How 'Bout Some Option Football

Navy Football: 2004






Navy 05 Highlights




Navy 06 Highlights





Triple Option 2006




Force Equals Eckel






Tennessee vs. Air Force : "the Option can't work in D1"

Yeah... Right.




Eric Crouch Highlight Reel




Huskers Highlights (Solich Era)

This Rivals Jose Conscenco's Off-The-Head Homerun

Dang... that had to hurt. Coach Bell is an alright guy who just took the HC job at Jacksonville State. He was a walk-on QB that won a starting spot at Florida back in the day, but the video below is from his CFL days.

I like the reaction of his teammate, #72, who is no doubt watching the replay on the jumbotron. I bet he was encouraging him to spike the ball again, no doubt!


Gotta love it!




Unidentified Announcer - "I hate when that happens..."

Should You Run The Option?

You new it had to happen... that one day I would lose it and post something so controversial... so horrifying... so disgusting... so disturbing that you would recoil in shock and fall to the floor in a fetal position rocking back and forth whispering "the Horror... the Horror..."

Yep, you guessed it. My ugly puss on Veersite. Lord help us.


Should You Run The Option - Coach Smith
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"He's a runner... he's got some feet." - Coach Smith

More on the 3-3 Stack

I've posted twice concerning the newest "kid on the block" among high school defenses (Ha! I wouldn't be suprised if some high school coach thought it up 40 years ago, however!) Anyway, I have two new video segments now where I blather on about it in person. I'll repost the original article beneath the new material. Look for more defense-specific articles in the coming weeks.

Coach Smith

ps. I promise to work on the "you knows..." you know?

Running the Option vs. the 33 Stack Defense, Part One
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Running the Option vs. the 33 Stack Defense, Part Two
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Passing vs. the 33 Stack Defense, Part Three
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Below are the two diagrams I posted initially concerning this post.





Okay, If you took a look at the diagrams above, you may have come to the same realization we did concerning the 3-5. While I'm sure there are many coaches who will be glad to tell me all the built-in checks and balances the 3-5 has in it to stop such things, I've found the following to work pretty well.

!. The Wing alignment.

The 3-5 team we saw used the DE asthe contain player. If you gave him a slot, he would drop off and in the hook-to-flat area... sometimes up in the rec's face and other times at linebacker depth. We'll get to that in a minute. We also wondered if they would liden him against a wing... not wanting to get outflanked and all.

That's exactly what we did. Staying with our terminology, we gave our signal for a crack to the Z (wingback) so he would know to block on an inside path. This left the CB as the pitch and the widened DE as the pitch. Oh, how I wish our our starting QB had not been out for this game... our converted TE with 1 week of practice was in no way ready to read a dive so we told him to always give... there were times the keep would have scored... and the QB might still be running!

Later against thier J.V. this play, and the ISV in next diagram, proved to be an effective adjustment to the stack and that "impossible" to block stack OLB! The key moment is when they finally decide to adjust. You can see several things, but the main two would be the three LBs bumping to the TE... or the entire front shading to the TE similar to a weak-eagle 50. If the first occurs, run ISV weak... widening the psT's splits of course! If the latter occurs, then bring in the SE so he can seal/crack the psOLB and run ISV weak... comboing the 3 tech and reading the 5 tech (Speed Option is also a good idea) for the dive and moving the pitch phase to the CB. There are many other things, of course, but the OSV from the Wing set worked really well.


#2 The Tight Flex.

(Whoops! Left off the back paths on the diagram! ...will fix later...)

I had asserted rather childishly in the past that the "best" way to defeat the 3-5 was in the air. Yes... if you have Dan Marino Jr. at the helm.

While we looked at getting the flex and running some ISV for our varsity, without our starting option QB, we decided to shelve it. However, when the J.V. game rolled around, I decided to take it off the shelf and dust it off...

Another way to attack the stack is to again widen the DE and bring the TE down on the stacked Sam OLB. My advice on his split was to "never alignso wide that he couldn't get down on the psOLB with more than three big strides." The psT veer releases inside the DT but must get vertical so he can pick up a psOLB that's blowing up C gap. I widened the OT and put the responsibility of blocking the NG on the Center alone. Work hard on scoops with him and have him "climb the ladder" once he gets into that playside knee... the psG can help vs a shaded NG, but then the MLB is unblocked. We didn't get that. Our psG zone stepped in then up at the MLB... again with a healthy 3 foot split.

After looking at the angles, I told our HBs that this is one week the veer lane just might not be there and to not "freak-out" if they found themselves running straight up the field. I had hopes the either the psT or TE -- whoever didn't get the psOLB -- would come upfield and at least get in the way of the FS... alas, with only 3 days to practice for the JV, we were less than perfect in that regard. But if the FS is having to make tackles on a hard-running HB with the initial hit coming at 7 to 10 yards downfield... well, I can live with that.

Again, look for the defense trying to shore up the strong side wome way and have a plan to attack weak. But to paraphrase Coach Sparks, "run strong versus a balanced defense and run weak versus an unbalanced defense." Or something like that.

I will have to admit, the 3-5 was one of the hardest defenses I've come across with respect to scheming it. And if you insist on going on a long snap count (a bad idea; hint, hint!) they can still move people around and mess up reads and stuff like that. But I will also say we saw a whole lot less of that against us (when we did go on a regular count) than the other teams we saw on film. I guess the option makes even the mightiest of 3-5 coordinators play assignment football...

Just a little.

Coach Smith

The "Losin' It" Video

Yep... it's taken me a long, long time to reach this level of ineptitude with a camera. I think I prove it in this trainwreck.

Just For Laughs

The last few weeks laughs have been few and far between. I watched the clip below (from Mad TV) and laughed so hard I almost threw up a lung.

Enjoy!







Coach Smith

DeMeo's 3-Step Boot

I can't say enough great things about Tony DeMeo. I've talked to several option coaches who have gone on and on about how Coach DeMeo has gone to great lengths to help them with their Flexbone offense. Always and innovator, Coach DeMeo is currently causing a stir with his Shotgun Option package. The 3-Step Boot package I'm covering comes from his quality Flexbone option videos from Coaches Choice.


Have you ever called a Stop or Out route just to see the defense decide to switch to a hard corner or walk a LB out in the flat? Ouch! Hope you're QB is smart enough to make a quick audible or go to a secondary receiver. Coach DeMeo's idea was to block his 3 step as if it were a boot the opposite way and have the 3 remaining receivers run routes similar to the old Wing-T Waggle pattern. The more I've looked at it, the more I scratched my head and thought, "Hmmmm... even we could do that!" You can make it as fancy or as simple as you want, but that's the main gist of the idea.



You can tag the primary single receiver route to whatever you want and then add "Boot" to the end of it to get the desired results. If they have deep cover 3 corners and you've chosen to run a Post with your primary, now you have the chance of hitting the Drag or Flat routes the Wingbacks are running. If you call a 5 yard Stop route into press cover 2 corners, then you might not waste a down if you boot and hit the Post-Corner or the Drag instead. All in all, I really like the concept. Unlike his Triple Screen, this isn't easily modified to split backs... but I'd think about running a little Flexbone just to have the 3-Step Boot in my arsenal!

Coach Smith