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My Play Calling Thought ProcessDuece gave a great break down of Paul Johnson's If/Then thought process whencalling offense the triple option...HERE .

It got me thinking about If/Then games within our spread offense and what I usewhen calling offense. Now I do not have it broken down into an actual sheet, thisis all stuff that has been floating around in my brain, this is actually the first time Iwill have put these thoughts down in writing so please excuse me if it becomesan incoherent mess.

I believe in having answers for anything a defense may throw at you. What I likeabout being in spread, and using no huddle forces the defense into a lot of vanillalooks, or they are at the very least predictable... most teams sit in 1 or 2 differentthings against us and just stay. We see very little interplay variability.

We primarily operate from 2x2 and 3x1 formations. I will refer to our 2x2formation as Ace for the remainder of this post.

The Box

If we are in Ace, the defense will surely have corners aligned in the area of ouroutside WRs. Every team we play will have at least 1 Safety high. Defenses mustput defenders at least somewhat removed from the box in . That is 5 players thatwe have removed from the box.

Basic math: 11-5 = 6 Defenders in the box... 5 if they play a 2 high coverage.

As an OL coach I can draw up a multitude of schemes to run against 5 and 6man boxes.

Keep them out of the boxNext I look at the defenses overhang players... the guy between the team's CBand their DE. If they are sound defensively they will likely have this player at leastsplitting the difference between our OT and slot WR when we are in ACE. IWANT to run the ball... if this player begins cheating his alignment toward thebox in order to play the run, then I will use bubbles or screens outside to outleverage him immediately. Play action bubble was a staple of my offense lastseason, it is a great answer for OLB/SS's who wish to play the run.

TRIPS

I am a huge believer in using trips. Being in trips puts a great deal of stress onthe defense, some defenses have major adjustments, some have no

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adjustments... either way you must be ready with the appropriate answer for thedefensive reaction.

Using TRIPS is especially important when on the hashes. HS Hash marks are sowide I feel you almost HAVE to be in trips to the wide side. Being in Ace on a

Hash does not spread the defense out because your slot and SE are so close,the overhang does not have to remove himself from the box.

Remember removing defenders is not just critical for running success, it makespass protection much easier and more clearly defined.

NumbersI look at numbers to the trips side. How many defenders do they have aligned tothe trips side?If they only have 2 defenders to cover my 3 WR's then I want to attack that area

of the field. I can do this through a flood concept, any of our screens, and outsideruns to that side... I have them outnumbered and that is where I must attack.

If they put 3 defenders over my 3 WR's, any of the above plays can still work, butI begin looking at the rest of the defense as well. To put 3 defenders over my 3WR's the defense has to do one of 3 things:

Walk a defender out of the box

If they walk an inside backer out of the box to the trips side then I want to runinside. Think about it... we already have reduced numbers in the box via

formation, and they have just removed one of the defenders.

Shift backers to the Trips sideSeeing as removing a backer from the box weakens the inside run ability of thedefense, many DC will either flop their overhang player from the weakside, orbump the backers over... Overhang bumps inside, bumping all backers over untilthe ILB on the trips side now walks out over the #3 WR. If a team does this theyhave covered your 3 WR's on the trips side, maintained their numbers in the boxthey began with, but they have opened up possibilities on the backside. Withoutan overhang player on the single WR side, that WR has a lot of room to workwith, this is where you play your stud WR. Without an overhang player (and oftena soft corner) I can attack the weak flat area with slants, curls, and screens.

A great play when on a Hash is going trips to the wide side, and throwing a playaction screen back to the single WR. Play fake gets the defense flowing to thewide side, and being on the hash gives the OT a shorter distance to run to blockthe corner. Without an overhang player to the weakside this can really hurt the

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