By Ken Leonard, Head Coach
Sacred Heart Griffin High School (IL)
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9
The Man Offense
We are not afraid to trust our players at Sacred Heart Griffin High School. After all, offensive football is not astrophysics. Get your best players the ball while neutralizing your opponent’s best defenders. Everything else is mental Olympics on how you plan to accomplish this. At Sacred Heart Griffin we are big proponents of the “Man Offense.” We have players who are “the Man,” and we do our best to make sure we do not over- emphasize diagrams and schemes, but rather make sure we are creating favorable match-ups for our athletes. In the same regard we are committed to finding ways to put a defense’s best players in conflict, essentially neutralizing their “man.” After all, if you can’t block ‘em, then read ‘em.
We have been blessed with some elite players over the years but we have also done a tremendous job of making sure we get these players quality touches in the context of every game. Our offense also allows us to attack any of a defense’s 11 players by using varied methodology, including spacing, misdirection, and reads.
Evolution
Our offense has evolved, like many programs, with the expansion and proliferation of the shotgun run game throughout the past 15 years. Like many teams and offenses, the incorporation of the read option, reverse reads, and RPO’s have diversified our offense and given us new avenues to explore in getting “the man” the ball, engineering favorable match ups, and conflicting defenders.
Two years ago, we recognized our need to have a more efficient perimeter run game. At heart we are a gap scheme team built around the counter play. Teams have become increasingly more effective at defending this play, namely by inhibiting our kickouts by playing tight 5s and 4s and improved coaching of technique and stunts. We have combated this through reverse read counter (Figure 1), front side read power (Figure 2), and a myriad of other concepts, but traditional outside zone remained an under-performing play for us.
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Figure 1: Reverse Read Counter |
Figure 2: Front Side Read Power |
We began to look for remedies for this deficiency. We studied some of the unique wrinkles of Gus Malzahn’s buck sweep play at Auburn and also Wisconsin’s “Flex” play. It became increasingly apparent however that our offense was going to be dominated by 10 personnel, and as an up tempo team, we did not want to slow down to substitute or cannibalize our philosophy to run a single play.
Our solution was to try to create the best of both worlds by incorporating elements of both plays in a Frankenstein mutt of a play (think Frankenweenie). Since adding this play to our offense in 2014, we have called the play 153 times (about 6 times per game) for an average of 12.7 yards per play. In this same time frame our offense has averaged 52.7 points per game. The play also served our base needs by giving us a designed perimeter run play and becoming our most efficient play on offense as well.
Reach Run Zone
The resulting play has some pin pull lineage, sprinkles of outside zone, and a hint of midline option.
The playside tackle has the responsibility of reaching the end man on the line of scrimmage. We teach the front side of the play as a man scheme and not gap responsibilities (the rationale for this will hopefully become clear later). He will take a bucket step and reach the defender’s playside arm pit with reckless abandon. He is not to be overly concerned with a B Gap spike by the defender but in the event this occurs, he will do his best to get a piece of his man and force him down the line of scrimmage.
The playside guard will also bucket and spy pull for the first backer in the box. He will sprint to the sideline while eyeballing his linebacker with the intent of out leveraging the tackle’s block on the end man on his way to his assignment. However, he will block any color that tries to cross his face and if he has not established this leverage by his 5th step, he will turn vertical, punch the tackle’s man outside, and climb to fit on his backer. If his linebacker attempts to run through at any point, he will abort the pull and rally back on the defender’s playside armpit.
The center, backside guard, and backside tackle are responsible for cutoff and turn back of “the backside three” – the last three defenders in the box. We never block the first man head up or playside of the center but rather account for this defender by reading him. If he is a true zero, the center will work a playside release on him on his way to backside. (See Figures 3,4,5,6).
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Figure 3: Reach Run Zone vs Even – 3 Tech
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Figure 4: Reach Run Zone vs Even – Shade
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Figure 5: Reach Run Zone vs Odd
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Figure 6: Reach Run Zone vs Stack
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The quarterback and running back take the same path and steps as they do on our front-side read power play or reverse read counter play with the slight exception that we move their alignment slightly further back to 5 yards to allow more separation from the line of scrimmage. The back will align with his toes on the heals of the quarterback and split his crotch with the outside leg of the guard. On the snap of the ball he runs over the toes of the quarterback with his eyes on the block of the playside tackle. We read the play like the power play: if the defender tackles the running back, the quarterback keeps and presses the ball vertically in the playside A Gap. If the defender tackles the quarterback, the ball goes to the back and he presses the ball flat to the sideline while reading the block of the playside tackle to follow his pulling guard. Like the guard, on his fifth step he must either cut vertical or take the ball to the edge. This is a one cut play and if the read is cloudy, we give the ball to the back.
Answers to Stunts and Pressures
If defenses remained static and never moved or stunted we would all be riding the gravy train with biscuit wheels, but this is not a reality of football, especially in this day and age. We are able to handle most stunts and pressures by adhering to our base rules understanding a few big picture ideas.
If the tackle’s man decides to spike into the B Gap as a result of edge pressure or a twist, the tackle will stay with his man and attempt to get his helmet across his chest. The guard ends up blocking the first color to show outside the playside tackle’s block. Often this block manifests itself as a kickout and results on an inside track for the ball. The slot receiver will of course exchange assignments with the guard if the cause was outside originating pressure. In the case of a tackle end twist, we believe without reservation our back can out run the tackle to the edge. (See Figures 7 and 8)
We have found that the relative angle of the slanting lineman along with the context of the rest of the front almost exclusively results in the quarterback giving the ball in these situations, and has resulted in some big plays for us.
Permutations and Complimentary Plays
As shown in the previous diagrams, there are a litany of blocking schemes that may be employed on the perimeter depending on the structure of the coverage and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the defense’s personnel. We also have employed tags to likewise dictate and vary how we block the backside three, such as the incorporation of a fold block by the center and backside guard (shown above in figures 7 and 8).
We have also used tags to change the read defender to the playside linebacker and can run the play out of multiple personnel groupings. (Figures 9 and 10).
Of course, we have also built aspects of our play-action passing game around the play as well as a half back option pass, screens and slant trap as complementary plays. (Figures 11,12,13,14).
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Figure 11: Four Verticals off of Reach Run Zone
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Figure 12: Half Back Option
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Figure 13: Reach Run Zone paired with Screen Game
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Figure 14: Slant Trap
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Conclusion
The Reach Run Zone play has been both an explosive and efficient addition to our offense. It has allowed us to attack the technique of the defenses we are presented with and solidified our perimeter run game. More importantly, it has given us another avenue to get “the Man” the ball in our offense while allowing us to place a defender in conflict.
Like every other staff and program, we stand on the shoulders of giants and are blessed by other coaches who willingly share and continually reimage the face of offensive football. It is our most sincere hope that you find our reach run zone play of benefit to your squad.