Passing Chalk talk

Yes, you need to pass the ball once in a while during the game to put yourself in a great spot to win that game. This blog is going to be more about some of the passing that the head coach wanted me to run this past season.

This season we went to more of a spread look, changing it from the I formation pro style team. This school ran a pro style type offense for 15 years under one head coach. Then my first year here, the new head coach ran a different kind of pro-style offense. This one was not just constricted to just being under center every single play or just being in the I. He would run things from gun and pass it more than the previous teams did the past 15 years. Then my second year, with a new head coach and be becoming offensive coordinator, we still ran a pro-style offense, we just added some of these passing concepts and routes. My plan and thought were to add these to get to where we could have combined them into plays, like the air raid for example.

The third year, which was this previous season, we went to a spread look with more zone blocking. But, we kept the same passing concepts without combining them into plans as I originally planned. The way it was structured was we would have the left side of the formation run a concept and then the right side run another if we called two different ones. For example, if we were in 2x2, we used X and F on the left side, and the Y and Z on the right. If we signaled in hitch, well everyone had a hitch. If it was signaled hitch slant, the X and F would run the hitch, the Y and Z would run the slants.

Now, there wasn't really progressions in this, since these concepts where on their own. So, I would have the quarterback read the defense by their safeties. If he saw 2 high, he knew that it was most likely a straight cover 2, or it could be man with cover 2 safeties helping over the top. If he saw 1 high safety, he knew that most likely it was a cover 3, or it could be a cover 1. So, with these concepts, we would have 2 high beaters or 1 high beaters. Back to the hitches and slants, we told the quarterback that hitches were 1 high beaters and slants were 2 high beaters. I would always try and call a 1 high and 2 high beaters in the pass play so he would be able to have options. If it was hitch slant, and the defense was in 2 high, he knew that he was going to look at the slants because those can combat the cover 2. If it was 1 high, he was going to look to the hitches because he knew they could combat the cover 3.

Here are a few other concepts that we ran the past 2 years that were good plays for us besides hitch and slant.

This first one we called Button. This was one of the 1 high beaters. For our outside wide receiver, he would run a 10-yard hitch. The inside wide receiver would run a 2-yd. depth curl out to the sideline. The reason why we had this as a 1 high beater is because with the 10yd hitch, if the corner is in cover 3, he should be running with our wide receiver and then just need to have our guy be faster and tougher to get him off with that hitch. The 2-yd. curl out would put that linebacker over the slot and corner in a bind. If we can hit that curl out a few times with the corner dropping back in cover 3, one of these times he will jump up to get it and that 10-yd. hitch would turn into a 0 and that's a touchdown. If it is man, and that linebacker over the slot has him, he shouldn't be able to keep out with that curl route and we can get a nice gain.

Second one is just your traditional Smash concept. We had our outside wide receiver run a 5yd hitch, with our inside slot wide receiver running a 7-yd. corner. The reason why I had them close is because I want that corner and safety to freak out a little bit when one person is breaking back to the ball and the other is breaking towards the sidelines. This was a 2-high beater, looking to hit that corner route in straight cover 2. I would tell the quarterback to really read the corner. If he dropped down then we would throw over him to that corner route. If he dropped back because he is freaking out about that corner, we throw under him for that hitch. If a defense would start to play games and roll their coverage from a cover 2 to cover 3, well that hitch in Smash is a cover 3 beater so we could still hit that.

The third one for us was called Gator. This was another 2-high beater for us. Our outside wide receiver would run a 10yd and in, similar to the dig route in the air raid just a little deeper. The inside wide receiver would run a 5yd out or a speed out. Again, I would have the quarterback read the corner. If he dropped back, we would throw under to the 5 yd. out. If he dropped down we would look to throw over to the 10-yd. dig. The 10yd dig would vary week to week. If the safeties played 12 yds. off it would stay at 10 yds. If they played closer than we would shorten it a hair. Again, that speed out would help beat a cover 3 if they decided to roll their coverage.

These were just a few of the concepts we had. We had around 15 or so in our playbook. Our slants and hitches could be tagged with our inside zone game as well for a simple RPO play. The wide receivers just ran their concept, and the quarterback would just read the box and the outside linebacker to see if he would attach himself to the box during the mesh point with the running back. If he attached to the box we would pull and throw, if he stayed or went into coverage we would hand it off.

These were just some of the main ones that we knew we could go to in tight spots. In another blog I will get to others we had success with and maybe some not so much success with. Thanks for anyone who has been reading these and let’s continue to help every coach, including ourselves get better!