One of the things I love most about football is that there are a lot of different ways to do things and be successful. This is simply the way our minds work when it comes to offensive game planning. Before I get into the actual weekly game planning, I want to first share a few of my general philosophies when it comes to our offense.
Homecoming Head coach Matt Walker instructs QB Travon Hearns The Falcons win 42-22 win against Southwestern (TX) at home for Homecoming Ramer Field Saturday Sept 24, 2016. photo by Kathy M Helgeson
GENERAL OFFENSIVE PRINCIPLES:
1. Physicality: We take tremendous pride on our football team in being the most physical team on the field every Saturday. We talk about this a lot as an offensive unit and a football program. All great teams have a few things that give them that identity that separates them from other football teams. It may not make sense for every program to ‘hang their hat on this’, but in our program, there is never a question of what our philosophy is on Saturday’s…we simply want to be the most physical team in the country on every snap.
2. Effort: I think it is very easy to simply use the coaching cliché that ‘we have to play harder than the other team.’ But, in our program, playing with the highest effort has become a priority over anything else we do on each snap. We make it very clear to our kids from the first day they walk on campus that this is our expectation. Their effort level is evaluated at all times…game film, practice film, weight room, reps, etc. There is never a time that it is acceptable in our program to not give everything you have. The emphasis that we have put on effort has taken on a life of its own and now our kids police each other holding one another accountable in a more powerful way than any coach could do.
3. Balance: We truly believe in an offense that has complete balance between its run and pass game. I am as intrigued with the new age spread passing game as much as the next guy, but I am committed and believe in my soul that a balanced attack is the best way to organize an offense.
4. Multiple in Personnel and Formation: This is directly related to the point above about also being balanced. I grew up near Indianapolis in the prime of the Peyton Manning Colts versus the Tom Brady New England Patriots. It was the ultimate battle of two extremes on formational philosophies. For a decade, the Colts of the 2000’s became one of the most prolific offenses in the history of the game while remaining in one formation for almost the entire decade.
During that same time, the Patriots won multiple Super Bowls while getting in and out of every personnel and formational set known to mankind and re-defining the use of the Tight End/H-Back position along the way. We are more like the Patriots. We have basic schemes that we can run out of multiple sets with multiple people. We are a blend of 10, 11, 20, and 21 personnel sets that incorporate power football, some read option, a West Coast pass game, and a huge commitment to play action of all of our base run game schemes. Below are the reasons I believe so strongly in being very multiple with our personnel and formations:
a. Yearly Identity: We can slightly tweak our offense to best fit our personnel each season without changing our entire system.
b. Weekly Emphasis: We can slightly tweak our offense each week to best fit our injury situation, take advantage of our matchups, and focus on what we think we need to be that day to give us the best chance to win without changing our entire system.
c. In-Game Adjustments: We can easily become what we need to be in the middle of a game to give us the best chance to win without being out of our comfort zone. Being spread out and throwing it all over the yard is just as comfortable to us as packing it in and mashing people up. We have personnel groupings, formational sets, and base run and pass schemes that match almost every situational part of a game that can come up (2-minute, 4-minute, short yardage, all 3rd downs situations, playing with the lead, playing from behind, etc.). By being multiple, we are rarely in a game situation where we have to go to something that does not feel like ‘base’ offense for our unit.
d. Creates Roles: We all love coaching football and we all loved being on a football team, but there is not much more joy than actual playing snaps in the game that we love. This offense, with so many groupings and formations, allows us to play a wide variety of guys. It simply creates snaps for every basic offensive position we have in our game. We have formations that play five wide receivers, other sets that play multiple tight ends and fullbacks, and everything in between. This is also an advantage for us in recruiting. If there is an offensive player that is an impact player, we never are at a disadvantage in recruiting him because of our system. Our offense is attractive to every role.
e. Tough Preparation: I like to believe that our physicality, balance, how hard we play, and how multiple we are makes us a tough team to prepare for. Out of every set we take pride in having the ability to attack every spot on field (run inside, run outside, jet sweep, QB run game, horizontal pass game, vertical pass game, WR screens, and RB screens).
BASE GAME PLANNING
In our program, when we use the term ‘base game plan’ it refers to our plan on 1st and 2nd down. Some programs call this ‘Run Situation’ or ‘Mixed Down.’ We also know that every week’s preparation is a new adventure and always takes on an adventure of its own.
But, we like to have sort of an outline and plan of attack to start each week. When we are creating our weekly base plan, here are the things we consider to start the week:
1. Injury Report: We believe in using our multiple offense to create situations where are the best players are featured in schemes to make plays for us. Before we think about our first scheme on the field we need to be clear on who is healthy for us to play and which skill guys we want to feature with the ball in their hands.
2. Direct Matchups: We are looking for every edge we can give our football team. We like to identify the matchups up front and in the secondary that we think we can take advantage. We can then use our multiple sets and schemes to feature these matchups.
3. Base Defensive Schemes vs. Our Base Offensive Schemes: I believe that in weekly game planning there is a fine line that exists between wanting to tweak things to give you an advantage but not getting away from ‘just doing what we do.’ Because of this, one of the places we like to start is matching up our base schemes versus the defense’s base schemes and see what naturally fits as a good matchup for us. This usually gives us a good starting point…we know we want to feature these schemes and variations of them.
4. Formational Advantages: After our formational breakdown of our opponent, we will immediately identify sets that we think give us an immediate advantage. This may come from one of our base formations or from some of our formational variations (3×1, 2×2, Nub Side, Unbalanced, Double Tight End, Etc.)
After we answer these initial questions above, we begin to create a more specific plan. Below is the outline for creating the more specific base plan and the order that we typically work:
1. Base Formation and Personnel Groupings
2. Base Run Game
3. Play Action and Naked Schemes off of Base Run Game
4. Base Pass Game
a. Quick Game
b. Drop Back Pass Game
c. Sprint Pass Game
5. Base Screen Game
a. RB Screens
b. WR Screens
6. Shots / Specials: Do we have enough of a vertical pass game? Do we have a few specials?
7. ‘Mash’ Package: We always want to carry some packages where we can simply mash a team up. We want sets where we do not have to worry about schemes, matchups, reading anyone, etc…we want to just simply rely on that idea of being more physical than anyone we play. This is a ‘mindset’ package where we want to impose our will on our opponent.
8. Feature Packages: Do we have enough plays that get the ball in the hands of the skill players we want to feature. On my call sheet, I always want specific areas where I list the plays that simply get the ball to these guys. As a play caller, we all get stumped at certain times during a game. This category of plays is always a place you can go to and find a safe call because it is attempting to put the ball in the hands of one of your guys.
