Building Your QB’s Confidence Early in the Game

Getting your quarterback into the flow of the game can sometimes be a challenging task.  During my playing career I was fortunate to have an offensive coordinator who understood the concept of allowing a qb to build his confidence and get into a rhythm during the first few possessions of a game.  As a play caller, it is our responsibility to limit negative effects that can be brought on by initial excitement, nervousness, and the mental strain of defensive recognition that often takes place for a qb early in a game.  I recently read some notes from one of Coach Tony Franklin’s clinics and one of the points he made was to abstain from calling a 90’s (3 step drop) type play until at least 15 to 20 plays deep into the game.  This means that the majority of your plays calls early on should be a combination of runs, screens, and quick game.  The benefits of this strategy; offensive rhythm, qb confidence, and forcing the defense to react to completions and cover from sideline to sideline.  As your quarterback makes these easy completions, his confidence grows and the game slows down for him mentally.  I know as a player, regardless of whether we scored early or not, it was always nice to be on the sideline thinking “ok, I’m settled in, I’ve completed 7 or 8 passes already, now let’s take some shots at these guys”.  This strategy also provides the qb time to gain understanding of the opponent’s defense without having to make more complex down field decisions.  He has time to recognize fronts, defensive back alignment, key players, and available grass for him to utilize later in the game.  Below are some concepts that incorporate this strategy for building your quarterbacks confidence early in a game.

 Fast Screens ,Bubbles, and RB Swing Screens – I love fast screens, bubbles to the WR’s and swings to the RB’s early in a game because not only does it build your qb’s confidence but it also builds the confidence of the receivers and backs.  Getting several of your key players catches early on gets them into the flow of the game. Your qb is getting completions and for the most part staying protected from those blitzing linebackers that are looking to rip somebodies head off during the first series or two of the game.  Establishing these screens force the defense to defend horizontally and will eventually cause those float defenders to widen and defend further and further away from the box, creating a more favorable match up for your run game.

Quick Game – Quick game is always a safe and effective way to get your players into the flow of a game.  Early in the game, my thinking is to run the quick game concepts that I feel my team is best at.  Personally, my favorites are; stick, hitch game, slant-bubble, and snag.  But like I said, it has to be the concepts that the players run best and you feel most comfortable with calling.  The plays I mentioned provide your qb with simple read progressions that allow him to get the ball out quickly.  The qb will be reading one single defender (flat defender), which keeps him from having to make more complex reads early in the game.  These quick game concepts also become very effective when you are able to establish the bubble screen.  With all of the plays I listed, the wider the flat defender, the better the window is to complete routes such as stick, slant, hitches, and the snag route.  My thinking early in a game is to stretch the defense horizontally as much as possible.  When running slant bubble, I’m thinking throw the bubble until the defense adjusts to stop it.  When running snag, it’s the swing route all the way until the defense chooses to respect it.  By making the defense to widen, and defend closer to the line of scrimmage, throwing lanes open and down field opportunities begin to present themselves. 

** updated - It is also beneficial to take a couple "homerun" shots. Find the best matchup and take a shot on an outside go route. Simple read for qb, safe throw, and chance for a big play. Of my first 15 plays, at least 2 will be "homerun" shots. What I like for some early game homerun calls ; 97 (All Verticals), any Play Action with hi-lo progression, Screen&Go, and trick plays (come up with something creative and use it early in the game), Slant-Wheel,  and 95 X-Post (tell QB to see X). 

I also like slow screens to the backs, jailbreaks, and inside shovel.  All of these plays help control early aggressiveness from the defense and slow down the pass rush.  As far as running game goes, I believe you have to do what your best at.  If you’re a zone read team, then you know you must establish the inside zone early.  Personally, I like stretch, draw, and speed option.   Recently I have become very interested in the stick/draw concept, where the qb is reading the mike linebacker.  If the mike drops on the stick, qb hands the ball off on the draw, if the mike jumps on the run, throw the stick.  It’s a safe concept with a simple read.  If the qb doesn’t get a clear look at the mike, he should always hand off the draw. 

I’m not completely against throwing a couple 90’s calls in there during your first couple possessions.  But if I make a 90s call early, I’m most likely going to tell my quarterback to see one of the backs.  For example, on mesh, I would tell him to read straight from the corner to the back.  If he has the corner route based on pre-snap, then he has full discretion to throw it but if the read is cloudy, throw the swing and force the defense to react.  I also really like tagging angle routes to the backs early. Some of my favorite plays to tag angles on are vertical game and shallows. 

To summarize my pass game strategy early in a game, it would be this – establish the bubble and swing screens, get the qb comfortable making simple reads and allow him to get a feel for the defense, run the quick game concepts you feel you have perfected in practice, and get your best play makers involved early.  My best play maker is going to touch the ball 5 to 10 times on my first 15 to 20 plays.  Force the defense to defend sideline to sideline, force the defense to react to completions and tempo, and force the defense to defend my best athlete. 

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.