Midline from Splitbacks

Midline. To the option coach, it just may be the "Last of the Mohicans." In fact, the Midline is about the last option play a coach can "get away with" running from under center these days... Without being referred to as a "Dinosaur," that is. Why, the very mention of the word gives Flexbone coaches an almost visible shudder of joy. And while it's not as "sexy" as running outside veer from the shotgun, (I wonder how many times the words "Urban Meyer" were mentioned in job interviews this past spring??) it is certainly can still get the job done with respect to moving the football.

I decided to go on a quest to find the best possible way to run the midline from splitbacks this past off-season. After a film trade a while back, I had noticed that a team down in Georgia, Thomas Co. Central, ran the midline and brought the backside halfback thru to lead for the quarterback. Later, at the Carson-Newman football clinic this past year, I heard Coach Turner (O.C.) mention that the Yellow Jackets staff had convinced him to stop "wasting" the backside HB and bring him thru on the midline like they do. At that point I knew I had to get some more film with this scheme on it.

I posted on several message boards that I was looking to trade film for midline from splitbacks (or something to that effect) and before I knew it I was in contact with Coach Jeff Schlieff from Spring Lake Park High School in Minnesota. Coach Schlieff mentioned he ran the midline and brought his HB thru for the QB keep, and soon I was watching his highlight tape and some midline cuts he had made for me as well. It was exactly what I needed to see, and I can't thank Coach Schlieff enough for taking the time and effort to help us run the midline to it's maximum potential. He is not only a great option coach, but also one of those all-around good guys you meet every so often in this line of work. I wish him and his staff the best of luck for this upcoming season.

Below are several game cuts of Coach Schlieff's SLP Panthers running the midline. You will see what we call a "K" block with the psTE and psOT as well as some base blocking to the split end side as well. After watching this, you may note that the QB keep, with that HB leading him up the field, is almost an isolation play in itself. I hope you enjoy and learn from these clips and perhaps it will help you as well in fine-tuning your midline option.

Cut One: Midline to TE with "K" block

Cut Two: Midline to TE with base blocking

Cut Three: Midline to TE with base blocking

Cut Four: Midline to TE with base blocking

Cut Five: Midline to TE with base blocking

Cut Six: Midline to SE

Cut Seven: Midline to SE

08/05/05
Below is a play diagram... thanks for the props, Coach B in MI!

Coach Smith

What's Going On with Veersite

You may have noticed the lack of updates this summer on veersite.com. Believe me, that's not what I had planned. I am currently in the process of selling a house - and all that goes along with it. This has left me away from my computer (and the ability to generate play diagrams and encode video) for weeks at a time. I assure you that once I'm back from Camp in early August and fall into my regular schedule, there will be plenty of new material up on veersite!

Here are some of the things I have planned:

Creation of an Index page which groups and links all the technical posts so you don't have to go back through the past posts blindly searching for material on outside veer, for example. Blogger.com is a great free resource, but lack of an easy way to generate a meaningful table of contents has driven me nuts over the past year!

Getting more in-depth about the execution of plays in the veer offense. It's one thing to slap up a play diagram and say, "Lookit!" It's another to go through and list the responsibilities of each player beneath it (just like you may see in many playbooks.) I plan on revisiting the bread and butter plays and do just that. Besides sharing this info with other coaches, I also hope to add insight to my own understanding by going back and examining these plays versus the defenses of today.

Moving to a "real" webserver: I'm still undecided about this one. One of the nice things about Blogger is that it's free - nice when you're on a teacher's salary. Hosted plans aren't that expensive, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to set up and maintain compared to veersite. Blogger is even allowing the hosting of at least a gigabyte of images, so I won't have to worry about having my play diagrams sudden;y disappear one day should the free host I use go belly-up. Video clips take bandwidth, however, and a hosted solution is really the best for stuff like that. Right now, I'm hoping I can keep the current set-up going as-is through this upcoming season.


Well, that's about it for now. I'm really excited about this season and the team I think we'll field. We're looking at really fleshing-out the running game this year and digging deep into the veer playbook for some "oldies-but-goodies" this season. Utilizing a watered-down version of the West Coast passing offense to greater effect is also a priority for us. There's a reason we're seeing eight and nine in the box and sometimes play-action alone won't cut it. Here's to hoping we give at least 5 D.C.'s nervous break-downs this year!

Coach Smith

A Short Post About Two Great Sites

I ran across another great coaching message forum today It doesn't focus on one particular aspect of the game but instead has a broad topic base. I have added it my links section along the right side of the opening page for Veersite and expect I'll be hitting it several times a week (if not several times a day!) So if I get fired for non-work related internet use, it's Coach Huey's fault!! Here's the link:

The X's and O's of Football

While I'm on the subject of great message boards that I probably spend WAY too much time on ... Coach Williams' and Coach McClatchy's excellent Rolling Thunder's Message Board has been having trouble for the past couple of days with posts getting erased. They have put up a message on the site explaining the current situation. The coaches have contacted the board hosts at sportsonly.com and hope to have the problems under control shortly. I cannot recommend strongly enough that all option coaches check out this great resource. Rolling Thunder's board has been around for a while and I consider it to be THE #1 option message board on the net.

Coach Smith

Veer Reverse

Here's a short post detailing a little reverse option Coach Roark has been known to run from time to time. Actually, it's blocked the same as our version of the Spin or "Crazy" option with the exception of the wingback carrying out the duties of the quarterback.

I'll let the diagram speak for itself...

If you are a team where the QB reverses-out a lot, I think this play will work as well. The QB just has to remember to get back off the line and out of the way of the pulling guard. (this can be tougher than it sounds if if you use the point-and -read C-N method that we use.) The combination blocks on the noseguard and psDT aren't for show - if you can get movement on those guys, there's a much greater chance of the play hitting quick and getting some yardage.

Cut One: Veer Reverse

Cut Two: Veer Reverse

Looking back, we could have done a better job preparing the wingback... he's not really trying to get the CB to take him and thus giving us the pitch - and the sideline. The WB was a great young man and a hard-nosed football player. But it's easy to forget that the WB doesn't get the reps running the option that the QB gets. Verbalizing reinforces the coach - not the player!

Coach Smith

DeMeo's Triple Screen

Coach Tony DeMeo is an option coach that I consider to be an innovator in the modern option game. I first heard about him when I bought a book of his, Football’'s Explosive Multibone Attack, at the suggestion of a coach I met at football camp one summer. It was a good book, but I was at a school that ran no option and it soon became a forgotten memory filed away somewhere in my pea-brain. Anyway, the next time I ran across his name was when I first joined the staff at Middlesboro. Several of the coaches had travelled to Washburn University to talk to him about his style of spread option offense. While there, they bought his complete flexbone option offense video tape package. I later found these tapes buried in a locker in our football office. Eager to learn all I could about the option in as short a time as possible, I began watching the tapes. I was struck by two things simultaneously: one, Don't ever let Coach DeMeo get his hands on a deck of cards, and two: He's a really good teacher concerning the game of football. His material is easy to follow. His teaching mottos are also great ways to get your kids to remember their assignments. While we are split back team, Coach DeMeo's flexbone material is easily adaptable to our particular needs. It would also be a good primer on the option offense in general, and I would recommend his option videos without reservation.

You can learn more about Coach DeMeo here from an article at American Football Monthly.

The Triple Screen sounds complicated at first and might look somewhat intimidating. If you think about it as a swing pass to the FB with a middle screen thrown in for good measure, you have a more accurate description of the play - at least to me. The fact that the HB check the weak side CB to make a ball call is the 3rd element of the "triple" screen. That's it.

I'll go back over the coaching points in the diagram.

In a nutshell, the QB reads the DE as the FB flares out and throws to him if the DE rushes or squats. He will only move to his #2 if the DE jumps the swing route of the FB.

The middle screen portion is just as you would expect. The line should momentarily stop the charge of the defensive linemen before going to second level... The Split End takes a big step downfield then comes back down the LOS - getting behind the D line and looking for the ball from the QB. The HB is also running a swing route and he is eyeballing the CB over the SE. If the CB jumps the screen, he immediately calls "Ball" and the QB should hit him in the flat.

That's it. It sounds complicated, but as his video shows, all it takes is a good practice routine filled with plenty of reps.

Coach Smith

I'm posting a link to my original Triple Screen notes (in Adobe PDF format) here. This also shows how he runs it from the flexbone formation using some wingback motion.