In 2000, we started flip-flopping our offensive line. In previous years we had spent a great amount of time attempting to be a balanced offense. Our definition of balanced was to be able to run our base plays equally as well to the right and left sides of the offensive line. We thought this would make us unpredictable and harder to defend. On paper, this was very simple to do. However, on the field we were continuously frustrated with the fact that our “off-tackle power” was not as productive to one side as it was the other. This shortcoming annoyed us and no matter how “hard” we coached the underachieving side, it never met our expectations. We were using countless hours trying to “balance” the offense.
We soon realized that our offense would never be balanced based on our definition. Each lineman had their own unique skill set and by attempting to make them “cogs” in a machine, we were not maximizing their strengths. Therefore, we took our two biggest and best drive blockers and put them on the same side. They were labeled the strong guard and strong tackle. Opposite these two positions were our quickest and most agile linemen, our quick guard and quick tackle. Our center over the years has been a conglomeration of different abilities. Our first prerequisite for him was to be able to shotgun snap. Our alignment looked like this:
diagrams 1 and 2 
By flip-flopping our offensive line, I discovered two distinct economical advantages. The first was the use of our practice time. Time is a scarce resource and every successful coach will monitor his practice time and protect it. We are all constantly looking for ways to squeeze in one more drill, repetition, or practice period.
Flip-flopping allowed us also to cut our playbook in half. We no longer taught the “off-tackle power” to the right and left. It was always run to the strong side. By moving the strong side to the left and right, we could attack both sides of the defense by teaching only one play. Consequently, everyone got better at their fundamentals and techniques since we could get more repetitions. Every time we ran a play in practice our offensive linemen were honing their skills at twice the speed of a conventional offensive line set-up. We felt this was a great advantage due to our ability to use time more efficiently and the smaller amount of learning required of our players.
The second economic advantage is the allocation of resources. Each team has the same amount of resources (players) it can put on the field and how those resources are allocated (alignments) became our next big advantage.
We found the defenses that played us understood our power play was always run to the strong side. Therefore, many opponents would attempt to allocate more resources to the strong side. They would either leverage the strong side with their alignments or outnumber it. Below are two examples we would commonly see.
diagrams 3 and 4
Regardless of how the defense would align, we would attempt to run to the strong side. However, this allocation of additional resources to stop the strong side run opened up an offensive counter-punch to the quick side. We did not need to run a power play to the quick side, so we paired the play-action pass with the power play to take advantage of the numbers and leverage. Here are two examples:
diagrams 5 and 6
In conclusion, flip-flopping the offensive line has made economical sense to us. In dealing with the scarcity of time, we became more efficient in our execution, learning time was cut, more time could be devoted to technique, and our coaching staff became more creative in the use of motions and formations. The decisions our opponents made allocating their 11 defenders to stop the strong side run allowed us to counter-punch for a big play, find personnel mismatches, create run opportunities to the quick side, and become balanced in our ability to attack both strong and quick sides.
Jim Glover is a 28-year coaching veteran on the college and high school level. He has written several articles for different national publications and is presently the offensive coordinator at North Side High School in Jackson, Tennessee.