WHY ADD OPTION FOOTBALL TO THE HYBRID DIAMOND & FLEXBONE PISTOL OFFENSE
1.Best way to get the ball on the perimeter and attack the outside third, while the defense spreads attempting to contain the triple option, fullback in the offense gets more explosive.
2.Don’t need dominate offensive lineman, philosophy stays consistent with offense.
3.Makes defense play assignment football by defending the option on each and every play. Forces defense to play discipline football; defense tends to be more predictable.
4.The option game helps your pass offense dramatically, because it predicts secondary coverage.
5.The Option game controls random blitzing; one wrong stunt and its six points.
6.Option football neutralizes dominant players by forcing them to play assignment football.
COMMON OBJECTIONS FOR NOT RUNNING TRIPLE OPTION FOOTBALL
1.It is a high risk offense: Statistically speaking, there is no evidence to support this statement. Taking care of the football is like anything else, if its important to you, work at it. Make a commitment to work ball handling drills on a daily basis.
2.It is a run offense only: When it’s working why pass? The passing game becomes even more effective because of the defensive emphasis on stopping the run. You can get mismatches and coverage’s that are easily exploited.
3.Option football requires a quarterback with exceptional speed. Find the best competitor on your football team, option doesn’t require speed it requires execution.
4.Good weather offense: Option football has been run in snow, rain, and mud.
Formation Identification
Coaches an important point to remember as you read and go through this is that I have given formations none traditioal names to compliment the no-huddle approach. All formations are alerted out loud thus, the reason for the non-traditional formation names.
As you install your offense the formation names can be anything you would like to call them as long as you are comfortable with them.
Option On Me: How It Works and Why
When we give our quarterback the opportunity to go Option On Me, the goal is to keep his reads as simple as possible. With option on me at the line of scrimmage your quarterback is always attempting to keep our offensive line in best blocking scheme, which in turns makes for a more successful play. When our quarterback comes to the line of scrimmage he wants to take his eyes to that area outside the openside tackle and outside the tight end.
Based upon the Option On Me rules our quarterback will have 4 options to choose from when calling best option on the line of scrimmage. The way this information is transferred to the offensive unit is simple. In the huddle the quarterback once receiving his instructions from his coach will say “Option On Me On “. Quarterack reads inverts for best option and ball will be snapped on 1. Depending upon the invert rule the quarterback can run towards the openside Inside Veer or Openside Load. Towards the Tight End side he has Midline or Load Option. This gives him 4 distinct option plays based upon inverts, 2 options to either side.
The reason for reading inverts for best option is because the process that the quarterback follows for calling best option is simple and fast. The quarterback will always read from the openside across towards the Tight End. If the quarterback has an outside invert towards the openside that is located off the line of scrimmage he then knows to take his eyes towards the tight end first reading the first down lineman past the center. If he
sees a 3 technique then he checks offense into 10 midline
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Option On Me: Inside Veer No Invert Weak
The following information will be used as your rules for calling best option on the line of scrimmage:
12 – 13 Veer: Run only towards an open side when no invert is located off and outside the open side tackle. When the outside invert has been removed this breaks the triangle and only gives the defense two defenders to defend a triple option threat which consists of 1. Fullback Give 2. Quarterback Keep 3. Tailback Pitch.
Whenever the quarterback sees an outside invert off the line of scrimmage towards the open side he starts to look for a better option that puts the offensive line into a better blocking scheme and the defense into a position to be out numbered when defending the option game.
Notice the triangle in this illustration, the defense has three defenders to defend our triple option threat with the inside veer play. In other words three to defend three. With this illustration you will find the triangle broken, in other words no outside invert towards the open side. Because most defenses will understand that they must over load the tight end side to defend both the midline and load options this opens up the inside veer towards the open side. Option on me is designed to control the amount of defenders that a defense can play inside the box. When the triangle is broken the defense only has two to defend three potential ball carriers on the perimeter.
The success of the inside veer lies with the thought that the inside veer release tackle will miss or be unable to block the playside Linebacker. By running into the broken triangle with the outside invert missing the defense only has two defenders (defensive end, linebacker) to defend the triple option threat that the inside veer gives.
Inside veer to an openside allows the quarterback to read a 5 technique. By adjusting the outside invert to a deeper secondary alignment or rolling him over to the Tight End side sets up the inside veer.
About the Author of this post:
Jerry Campbell has over 30 years of high school and college coaching experience. He has experience as a head coach, offensive coordinator, and various position coaches. He has written numerous football coaching articles in various publications, is the author of over 30 books on coaching football, and has produced 12 coaching video series. Additionally, he is a nationally sought after speaker on the coaching clinic circuit.