Offensive schemes and tactics

[antdawg9]

Quote: Originally Posted by THE LOVER

Why would someone not want pistol? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe he don’t like it lol. Not trying to be a smartass but I personally don’t use the pistol at all and it’s not in my playbook. Does it work, of course but it’s not what I like to run. It’s why I love ncaa 14, there are Styles for everyone even those who don’t run the pistol.


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[nofx94]

Quote: Originally Posted by antdawg9

Maybe he don’t like it lol. Not trying to be a smartass but I personally don’t use the pistol at all and it’s not in my playbook. Does it work, of course but it’s not what I like to run. It’s why I love ncaa 14, there are Styles for everyone even those who don’t run the pistol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea I've been running offset Gun pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I go through streaks of wanting to be under center, but I'm mostly a gun guy. Sometimes I like pistol, sometimes I like pistol and gun, but I totally get what you mean.

[Jeremy7679]

I wrote this bit on my offense (the Jer Raid) a long time ago, but I went and updated it and figured I'd put it up here.

The Basics
Ever since Mumme and Leach got to Kentucky, I have been a fan of the Air Raid. My favorite iteration is Leach’s. There is just something fun about rolling with 4 receivers and throwing 50-60 (or 89) times a game. Of all of the different versions of the Air Raid out there (i.e., Holgorsen, Riley, Kingsbury, etc.) I’ve always favored watching Leach’s.

So in NCAA football I always try to recreate the Leach Air Raid. It can’t be done perfectly, and because of the game limitations it doesn’t even work as it should/could (route mirroring is the devil), but whatever. Leach runs pretty much everything out of what a lot of people would call 10 or 20 personnel, mostly 10. I went back and watched some cut-ups of Texas Tech in 03 and 08, and then Washington State in 2012 and from this season (2017), and that’s still true. He runs about 80% or more of the offense from 4-wide, 1-back sets. Most of the rest will be 3-wide, 1-back.

Every season Leach does seem to install 2 or 3 “special” formations. At Texas Tech and then again in his first season at Wazzu Leach had a handful of formations that featured two tight ends. These sets that were called Duece and Slot in NCAA are called Shotgun Ace and Shotgun Big Flip. At Washington State he used a version of Slot (Big Flip) that put twins to left. The closest NCAA formation is Shotgun Twin TE Slot Wk. At Washington State Leach inherited Andrei Lintz and used these formations to get him on the field slightly more than he used TE sets before. However, after Lintz graduated he really hasn’t employed the TE sets much. Instead, he actually has gone to emptying the backfield 4-5 times a game with a couple of formations that resemble Shotgun 5WR Trio and Shotgun 5WR Trips. He has also begun shifting formations pre-snap ala Jon Gruden. That is a little too challenging to duplicate in NCAA so I’m not even going to try.

When discussing “balance” on offense, Leach doesn’t adhere to the conventional wisdom. This is Leach’s take on the matter: “There's a whole myth about balance, and it's really stupid. The notion that you hand it to one guy half the time, and then you throw it to two other guys the other half of the time, and maybe you connect, maybe you don't. There's nothing balanced about it. There's two skill positions left out, ya know? Balance is, whether you run it or throw it, getting contributions from all the skill positions”. So what he considers to be balance is get around 1,000 yards from each receiver (X, H, Y, Z) and 1400 yards from the running back position (F) every season. This breaks down to around 85 yards on 8-10 touches per game for the receivers and 120 yards on 20-22 touches per game out of the running backs. Obviously, F is getting twice as many touches as the receivers, and so without exception Leach splits time between two running backs. F also needs to be heavily involved in the passing game.

The Formations
My approach to adapting the Leach Raid to NCAA is to go all Shotgun. Pretty much all of Leach’s Quarterbacks have at one time or another (some more than others) gone under center. Usually, however, this has been by their choice. Sonny Cumbie, for example, preferred going under center and Leach had to keep him from doing it so much. So I didn’t try to use any of the under center formations that Leach teams have used, like Weak or Strong Normal, or Weak Slot, or any of the Ace formations. It may have happened on occasion, but I’ve never seen a Leach-coached team use the Pistol in a real game. I saw it used during his first spring practice with Wazzu, but never after. So, I go strictly shotgun. I also don’t flip any formation except Shotgun Split Slot and Shotgun Slot Offset in order to recreate the formation Leach uses in real life. Below are the formations I use:

-----2x2
Shotgun Spread Flex
Shotgun Spread Flex Wk
Shotgun Normal Y-Flex
Shotgun Spread
Shotgun Spread HB Wk
Shotgun Spread Y-Slot
Shotgun Double Flex
-----3x1
Shotgun 4WR Trey
Shotgun 4WR Trey Str
Shotgun Trey Open
Shotgun Trips Open
Shotgun Trips Open Str
Shotgun Trips HB Wk
Shotgun Trips
Shotgun 4WR Trio
Shotgun 4WR Trio Str
Shotgun Trio Open
-----2x1
Shotgun Split Offset
Shotgun Split Y-Flex
Shotgun Slot Offset
Shotgun Split Slot
-----1x1
Shotgun Ace
Shotgun Big Flip
-----2x0
Shotgun Twin TE Slot Wk
-----3x2
Shotgun Trio
Shotgun Trips

The Plays
In each formations I have selected only the Air Raid concepts. My passing plays I split into one and three step drops:

-----One Step
Hitch
Four Verticals
617
Stick
Corner
Cross
Slants
-----Three Step
Shallow Cross (X, H, Y, Z)
Mesh
Wheel
Sail (In NCAA: Flood)
Flag (In NCAA: Under)
Curl/Flat
Smash
Shakes

I pretty much include every screen pass from each of my formations. Screens is a big part of the Leach Air Raid, they usually throw around 10 screens a game. You can’t match exactly the screens that Leach runs and the ones available in the game, so here’s how I have them listed:
-----Screens
Randy/Larry (In NCAA: WR Screen, FL Screen, SE Screen)
Middle Screen
Bubble Screen
HB Slip Screen
HB Mid Screen

Leach’s run game is very simple. It’s mostly man-on-man blocking. I only have 1-3 running plays in each formation. I don’t call very many of my runs, usually I audible to them when I have a favorable blocking matchup. These are the types of plays I include:
-----Runs
Dive
Base
Draw
Inside Zone
Cross Buck

What NCAA calls the Jet Sweep package has always been part of Leach’s offense. So all of the Jet Sweep and Jet Sweep PA Pass’s I include. I use the WR motion plays from Shotgun Spread Flex quite a bit. Leach has also incorporated one of Holgorsen’s Air Raid innovations into his offense, and this is motioning the back out of the backfield. Spread HB Wk, Spread Flex Wk, Shotgun Split Offset, and Shotgun Slot Offset all have plays using this motion.

Game Management
So everybody knows that during games Mike Leach is calling plays off of what looks like an index card sized piece of paper. The reality is that it’s a regular 8x11’ piece of paper that has been folded with a purpose. He folds it to a certain section of the paper depending on the situation. It’s nowhere near as detailed and situational as a lot of the play cards you’ll see at various levels of football, but it’s also not as simple as it looks at first glance. I don’t want to waste ink and paper, so I have my call sheet as an image and I’ll use a digital pen to mark on my iPad as the game progresses. I’m not going to pretend to know how Leach has his, but mine is a pretty simple, three column format. The first column is a list of my base passing plays (the 18 concepts). The second column is my formations (26), and the third column is a list of my “special plays”.

Doing it this way helps me make sure I’m balancing my play calls and my formations. It also helps me make sure I’m sticking to a plan I might have had before the game. For example I always scout through the opponents’ defensive roster and if I see my Z receiver has a favorable matchup then I obviously need to try and call some plays that hopefully my quarterback will zero in on him for. I don’t worry too much about situational calls because I know which concepts I’m going to choose between for which situations.

So that’s my take on the Leach Raid and how I go about putting it into NCAA.

[nofx94]

Duuuude, that's sick. Thanks for getting into the details with us. I might try to recreate something similar. I'm more prone to running option, but I definitely like your philosophical purity.

[Jeremy7679]

Purity is what I’m going for. I could obviously throw in a bunch of read option stuff and be even more successful, but it wouldn’t be the Leach offense.


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[Jeremy7679]

I should probably also mention that I play coach mode.


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[Collegefbfan]

I was looking at playbooks today. Toledo for example. I am wondering about a few things. So why are there plays with the same name and seems to be the same play listed more than once? I don't understand. Some have different formations but very slightly. Then there is a speed option play where the QB and HB run to the side of the field where there are 3 receivers going downfield or blocking, whatever. Then, when you get ready to practice the play, the QB and HB are going opposite side of field than the WRs. Any ideas? This is on 12 by the way.

Also, I need to tips on being good on offense. How do guys find the time within 3 seconds to get a pass off after finding an open player? Or someone that looks open. I am finding when I practice, the player coming across the middle is almost always open. Almost. I even have the speed threshold almost at zero and my RB's can't get to the edge. My TE's or Linemen are getting tossed to the side and then my 89 speed RB is ran down.

[tessl]

Interesting thread. I use coach mode and custom playbooks. On offense mostly I use pistol with running plays where a blocker goes in motion to get more blockers than defenders at the point of attack. Heavy use of tight ends and play action in the passing game.

On defense base set is 4-3 but I remain flexible depending on what the school I'm playing is doing on offense.