Original Air Raid Film

I ran across some of the videos last night as I was searching YouTube for some Air Raid footage. Here we have some video of the original Air Raid system that was put in place by head coach Hal Mumme while at the University of Kentucky. At this time the Wildcats coaching staff also consisted of Mike Leach, Tony Franklin, Sonny Dykes, and Chris Hatcher. It’s almost hard to believe that so many influential spread coaches were working together on the same staff. Since then, each of these coaches have went their respective ways and continued to implement and innovate their own versions of the spread offense. But it all stemmed from what is taking place in these videos. From 1997-2000, the Kentucky football program became the catalyst for what is now a spread offense revolution in college football. The Wildcats offensive innovation also trickled down to the high school level, and by the early 2000's, the spread offense was taking Kentucky high school football by storm. I personally owe Coach Franklin thanks because it was due to his influence that my high school switched to the spread offense a few years before I began my high school career as a quarterback. I hope that watching these videos allows you to see the simplicity of the original Air Raid system. These cut-ups were all I watched when I was running the system as a high school qb. Tim Couch has flawless mechanics here and runs the system to perfection. I think that in today's game, coaches often over analyze the spread scheme. I believe it comes down to perfecting simplicity and allowing your playmakers to get the ball in space. As you can see, Kentucky isn’t doing anything revolutionary here; they just simply execute their scheme to perfection. As an offensive coach, I believe many of us need to stop trying to overthink our schemes and just get back to the basics of the spread game. Sorry the videos are not the best quality but still effective in seeing some of the original aspects of the system.

* Notice the use of the backs out of the backfield during these clips.  The golden rule is "when in trouble, find a back".  Not only is this a pain for the defense to defend but it also provides easy completions for your QB that will build his confidence and keep him from taking unnecessary hits.  Also using the backs more effectively is a great way to force the defense into defending laterally (sideline to sideline) as well as forcing the secondary to defend closer to the line of scrimmage.  Using the backs consistently in your passing game will lead to more opportunities to take shots down field later in the game.  You as a coach must instill this mentality in your QB.  Finding backs consistently only comes through reps during practice and constant verbalization of this concept during meetings.

Challenging All Coaches - Throw More Fast Screens!

 

There’s no doubt that the screen game is a critical part in all variations of the spread offense.  There are many types of screens; fast screens, slow screens, jail breaks, solids, middle screens, rockets, lasers, Alabama’s and many more. Today I want to focus on the most basic type of screen that the spread offense makes use of, the fast screen.  First of all, don’t let the simplicity of this play fool you, it is by far one of the most effective ways to get the ball into the hands of your play-makers, idealistically giving them 1-on-1 matchups, making defenders tackle them in space.  Over the past couple years, I have noticed with the complex play strategies that have been installed within the spread offense, the fast screen has begun to get over looked.  So here it is coaches, this is my public service announcement to all of you: THROW FAST SCREENS UNTIL THE DEFENSE IS FORCED TO DEFEND THEM!!! It is truly that simple.  If a defense is giving your WRs a five to ten yard cushion, throw the heck out of those fast screens and make them tackle your best players in space.  Be persistent, you may get tackled for a one or two yard gain but it only takes one missed tackle and your guy is off to the races for six.  My point is, don’t let one negative play scare you away from throwing fast screens the rest of the game.  This not only forces the defense to defend in space but it also increases your QB's confidence because he is getting more completions (great confidence booster early in the game).  It also increases your offensive tempo throughout the game.  Just think how tired those big d-linemen are getting from running sideline to sideline and then back to their position as your offense presses the pedal to the metal and lines up for another play.  If nothing else you should have a huge advantage in conditioning because you should be practicing like you play, and that should be FAST.  By the fourth quarter, your chances of breaking a fast screen for a big gain increase dynamically.  Now what happens when the defense adjusts and tightens coverage... You take advantage.  This is what you want, this opens up the down field passing game, and provides you with opportunity to throw other screens such as jail-breaks, rocket and laser, slows, or solids.  Fast screens have multiple benefits for your offense.  I can’t stress enough the importance of establishing this threat as a staple of your offensive strategy.   Tempo and getting the ball quickly into the hands of your playmakers, these two concepts alone will make your offense difficult to defend.  I try to think simplicity, consistency, and effectiveness… sometimes simple is better, especially when you are able to do it fast! 

My notes from Coach Butch Jones' presentation at the Glazier Clinic

I haven’t had much time the past couple days to write but I just wanted to take a second and get a post up before I leave for Chicago tomorrow. I wanted to give you guys some of the notes I took while listening to Coach Butch Jones of the University of Cincinnati.  Coach Jones was a great speaker and I really enjoyed hearing him at the Glazier Clinic in February. A lot of this was written in short hand but I will do my best to elaborate on the some of the points.  His presentation was over play calling and offensive strategy.

·        You must have confidence in your play call – Coach Jones really stressed having absolute confidence in your play call. This confidence is gained through knowing that you have properly installed all aspects of the play and through knowing that you are putting your best playmakers in position to effect the game.

·        REPS = Confidence ; The more time you spend perfecting a play through repetition, the more confidence you and your players have that the play will work.  Repping fewer plays to perfection and consistency is much more productive then repping tons of plays and never perfecting any of them.

·        Call plays that your players are confident about as well

·        Think PLAYERS not plays – get the ball in the hands of your best playmakers, it’s as simple as that.  Equal distribution of the ball should not be on your agenda as a play caller.  The guys that can potentially have the most positive effect on the game for your offense are the guys that should touch the ball the most, period.  Create plays that get the ball in the hands of your playmakers!

·        Always give feedback while teaching.  I have stated this point as well in some of my posts, I rarely allow a player to go through a rep without providing some type of criticism.  Any feedback is good feedback if it is coming from a knowledgeable place.

Here are some points he made regarding offensive strategy:

·        BALL SECURITY is always #1 on the agenda.  You must constantly instill this idea into your players’ minds.

·        Always think TD’s in the red zone.  It should be your mentality as a coach that every time your team is in the red zone it’s going to be for six.  You should have a small number of plays that you are extremely confident in for red zone situations. 

·        Win 1^st down! Statistics show that winning 1^st down is an unbelievable advantage to the offense.

·        QB should know the play callers purpose for the plays being called.  You QB must have the most in-depth understanding of your offensive strategy.  He should understand and recognize why plays are being called and what the goal behind each in-game situation is. 

·        PLAY FAST – we hear this all the time as coaches of the spread offense but Coach Jones says that when you think you’re playing fast enough, play faster.  But you can’t play fast if you don’t practice fast.  TEMPO means EVERYTHING in practice!

·        Formations not plays – he talked about how you should use less plays but more formations.  Get extremely good at a few plays and run them from a variety of formations.  He says this combined with playing extremely fast should equal an unstoppable offense at the high school level. 

·        First off the ground rule -Install the concept that your players should be the first one up off the ground after every play and the ball carrier should always immediately hand the ball to the referee.  Both of these ideas increase tempo and force the defense to line up faster.

I am Second Videos

Here are some great college qb's discussing how their relationship with Jesus Christ has impacted their lives.  Great stories, I hope they inspire and motivate you to seek knowledge and understanding from Jesus.  Enjoy!!

Essential Warm Up Throws and Tips

There are plenty of ways to get your qb's arm warmed up during pre-practice.  I have witnessed many variations of warm-up drills but I believe this video gives a pretty good idea of what your qb should be doing during pre-practice warm-ups. There are a few other drills I really like for pre-practice and I will try to include videos on those in the near future.  It is important to keep in mind a couple things while coaching your qb's warm-up throws:

1. Make sure he is always throwing to a specific target.  What I mean by this is, dont just allow him to throw to another player, make him pin-point a specific location on that player as his target, every single throw...e.i. the head, left shoulder, right shoulder, chest.  This will help improve concentration and accuracy and avoid forming bad habbits during warm-ups. 

2. Your qb should never have dead feet during warm up throws.  It doesnt matter if he is throwing at a target five yards away or thirty yards away, he should always keep his feet "hot".  If his feet are stationary during warm-up throws, then he will be stationary in the pocket. 

This is not a period to be going through the motions.  Bad habbits can easily develope during warm-ups.  Keep a close eye on mechanics, effort, and the two concepts presented above.

1 on 1's - Get more out of your personnel

Just wanted to take a minute and write a short article addressing the importance of 1 on 1's during practice.  This is a simple drill that most college teams include in their practice schedule; however I feel that it is often overlooked during high school practices.  Some high school coaches may use this regularly but for those who don’t, I hope this explanation persuades you to incorporate this drill into your weekly practice schedule.  The reason 1 on 1’s can be difficult to do at the high school level is personnel and numbers.  At larger high schools, this may not be a problem but for most of us who coach with limited numbers and talent, providing competitive and efficient 1 on 1’s can be a problem.  To fix this problem, you must pair your best athletes against each other; let them go head to head.  One on offense, the other on defense and the next time through the line, they switch.  If you only have 4 good receivers, allow those four guys to pair up and get the majority of work with your starting qb; pair talent with talent and non-talent against non-talent.  If all you ever do is let your best receivers run routes against weaker scout team players, then you are getting nothing accomplished. I have seen many high school teams who have their best guys running routes against freshman who can barely get in a stance, that should not ever happen.  I understand that using your best players against each other, especially if you are limited, can cause a problem with rest and effort.  If they get tired, let them take a rest and get back in the drill.  This is also a competitive way to help with conditioning and can limit post-practice conditioning if the players do this drill with great effort. 

I speak from experience when I say that this drill alone can make a tremendous difference in your passing game.  If you run this drill correctly, it will allow your qb and receivers to developed timing and chemistry while getting critical reps throwing and running routes.  This drill should also be extremely competitive.  I love seeing guys talk trash and get excited when making big time throws and catches during this drill.  It’s a fun way for the players to gain reps.  Lastly, if you have an experienced qb, let him decide what routes the receivers will run.  This is important because it allows the qb to figure out what routes he likes throwing to specific receivers and it gives the coach an idea of what routes the qb feels most comfortable throwing. It also lets the QB get used to taking charge of the offense.  If you don’t have an experienced qb, choose the routes yourself based on what you feel may need the most work.   I understand that this article may be very basic to a lot of coaches but hopefully it provided some insight for those coaches who do not frequently use 1 on 1’s or for those who are looking to get more out of their 1 on 1 period.  Here are a couple videos showing some good clips of the Tennessee Vols and UC Davis during their 1 on 1 periods.

More QB Drills - Mark Sanchez, NY Jets

Here are some clips of Jets qb Mark Sanchez.  Over the past two seasons I have incorporated the first drill into my individual period and have really liked the results.  It can be a challenging drill for young quarterbacks but with time and reps they will gain confidence in their ability to find the cones with their feet and not their eyes.  I call this drill "figure 8's".  The main focus here is to once again keep the qb's eyes down field while keeping a wide base and focusing on covering ground quickly but with short, controlled strides that allow your qb to move efficiently in the pocket.  This drill has helped my qb's with in-pocket footwork and avoiding pressure.  The second video, "agility/reaction drill" is also another one of my favorites.  I avoid using the cones here and begin this drill with a 3-step drop, followed by my QB going through specific reads for a given play.  After he verbalized his reads, I then use a broom stick or some type of pad to provide a reaction stimuli.  Once again, it is helpful here to provide some type of competitive edge to the drill.  For example; if I touch the qb with the broom stick or pad, every touch equals ten push-ups during post practice.  Lastly, I want to make a point to keep in mind the idea of a balanced variety in your qb individual period.  It is important to understand that there are certain drills that must be performed on a daily basis in order to create muscle memory but at the same time there are drills that can be used less frequently to provide a change of pace to your indy period and allow the qb's to have some fun.  The last thing you want is for your qb's to simply go through the motions.  A little bit of unpredictability never hurts, being creative and over the top in the right situations can provide excitement and energy to your drills.  

QB drills with Coach Tom Herman at Ohio State

I really like the drills shown here by Coach Herman.  A few points of emphasis I would like to make note of while doing individual QB drills :

In all drills, make sure your qb is keeping his eyes down the field and not looking down at his feet.   One of the benefits of this is for the qb to gain confidence in "feeling" his way around the pocket and not having to look where he is moving in the pocket.  I really like how Coach Herman holds up a number for the qb to shout out as he performs the "bag drill" or "shuffle drill", this ensures he is keeping his eyes down field. Another key word here is balance.  During qb drills you always want to focus on making the qb have a nice wide base with his feet and to take short choppy steps with the idea of gaining ground fast but keeping his stride short and without clicking his heels together.  Make sure that he keeps that wide base throughout the entire drill to develop muscle memory.  If you pay close attention to the video, Coach Herman puts a lot of emphasis on keeping a wide base and moving with the inside balls of the feet.  He does a great job of explaining this concept.  Make the quarterback aware that he only needs to move far enough to avoid pressure.  Scrambling does not mean running outside the pocket to make throws, scrambling is constant movement within the pocket in order to find throwing lanes and avoid sacks.  Lastly, I want to emphasize the concept of always providing a competitive environment for your quarterback drills.  Never just simply allow your qb's to go through the drills without some type of competitive idea being involved.  Athletes love to compete, provide them with that opportunity during individual drills and constantly verbalize with them what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong.  I rarely, allow a player to go through a drill without communicating some type of criticism to what they are doing. 

There are numerous individual drills for the qb position.  During my practices, I use a variety of drills, some shown on this videos but most are not.  I will continue to try and provide videos that incorporate a wide variety of qb drills in order to help you have better individual periods during practice.

Quarterback Mentality

By: Scott Grizzle

As a player, I was fortunate enough to work with current Louisiana Tech offensive coordinator Tony Franklin for a ten session quarterback school in Lexington Kentucky. During that time, Coach Franklin provided me with a great deal of knowledge about playing the QB position and how to approach my role as the leader of my team. Along with Coach Franklin, I have also been influenced by my high school coach, Randy Vanderhoof, and my collegiate coach, Dane Damron, who is now the offensive coordinator at Eastern Kentucky University. Through learning from these coaches and several other outstanding coaches I have developed my philosophy for coaching the quarterback position. In this article I will go into detail about the one of the many qualities I believe it takes to sustain an effective mentality for your QB.

There has always been heavy debate over what is the number one attribute that a good QB must possess. For me, there is no debate, that quality is decision making. Having a good decision maker under center will allow your team the chance to be successful. There are a couple key components to programing your QB to be a good decision maker. The first, getting him to understand his limitations. This is called “playing within yourself”. Not every QB has a 50 yard arm, not every QB is 6”3 and can run a 4.6 in the 40. But that doesn’t mean that they cannot be an extremely productive player. It is crucial to verbally establish these limitations with the quarterback. Coaching football is about honesty, not blowing smoke. If your QB only has a 35 yard arm, make sure he understands that and make sure he knows you have a ton of confidence in that 35 yard arm and that’s why he is your QB. This will help him play within his limits and not try to exceed them. As a coach, it is our job to tweak your offensive strategy to accommodate for these limitations. For example, everyone runs the “mesh” concept. It’s a simple high-low read. The QB reads the corner route (or post) to the play side mesh. Well, if you have a QB who isn’t capable of throwing that deep route effectively, no problem.. just tell him to read the deep route as “pre-snap” read only and if he doesn’t like it pre-snap based on corner or safety alignment then once he gets the snap, he reads directly from the mesh route combination to the play side back. This eliminates him wanting to be a “gun-slinger” and trying to throw 30 yard ball that he has no business of throwing. Instead he is reading two 7 to 10 yard mesh routes and then progressing to his play side back on a swing or shoot route. Making his reads easier and taking away the possibility of him doing something out of his element makes his decision making process much easier and effective. Thus providing him with throws he can make and that will build his confidence throughout the game and the season. Another great example of this is on the “zone-read” concept. If you have a QB with limited speed, you can still run the zone-read. As long as he understands that his job is not to EVER try and outrun that defensive end or C gap defender. If he is slow then tell him he needs to think, GIVE, GIVE, GIVE every time to the back, with the only exception being that there is an absolute commitment by the C gap defender and a clearly open running lane is present. By simply thinking GIVE every time, the pressure of making a decision goes is diminished and his job now becomes to carry out an exceptional fake every time in hopes of holding that C gap defender and gaining his respect. In this scenario the defense still must respect your QB because if they don’t and they decide to totally commit to the give, then he does have the authority to pull. This way you are taking away that voice in his head that tells him he can outrun a C gap defending if he is “partially” committed. Once again, making your QB understand his strengths and weaknesses and tweaking the offensive strategy to those strengths and weaknesses will allow him to be more productive and to limit turnovers and mistakes.

Another key concept of decision making is getting your quarterback to feel comfortable MAKING DECISIONS. It sounds simple, and it is but it is also an area that is overlooked. The way I implement this strategy is to constantly have my QB making decisions in practice. In drills, he is rarely just throwing or going through footwork. Most of the time he is throwing based on a decision making process, or using footwork based on a decision, not simply just going through a set of agility cones or a three step drop type scenario. For example, when we practice in-pocket football during our individual period, I use a drill that provides a variety of rushers and angles so that my QB has to make a decision about sliding up, stepping back, or sliding left or right in the pocket. The “point-and-slide” drill is well, pointless, if all he is doing is stepping in the direction you tell him to. He won’t do that in a game, so don’t do it in practice. Force him to slide in the pocket based on a true in-game look. Therefore always making him use his mind to make a decision about where to slide in the pocket and giving the drills you do in practice a chance to help him in a true in-game scenario. Along with incorporating a ton of decision making drills into your practice, incorporate decision making into your meetings and every day conversations. Make him get on the dry-erase board and draw your schemes, give him verbal scenarios about coverage, blitz looks, down and distance, and time management. Make him constantly make decisions and make him understand why those decisions are either good or bad. The more comfortable he gets with constant decision making during practice and meeting the more confident and comfortable he will be at making those during a game.

Lastly I want to discuss how the idea of making your QB have a “short-term” memory. This is critical because being the decision maker of the offense will inevitably lead to him making some bad decisions. When that happens he must learn from them and MOVE ON. Dwelling on past wrong decisions, bad throws, bad pre-snap reads, bad protection calls and so on will only cripple his ability to make good decisions later in the game. You must instill the “PLAY THE NEXT PLAY” mentality in your QB. Whether he makes a great play or a bone-head play, he must understand that it’s behind him and all he that matters is the NEXT offensive possession. He must take responsibility for his mistakes but not beat himself up over them, the greatest QB’s in the game make mistakes every Sunday. It’s not a game of perfection; it’s a game of improvement.

I hope that this article conveyed the importance of getting your QB to be a productive decision maker. By allowing him to fully understand his abilities and his weaknesses, by constantly putting him in decision making circumstances and by getting him to have a short term memory, you can develop a great decision making mentality in any quarterback and allow him the chance to be a productive leader for your offensive attack.