

Coach, I understand your question. I coach a 11/12 year old team in a league that has 9 teams and we all watch each other every weekend. We scrimage against each other and know each others personal very well.

That being said, what I decided to do this year was to limit my formations, which limited my plays as well.

What I decided to do was to go with one formation (two if you count left and right).

I choses the unbalanced SingleWing as my formation. When I switched from right to left, I also switched personel from one side to the other as well as switched the hole numbering.

So, Redgun right 28 and a Redgun left 28 is the same play just to differnet sides. The blocking assignements for each kid was the same, just the opposite direction.

I ran in order of effectivness,

a) power offtackle
b) wedge
c) fake reverse
d) TB draw
e) sweep
f) reverse

and two pass plays.

The kids new who to block for these few plays against all defenses we faced.

My offtackle play was very tough for teams to stop, the fake counter was a big play all year long.
The TB draw also worked well, even though we only passed a couple of times a game.


We went to the Superbowl, but lost to team with a lot of talent.


Later in the year, I added the fullback spin series to the singlewing, but designed the plays where the blocking assignments for the line was the same as our baseplays, just the backfield motion was a little different.

Since we only ran one formation, we never tipped our plays.

Coach, think in terms of limiting your formation and then put a play that attacks each area of the LOS.
This will keep the number of plays to a minimum


My 2 cents

eaglecoach,

This list represents about 95% of what we put in on offense this season. These plays were run from a number of different formations primarily out of the I, Offset-I and Gun. I use two wristcoaches with 16 plays on each of them that I call by number from the sideline or send in with a set of receivers on each play. Although we ran some option game this year I'm not expecting to be able to run much of it next year because of our change at QB.

ISO (TB or QB in Gun)
INSIDE ZONE (FB and TB)
TOSS or SWEEP (TB)
KEEP (QB)
POWER (TB)
COUNTER (FB or occasionally to the TB)
BOOT (off of INSIDE ZONE)
INSIDE VEER (FB/QB/TB)
MIDLINE (FB/QB)
LOAD (QB/TB)
(2) ROLLOUT PASS PLAYS
(2) 3-STEP DROP PASS PLAYS
(3-4) GUN PASS PLAYS

Thanks for your input into this forum coach throughout the season.

Dave Hartman
CYFL Coach