University of Georgia
Head Coach Mark Richt on the Shallow Cross Series
The featured Saturday afternoon guest
speaker at the annual USC
Nike coaching clinic this past spring was Head Football Coach Mark
Richt
from the University
of Georgia.
Coach Richt flew in just for the day to make the presentation and then
turned around to go home for what I imagine was an awfully long one day
trip. Compounding the difficulty Coach Richt was visible suffering
from a slight head and sinus cold.
The crux of Richt's one hour presentation
centered on the
famous Florida State University
Shallow Cross Series in the passing game. The play is nothing
new and has been around football for quite some time. The play which
I'll describe below was made famous through its repeated
and highly successful use by the Florida State Seminoles during
their spectacular run of 14 consecutive years of Top 5 finishes.
This single
pass
play was run by FSU as often as a dozen times per game
(albeit out
of different formations). Bobby Bowden and Richt believed in running it
again
and again until the defense could stop it. Often the opponent simply
could not. This play was designed for superior execution honed by
repetition. The shallow cross play was often half of FSU’s offensive
passing
yardage gained in any given game.Coach Richt still uses the play today
at the University of Georgia. QB Matt
Stafford
reportedly runs the play
fairly
well but is still developing in reading all the routes and making the
required
throws with quick timing.
The play features five eligible receivers
(not all WR’s) and
is run out of the shotgun with only five man offensive line protection
scheme meaning
it has
to have built in hot routes or the QB will get drilled. The routes are
packaged in a manner such that the play will generally have at least
one open route versus whatever defense the opposition plays. However
the play requires both precise and quick QB reads. Despite possessing
just medium arm strength former QB Charlie Ward
ran this
play to perfection and it was a big reason for his success in college.
FSU
averaged 520 yards per game the season when Ward won the Heisman Trophy
back in
1993. Ward threw for just over 3,000 total yards passing and roughly a
69% completion rate.
This first part of Coach Richt's presentation covered the tactical
explanation
of the Shallow Cross Series and how it works. This section is the
detailed X’s
and O’s breakdown on the alignments, different formations, adjustments,
and key points of the play versus different defenses. For those interested in that level of detail I'll link
to the 40 minute video I made for this part of the presentation. In the
video Coach Richt explains the
nuts and bolts
of running the shallow cross package from four different 3 x 2 sets for
offensive alignment. For example there is a version called "1 Z" (see
diagram
below) that features the flanker on
a shallow cross, a version called "1 Y" that features the Y receiver on
a shallow cross, a "1 Ted" version which was Richt's designation for a
tight end, and a "1 X" version where the split end runs the shallow
cross.
Here is a sample diagram I made of the "1 Z" version with four wideouts
and
operated out of the shotgun with a back offset. The front side of the
play (right side) is
a combination of three routes. The Z receiver runs the shallow cross,
the Y (Richt's nomenclature) receiver runs the choice route depending
upon the type of
coverage (one high or two high safety, etc.) and the halfback runs
either an arrow route or a scat route. On the back side the "Ted"
receiver (Richt's nomenclature) runs the hot route and adjusts in case
of blitz. Otherwise he tries to split the defense depending upon the
number and exact position of the safeties. The X receiver runs a bench
route for clear out purposes
and is not the main option on the play. Details about pass protection,
QB reads, adjustments versus different coverages, etc. are in the video
below.
