How Valuable is Your Information

How Valuable is Your Information?

One of the ways that today’s technology has negatively affected our society is that people expect immediate or instant gratification from their lives.  So many things have caused all of us, myself included, to become this way.  One of the most incredible advancements in our society is the speed at which we can access information.  For example, I know nothing about changing the oil in my truck.  However, if I wanted to learn how to change the oil in my truck, I could find a YouTube video with a simple web search that will fully detail how to change the oil in my truck.  Information used to be an extremely valuable commodity in business, education, and for the purposes of this post: coaching. 

In the coaching profession, the information that a coach possessed used to be extremely valuable to players and parents.  However, just like I can find an article on how to change my oil, players, coaches, and parents can now find a video or website that will tell them exactly how to block the off tackle power play.  Entire websites have been set up detailing the intricacies of some of the game’s top offensive or defensive units.  For example, the website fishduck.com has video, presentations, and explanations of almost every offensive play run by Chip Kelly during his time at Oregon.  Even the casual fan can visit that website and see all the details of how a particular play is blocked.  Other websites have entire games from the NFL or NCAA available for any coach or fan to view.  The information that used be so valuable to coaches is now available for anyone.

In some cases, coaches have fallen victim to the instant gratification society by valuing the information that they possess over the ability to teach the fundamentals of the game.  Going back to the oil change, I might know HOW to change the oil in my truck.  I could go to ACE Hardware and buy all the latest tools and accessories to change the oil.  However, at the end of the day, there are still some fundamental things that I will have to be able to do in order to use those fancy tools and the information that I got off of YouTube.  If I can’t perform those skills, then it doesn't matter what tools I have and what information I possess.  I could have the secrets to a successful oil change from the world’s greatest oil changer, but those secrets in my possession are worthless because I can’t even turn the first wrench properly to begin the process!

My point is, information is readily available for us as coaches all over the internet.  The secrets to Chip Kelly’s offense aren't secret anymore.  The problem is, sometimes as coaches, we rely too much on the information and not enough on the teaching of skills and techniques that will help our kids be successful.  One thing I have noticed lately is the prevalence of offensive “systems” that you can purchase from various coaches around the country.  I’m not knocking those coaches for trying to make an extra buck, but the bottom line is that no matter what information you possess, you still have to know how to teach kids, evaluate their performance, and teach them the fundamentals they will need in order to be successful.  If you can’t do those things, then the information you might possess is useless.

Hybrid Plays for Spread Offenses

Hybrid Plays for Spread Offenses

This season, our team went from 0-9 last season to 12-1 this season, losing in the third round of the state playoffs. Last year, after a tough season, our offensive coordinator and I took a look at adding some “hybrid” plays to our offense. We were already a spread / zone read team that ran a fast tempo offense. We had a few hybrid plays but had not explored them to their full depth. This season, we used quite a few of these hybrid plays and had the number one ranked offense in the state and one of the top high school offenses in the country.

Hybrid plays involve multiple options on the same play and many of you likely already do this to some extent. We set out to create a system on these plays that involved pre-snap reads (gifts), post snap reads, and in some cases option game following the post snap read. Here is one example of our hybrid inside zone play from a 2x2 formation:

Pre-Snap

Assume that the field is to the right (ball on the left hash or left middle) and please excuse my crude drawings. In this 2x2 hybrid play, we have multiple options pre-snap. The two shaded areas are areas that our quarterback will look at pre-snap to determine if he will throw either concept. If, for example, to the field side of this play, the defender is not completely covering the 4 step out and we have soft coverage, he will throw the out route to the field. Additionally to the field side, if there is press coverage on our outside receiver and the down and distance/situation allow us to, we can take a deep shot with the vertical.

On the short side of this hybrid play (or in this diagram to the left) we also are reading the alley area for leverage. Many times, teams will play two safeties and leave the slot to the boundary uncovered. If the corner is soft, we can throw an arrow route to the slot while the outside receiver stalks the corner. This throw is completed before the WR begins his block so blocking downfield is not a problem. It is essentially a quick screen to our fastest (often smallest) WR with one of our more physical blockers in front of him. If the arrow route does not catch the ball immediately after the snap, we want him to continue to work for width (not depth) and turn his back to the sidelines. He will become a pitch option for the QB if the QB pulls the football on the zone read.

All of these options are pre-snap reads for our QB meant to take advantage of “gifts” the defense may be giving us by their alignment. There is a lot of coaching and film work that takes place in order to teach the QB when and where it is appropriate to throw these pre-snap options. Our offensive coordinator and our QB meet on a regular basis to discuss these issues from week to week.

Post snap

The post snap version of this play is much like any other zone read you would have encountered. If you are interested in how we block our inside zone or the finer points of our OL play, please feel free to contact me; however, I will focus primarily on the hybrid versions of this play.

Post snap, if none of the pre-snap options are viable or preferred, the QB will read the backside defensive end and give or keep based on his movements. If the ball is pulled, the QB will stretch the defense to the boundary and then has the option of flipping the ball to the slot receiver that ran the arrow route as a pre-snap read. This is almost always a forward pass and is sometimes completed in front of the line of scrimmage. Many times, our linemen have not yet made it downfield enough in the interior of the pay to get a lineman downfield penalty. If the pass is completed on or behind the line of scrimmage it is essentially a screen and we don’t have to worry about having linemen downfield.

We feel this hybrid play, along with many others that we employed this season, helped us to make such a drastic change in our record from last season. We used a handful of these plays, along with our regular offense, to achieve extraordinary efficiency on offense this year. If you would like to discuss this or any other hybrid plays, please feel free to contact me at:

gabriel.fertitta@gmail.com