When it comes to the Pistol-Flex Triple Option offense, “less” is indeed much better than “more”. What I mean by that statement is broken down as follows:
A) the Pistol-Flex only has a total of two (2) formations. Who needs any more when what you “do” as an offense you do very well! Having countless variations of the base formation will not help your cause. Just keep running what each offensive player on your team knows like the back of their hand…the Veer play and keep running it from the same formation!
B) the Pistol-Flex has a very limited number of plays (both pass and run). Try limiting your playbook to about 10 plays in total! Why? Teach your players to be “Masters of a few plays” and not “Jacks of many plays”. When I say “Jacks of many plays”, what I mean is that there is a very good possibility that if your playbook resembles something the size of an encyclopedia, there is no way that every player on your offense will truly “know” their individual responsibilities on each play. This will lead to confusion which will then lead to panic and a lack of aggression when the play is being run. This lack of confidence and aggression is a direct result of that player not knowing what his assignment is on that play. One cannot play aggressively if they do not know what they are supposed to do. It is that simple. So, have them all learn a very limited number of plays so that they can all rep those plays indefinitely. This will give them the confidence to run the plays and to lead you to victory!
C) limit your blocking schemes to a bare minimum so that all players can feel confident about what they must accomplish on each play. The Pistol-Flex has a grand total of three (3) pass protection schemes: two are play-action-pass protections while the other is a Sprint protection scheme. That is it! Our run blocking rules are very simple to follow. We are mostly a Veer and Zone blocking team.
D) keep your passing tree very limited. Within the greater Pistol-Flex offense, we only have a very limited number of pass routes that each receiver must learn. First and foremost, we are a “Run-First” type of team (offense). Having said that, when we do throw the ball, it most likely will be off the Veer look as a play-action-pass. The two WRs should have “man” coverage on them which allows us to just throw that ball up and allow our great athletic WRs to fight for it. The Pistol-Flex offense will never become a pass-first type of offense (at least as far as I am concerned) so forcing your receivers to learn countless passing routes is worthless. Instead, they should be concentrating on their stock blocking techniques!
Please remember that old KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid! When it comes to being successful with the Pistol-Flex Triple Option Offense, greater words have never been spoken.