Shifting in and out of formations....

I'm glad you asked this question because I had the same question. I saw Rutgers do it against Ariz. St. and it seemed to really get them out of position.

I like the way you do it by just saying shift, which means start in a certain formation but then go to the formation that is called .

I think that is the way we will do it.

I was at the Rutgers ASU game, I'm still not sure if Rutgers was that good or ASU that bad. Rutgers gave ASU fits with their trips bunch package, they ran toss to it several times before ASU could figure out that they needed to adjust.
The ASU kid had a lot of yards passing and 4 tds but man he had people wide open all night long and stood back there for 4-7 seconds, he really should have had a lot more.

And then the QB is armed with a check with me. If they adjust to the new shift run a certain play, if they do not adjust run ther other one.

The best one we used was to shift into our unbalanced power I set. Our LG was our #2 center so before the OL got into thier stances everyone bumped over. The QB and backfield stood where they were. Now the "LG" was over the ball and snapped it. Of course we had to wait until we were all set , but we practiced it enough to where when we first sprung it in a game it really caught the other team off guard.

we let our HB, Fb, and Z align where ever they wanted and then shifted into the called formation. we saw a lot of man coverage. It was great to see the defense running aroound like mad. It also made breakdown more difficult. After the Chinese fire drill the QB looked for uncovered to throw to or leverage to run Bubble. I think it worked really well for us.

Same thing with my high school.

They'll run Ricky Walk Power 4.

Line up in Ricky, TE changes to go to left side. Then we run Power 4.

We started pretty heavily experimenting with stemming and shifting offensively this season. It was somewhat benificial, but we were really just tinkering. It is only valuable if you can get a really good match-up out of it. For example, we played against a 46 Bear team that lived in "Man Free" coverage. They would walk both CB's over onto our X and Z receivers if we put them on the same side in a 2-RB formation. So, we had a package where we'd put two weaker receivers out there and start in an "I". We'd then have our 2 best receivers lined up at FB and TE respectively. On the shift, they flanked out to the opposite side (and sometimes we'd put the TB out there too) isolating themselves away from the two best pass defenders on the team. Often we had a SS and a LB covering these two guys. Because of their rules, there was nothing they could do to recover.

Anyway, here is our shift philosophy:

We will only shift OUT OF our more commonly used formations. In other words, if we don’t run “Straight T,” we are not shifting out of “Straight-T!” If the defense doesn’t believe that you may actually run a play out of your original set, you may as well just be huddling up twice, because they’ll be waiting for the shift. Also, if you always shift out of one certain look, they’ll again be waiting for the shift.

What we did was take two of our more basic formations and create terminology in the shifting game for them. So, it worked like this:

“ONE STEM”= Pro I Lt (or I7Lt in our system)
“TWO STEM”=Pro I RT (or I8Rt in our system)
“THREE STEM”=Wing Splitbacks Lt (or B5Lt in our system)
“FOUR STEM”=Wing Splitbacks Rt (or B6Rt in our system)

This was easy for the kids to remember, because these are two fundamental formations in our system. Also, it is logical because in our system, we number holes using “odds left and evens right” philosophy, so they know that “one” and “two” are both pro-I sets, and that since “one” is an odd number, it is to the left and “two” is an even number so it is to the right. Each position need only know how the shift pertains to them.

So now, from there, we can call a play with a wholesale shift like this: “3 Stem, N8Rt-36 Belly” and everyone knows their assignments.

We also had special shifts, most of which were designed to quickly change strength or play games with the TE. These shifts had special names:

“TRADE”= TE trade from left to right or vice-versa.

“FLOP”= TE lines up at FB and the FB lines up at the TE position OPPOSITE of the called formation. On shift, the FB shifts into the backfield, and the TE shifts into the called formation. It’s a quick way to change strength without having a TE cross the formation

“TEX”=WB lines up on the same side as the TE to start, with the Z on the opposite side as the WR on the LOS. On shift, the WB goes in motion to the weak side, stops, and sets on the LOS in the opposite TE slot. The Z backs off the LOS to make it a legal formation. Nice way to get into a double TE look quickly, and the defense never knows if he is going to stop and set as the second TE or if he is going to continue in motion, so they can’t adjust too early.

We then may have one shift specially designed for each opponent, depending on how we have determined we may take advantage of them. For example, the shift I described above that we used against the 46 Bear team we could simply call “Cougar Rt” or “Cougar Lt” with “Cougar” being the mascot of our opponent.

That’s pretty much it. It took a good deal of practice time and concentration this season, so it wasn’t something we really used frequently. But, we may have used it on 20% of our snaps. This season, I plan on using it much more now that it is not a new concept to the kids.

Coach,

First and foremost, you can create match-ups that the other team doesn’t like. For example, if our opponent runs a 43 defense and their philosophy is to put a big run stopper at the 3 technique and a rush / disruptor type guy at the 1 technique (plus their stud LB at SAM), a simple TE trade or flop of strength will completely put them at a disadvantage in the run game. Also, the example I gave earlier about gaining match-up advantages in your opponent’s coverage packages is legit. These are the types of things you look for on film and plan for.

Second, if the defense is spending a great deal of time and effort on deciphering and preparing for your shift game, that is time taken away from their efforts to practice against and stop your base plays. Any time you can do this, it is always good.

Third, you can certainly create a great deal of defensive confusion and possibly outflank them at the same time if they do not adjust properly. We play all kinds of games with our shifts. You always have to note what their adjustments (or lack of adjustments) are to your shifts. This is sometimes hard to predict, but if you have a guy upstairs designated to watch this, then you have a shot at coming up with a way to exploit them. If you catch them trying to flip their whole defense, there is a way to hurt them there too. If you’re shifting a lot and the defense is becoming passive when you first get up to the ball (waiting for the shift to happen), snap the ball on touch or first sound. This will give you a quickness advantage.

Half of your shifting is done due to what you’ve picked up on film. The other half is to create confusion and to make mental “game time” notes of their reactions so that you can exploit those variables that you otherwise could not have predicted.

We will run plays out of the wishbone (primarly power and ct trey) so the defense must be prepared to stop it. When we shift into say trips, it makes their secondary change coverage and the LB's realign. When we combine this with a play that has motion, we can make them change again in the same play. What I look for is the defense to get confused and leave an opening that we can exploit. If they are a shade team that switches strong/weak, we can flip the TE to their weaker side, this creates coverage problems as well as issues up front. The key to this is to get the play into the huddle quickly so that we have time to move around.

we like to shift vs these types of teams:

50 front teams that are heavy with Strongside in the rush
teams that use alot of DL twists, slants, stunts
heavy blitz teams
any team where there is a distinct difference in ability between the weak side & strong side



things we like to do:

simply shift 1 or 2 players
shift 1 or 2 players - set - then motion.
shift from 2-back to 1-back sets & vice-versa
set formation strength to one side, then flip. then motion back to the "original" strong side to create receiver strength to that side