How many plays are too many?

On our staff we like the philosophy to have an answer to anything we might have thrown at us (alignment/blitz) so we created our playbook accordingly.

We are a single wing team and we have 10 run plays and 5 pass plays. All with blocking variations/pass route variations that we feel are necessary for every base/junk defense that we have seen or will see.

Since we are a single wing team we do see alot of what most would call a junk defense or what I wouldn't even call a defense; some just line up or stack up at where they think our major points of attack are (off-tackle).

We are a no huddle spread team. We have a pretty deep playbook. With springball, 7 on 7, and team camps, it has allowed us to carry more than we used to. But we still have our base package that we begin with each year. We don't go deeper untill we can execute that stuff. I heard a coach at a clinic say one time when ask how many plays he had and i liked his answer, "enough to win the game and not one play more."

Keep it comin.. This is good stuff

That one was from CoachKell Sr.....along with "don't eat yellow snow"

That really doesn't fit our situation. Our blocking rules take care of running mirrored plays, and running plays to a different formation-example- running power to the short side of a tackle over formation. So yes this would be considered 1 play because our blocking rules are taught in a progression as to leave no "what ifs"... Hope that answers your question..

Exactly.. GOD or G.O.D.D. or G.O.A.

Many modern NFL offenses have only 4-6 runs total in their playbook: IZ, OZ, Counter, Draw, Reverse, and maybe a QB sneak/dive for short yardage.

The Mouse Davis Run and Shoot famously set records with 5 basic passing plays, though most teams added another 5-10 to compliment them.

Norm Chow has produced numerous Heisman winners and record setters with only 9 basic pass plays, but he also adds a few as compliments here and there.

I've heard of wishbone teams with only 2 plays: OSV and a sprint out pass. They will block that OSV a bunch of different ways, though, to keep defenses off balance.

These approaches can be very effective if coaches pay strict attention to detail and don't get bored calling the same old things over and over. Many coaches try to out coach themselves, become enamoured of how cleverly they can draw Xs and Os, or get caught up in the "last one who holds the chalk" game. The key to making this work is to find a handful of simple, versatile, complimentary plays you can teach your players to execute.

Spreadattack wrote an article a while back on his blog encouraging a cost-benefit approach to adding a play to your offense. I forget most of the details, but the basic conclusion was that you're probably better off not spending time to practice a play unless you expect to run it an average of 3 times a game or more over the course of the season. With most HS teams getting 50-60 snaps a game (some passing teams get 70+ by running no huddle and throwing incompletions), that rule of thumb would put you at a MAXIMUM of 17-23 plays, total. Seems like sound advice.

If you apply this strictly and account for the plays you want to run much more than 3 times, I think most teams would really average around 12-15 or so. Most DW/wishbone teams would probably wind up with only 2-3 passes in the entire playbook, and maybe only about 4-5 runs, if they take this approach.

Found the article from spreadattack that I referenced earlier...

smartfootball.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-many-concepts-do-you-need-in-your.html

This is a funny thing. I have had ms and jr high teams that can handle more than a hs team. It just depends on the kids and the coaches and practice time before a game, between games etc.

Where I am now, we have 5 days of practice before our first scrimmage. You cant put in too much or all of it will look like crap.

Every situation is different to in that in some areas you can have year round football, others you cant.

My rule has always been to chuck something out if I didnt call it in two games in a row. Most years I end up with "too much fluff" - I would say last year we had two plays too many. Certainly if we cant practice all of our plays in a day or two we are overloaded with garbage. I cant think of any times where I thought " I wish we had more in our playbook".

Here is an example of a coach who is doing too much:

Runs: jet, midline, Zone-read, power pitch, spinner, Stretch, Double Dive

Passes: Go, Mesh, Coverdale Mesh, Levels, Cross, Choice, Sprint-out, 7-step drop, Running pass option.


I only have 7 runs and 9 passes.....that's not too much right?


The problem is they are all base plays. (yeah, yeah, I get some people have paired jet and zone-read or Mesh and Coverdale's version.........) but these are all suppose to be "THE" play in their respective offenses, and trying to run all of them is crazy, because every one of these plays require a whole new set of knowledge to be digested and spat back out.

Here is a coach not doing too much:

Runs:

Jet
Jet veer
Jet Dive
Jet Trap
Jet Sucker Trap
Jet QB Trap
Jet Wrap
Jet Counter GT
Jet Reverse
Draw

Passes:
4 verts
Smash
Curl
Slant
Hitch
Jet Waggle Stalk
Jet Waggle Dig
Jet Boot Cross
Jet Boot Comeback
Jet Sweep Pass
Jet Reverse Pass



10 Runs
11 passes


However, after you rep Jet and get great at it, the gradually add compliments to take advantage of defensive over adjustments.

All of those fit systematically together.


It's not the number of plays, it's how many BASE plays you plan on running.


The more BASE plays you plan on running, the fewer compliments you can have.......once you've decided on base plays, you need to also decide what compliments are most important, and install them before moving on. In the Jet series example, Jet Trap is probably more important than Jet reverse pass.


The more simple the better......I have to agree with this.


In fact, something ridiculously easy (like Air Raid, Flexbone or DW) are often cited for struggling programs to look to.......I think that has less to do with scheme, and more to do with forcing the coach to run a handful of plays and get AWESOME at them.

Search toolbox.

You have to have a tool for every situation.

Examples:

2nd & 1
3rd & 1
3rd & 5
3rd & 10
3rd & 12
3rd & 12, but you don't mind punting

2 point play
Goalline
Redzone
Backed up

2 min O
Run the clock out
last play of the game inside the 40
last play of the game with 80 yards to go

Gadgets
Sudden Change

versus cover 2/4
versus cover 3
versus man cover 0/1/2man
versus press

versus 3-3/3-4
versus 4-2/4-1
versus 5-1
versus gap 8

versus slanting
versus blitzing
versus reading
versus penetration


Now, many (really most) plays have more than one use.

For instance wedge could your 3rd & 1 play, your goalline play, run the clock play, versus slanting d front play.

Mesh could be your man play, redzone play (corner), goalline play, 3rd & 5 play, 2 point play.

The trick is to have a tool (play) for every situation, but make sure that your toolbox is not so heavy that you can't carry it work.

I completely stole that quote from someone. Sorry. But it is an awesome quote.

We go by blocking schemes, usually 5-6 schemes up front run game, 3 pass protections, 2 screens.....as far as run plays or patterns, we do alot, but with the same schemes up front. As an example, we use the counter trey (GT) scheme with 6 different backfield actions:
GT option
QB GT
slot counter off veer
QB GT off jet fake
FB GT off jet fake
QB counter off veer
same thing with sweep (OZ reach) blocking:
jet sweep
qb sweep
bubble sweep
now pass to WR
swing pass to FB

looks like a lot but its simple, we've run this with 8th grade kids and HS kids for years. IMO, it boils down to terminology and ease in teaching it. When kids buy into it and get interested in it, they can learn as much as you can throw at them. Today's kids are very smart when they want to be...lol

How much of a factor does how expensive a play is play into this? I am using the word expensive as in time and detail intensive.

Iso is not an expensive play. You can of course make it expensive but for most part it is not. FB dive, QB sneak, and the list can go on of plays that do not take a ton of time to time up and teach. Now veer is a different story. It takes a good deal of time to get good at it so that is one reason veer teams do not run a ton of plays.

One thing that I saw in a Robinson clinic that they used was a grid. They made a grid with one side being down and distances I believe and the other side being I believe defenses (different coverages mainly). They then went through and placed their plays into the squares that went along with down & distance/defense. So in the you wanted something in every square. You would like more than 1 thing in each square but you need at least 1 thing. It is something we are going to look at doing. I think it also helps organize the play calling for you so game planning becomes easier.

We would rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. That being said, if we effectively scout ourselves we will all discover that we practice a lot of stuff that we very seldom use. My thought is that we will practice certain things in the proportion to which we actually use them. We always migrate to Counter in the run game. Now we run a lot of different counters with built-in adjustments, but that is ONE PLAY. We rep the heck out of it and it is great to us. On the other hand, we spend a lot less time on TB Trap out of the gun. It is not a huge play for us. We have it when we need it and when it is there. We rep it enough to be good at it but not nearly as much as Counter and Power.