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Over the next several posts I plan on discussing and sharing some of the drills I have used and discovered for each of the positions in the wing-t system. I shall discuss, O-Line, Receivers, Tight Ends, Running Backs, and QB's.
I am also always open to discussing topics that others may pose to me. I am all ears.
The first set of drills that I will be discussing will be the O-line. I feel that the line is one of the most important positions on the field. With out them a team will not function very well.
I have been trying to decide where to go next with this blog. I definitely want to keep it alive and going. I am not sure with how many people read and value my opinions and what I am trying to do.
I have covered each of my series in fairly good detail I have touched on each my series and included the passing series as well.
The next thing I was thinking about talking about was drills. The drills I use and what other coaches use. I just don't know if that would be something more for the forum though. Not many people have joined the forum.
Some times I get to the point if I don't know if people are even reading this block. I am not going to make this a pitty party. after all the entire reason why I started this blag was for a place for me to put my thoughts as a kind of record of what I am doing for football. I figured if others wanted to read it than so be it.
The reason why I am thinking about doing drills on the blog next is because I have been organizing all of my drill into separate drill books for the different offensive and defensive positions. I have made these drill books to give to my assistant coaches to use and to help organize practice plans.
I have made a drill book for the following: QB's, RB's, Receivers, TE's and interior lineman. I have also made defensive drill books for Interior D-line, D-Ends, LB's, and DB's
If people are interested I may put them on this site to sell also. I would only be basically charging for my time and the materials for me to put them together. I still need to scan them or put them into playmaker pro and then convert them to a PDF. I would also have to charge to cover my costs on paypal.
If you would be interested in something like this please respond to this post. I will then get working on putting them on this site for download.
I have recently had some questions.
Q1. What if teams start to play you with a wide defensive end making it virtually impossible for you to run your play to the open side?
We’ll do whatever we can to get that five technique out of the way. We can reach him, pass block him, cut him, give him a down block key, whatever. Just don’t let him turn and run to the sweep. If that’s the case, we instruct our end man on the LOS to control that man how ever he can. If he wants to go outside them push him all the way to the sideline. The back will just look for the lane and make a cut. I coach my backs to always have their head on a swivel and be aware of the field.
Q2. What if you get that strong safety coming up hard on the force and you can’t crack him with your wide receiver?
We tell our wide receiver to step to crack him for two steps. If the strong safety is across the line of scrimmage by then, we will switch assignments with the blocking back the next time we run it. The blocking back will pick him up and the receiver will take number one (the corner).
Q3. What if teams are overloading your tight end side with a 7 and 9 technique and you are still trying to run the tight side?
We’ll just run inside with the tight end blocking down on the 7 technique and the tackle now kicking out on the 9 technique. We’ll have to cut the play up inside because it’s virtually impossible to get outside of that.
I have gotten a lot of my ideas on running the jet and fly from reading stuff from coach Speckman at Willamette college. I have also gotten ideas from Coach Wes Elrod. I have taken ideas from both of these great coaches and tweaked it and made it my own. I do not claim that I have developed this offense myself. I have taken others ideas and put my own twist on it to make it my own. I have changed the numbering system to make it less confusing for my players and my coaches. It works for me and hopefully it will work for others too.
I have made posts about all of my series thus far. from the 200 through the 600 run series. I have also talked about the 700, 800, and 900 passing series. I have definitely left some out since I don't want to give away all my tricks. If you have questions or comments please be sure to ask.
The QB must turn 180 degrees once he receives the ball. He needs to turn with the ball and not show the ball to the defense. If he does it is a giveaway all the deception of the offensive series.
The snap should happen when the wing-back or running back is behind the tackle. When the QB is under center it is the QB's responsibility to make sure the timing is achieved by dictating when the ball is snapped. When the QB is in the gun it is the ball carriers responsibility to make sure the timing is achieved. It is now his responsibility because the QB has to be concerned with getting the snap and making a fake.
When I coach the hand off I tell the QB to imagine that the ball is attached to his bellybutton. That way when he makes the 180 degree turn the ball is hidden. It also helps for when he is in the gun because he now imagines that the ball is attached to belly button by a piece of elastic and it should snap right back to the belly button after making the fake.
After the snap the QB has several responsibilities in making this play work. first he steps the 180 degree turn, second he would either hand off to the jet back or to the fullback making a dive, third he would carry out a boot or waggle action.
There are several plays that can be run from the look of the Jet motion. I shall talk about these complimentary plays in my next post.
The Jet sweep is designed to get to the outside (perimeter) of the defense very quickly. This is especially good if you have undersized lineman or not the best blockers in the world.
Its success is dependent on the full speed motion of a wing back and a deceptive 180 degree hand off by the QB. This eludes to our first rule: Timing is everything.
In order to be successful running the jet sweep you'll need to commit to practicing it and using it in a game. You have to build your players confidence in your system.
The Jet sweep attacks the "D Gap", which can be the biggest gap on the field. You need to practice running the play to the wide side and to the short side of the field. Most defenses will expect you to run the Jet toward the wide side of the field. If you can become just as effective running to the short side of the field you will give defenses fits.
I have had several colleagues tell me that the Jet can easily be stopped and that you have to have the fastest guys on your team running the play. Therefore it is not very deceptive even with the alternatives you can run out of it. What I say to them is by having my guy running at full speed he will already be faster than your guy who will be starting the play at a dead stop.
In order to have your team buy into and be successful at running the jet sweep you have to have several guys running the sweep in practice. This way you will have several guys use to running the sweep and have several different people that can run it in a game and out of several different formations. This also helps the fact that even though you have someone who is your primary ball carrier you can now spread the work load out even if the "D" cues on him. Also if god forbid he gets hurt you can have others run the ball effectively.
Now that I have gotten all of the babble out of the way lets talk about the line rules for blocking the jet sweep.
The rules for the lineman are really the simplest. This is nothing new, but I number the defensive players from the outside in. The play side corner is #1 because he is the furthest defender outside. The #2 is the outside LB or the safety, depending on the type of defense being run. The #2 is usually the person the D coordinator is depending on to stop the sweep. The #3 is the inside LB and the #4 is the other safety.
On the snap the offensive lineman will then work their way to the second level, which is the linebacker level. The all step play side gap. If an interior defensive lineman should get in our way then we would block him. Ultimately we are try to get outside leverage on the closest LB. If he is gone, don't chase or worry about him, just turn and wall off any backside pursuit.
The force player is the most important player that has to be accounted for. Usually he is one of the toughest players on the field. If we line up in a slot and run to the slot side we will crack on the force player or even double team the force player. (See diagram below)
When we run the jet the ball carrier will read the tight ends block on the defensive end. If the end fights hard outside than the TE will take him outside and we run inside. If the end fights hard inside we'll have the TE block him inside and we run outside.
We also will pull the play side tackle to help get around on the force player or to pick up the first odd color that would cross his face. If we crack the force than that allows the tackle to pick up a flowing LB or the safety.
In my Next article I shall discuss the QB Handoff and the back routes.
Before I get any further into blocking or running the plays of the 600 series (Jet and Rocket). I would first like to bring up what formations that I run the Jet and Rocket out of.
First of all it is imperative that you have at least one back that is able to move in a jet (full sprint) motion parallel to the LOS (Line of Scrimmage). Or to be able to have a back run the Rocket motion (Full Sprint behind the formation). If you do not have a back on the "wings" it is impossible to run these two types of plays.
You can run the Jet and Rocket out of the right and left formations. Traditional wing-ters would call this 100 or 900 formations. The only problems with that is deception. If you are going to run the Jet with the back one "wing back" than you are pretty much giving away the play to the defense. Your offense has become two dimensional. You are either running the Jet or are running a diver or trap with your Full back. If you Run with a "wing" on either side you are now have three points of attack. The first point could be the Jet back, 2nd point would be the dive back, the third would be the other wing back performing a counter coming back the other direction. (Actually a pass would make 4 points of attack)
I am not saying that running the Jet or Rocket from a right or Left, or one wing back formation would not be effective. They are just a little less deceptive and require more practice and more precise blocking. Deception in the wing-t make defences practice and prepare for even more. I have run the Jet from a single wing formation and dared the defense to stop us.
When starting out I would start practicing running the Jet and Rocket from the RED and BLUE formations. Make sure you work on timing with the QB and running backs. I would perfect this formation before moving on to others only after I have done counters and dive/trap.
These other formations help make teams multifaceted. I would suggest perfecting the plays first in one formation and then move on to another. Do the same thing there than move on to another. There are more formations than this that can be used. This is a good start and help form the basic formations in my playbook. Don't confuse the kids and the coaches with terminology and long names. KISS - Keep it simples, simplify!!!
Here are the different formations that I would run the Jet and Rocket from.
I would first like to wish everyone a very happy new year and wishes for a quick return to the football season. I say a return because college ball is all but over with the bowl games being played today. The NFL is gearing up for the playoffs and our jobs as as high school coaches are taking a little hiatus.
What a better time if the year than to start thinking about the next up and coming season. That is why I am now going to start talking about the jet sweep series or what I like to call the 600 series.
For those of you who are not familiar with the jet(600) series, and a refresher for some others. It is a full sprint motion behind the QB. The QB will turn their back to the LOS (line of scrimmage)and reverse pivoting away from the motion. In some cases the QB could even take a lateral step after the reverse pivot. It all depends on the skill and ability of the QB.
This motion takes a lot of work on timing with the QB and the back moving in motion.That is why it needs to be practiced over and over again.
As soon as the ball carrier receives the ball they should take what I call a bubble step into the backfield. This steps allows for two things to happen. 1) for the back to be able to make a better cut and allow him to make up field movement and 2) allows the back to give the pulling lineman time to get out and make a block.
This motion is most deceptive out of a double wing set which I would call red or blue or a variation of these sets. I discuss these various formations in my playbook.
I would mix the double wing formations in with the traditional wing-t formations. I do this because It isn't very hard for us to make a few adjustments. The blocking is essentially the same but it is even harder for a defense to practice and make a game plan against several different formations. No matter what formation we are in the blocking rules stay the same for the series and play we are running.
Confusing for the defense to cover but not very confusing for us to run. It is actually to our advantage to run the same plays out of several different formations and looks. Heck we will even do trades and shifts. I will get into that after I finish discussing the 600 series.
This jet motion can also be run out of the traditional wing-t look of left or right (100/900 for true wing-t fans)
While at the same time this motion is being made the ball would either be handed off to the back in full sprint motion (jet) or it would be handed off to the full back making a dive. The call would be made in the huddle and the backfield motion would look the same every time.
Here is what the backfield motion should be drawn up to look like.(without the dive back)
Here also is a video of New Palestine running a typical Jet sweep in my system. Pay attention to the pulling lineman.
In my next post I will get into the basic blocking for the jet based on if it is given to the jet back or if it is given to the full back.
Have a happy New year
Coach D
You have to play this game like somebody just hit your mother with a two-by-four. - DAN BIRDWELL
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