Offense to study for college ball?

I would study Pro-Style offenses if I were you. Where do you play in Southwest VA?

A very simple question that requires a very complex answer. Or at least, a complex analysis.

Let's start with a simple question for analysis sake.

What are your head coach's goals?

Is he a defensive coach who wants to move the chains, eat clock, score in a conservative fasion, and use his defense and field position to succeed - Like a Bill Parcells?

Is he a coach who wants to put points on the board in a quick fashion and win in scoring contests if needed - Like a Steve Spurrier?

I think you can win either way - and both coaches have proven this over time as have other coaches.

You'd better look at what your HC wants and what kind of athletes you have available to you and be realistic.

If you want to move up the NCAA ranks, you'll want to win - irregardless of whatever "O" you end up running.

To give you an answer to your original question....

I'd study the offense that you believe in the most because there will be times when it backfires on you and you will have to have faith and belief to work through those hard times. If you stay in the game, as a coach long enough, you will have your share of backfires and breakdowns. But that's coaching.

Coach Wells--then you are well on your way to developing your OWN "organic" offense, so don't sweat it. Pretty soon, you will be scribbling down one thing, an idea from something you scribbled last week will pop into your head..and BAM..you have "YOUR" offense.

Football is funny like that. There are rumors and legends as to how different "offenses" evolved. For instance, I have heard that the Wishbone developed because a Straight T fullback was getting tired, and started to creep up to the line of scrimmage to to compensate. I will almost guarantee you that the origins of the new "hot offense", the zone read from the gun, was that a QB somewhere missed an exchange, kept it on his own, and BAM...the zone read was born.

So don't worry about studying "an offense" In fact, I would spend more time studying defenses...learn what to attack, and your offense will just develop.

Stick with Coach Montgomery and you will be fine!!! I played at Clinch Valley so I am very familar with the area!

If I wanted to be an OC on the college level...

1. I would study blocking schemes... find out which would be the most advantageous, based on the type of kids we'd be able to attract to our program. D1... I get the best of the best... I'm going power / zone... D2 / D3... I'm going Option / Pass?
-- Zone?
-- Power?
-- Option?
-- Pass Blocking?

2. I would study schemes... why they are ran, what are their advantages vs their disadvantages...
-- Wing T - strong run and PA, tough long yardage and come from behind offense.
-- Run & Shoot - numbers game, few plays, can't handle the blitz and man coverage, game over.
-- Pro I - Balanced... A potpourri of opportunities, power, option, passing, its familiarity is its greatest asset, and liability.
-- Spread Option - 2nd level blocking, assignment football... however, you'd think collegiate teams would be disciplined enough as well as fast enough to erase all advantages.

3. I would study defenses... what causes conflicts, what do coverages give up?
Tom Flores once said you'd need 18 men to completely defend a football field... given that you only get 11, you have to give up something.

50 - 40- 30's - What do they give up in the run game... how is the passing game defended?

Cover 0,1,2,3,4,6 - What do they give up vs what do they protect?

In retrospect... its so much bigger than learning an offense... its learning the game... reads, keys, angles, gaps...

But if I had to start anywhere, it would be understanding the O-line... by knowing their job, you'll understand what defenses are trying to accomplish, and the why backfields will do, what they need to do.

Great reply Khalfie.

I would get a strong understanding of blocking schemes in both the run game and pass protections. You can draw you can draw all the routes in the dirt you want, but if you cannot protect the QB you will be in trouble.

How do these schemes fit into all the different fronts, stunts, twists, blitz and coverages you will see.

Thanks again guys for your feedback. When you talk about studying defenses and what they give up and how to attack them would it help more to read a book or film on a defense (by a defensive guy) or to read a book or watch a film from an offensive guy breaking a defense down?

If you were replying to my post I was asking one or the other. Sorry if I was unclear. Thanks

That is exactly what happened to Coach Rich Rod.

coachwells: You could do a lot worse than starting at the beginning of the archives on the site linked below, and reading all the way through.

And take notes...there will be a quiz.



smartfootball.blogspot.com/

Broooooce: In the beginning was the Spread No Huddle Attack site, and it was darned good:

nohuddle.freeservers.com/oldpage.html

It contains what I think is still the best short presentation on pass pro schemes I have ever seen.

Then came Blog Mark 1:

sky.prohosting.com/cbbrown/oldindex.html#111937779620014868

It ran from March 2004-August 2005, and was very good indeed. Among other things, it introduced the football coaching world to the Sharpe Ratio -- must reading.

Finally, you have the current site address already, and previous articles back to the beginning of this version can be accessed on the right margin near the top of the blog...

Well, thanks to Ted for the plug on the site. Much of the best information is pilfered from other sources, so don't worry about just being me. And it's funny (and I'm glad) that people still think the Spread No-Huddle site is worthwhile: it is approaching 7 years old, which is prehistoric in internet terms.

Anyway, all the specific advice on this site is good. The big thing is that you should always be focused on learning. The calender year for a football coach naturally breaks up how your learning will go.

During the season, you have a set of things you do, and your day to day challenges are to simplify and teach and also react to defenses. This will be some of your best practical learning, and you will cut through the theory to the bone of what works and what doesn't.

After the season is over, I really suggest being as ecumenical as possible in your approach. Read offensive treatises, defensive treatises, study a system you don't know anything about, and find out who the new coaching "chatter" is all about and find out what they are doing. Read NFL playbooks, study NFL film, study wing-T cutups, bear defensive books, etc. You can learn from it all and the idea is to open up your mind a bit. Also, don't just gloss over things, take some time to doodle and think about why each system has been successful and is still around, or why certain defenses continue to give people trouble.

Then you will move into presumably a spring football kind of phase (or some "work-out" equivalent). There you will get back to what you already do and it can be a time to experiment. Then over the summer you do what the coaches above have described and let your offense grow organically.

Anyway, the idea is just that, mid-season, it's not really as fruitful to go studying the Wing-T or the run and shoot if you're a wishbone guy, but in the off-season it might be the best way to expose you to new ideas rather than read another wishbone book.

The old debate: Fox or Hedgehog? - Multa novit vulpes, verum echinus unum magnum ("The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.")

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog_and_the_Fox

quite honestly, Id start with the single wing and work my way toward more modern attacks. I read once where an NFL coach said he learned more about football studying the single wing for one year than he had in 30 years of coaching. interesting to say the least.