This past week, my men’s team, the Bears, took on another
8-1 team in the Inland Empire Meerkats (yeah, I get that a meerkat is part of
the mongoose family, but it’s gotta be like the red-headed stepchild. Not very
intimidating of a name). Anyway, they were 8-1 for a reason – they had a couple
of very electric playmakers on offense. One we knew about, and pretty well shut
down, and one we didn’t, but found out about in a hurry – he ran back the
opening kickoff for a TD and then scored on a quick pass of about 80 yards.
Anyway, we won 30-12 (extra points seem to be an extreme
luxury in this league, as none were scored). The way we did it is what is
noteworthy. I can’t remember running this much by choice in a long, long time.
I’m a big proponent of making the defense “play with doubt” and really prefer
to be balanced in my play calls. But although we completed a few key passes,
our efficiency wasn’t where it needed to be. So we ran the ball…..and ran…and
ran.
We might have thrown 2 passes in the 2nd half. But we
controlled the clock, and after only a 12-6 halftime lead, we opened up the
game. A defensive scoop ‘n score gave us breathing room at 18-6, and then we
took it from there.
As usual, there was something I wish I hadn’t done, and that
was at the end of the first half. We were pretty much backed up around our 15,
but I thought we could go down and score. We had one time out, and so did they.
Well, two incomplete passes left us looking at 3rd and 10 with about
50 seconds left. My HC was looking at me like he didn’t like me very much at
that moment. So we ran the ball on 3rd, got about 5 yards and I was
thinking, “What an idiot….they’re going to call time out, and we’re going to
have to punt from not only backed up, but to #15.” Except they didn’t call time
out….and we watched the clock wind down, and we got out of there. I post stuff
like this to help others avoid the same mistakes I make….and they’re subtle
(usually), but still – if I want to be a great play caller, those are areas in
which I need to improve.
Now….for the “meat” of this week’s post, I want to go back
to one of my early posts, which fits in with this week’s theme of “doing what
needed to be done” to win. This was titled “My Favorite Offense” from December
2013:
***
Every once in awhile I’m asked what my favorite offense is.
My license plates read “WC OFNSE”, so that could be a clue but in reality, the
answer is simple: the one that works for that team, that season.
I’ve worked for 11 different offensive coordinators, and
have been one myself five (note: now 6) different seasons. In that time, as a
coordinator I’ve employed the following offenses: Wishbone, Power I, West
Coast, Shotgun Spread and Fly.
I’ve got to say that right now, if the personnel is right, I
really like the possibilities with the shotgun spread. You can do almost any
variant you want out of it – you can have a varied passing game, you can run
option, you can run any type of perimeter run game and you can have a
power-based run game.
The key is recognizing and adjusting to what your players
can do. Let me invoke one of Homer Smith’s quotes, which has stuck with me for
years: “It’s not what you know, it’s
what your players know.”
My first venture into the world of coordinating was with a
men’s semi-pro team. I’d just finished a five-year stint at Fountain Valley
High, under the watchful eyes of Hank Cochrane, who continues to be one of my
heroes, although he would slap me silly for saying that. I figured that these
players were grown-ass men and could handle a “high school” offense. Boy was I
wrong…. At FVHS, we used four different pass protection concepts, with two
variants in two of them, for a total of six protections. I simplified that down
to one for these guys, and they still couldn’t comprehend it (a half slide
protection). In Week One, we gave up eight sacks. I’d gone entire seasons at FV
without giving up eight sacks! In Week Two, we beat up on a horribly
overmatched team. Then we had a bye week, and our QB disappeared – just left.
No one knew where he was. Anyway, the combination of an offensive line that
apparently had very little experience in pass pro and having to break in a new
QB pretty much eliminated a standard drop-back passing game.
So – what to do in a bye week? I had a speedy receiver that
had played QB in Jenks, Oklahoma. He’d had experience in running the Wishbone.
So I talked with him, found out what he was comfortable with, then set about
figuring out ways to get the OL on the same page. Long story short, out of an
eight team league, we ended up being the #2 scoring offense.
The following year, same team, completely different
personnel. That was the Power I team. I
had a tailback that played at Alabama, and a huge offensive line. My QB had a
little mobility and a strong arm for play action passes. At the end of the
year, we were again the #2 scoring team, and beat the #1 team 35-14.
Each year of my coaching career, my outlook and preferences
have changed. I’d evolved into a shotgun spread guy ever since about 2010. Last
year, I went into the (2013) season thinking that was what we were going to
run. However, when a combination of inexperienced receivers and quarterbacks
raised its head, we were forced to adjust once again. This time, looking at our
OL (extremely mobile, but a bit undersized) and our running backs (nice blend
of speed and power) and what the receivers could do (they could block their
asses off!) we settled on running the Fly offense, out of shotgun. I visited with
Mark McElroy from Saddleback College (and who coincidentally followed me at my
first coaching gig, at San Clemente High) and got his concepts down for the run
game. We kept as much of our current terminology as possible, including the
entire passing game, to keep the transition down. So then, all it became was a
different play call mix, not a whole new offense.
The results were mixed – we averaged right around 40 points
a game on offense, but we went 9-2, which was our worst finish in a couple of
years. My feeling is that we were too dependent on the outside run game, and
when we weren’t physically able to block defenders at the point of attack, we
suffered. So if it was scheme or ability, either way we didn’t get the results
we wanted.
This season (2014), we have an experienced QB coming back.
My vision would be to keep what we ran last year, but instead of running the
Fly motion 80% of the time, run it about 25% of the time, and then
re-incorporate the rest of the shotgun spread run and pass game we had before.
But again, as a coaching staff we have to look at what we can and can’t do, and
be willing to adjust from there.
In closing, as a coordinator you can’t be so tied to your
preferred plays or system that you lose sight of the fact that it is still about
the team’s success. Remember, it’s not what you know, but what your players
know.
***
See you next week!
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