Bread and Butter Running Plays
John McKay
Head Football Coach
In all the clinics that I have attended over the years, when a coach wins anything, everybody comes and takes the diagrams he puts up and says, “That’s it.” The last couple of years it has been all about the Wishbone.
Well we don’t use the Wishbone, but just to get in the swing of things I’ve changed the name of our offense from the I Formation to the I Bone. The offense is exactly the same and just the name is changed.
For years we wanted to run at you with the blast play and find out where you were and establish the fact that we were as strong, physically, as you were. After we established the blast, we went to our pitch play, or, as it is also called “student body left or right”. This year, we started with the pitch and ran it until you stopped it, and then we’d go to the blast. We run the pitch a while, then go to the blast, and then back to the pitch.
We really are pretty simple. Over the years we’ve found that players win games and not plays. Our attack is based on multiple sets, using motion and shifting. We start out with sixteen different sets and by using motion and shifting we can add greatly to the number of things we do. It’s pretty complicated for the opponent, but its simple to us, and out of it come our two basic run plays the pitch and the blast.
The Pitch
We start by running the pitch play until you put so many people outside that we can make our inside offense go. We start almost every offensive set to run the ball outside. If we go outside to the tight end side we ask the tight end to block the outside man on the line. We don’t care where you line him up, we feel we can block him. We ask him to block the defensive man up in his face and his main job is to keep the defender on line and if possible to hook the man. If the defender fights to the outside fast, then we ask him to drive him to the sideline, but to stay up on him and keep him on the line.
Here are our blocking assignments between the tackles. We tell our tackle to hook the defensive tackle, to stay up, and to never go to his knees. He should stay up and block him as high as he can and keep pushing on him. If the defensive man slants inside, our tackle just goes on to the linebacker. The center’s job is to reach to the onside, unless he is covered, and then take that man. We tell the guard to block the onside linebacker. We ask him to pull around the tight end for the linebacker. If the linebacker shoots the gap however, the guard just stops and takes him. So it’s important that the guard keeps his eyes on the linebacker all the time (Figure 1). We tell the offside guard to pull and go through the first opening he can find. The offside tackle’s assignment is the same as the guard’s.
Our quarterback, at times, leads this play. If we ask him to lead, assuming we’re going to the right, he should step right with his right foot, and then reverse pivot. He shouldn’t reverse pivot first. If he does he will be behind the play. Then he just leads around the end and looks inside. We ask him to fall at the feet of the defender. We don’t want him to body block him or get tough with other people. Our quarterbacks make a lot of good blocks that way.
We tell our fullback to take a slight step forward, and then go parallel to the line and annihilate the corner back. We don’t want him to body block – just run over him!
Our Z-back (flanker’s) job changes depending on where he is set. If he is set wide, we ask him to crack back on the first man inside, usually the strong safety. If he is set in the Power I position, then he leads outside the tight end, and helps him with the defensive end. If our tight end has his man, then Z leads straight up to the safety man.
Our tailback’s job is to open step toward the sideline, catch the pitch fro the quarterback, and run as fast as he can for the outside, always keeping his eyes up the field. If he can get all the way outside, then we want him to run off the fullback’s block on the corner. If there’s a funnel there, we tell him to turn up-field and go (see Figure 2).
If the defensive end, or the Rover ever gets up-field or outside too fast, then our tailback will cut up inside and pick up the blocks of our backside pullers (See Figure 3).
If people are overplaying against this formation with an unbalanced defense, we will shift, or motion our Z back to balance up or take advantage of the defense. This year, for example, we faced a rover defense which put two men on the line outside our tight end or Z-back (see Figure 4). So we put our Z-back in motion through the backfield and ran the pitch away from the rover, as shown in Figure 5.
The Blast
Now, we get to the blast play (see Figure 6). One coaching point on this play is extremely important. We want our backs to stay deep. The Fullback should be at least 4 ½ to 5 yards deep and the tailback should be 6 to 6 ½ yards deep, so that they can see the option run versus all the potential stunts we may see. Where you line up is as important as where you wind up. If you want to crowd up, it means you’re too slow to play in our backfield.
It’s impossible for an offensive tackle or guard to keep a defender, if he is lined head-on, from going inside. If you’re stubborn enough to say you’re going to run the ball through any one hole, then certainly stunts will wipe this play out.
Someone made the comment to me the other day
that he was
amazed we kept our tailback at 7 yards deep during the entire game
against
We ask our backs to key the first defensive lineman to the onside. As they approach the hole, they will run away from the direction the lineman slants. If the defensive lineman slants in, it is obvious the linebacker is coming to the outside. Our tackle will just block the defensive tackle the way he wants to go, and our fullback will “kick out” the linebacker the way he is going. If the tailback stays back away from the fullback, there’s an alley between those blocks that he can hit. The rest of the blocking is pretty simple.
The quarterback gives the tailback the ball as deep as possible. I don’t believe you can run as hard when you get the ball close to the line of scrimmage. The first thing any back thinks of is possession, and possession first. “I must have the ball,” he says, “then I can think about the other things”. So, we ask our quarterback to reverse pivot and get the ball deep.
This play also can be a great goal line play provided the back is willing to go “over the top” versus the gap defenses. If we face a goal line stand or gap set we tell our tailback to be ready to dive over the line. Again he must line up deep to have time to secure the ball and then get up in the air. He takes off about a yard back and a good diver can go about 5 or 6 yards. Now, what you have got to do is convince the diver. We tell the diver that “They’ll probably catch you, and that is the best thing that can happen to you. Now if we block well you’ll hit the ground, and that is the worst thing that can happen to you, because you are going to hit the ground right on your head”.
People ask, “How do you practice this play?”. We don’t. But I’ll give you a little stat. In the first six games this past season and the last two games 37 times we had short-yardage or goal line situations, and we either made the first down or scored on all but one. Proper execution and the threat of the blast play was a big reason why.
I don’t think theories or plays win games. Players win games. Down
through the years we have not changed
all that much. The things we do best are
the things we know best and have taught for years.
End of Presentation
1973 Football Proceedings
American Football Coaching Association