Single Wing 303

Learn From a
Youth Coach
Copyright 2006, Cisar Management Services
All rights reserved. The reproduction, or utilization of this work in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying, and recording, digital transfer, and in any information storage and retrieval
system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Permission to reproduce various forms like the player, spectator and coach’s contracts in the
book are granted to coaches and instructors who have purchased “Winning Youth Football, a
Step by Step Plan”. Reproduction of other parts of this book is expressly forbidden by the
above copyright notice.
Copyright 2006, Cisar Management Services
Copyright 2009 Cisar Management, all rights reserved. The reproduction, or utilization of this
work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying, and recording, digital transfer, and in any information
storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
book are granted to anyone who has purchased “Winning Youth Football, a Step by Step
book are granted to those who have purchased “Winning Youth Football, a Step by Step
Plan”. Reproduction of other parts of this book is expressly forbidden by the above copyright
notice.
2
Reproduction of other parts of this document is expressly forbidden by the above copyright
notice.
Author: Dave Cisar
Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

3
Winning Youth Football
Single Wing 303

Taking it to the Next Level
By: Dave Cisar
Coach,
What an honor and privilege it is to be called by the title of coach; it is even a bigger
privilege to help coaches like you to improve your coaching skills. We sincerely
appreciate your continued support and your interest in making the experience for your
youth football players a great one. Our hope is you can use this information to have an
even better season next year.
This is an offensive addendum to the “Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan”

book. This addendum is meant for the experienced Single Wing coach, to help him stay
ahead of his competition.
Every year our experience leads us to refine and improve upon the previous years
offerings, we keep sharpening and sharpening the saw every season. We have now run
the Single Wing for 15 seasons with teams from age 6 to 14 with multiple teams from
multiple locations in a variety of leagues. By the sheer number of plays we have run and
the variety of defenses and techniques we have seen, we are able to refine the system to a
razor sharp edge. By doing so, we have been able to go 132-18 in the largest and most
competitive youth football league in the state of Nebraska.
Our goal is to share those experiences with you so you can have the same type of
successes we’ve had with our teams.
Warmest Regards,
Dave Cisar

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Table of Contents
Copyright Information: 2
Acknowledgement: 3
Table of Contents: 4-5
Chapter 1- Why Single Wing 303
Why Single Wing 303: 6-8
Who Single Wing 303 is For and Not For: 8-9
To the Doubters: 9-20
Age and Experience Grouping of Plays: 21-22
Play Teaching Order: 23-24
Chapter 2- The Plays
16 Pass Variations: 25-35
43 Reverse Variations: 36-39
18 Sweep Pass Variations: 40-44
43 Reverse Pass-45-46
24 Iso and 14 Power- 47-50
Chapter 3- The Burst Series
The Burst Series: 51-58
Chapter 4 – New Twist on Spinner Series
Spinner Series Variations: 59-64
Flash: 65-66
Chapter 5- The Buck Series
The Buck Series: 67-74
Chapter 6- Flip Series
Flip Series: 75-77
Chapter 7- Running the Super Formation and Plays
Why the Super: 78-79
The Super Series: 80-84
Chapter 8- Spread Single Wing- The Jet Series
Jet Series Theory and Coaching Points: 86-90
Jet Series Plays: 91-100
Chapter 9- Spread Single Wing- The Passing Game
Theory and Need: 101-102
Cross Series Plays: 103-106
Smoke Series Plays: 107-112
Shallow Series Plays: 113-14
Smash: 115
Chapter 10 -Formationing
Formations: 116-120
Chapter 11-Trick Plays
Trick Plays: 121-124

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Table of Contents
Chapter 12- Blocking Adjustments
Various Blocking Adjustments 125-133
Fixing the Wedge: 133-134
Short Edge Problems: 135-136
Chapter 13- Game Day Strategies
Importance of Game Day Coaching: 137-138
No-Huddle Nuances: 139-140
Play Call Sheets: 140-141
Key Matrix for Every Play. Offensive Coordinator: 141-142
Key Matrix for Every Play, Complementery Play Coach: 143-144
Determining What Plays to Call: 144-147
Chapter 14 Attacking Specific Defenses
GAM: 148-155
3-5-3 Defense: 156-163
5-3 Defense: 163-170
5-2 Defense: 170-173
4-4 Defense: 174-178
7 Diamond and 7 Box Defense: 179-188
60 Front Defenses: 188-192
Junkyard Defenses: 193-194
46 Style Defenses: 195-205
Chapter 15 Using Film- The Hudl Advantage
Why Hudl and Film: 206-208
Getting Started: 209-210
Text Boxes: 210-211
Spot Shadows: 211-212
Telestrating: 212-213
Highlight Feature: 214
Scouting: 214-215
Player Accountability: 216
Chapter 16 Taking it Forward
Following Through: 217-219

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Chapter 1
Single Wing 303
Why Single Wing 303?

Many of you have been running my version of the Single Wing offense for several
seasons and have been consistently winning, but want more, that’s why we came out with
Single Wing 303. It’s for the experienced Single Wing coach, who wants more. Maybe
you have hit a wall with your teams ending up just shy of your end goal or maybe you
have perfected the system and need another challenge. Maybe you have a unique
grouping of kids that need a few more arrows in the quiver. Either way Single Wing 303
can help you move to the next level of competence in coaching this system.
It includes some new plays, some adjustments or changes to existing plays, some new
blocking adjustments as well as some new countermeasures. It goes into more detail and
gives you a few more options on some of the plays you are already running. You also get
more detail and more information on exactly how we call our plays and the process we
use to determine which plays to call using our “complementary play coach” approach,
including the exact keys to look for on every play. Some of Single Wing 303 is just a
more detailed description of some of the things we have always done, but were not
explained in enough detail in the original materials.
Refined Over Time
You have to remember we have now coached 150 games with this system with 15
different teams from age 6-14 in 4 different leagues with 2 completely different
organizations. We also have had the benefit of viewing over 300 different Single Wing
teams via your game DVDs and clips. We have exchanged over 18,000 e-mails with
coaches discussing this offense. Over time we have been able to hone this system into a
very sharp edge.
The coaches I face all have my books and DVD’s, in fact according to my web statistics,
many of them come to my web site almost daily to view my blog updates. I’ve actually
seen them bring copies of my book to our games and quote me chapter and verse out of
the books and DVDs. I would venture to say that none of you play teams that know what
you are going to run any better than the teams my teams play every season. In addition to
filming our games and exchanging them with each other, our opponents get together to
share ideas on how to stop us. This has forced us to get very good at running the system,
making adjustments and small changes to keep us ahead of the pack.

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Remember that most of what we did to compile a 132-18 record was in the original book
and DVD’s but we purposely left a few things out. We didn’t do this to hold back things
from you or our competitors, we did it so we wouldn’t tangle up coaches trying to put the
offense in. It makes no sense to spend time or getting great at the finer points of the
system until you have built and perfected the foundation. It would be like a home builder
writing about all the intricacies of high end interior bathroom lighting before the reader
had developed a proficiency at building a foundation and framing. It is human nature to
want to “jump ahead” and put in the advanced portions of the system before perfecting
fundamentals and the base system, which is why we just didn’t include it in the base book
or DVDs.
Priorities
The facts are most teams can win 80% of their games by eliminating all the time wasters
in their practices, teaching the fundamentals right out of the book and running the base
plays in the playbook with a few of the base adjustments. I have hundreds of e-mails
from coaches that have won league titles and they only ran 6,8,14 plays. Most of these
teams had great fundamentals and executed those base plays with razor sharp precision.
The first year we ran the Single Wing it was for an age 8-10 team, we only ran 7 plays
and went 11-1. The next year with an age 8-10 team we ran 12 plays and went 12-0.
Over time we added plays and adjustments in response to what defenses were doing as
well as to take advantage of the talents of players we had those years. Over time we have
added and subtracted a few things to get to the optimum level we are at now. We not only
look at what works versus what doesn’t, we also look at putting series, plays and
adjustments in that put the defense in conflict and take away the base concepts and
adjustments defenses are using to try and stop the offense. Another key factor is the
return on time investment. Another factor is your talent level, every youth football team
is made up of different players with different mixes of ability. Single Wing 303 will give
you some additional options to help you maximize your player mix.
We balance that out with measuring the productivity we get with the amount of practice
time and coaching expertise needed to perfect a series or adjustment. As youth coaches
we understand you don’t have unlimited time, an unlimited playbook or unlimited
athleticism. Our goal is to have a system that nearly anyone can implement and have
success, that leads us to the optimal mix we are at now.
Don’t Fret
Don’t be overwhelmed with information overload while reading this book. You do not
have to know or perfect everything in these pages. This is not like the Sainted Six plus
one, where you need to run all of the plays in the series in order to have success. This is
meant to be ala carte. Choose to add in the plays or adjustments that address the needs of
your team or the problems you have been struggling with. You do not need everything in
this addendum because you are not going to face every problem outlined or have the
talent to take advantage of some of the opportunities we suggest to get some of your

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better players in space. So calm down, relax, read and think about how what you are
reading applies specifically to your situation.
Who Single Wing 303 is NOT For

Single Wing 303 is not for teams new to the Single Wing or struggling teams. If your
teams are not consistently moving the chains, not averaging at least 4 first downs per
possession and aren’t scoring touchdowns on at least 70% of your possessions by your
first team offense, Single Wing 303 probably isn’t for you either. If you aren’t there yet,
you need to go back to the basics and absolutely perfect your base fundamentals, things
like: offensive lines first 2 steps, proper pad level, proper head placement, wedge fits,
double teams, crab blocks, open field blocking, fakes, play execution, meshes, ball
handling, proper angles etc
Quite frankly you are going to get so much more for your time investment if you perfect
your base fundamentals and base plays than you will ever get out of investing your time
on perfecting the finer points. Like anything in youth football, the successful coach is
always pretty darn good at setting the proper priorities. As time goes on I’m more and
more convinced that the most important skill the best youth coaches have is being good
decision makers in setting proper priorities. If you are coaching age 6-8, you probably
don’t need Single Wing 303. If you are coaching in a league where coaches don’t film or
scout you well, Single Wing 303 probably isn’t for you. If you are coaching your very
first season with this offense, Single Wing 303 is overkill, you don’t need it. You will
hurt your team and drive your coaching staff nuts if you try to implement it.
Who Single Wing 303 is For

Single Wing 303 is for the experienced and successful youth coach. If your teams are
winning championships but your winning margins are tightening, Single Wing 303 is for
you. If you are winning most of your games but it seems like one team simply has your
“number” Single Wing 303 is for you. If you are having a real tough time scoring against
that one “bully” team, Single Wing 303 is for you. If you have been coaching age 11-12
kids and doing well and you are moving up to a select league for age 13-14, Single Wing
303 is for you. If you coach in a league where everyone scouts and films and people have
your playbook, Single Wing 303 makes a lot of sense for you.
Some of the information in Single Wing 303 is in the later versions of my original book,
this addendum is meant to catch everyone up that bought older copies of our book or did
not buy the 2007 and 2008 addendums. It also contains new and more detailed
information that was not a part of either addendum and are not in the most current book.
If you have later versions of the book you may find some of what you have duplicated in
some of this material.

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To the Doubters
No matter where you coach, there are going to be doubters. These are parents, coaches,
community members, competitors and bystanders that feel for some odd reason they
know more than you do. It doesn’t matter what offensive system you run or how you run
it, there are going to be those that are going to think you don’t know what in the heck you
are doing. Never mind the fact you’ve spent $280 on books and DVDs, attended 22 hours
of coaching clinic and spent 181 hours studying the materials and while your critics only
football experience consists of them watching the NFL on television or playing the
Madden video game. As a youth football coach, understand that this is normal, it is par
for the course, it is expected, count on it happening.
Somehow in todays world every yahoo thinks they can both coach youth football better
than every head coach out there, they know they can drive better than you too. This
phenomenon is not just reserved for rookie coaches or even first year Single Wing
coaches. I know one youth football coach who took over a team that had NOT won a
game in two years, in fact, this team had scored just 7 touchdowns total in those seasons.
There were games where that team didn’t record even a single first down. Coach took this
very same team and went undefeated in his first year of running my system. In year two
his kids made it all the way to the championship game under his leadership but lost in
overtime. Logic would say, that parents would be patting him on the back, having a
parade for him or maybe even erecting a statue of him in the town square.
Well in the bizarro world of youth football, believe it or not our hero got a couple of
nasty e-mails from disgruntled dad parents who thought this team should have won the
big game. Never mind that just a few short years before this team was celebrating getting
first downs and were delirious with joy when they won their very first game. While many
if not most youth football parents “get it” and will leave you alone, know that there are
whackerdoodle nut jobs in every crowd, no matter how many games you win or what
offense you are running. You just have to know it comes with the territory, ignore it, or
better yet, see it for what it is ignorance and laugh it off.
Reality be Prepared
Now with the Single Wing, you may even be further out on that ledge a bit. This is an
offense that was what everyone ran in the 20’s-50’s but these people don’t see a lot of
exactly what we run on television on Saturdays and Sundays. While we see more and
more Single Wing in the College and NFL every season, it still isn’t prevalent, more on
that later.
The first thing is why do you even bother telling people the type of offense that you run?
Most of them haven’t got a clue, they couldn’t tell a Split Back Veer offense from a Pro
Set or a Flexbone from a Double Wing. Since most of you reading this are coaching a
more advanced team, you aren’t going to stay in the base set for the entire game, you are
going to be in multiple sets including the Spread Single Wing. Why box yourself in by
saying you are a Single Wing team? Heck most people seeing a Double Tight “I”

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Formation team with a Wingback, think what is the big deal, so there is a single
Wingback, what is the big deal?
What Do You Tell Them?
For those of you that feel compelled to discuss what type of offense you are going to run,
why not just call it a multiple short shotgun offense? If they ask for more detail, tell them
it looks somewhat like what Urban Meyer liked to run at Florida with Tim Tebow. In
Meyer’s book “Urban’s Way” he says his offense is the Single Wing. Coach Meyer
seems to have done quite well with this archaic offense, if you think National
Championships are worth anything.
If they press further tell them it is very similar to Rick Darlington’s Apopka Florida High
School offense. Rick’s teams compete in Florida’s largest class, 6A and have gone to the
State Playoffs every year since Rick moved to the Single Wing. He even won a state
championship with it, beating a Miami Northwestern team that had 9 kids on it who were
awarded football scholarships to DI schools that year. There were 23 kids on that Miami
team that ended up playing DI football. Rick had just a single DI player on his team that
year. If the peanut gallery presses further, say you run something like what Stone Bridge
Virginia High School runs, they are a perennial USA Today Top 20 team that have won
countless Division and State Championships. If you’re in the Midwest maybe refer to
Menominee, Michigan High School, which has won 3 State Titles in the last 10 years
running this offense. Just because the local High School isn’t running this offense or they
don’t see every other team on TV running it, doesn’t mean it isn’t the right fit for your
youth football team.
At The Higher Levels
So for those that want to criticize the Single Wing

because it won’t work at the “older” age levels simply
don’t know much about the game. In 2008 there were
26 DI College teams that ran a Single Wing series of
plays. In 2009 my beloved Cornhuskers finally broke
out the Single Wing in their Holiday Bowl 33-0 win
over Arizona. The Nebraska offense was inept in 2009
with significant injuries to both top Quarterbacks and a
shortage of consistent skill position receivers. This situation forced the Huskers to move
Freshman backup “I” Back Rex Burkhead to the Quarterback spot in the Single Wing.
The result was Burkhead led the Husker offense in rushing, scored a touchdown and set
up several others in the only game the Huskers moved the ball well on the ground all
year.
In the NFL over half the teams have adopted a direct snap Single Wing series since
Miami made it popular in 2008. In 2007 the Dolphins were 1-15 and near the bottom of
the league in offensive production. Their starting Quarterback Chad Pennington was
often times injured and when he wasn’t injured he was throwing a lot of interceptions and

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incomplete passes. In 2008 little known running back Ronnie Brown was moved to the
Quarterback position in the “Wildcat” set, which looks very much like the Spread Single
Wing that most of us Single Wingers use. In just a two game span he had 228 yards
rushing and 6 touchdowns out of the Single Wing. Using just a handful of tried and true
Single Wing plays like 16 Power, 18 Sweep and some of our Jet Series plays like Rocket
28, Rocket 16 Power, Rocket 43 Reverse and even Rocket 16 Pass, the Dolphins
improved to 11-5 in 2008. This was the biggest turnaround in NFL League history. With
the NFL being a copycat league, in 2008 and 2009 we’ve been treated to a plethora of
Single Wing “Wildcat” football by nearly half of the NFL teams out there. None of them
utilize it as their base offense or run it as much as the Dolphins did in 2008, but it has
proven to be an effective weapon in the NFL. What “higher” level of competition do you
need as a proving ground?
Flaw in Logic
There is a major flaw in even trying to argue this point. Let’s take a step back and look at
what our mission is in youth football. Is it to see how close we can look like the
Indianapolis Colts? Is it to provide a couple of highlight plays to some obsessed
helicopter parents DVD collection? Our goal as youth football coaches should be to help
develop a love and appreciation of the game in our players so they continue to play the
game. The youth game is in many ways much different than the High School, College
and NFL game. Most of the kids playing High School, College and NFL football have
already decided football is for them, at the youth level the kids are still deciding.
Nowadays kids have choices, there is fall baseball, lacrosse, year round basketball, BMX,
skateboarding, soccer, the internet, video games or doing nothing.
The Differences in the Game
The High School, College and NFL game is also a different in how it is played compared
to youth football. In youth football most coaches are going to get all of the kids into every
game for a few plays no matter the circumstances. Most leagues even have minimum
play rules, where if you don’t play a player X number of plays, you forfeit the game. The
last time I looked the NFL or Ohio State or even the local High School had no such rule.
Jim Tressel isn’t playing all 110 kids he suited up when they play Michigan.
In youth football, over 95% of the teams do not cut players or have “JV” teams they can
send players down to. The average youth team fields a squad with 24 players, some more,
some less. The average High School team where I live suit up right at 100 players for
Varsity games. They also have full JV, Reserve and Freshman teams as well. If a player
isn’t good enough to play Varsity, he sits on the bench or they get sent down to the JV,
Reserve or Freshman teams. In youth football we can’t cut players or send them down,
they are on the team and you’re going to have to play them. There are no minimum play
requirements in High School football around here. So if a High School player doesn’t fit
the needs of the position or team, he isn’t going to hurt the competitiveness of the team or
himself, he won’t ever see the field. This isn’t the same equation as what us youth
football coaches are faced with. In fact most of the weaker athletes won’t even bother

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attempt to play at the High School level. A Michigan State study found that 70% of the
kids playing youth football, never go on to play football in High School. The very
weakest kids, the High School coach won’t ever see, they are long gone by the time High
School football time comes, for the youth coach, we see them, they are on our teams and
we are required in most cases to play them.
The Youth Football Equation

What this all means is that youth football teams have a team dynamic that bears little
resemblance to what most High Schools, College or NFL teams have. Even small college
teams, that kid playing second team running back, was the stud player, probably the best
player from his High School team. Most college teams are chocked full of the very best
players from the respective High Schools those players came from. In the NFL, the same
is true, most of these teams are chocked full of players that were the very best single
player on their youth, High School and College teams. At the youth level we have lots of
first year rookie players. The last time I looked, Alabama did not have a single player on
their roster that had not played football before. I also take it on good authority, that
Alabama practices a bit more than most youth football teams. Many youth football teams
practice less than 6 hours a week and don’t start practice until August 1st. Most College
teams and even High School teams practice nearly year round and are practicing 2-3
times as many hours during the week than our youth teams. If you add in weights, film
study and chalk talks, my guess is most of the College guys are “practicing” 4-5 times as
much as most youth teams.
I’m not sure all arm chair Quarterbacks realize that there are also slight differences in the
body and mind development of 10 year olds with no hair on their legs and 22 year old
men. While most able bodied College Quarterbacks can throw the ball 50-65 yards, the
BEST 9 year old in the history of Punt Pass and Kick, threw the ball 33 yards. That is
from a cast of millions of players, in 2008 it was estimated that 1,200,000 kids
participated in punt pass and kick competitions across the United States. So if the best of
the best of the best over the last 40 years threw the ball 33 yards, how well is your
average Joe kid going to do?
National Tournament Data
In 2009 and 2010 I attended both the Pop Warner and AYF National Championships in
Florida. These were the best of the best of the best youth football teams from around the
country. Most of the teams I watched from age 7-14 were 16-0 coming into the
tournament and had won regional competitions against other undefeated teams. It is
estimated that AYF and Pop Warner combined have over 1,100,000 kids playing on
about 45,000 teams. Of those 45,000 teams there were about 165 playing in both
tournaments combined. One would think if you funneled the very best of 45,000 teams to
165, those teams would be very skilled. I watched about 30 teams play in the tournament
and saw the aggregate combined pass completion percentage to be 28%. Interesting that
the average College completion percentage in DI football that same season was right at
twice that number. Now think about it, if the best of the best of the best averages 28%

13
completion rate, how are your average Joe kids going to do? YET Mr Armchair
Quarterback feels that maybe you should run what they see on TV on Saturdays and
Sundays?
Run the High School System
Then there are those that argue that youth teams should be running what the local High
School is running. On the surface, this kind of sounds like a logical choice. Prepare the
kids for the “next level” so they are ready to go once they get to High School football.
The problem with this premise is that maybe the High School offense doesn’t help the
youth team fulfill its mission of helping develop a love and appreciation of the game in
the kids so they continue to play.
If the High School runs a Tony Franklin Air-Raid system that requires a couple of great
Quarterbacks some consistent receivers and a whole lot of practice time, it may not be a
great fit for a 24 player youth team full of rookies and practicing 4-6 hours a week AND
that has a 16 play minimum play requirement for each player. The Veer is one of my all-
time favorite offenses, but I’m not sure I can pull off inside veer and outside veer with
non select kids and 6 hours of practice a week, not to mention adding in other plays,
defense and special teams. In youth ball you aren’t platooning, your best players are
going to play both ways, that cuts down what you can do even further. Most High School
offenses just don’t fit the constraints posed by the youth football dynamic, to compare the
two would be like comparing apples to ham hocks.
The Real World
On a different plane, who is to say the existing High School system or even the coaching
staff is going to be around once your 8 year old player gets to High School? Very few
High School teams are still running the same offense 8 years in a row. One local High
School in my neck of the woods has had 4 different offenses in the last 7 years. Another
largest class High School in my state has had 4 different Head Coaches in the last 7 years.
There are no guarantees the same coaching staff or same system will be run X amount of
years into the future. Even if the same system is being run, is that offense youth friendly?
Can you effectively put it in consistency with limited practice time and with limited
football skills, limited athleticism, low numbers and where even the worst player on the
team can play in it and add legitimate team value on every snap? Can you easily get the
ball to every player on the team with the offense? Can you score lots of points with it
even if you don’t have big or fast kids or kids who can play well in space?
What the Top High School Coaches Said
In 2009 I was very interested to hear what the top High School coaches in the country
said about running the High School system at the youth level. I just took the final USA
Today Top 20 List and called those coaches on the phone to ask them what they thought.
I was able to reach a number of them via phone and then added a couple of legendary
guys like Concord De La Salle’s Bob Ladouceur, San Antonio Judson’s Jim Rackley and

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Rick Darlington from Apopka High School in Florida. Of the twelve coaches I
interviewed not a single one of them required their youth feeder programs to run the High
School offense. When I asked Texas coaching legend Jim Rackley about what his youth
programs ran, he replied, “I don’t give a rats ass what offense they run as long as those
kids are getting to play and are being taught how to block and tackle properly. I’m a good
enough coach to teach them my scheme once they get here.” It was interesting to hear
each of these twelve very successful coaches say the same thing almost verbatim. To a
man, all they cared about was that the kids were having fun, learning how to block and
tackle, getting playing time and developing a love for the game so they would actually
make it to these coaches front door and continue playing. Another thing a few of these
coaching legends mentioned was being coachable, making sure the kids had some
humility and were able to accept coaching.
The Youth World We Live In
Remember that youth football players now have more options today than ever before.
They also have the option of doing nothing, something you see more of today than in
years past. For many kids today, they live their lives via the video game reset button, if
they don’t like how something is going, they just stop the game and reset it. If they don’t
like the game they are playing, they push reset or quickly move onto a different game. If
they consistently lose at a game, they move onto another they can compete on. When you
apply this paradigm to youth football, if the player is not having some bit of personal
success or his team is getting their brains beat out every weekend, in many cases the
player doesn’t come back the next year. He thinks this is a game he isn’t very good at and
moves onto something else he may be better at. I’m not talking about not scoring all the
touchdowns on game day, I’m talking about adding team value on every snap.
In youth football a youth friendly system should have a few positions where the
requirements are not insurmountable and require little in the way of great strength or
athleticism. We aren’t talking about splitting a player out 20 yards and him being a
meaningless decoy. A youth friendly offense should also offer the ability to easily get the
ball to anyone. In the last 3 years every single one of my players has carried the football
and 32 of different players have scored touchdowns. We play in a very competitive
league with about 100 teams, so all of those scores by the non-running backs came when
we were up by three touchdowns or more, but the net is the same, with the Single Wing,
it is SIMPLE to get anyone the football with little to no investment in practice time. The
linemen learn just one play, that’s it, we put them in at Quarterback, the Fullback calls
the cadence and they run to the 6 hole. Who cares if they get tackled, they only come in
to carry the ball if we are up by 3 or more touchdowns. In many cases we don’t waste a
single second of practice time, we practice it during halftime of games we are up by 4
touchdowns or more at halftime.
Messing It Up
It’s so disappointing to see so many youth teams going entire seasons where just 1 or 2
players score touchdowns because a team is trying to copy the High School offense that

15
makes little sense for the youth game. I hate seeing teams go winless for the season and
lose half their teams because they want to stay true to the High School level and “prepare
kids for the next level.” How do little kids prepare for the next level when they’ve quit
playing football? Now little guys can pull and trap and rule block, but most can’t do a
check down to a third receiver with 8 pass rushers in their face.
Youth players can throw nice play action passes, but they can’t run the run and shoot and
do effective multiple route changes based on defensive alignments and coverages. Some
youth football kids can even run effective double options, but the true triple option? Read
Tom Osborne’s book, in it he stated that Nebraska NEVER ran true triple option, he
didn’t think they had the practice time for it. I’m not sure how a youth football coach
thinks that he is somehow a better coach than Tom Osborne at teaching option football or
that he has more practice time than the platooning Nebraska football juggernauts of the
80s and 90s.
Differences in Maturity
Youth football players bodies change. Some kids once they hit puberty, they hit a huge
growth spurt. Others don’t grow at all, or maybe their bodies change shape some. It’s
amazing how God transforms some of these young kids, one player comes to mind,
Ronnie Coleman. Ronnie was a big kid, at age 12 he was about 5’10” and 220 lbs. He
was fairly quick and athletic and quite the wrestler. However he was still carrying around
quite a bit of baby fat and was in the 60th percentile for speed at age 12. Ronnie was a
very coachable kid and was a two way starter for us, played pulling Guard and Defensive
Tackle. After he hit puberty, he stopped growing and started thinning out a bit. He ended
up playing Middle Guard and a little Fullback his freshman year of High School. He
earned first team all-state honors his senior year and ended up earning a full scholarship
to play Linebacker at Southeast Missouri State University.
On the other hand we have had average players who shot up, added weight and ended up
moving from playing in the backfield to playing on the line. The net is, in youth football
you never know for sure what position a kid is going to play once he hits puberty. You
never know for sure what offense or coaching staff are going to be in place once your
kids get to High School. If the kids playing for you don’t have a good and reasonably
successful youth football experience the facts say they won’t even be playing High
School football. What good High School coaches want are kids that have a passion for
the game and can block and tackle well, they will teach them the rest based on how that
player fits into their scheme.
Why the Single Wing?

If you remember reading the reasons why we decided on the Single Wing Offense 15
seasons ago, they pretty much all point to that mission of helping develop a love and
appreciation of the game in our players, while helping them develop some base
fundamental skills as well as have some individual and team success. A reminder of why
we run this offense: allows us to play 11 on 11 football instead of 10 on 11- no handoff

16
machines, fewer Quarterback-Center

exchange problems, allows you to easily get
anyone the football without a big investment
in practice time, series based you have an
answer for everything the defense does, not
dependent on one or two key players, no large
linemen required- uses angles-numbers and
double teams, is minimum player friendly,
modular- allows for easy installation and
adding different backfield and formations,
unmatched power at the point of attack, unmatched deception, great passing set, flexible-
allows you to get athletic players into space with jet and spread Single Wing series, only
one pulling linemen needed, less coach intensive than many offenses, different- only 3%
of youth football teams are Single Wing teams making it harder to prepare for, great
support system, gives your team a unique identity and we win. My personal teams have
gone 132-18 with it over the last 15 seasons in 4 different leagues, travel tournaments etc
Age Group Skeptics
Some of the skeptics say it only works with younger kids in certain leagues or with
stacked teams. Interestingly enough my teams have had as much success with it at age 7
as we have with our 7-8th grade teams. Now we still run the Sainted Six plus One with the
7-8th graders, but the older kids can do more, so we let them. This is all detailed below on
which age groups typically utilize which play series. My personal teams have been some
of the very smallest in our league of about 100 teams. In the 7-8th grade division in 2009,
we had just one “striped” player of over 160 lbs. Our offensive line was smaller than our
5-6th grade team, we were from tight end to tight end 113, 115, 120, 140, 212, 120, 115.
Our starting offensive backs were 105, 155, 121 and 108.
We were tiny compared to our competitors, many of which had 2-4 players over 200 lbs.
We went 9-1 and ended up beating a very good Select Double Wing team from Omaha
and another league by mercy rule in an extra game. We have never cut a player from my
teams or selectively recruited anyone. We just put a flyer out at the local school and take
the first 25 kids who sign up. Some years we have had over 25 kids sign up, but we are
always first come first served to a fault. Back in 2006 I remember we got the check of our
25th player at 3-4th grade, he was a 61 lb player. The very next day I received the sign up
form for a 140 lb player, he was the 26th kid, so he sat out. We go out of our way to let
everyone know my program in Nebraska is for everyone, not just athletes. Our most loyal
and vocal parents seem to be parents of minimum play players. They are very supportive
and vocal about our program, which seems to draw even more of those type of players,
which I am fine with. Those kids seem to get more out of their youth football experience
than anyone. For anyone to suggest I coach a select team would be ludicrous, it is illegal
to do so in our league and I’m new to the area, we didn’t know a single person when we
moved here.

17
The “Talent Argument
We moved from the Omaha area in 2004 to where we are now, about 90 miles away. In
Omaha we were extremely successful, winning multiple championships and dominating
the biggest and most competitive league there. When we moved to where we are now, we
started from scratch. The local High School had just one winning season in 10 years. The
local youth program had never won a league title and had an atrocious record even
though they sometimes carried 50-60 kids on one team. In one stretch they lost 10 games
in a row and scored just a single touchdown. Their record has not changed a bit since we
arrived, so much for being in a “talent rich” area.
In my first year here we went 11-0 and won a league title. No one knew us and just
skeptical 16 kids signed up through the local elementary school. We prefer to field teams
of about 23-24, so we also had to hand out flyers at church during a Wednesday evening
Awana class. In the end we got 23 kids to sign up including 3 kids that had warmed the
bench in the other program. In year two we went 12-0, won a league title and also beat by
mercy rule the two best select teams in the state from two different leagues. One of those
teams chose from over 120 kids to put their squad together. We did it with a pretty
average group of pretty smart kids that were sold out in what we were doing. We went 32
games before we lost our first game. You can see all of that in our 2004, 2005 and 2006
Games DVD. Mind you, I’m not letting you know about all of these experiences to brag,
it is empirical data that helps you support your case of moving to this offense. So many
youth coaches go off cliffs using systems that were never proven at the youth level and
fail miserably. Go onto my web site and review the scores from the last 15 seasons. Go
back into the blog and review the seasons weekly entries and game reviews, those are all
verifiable scores that my critics would crucify me for if they were inaccurate.
Worst to First
My version of this offense has worked extremely

well from coast to coast, not just in my league. In
2008 and 2009 we offered a Worst to First
National Coaching Award to coaches using my
system who had turned teams around, we had
nearly 300 entries from 38 different states and
Canada. Coaches that had taken last place teams
and taken them to championships were asked to
enter, we posted all of their stories on the testimonials page. There were hundreds of
other coaches that did the same but either didn’t apply or asked me not to post their
information. We know this because of the e-mails over the course of the season or
coaches we met at clinics who when asked why they didn’t share their stories and apply
so.

18
National Championships
There have been countless Winning Youth Football

disciples that have gone on to win National
Championships in Unlimited, Pop Warner and AYF.
In 2009 alone the Glenco Trevians from Chicago
won a NYFC Unlimted National Title in Las
Vegas. Former Chicago and Baylor great Fred
Taylor was the head coach of that team pictured in
white here. In 2010 the Topeka Wolverines did the
same in the 6th grade division. They are pictured
above with the Michigan style helmets.
In 2009 Pt St Lucie who runs a multiple offense

with a lot of Single Wing from my books and DVDs
won the Junior Midget DII Pop Warner National
Championship. That same year
4 different teams in AYF were in their National
Title Tournament running my system, the Spirit of
Faith Warriors Cadet team from Temple Hills
Maryland finished second using our system. In 2010
we saw Pt St Lucie finish second in the Midget
division of Pop Warner, they are pictured below in
the yellow and blue. In Pop Warner in 2010
Michigan City won the Junior Pee Wee title with our
offense pictured here in white on field 17, the TV
field at Disney.

19
While in AYF in 2010 the Santa Monica California Vikings won it all winning the finals
ironically over another team running my system from Oakland. There were 6 teams in the
AYF National Championships running my system including the Glenco Trevians from
Chicago and the Spirit of Faith Warriors to name just a few.
So the net is, forget about what people say,

most of them don’t know diddly about the
game. If you want to try and convince them, I
gave you plenty of ammunition. If you want to
save yourself some grief, call your One Back
your Quarterback. Who cares what the old
Single Wingers want you to call him, do
what’s going to cause you the fewest
headaches. I think the guys that run Single
Wing and brag that they don’t have a
Quarterback are unnecessarily shooting
themselves in the foot. You do have a
Quarterback, your One Back gets the snap
about 70% of the time and he throws the football. Also don’t get into the trap of never
throwing the football. So many youth coaches that run this offense don’t have to throw
the ball, they score a lot of points without ever putting the ball in the air, I’m talking not a
single pass.
Throwing the Football
However if you want to win league titles in tough leagues or you want to win big
tournament or National Championships, you need to be able to have a legitimate threat to
throw the football. This version of the Single Wing offers you that option. In 2007 my
age 7-9 team threw for 11 touchdowns, went 9-1 and had just a single interception. In
2010 my 5-6th grade team threw for 18 touchdowns while going 11-1 in 12 games. While
those aren’t Air Raid numbers, often times we lead our league in touchdown passes and
we will stack our efficient passing attack against the best teams in the nation. Other teams
running this offense have had similar results. Throwing the ball is NOT a four letter word
and is something you use to stress the defense, create conflict, create mismatches, get
players into space, score touchdowns and open up the running game.
Throwing the ball is not a sign of weakness. The problem with some teams running this
offense is they have such great success running the ball and scoring on such a high
number of possessions, they get lulled into thinking that they never have to pass. While
that may be the case against the weaker or even average teams in your league, when you
play teams that are at the top or have significantly more athleticism than your team, you
are going to need the legitimate threat of the pass. You don’t even have to be great at
passing, you just need to have the ability to reasonably threaten to score with the pass in
order to keep defenses honest. Of course once those defenses choose to not to honor your
passing threat, you need to be able to make them pay for it with age appropriate, easy to

20
execute safe passes that have a high probability of completion and a low probability of
interception.
Critics
You also need to understand that some of your biggest critics are going to be opposing
coaches. When you beat an obviously superior team it is embarrassing to the coaching
staff of those teams, they will not want to admit they were out coached or ill prepared.
We have beaten teams that had 9 “Striped” players to our one and chose their teams from
over 120 kids compared to us taking all 23 that signed up. Those teams are usually
coached by guys who think that talent wins games and when they amass loads of talent
and still lose, they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. Will they give you credit for
coaching well or having a good scheme or great execution? Often times not, instead they
will claim you aren’t playing “real football” and hide their embarrassment by criticizing
you. The best coaches in your league, the football purists will be the ones giving you your
due. It’s amazing how that dynamic is almost universal in all the leagues I’ve coached in
and hearing the same thing from hundreds of youth coaches nationally. Be prepared
though, those hurt feeling are going to manifest themselves in some fairly biting and
unfair remarks.
Scheduling Problems
Don’t be surprised if you have a hard time getting teams to scrimmage you once you have
proven your mettle with this offense. We literally have to beg teams to scrimmage and
have yet to get a scrimmage on our home field in over 7 years. One huge inner-city select
program in Lincoln got so tired of us beating them so soundly with obviously inferior
teams, that they even quit responding to voice mails or countless e-mail requests. In 2009
I sent out over 180 e-mails requests for extra scrimmages and games with not a single
taker. That is one of the reasons I set up an International Pre-Season tournament in 2010,
so we would have some live experience before our first league contest. People are strange
and coaches don’t like to lose to obviously inferior teams, so once you get on a roll, don’t
let the rock throwing surprise you. You are in for a long wait if you think most of your
competition is going to stand up and applaud your new found success.

21
Age and Experience Groupings

For Play Selection
This is my current recommended playbook for various teams based on age and
experience levels:
Age 6-8 Rookies

16 Power, 22 Wedge, 18 Sweep, 32 Wedge, 43 Reverse, 18 Sweep Pass,
16 Wedge, 16 Pass, 38 Buck Wedge
Age 6-8 Mix Rookies and Veterans

16 Wedge, 16 Pass, 38 Buck Wedge, Mouse 16 Power, Mouse 32 Wedge,
Double Mouse 47, Double Mouse 22 Wedge, No Call
Age 9-10 Rookies

16 Wedge, 16 Pass, 31 Trap, Burst 32 Wedge, Burst 26 G, Burst 18 Sweep,
Burst 43 G, Mouse 16 Power, Mouse 32 Wedge, Double Mouse 22 Wedge, Double
Mouse 47, Nasty Split, Tunnel Call, Omaha, No Call
Age 9-10 Rookies and Vets 50/50 Mix or Better

16 Power, 22 Wedge, 18 Sweep, 31 Trap, 43 Reverse, 18 Sweep Pass, 16 Wedge, 16
Pass, 32 Wedge, Burst 32 Wedge, Burst 26 G, Burst 18 Sweep, Burst 33, Burst 43 G,
Mouse 16 Power, Mouse 32 wedge, Double Mouse 22 Wedge, Double Mouse 47, or
Instead of Mouse Series (Spinner 32 Wedge, Spinner 26 Power, Double Spinner 47,
Nasty Split, Double, War, Omaha, Tunnel Call, No Call, Cross Call, Wrong/G Call
Age 11-12 Rookies

Pass, 32 Wedge, Burst 32 Wedge, Burst 26 G, Burst 18 Sweep, Burst 43 G, Mouse 16
Power, Mouse 32 wedge, Mouse 22 Wedge, Double Mouse 47, or Instead of Mouse
Series (Spinner 32 Wedge, Spinner 26 Power, Double Spinner 47) Nasty Split,
Double, War, Tunnel Call, No Call, Cross Call, Wrong Call, Omaha
If you have a good passer you can also try Mouse 16 pass or Spinner 26 pass.
Age 11-12 Rookies and Veterans 50/50 Mix or Better

Pass, 32 Wedge, Burst 32 Wedge, Burst 26 G, Burst 18 Sweep, Burst 43 Reverse,
Mouse 16 Power, Mouse 32 wedge, Mouse 22 Wedge, Double Mouse 47, or Instead
of Mouse Series (Spinner 32 Wedge, Spinner 26 Power, Double Spinner 47),
14 Power Nasty Split, Double, War, Tunnel Call, No Call, Cross Call, Wrong Call,
Split, Omaha, Special, Super

22
If you have speed and excellent execution: Rocket 28 Sweep, Rocket 43 Reverse,
Rocket/Lazer 32 Wedge, Laser 47 Sweep, Rocket 16 Power
If you have a good passer you can also try Mouse 16 pass, Rocket 16 Pass, Spinner
26 or Spinner 16 pass.
Optional Plays include Smoke Pass, Smoke and Go, Up Pass, 43 Reverse Pass, Flash
32, Flash 18, Flash 26, Flash Pass, Buck 27, Buck 23, Buck 14 Trap, Buck Pass, Buck
18 Sweep, 24 Iso
Age 13-14
All the above plus:
Burst Pass, Rocket 16 Pass, Rocket 12 Trap, Rocket Flat Pass, Rocket Cross Pass.
Rocket 18 Sweep, Rocket 17 Sweep.
Optional Plays include Smoke Pass, Smoke and Go, Up Pass, Shallow Pass,
43 Reverse Pass, Flash 32, Flash 18, Flash 26, Flash Pass, Buck 27, Buck 23, Buck
14, Buck Pass, 24 Iso, Shallow Pass
Perfection is the Key
Remember it isn’t the number of plays you have in that is going to lead to your teams
success, it is the number of plays you have installed that are installed perfectly. I get
so many phone calls from struggling coaches early every season. The call usually
goes something like this “Coach, I’m not running your system, our offense stinks, we
lost our first 2 games 36-0 and 22-0” my first question is, “How many plays are in
your playbook”, the usually response is. “50-60, I’m not sure. Most of these guys call
because they are looking for more “plays”, plays that will work. My response is
always, “You need fewer plays, not more”. Don’t get caught up in the number of
plays you have in, perfect 9,12,15,18 plays and a few adjustments and score in
bunches. Add plays and adjustments in direct proportion to the number of plays you
have perfected.
What Perfection Means
Perfection means on air are your kids perfect with their execution in 19 of 20 reps?
Are your backs hitting at the correct angle and point?
Are your backs fitting on the right defender with head on correct side and correct pad
level?
Are your linemen stepping with the correct lead foot?
Are your linemen fitting on the correct defender with head on the correct side and
correct pad level?
Are the fakes carried out aggressively and are they believable?
Is the ball handing crisp?
Are your backs hitting their backfield action at full speed?

23
Each play is built on top of the foundation of previous plays learned. The following is the
play teaching sequence that we recommend today
Play Teaching Order

No Play
16 Power
18 Sweep
43 Reverse
22 Wedge
Nasty
Tunnel
31 Trap/32 Wedge
18 Sweep pass
Under
Omaha
16 Pass
16 Wedge
War
No
G
Split
Mouse 16 Power
Double Mouse 22 Wedge
Mouse 32 Wedge
Double Mouse 47 Sweep
Mouse 16 Pass
Wrong
43 Reverse Pass
Burst 32 Wedge
Burst 26 G
Burst 18 Sweep
Burst 43 G
Burst Pass
Spinner 26 Power
Spinner 32 Wedge
Spinner 26 Pass
Double Spinner 47 Sweep
GODoubleteam
14 Power
Jet Series plays: Rocket 28, Lazer 47, Lazer 12 Trap, Rocket 16 Power, Rocket 32
Wedge, Rocket 43 Reverse. Rocket 32 Wedge, Rocket 18 Sweep, Rocket 17
Flip 15

24
Flip 17
Jet Series Pass Plays: Flat Pass, Cross Pass, Smoke Pass, Go Pass, Smoke and Go
Pass, Cross and Up Pass
16 Pass, Fred
14 Trap
24 Trap
Special
Super
Buck Series: Buck 23 Power, Buck 27 Sweep, Buck 14 Trap, Buck 23 Pass
Flash Series: Flash 32 Wedge, Flash 26 Power, Flash 43 Reverse, Flash 16 Pass
Shallow Pass

25
Chapter 2
The Plays
There are a handful of plays that we have added over the

years as well as a handful we have taken out of the
playbook. Some plays have been modified slightly and
some plays just have an additional tag or two added to the
end to give you more options to take advantage of what the
defense is giving you.
16 Pass
The 16 pass is a play we didn’t add into the playbook until 2007. Since then it has
become one of our favorite plays and one we have modified a bit over time. One of the
first plays we try to establish early is the 16 Power. This play sets up other plays in the
series like the 18 Sweep, 43 Reverse, 31 Trap and 32 Wedge. But we have found the
biggest complementary play off of the 16 Power is the 16 Pass. This is a very simple play
action pass that we started using in 2008. In the first season even our little kids the 7-9
year olds threw for 11 touchdowns with it and only threw 1 interception. In 2010 our age
10-11 team threw 18 touchdown passes, 8 of them were 16 Pass plays and just 1 of those
were intercepted. It is a very safe and easy to execute play that takes very little pure
passing ability.
We throw it 3 different ways, which we call blue which is to the Left End, red which is to
the Right End or white which is to the Wingback. This play doesn’t require a great
passer, in fact the play can look more like a jump basketball toss if your thrower isn’t
strong. As you can see in the video it is very important to first make this play look like a
run. The quarterback must be running downhill at the 6 hole and looking at the 6, not his
target to start off. Your Quarterback must take the ball to his chest at the snap and lead
with his non dominant foot. If he is a right handed, he leads with his left, steps with his
right, then left again. On the third step he hops up on that non dominant foot and throws
the ball to his target. He starts to acquire his target just after his second step as he brings
the ball over his shoulder. Often times he won’t be able to acquire the target until he
hops, which is fine.
This is not a drop back pass, your Quarterback has to legitimately attack the 6 hole in
order for the play to work. He has to force that backside linebacker towards the off-tackle
hole and either freeze the safety or even get him to attack a little downhill.

26
Don’t throw this pass until you have sufficiently

established the 16 Power. Once you are gashing the defense
with the 16 Power they will get aggravated and often times
start to overplay it. You’re your complimentary play coach
has a key sheet, on it his key for the 16 Power states
“Watch for weakside Outside Linebacker flow to the 6
hole. Remember the offensive coordinator is watching the
point of attack for his keys, he can’t see the whole field. If
flow is quick to 6 and the Cornerback is playing at least 2 yards wide of the Tight End,
throw 16 Pass Blue. If the Weakside Linebacker doesn’t flow hard or is lazy, you don’t
want to throw the 16 Pass Blue, look to the strongside. Now the complementary play
coach is looking for Strongside Linebacker flow hard, but now he is also looking to see
what the Strongside Corner and Safety are doing. If the Linebacker is flowing hard but
the Safety and Corner are standing pat, probably not the play you want to be running
unless your Quarterback has an accurate arm and is a great decision maker.
If the Strongside Corner is biting hard, run 16 Pass White, with your Wingback running
his base 18 Sweep Pass Pattern, but maybe just a tad more shallow do he can get to the
open grass quicker and away from the Safety. If you see Cover 2, run all three receivers
out and call for the ball to be thrown to the receiver you feel will be open or where you
have the best matchup. We call this 16 Pass “All” then we state who the ball is going to,
Blue, Red, White. You do NOT want your Quarterback making reads while in the air. If
you see Cover 1 or if you just have a lazy Safety that likes to just sit back and play center
field, call 16 Pass “Both” which tells just your Right End and Left End to go out, the
Safety can’t cover both players.
Route Adjusting
When you are throwing 16 Pass Blue, your Left End may have to adjust his route a little.
If the Safety is leaning to the strongside or maybe playing shallow and the Corner is
wide, the pattern can go straight down the field or maybe just a bit tighter inside. If the
Safety is playing the middle of the field and has range and the Corner is still outside the
pattern will angle a bit towards the sidelines and look more like a fade. The natural
tendency is for the Left End to bend the pattern to the middle of the field. If you do that
and a deep Safety is playing center field, you will experience lots of interceptions. You
have to hold the Left End accountable to staying away from that Safety while staying
inside the Corner.
Since the Quarterback doesn’t acquire his target until very late you must do some
“covered-uncovered” drills. When you are doing rapid reps on air, put a Linebacker,
Corner and Safety out in coverage. Before the play let the defenders know what they are
doing on the play, covering, coming hard on run etc. Get your Quarterback used to
making the read, if the receiver is covered, the Quarterback just comes down from the
hop and gets what he can in the 6 hole.

27
We like to rotate a new player in at Left End pretty much every play. The defense gets
used to seeing a merry-go-round of players coming in at that position. It is VERY easy to
slip one of your better players in at Left End if you think 16 Pass Blue is there. While the
defense is probably going to figure it out if you rarely sub in for your Left End, if you sub
like we do to make sure lots of minimum play kids get reps at Left End, you can pull this
off.
Rocket and Mouse

The 16 Pass is a simple low risk high reward play that
even the little guys can execute well. But don’t
discount the play for the older kids, Mouse 16 Pass
has been one of our biggest plays the last 2 seasons.
Adding Jet motion and running Rocket 16 Pass has
been a home run threat for us the last 3 seasons,
averaging over 22 yards per catch and 12
touchdowns. When you see the defense in man
coverage and someone following your 2 back in
motion across the formation, Rocket 16 Pass is
usually open. Make sure and run the Rocket

16 Power before you try the pass. Also make sure
that your mesh is tight with the motion back. If
you snap the ball too early and your Quarterback
has to wait for the motion back to clear before he
heads to the 6 hole, that makes it a pretty deep
ball to throw. Remember this is not a drop back
pass by any stretch even if you are using mouse or
rocket motion, the Quarterback has to take those
steps towards the line of scrimmage to bring the Linebackers and Safety to run support.
Down Adjustment
Once you are able to execute the 16 Pass well and you have established it as a play the
defense has to contend with, you may start to see some adjustments. Once you see the
Corner and Safety trying to jump the Tight End any time he breaks you first need to train
your Tight End on stepping down before his release. With most teams you can release the
Tight End straight into the pattern, against teams that are looking for the 16 Pass your
Tight End may need to step down hard to the inside like on his normal down block first

28
step, then release on the second step. This can also help your run game by putting those
Linebackers and Defensive Backs into conflict.
16 Wedge Pass
If your team has a dominant wedge play that your opponents are trying to take away, you
can always run the 16 Wedge Play as a 16 Pass. When some teams see your wedge start
to come together many teams will dive the wedge and send Linebackers and Defensive
Backs up to stop the play. A very simple way to get the defense to back off and even
make a big play off the tactic is to just run 16 Pass with wedge blocking and 16 Wedge
backfield action. Run your Fullback into the wedge with a fake at 2 (22 wedge fake) and
then have your Quarterback and 2 other backs continue with their usual 16 Pass/16
Wedge responsibilities. Just make sure the wedge fits, bit doesn’t go downfield. This is a
simple adjustment to put in. We just call 16 Pass, but add a verbal wedge tag to the play
call.
Fred
Once you have established the 16 Pass, you may start to see the Corners, Linebackers and
Safety start to jump your tight end every time he comes out on a pattern. Once you see
that, your 16 Power is going to be that more effective. If you have a Fullback that can
catch the ball you may even consider having him go out on a swing pass to the weakside
if your Tight End is clearing that area with the 16 Pass threat. We just call this 16 Pass
Fred, the Fullback takes a step forward then comes backside, as soon as he clears the end
he heads up-field, just beyond the Defensive End. In 2009 we had a pretty athletic player
at Fullback that could catch as well as a 16 Pass that we were executing quite well, the
Fred call worked very well. Make sure to coach the Fullback to take the ball outside after
the catch, as they seem to want to come back into all the traffic in the middle of the field.
The 16 Pass is definitely one of those plays you want to spend a lot of time perfecting. It
will not only get you some nice gains, but it will soften up the defense and help your run
game immensely.
Releasing
If teams try to jam your Tight End, your kids need to have strategies they can use to
create space and keep defenders hands off of them. The simplest way is to have the
receiver come over the top of the hands and arms with his forearms and “club” the
defenders arms and hands with a rapid and violent single motion. Another method is to
gain outside release with a simple swim move. The outside hand strikes the defenders
ribs, the inside hand comes over the top and pushes off the back of the defender. Both
Club and rip moves work well for inside releases. Like any good fundamental skill, these
need to be practiced and perfected during individual and group time.

29
16 Pass Blue (Far)
LE- He runs a fly, looking right away inside for the ball. He can not run to the
middle of the field and right into the Safety. If anything fake out about a yard or
two.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
WB- He seals the nearest Linebacker to the inside, with his head on the outside.
BB- He seals Defensive End to the outside with head on the inside. He stays as close
to the line of scrimmage as possible in order to get the best angle on the Defensive
End.
FB- He runs straight to the 6 hole, cleaning up and leakage and staying in the 6 hole
to insure no one tackles the passer.
QB- He runs straight at the 6 hole. Looks at the 6 and takes 2 steps before bringing
the ball to his ear and looking for the Left End. He throws the ball on his third
step, taking a hop in the air as he throws the ball to gain height over the
defensive linemen.
Note: This play is very effective once the defense starts coming hard on the 16
power. It can be thrown to either end but the quarterback must make it look like a
run first. You can make a near-far call. On “near”, the right end goes out for the
pass, on the “far” call, the left end goes out. If you call “white” it means the
Wingback gets the ball. If you see a Cover 2 Set send them all out.

30
16 Pass
Red White
Blue
LE- Steps inside for one count, then runs a fly, looking right away inside for the
ball. He can not run to the middle of the field and right into the Safety.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
WB- He aims to seal the nearest Linebacker to the inside, plants foot just before
impact and runs under the Right End to open area.
End.
the ball to his ear and looking for the Left End (blue), Right End (red) or
Wingback (white), whichever the receiver was called. He throws the ball on his
third step, taking a hop in the air as he throws the ball to gain height over the
defensive linemen.

31
16 Pass “Both”
Red
Blue
LE- He runs a fly, looking right away inside for the ball. He can not run to the
middle of the field and right into the Safety.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- He runs a fly, looking right away inside for the ball. He can not run to the
middle of the field and right into the Safety.
WB- He seals near Linebacker, head to outside.
End.
the ball to his ear and looking for the Left End (blue), Right End (red), whichever
the receiver was called. He throws the ball on his third step, taking a hop in the air
as he throws the ball to gain height over the defensive linemen.

32
16 Pass “Fred”
LE- Runs an obvious fly, looking right away inside for the ball. You want him to
drift a little toward the middle of the field to take the Safety and Corner away from
the play.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
End.
FB- He steps forward then runs left, looking to cut up-field at the first opening.
Once he catches the ball he needs to get up-field to the outside away from his
natural inclination to run back into traffic to the inside.
the ball over his shoulder and looking for the Fullback. He throws the ball on his
defensive linemen.

33
Mouse 16 Pass
LE- Steps inside for one count, then runs a fly, looking right away inside for the
ball. He can not run to the middle of the field and right into the Safety.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
WB- He goes in slow motion on the “S” of set, on the “G” of go he should be over
the Right Guard. He explodes on G and fakes taking an outside handoff from the
QB just rubbing by him, left fist in right hand. After the fake cut to the 5 and block
the weakside Defensive End out.
End.
QB- He pivots on his left foot and takes a 6 inch step away from the line of
scrimmage with his right foot, while looking at the Wingback. Does not put
the ball out but lets the Wingback run by him to the QBs outside. Looks at the 6
hole and takes 2 steps leading with his Left foot (right handed thrower) before
bringing the ball to his ear and looking for the Left End. He throws the ball on his
defensive linemen.

34
Rocket 16 Pass
LE- Runs a seam pattern looking to his inside, making sure not to drift into the
center of the field.
LG- GOD
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- He stalk blocks the near defensive back.
WB- Blocks defensive end inside, the Wingbacks head is on the outside.
BB- He Blocks the Defensive End to the outside.
RE- He stalk blocks the near Defensive Back, attempt to gain outside leverage.
FB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Tailbacks inside foot.
He wants to be at the outside shoulder of the right end on the “G” of “Go”. He
fakes taking an inside handoff from the Tailback, left arm down, right arm up. He
gains depth just after the handoff to a spot just deeper than the Tailback and runs
to the boundary, looking to outflank the defense.
QB- After receiving the snap the ball goes to the midsection, waiting for the
Fullback to arrive, fakes the ball to the Fullback, looking the ball all the way into
the backs belly. He then fakes runs to the 16-power. He takes 2 steps to the 6 on the
third step he hops up and throws to the Left End on his inside shoulder.
This is an excellent play if a team is jumping your jet sweep or is in man coverage
and following your jet motion back across the formation.

35
16 Pass “Wedge” Red
LE- Steps to the inside like on a down block then runs a seam pattern looking to his
inside.
LG- Wedge
C- Wedge
RG- Wedge
RT- Wedge
PT- Wedge
RE- Wedge
to the line of scrimmage as possible in order to get the best angle on the
Defensive End.
FB- He low and hard into the wedge with his right fist into his left palm, elbows in.
This has got to be a great fake.
QB- He runs straight at the 6 hole, accelerates upon securing the ball to insure no
backside pursuit makes the tackle. He leads with his left foot if right handed and
hops up on his left foot on his 3rd step. He brings the ball immediately to his chest
and on after the second step brings the ball over his shoulder. He looks to the Tight
End after the completion of his 2nd step.

36
43 Reverse
We started looking at the 43 Reverse in a much
different way the last few years. In the past it was
always a play we saved for a rainy day, running it
2-3 times a game after we got the defense flying
to initial flow. We just had that old mindset of he
“reverse” being high risk, high reward play you
only ran a few times a game. Well the 43 Reverse
has 3 lead blockers it isn’t a naked play that
only works against very poorly coached,
poorly disciplined teams. The 43 Reverse is
simply a weak side power play that has some
initial misdirection.
Once we got over our old mindset, we started

running the 43 much more than in the past,
sometimes as many as 8 times a game. We
still got excellent yardage on the play, but
more importantly it got the Linebackers
and Defensive Backs to sit on their heels
some and not pursue as aggressively.
We also stopped pulling the Power Tackle

on the play and replaced him with the
Fullback. The Fullback has to take a jab
step towards the 6 hole, which gets flow
away as well as allows the Blocking Back
and Right Guard to get out in front of him.
We used to think we had to have the
Fullback flow 100% away from the play to make it work.
We found it really made no difference

on flow most times as the defenses were
keyed into the Quarterbacks flow and
initial step of the Fullback, not his
second or third. The main reason why
we changed the play was that we were
very inconsistent in getting our Power
Tackle to the weakside Linebacker on
the pull. We just didn’t have enough
athleticism and quickness at that position every year where we could depend on that
block being made.

37
If you find that a team is spying your Blocking Back, a nice key beaker is 43 Reverse G,
the Right Guard kicks out and the Fullback leads into the hole to pick up biggest threat. If
you are playing an undisciplined team, that will be the Corner. If you are playing a well
coached team that will be the Linebacker, if you G block the play and send your Blocking
Back wrong, you can often times get the Middle Linebacker or even an Outside
Linebacker to follow, leaving just the Defensive End and Corner on the weakside to
block.
You might be surprised to find how often the 43 Reverse is open to the short side of the
field. Many teams expect you to run to the wide side and will jump the initial flow of
both the Quarterback and Blocking Back. You could even go so far as to ask your
Blocking Back to cheat out a bit and play higher so he gives the appearance he wants to
go wide to the strongside. As you get into the season and up in age levels, these are
nuances that you can introduce to give your team that little edge.
If you run the 43 Reverse more often your base offense opens up more. If you incorporate
the 24 Trap into your playbook, you have a killer complementary play that you might
find is your “new” big play threat.

38
43 Reverse
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- MOMA
RG- He pulls left to block the play-side Corner to the outside, head on the inside.
RT- GOD, crab blocks to cover the inside gap.
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He takes an inside path to the tailback and receives an inside handoff from the
QB, right arm down with palm up, left arm up on top. The WB reads the block by
the blocking back, if the BB is kicking out the defensive end, the WB runs to the 3
hole, inside. If the Defensive End has crashed and the Blocking Back is blocking the
Defensive End to the inside (log block) the WB takes a path to the outside, at 5 or 7.
BB- He kick-out blocks the play-side Defensive End, with his head on the inside. The
BB makes sure and gets a lot of movement on the defensive end. If the defensive end
has crashed far to the inside on the play (this happens quite a bit), the BB pins the
defensive end inside with his head on the outside (log block).
FB- He takes 2 steps towards 4 then comes inside the BB’s kickout block and seals
the near Linebacker.
QB- He takes the snap and runs an 18 sweep path and hands-off to the Wingback
coming to his inside. The QB watches the ball into the Wingbacks belly as he comes
around. The QB continues on his 18 sweep path 20 yards downfield and DOES
NOT LOOK BACK AT THE WINGBACK.

39
43 Reverse G
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- MOMA
RG- He pulls left to kickout block the playside Defensive End, head on the inside.
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He takes an inside path to the tailback and receives an inside handoff from the
the blocking back, if the BB is kicking out the defensive end, the WB runs to the 3
hole, inside. If the Defensive End has crashed and the Blocking Back is blocking
the Defensive End to the inside (log block) the WB takes a path to the outside, at 5
or 7.
BB- He kick-out blocks the strongside Defensive End, with his head on the inside.
The BB makes sure and gets a lot of movement on the defensive end.
FB- He takes 2 steps towards 4 then comes inside the Right Guards kickout block
and blocks, the first threat.

40
18 Sweep Pass
The 18 Sweep Pass is a play that can be run a variety of ways, depending on the defense
and the talent grouping of your own team. The base 18 Sweep Pass play sends the
Wingback on a modified corner route with the Blocking Back going into the flat.
Some common problems many coaches have with this play is the Blocking Back gets too
deep and takes the linebacker right to the play, or worse yet puts the Linebacker in a
position where he can cover both the Blocking Back and the
Wingback. The Blocking Back’s pattern is just 1-2 yards past
the line of scrimmage. Another common problem is the
Wingback running a straight corner route. You don’t want that.
Once you see the playside Corner coming hard on the 16
Power, every time the Wingback heads towards the near
Backer, you are ready to throw the 18 Sweep Pass. You are
counting on the Corner getting a run read by the initial
movement of the Wing to the Linebacker. However, if the
Corner reads straight pass via traditional corner pattern from
the Wing, the Corner is going to be all over the play. The Wing
MUST move on his 16 Power path right at the Backer to get
the Corner to come out of position. Just a moment before the Wing would impact the
Backer, the Wing plants his inside foot and runs to the open space vacated by the Corner,
usually at about 45 degrees and 8-15 yards in depth depending on the players age and
your Quarterbacks arm strength.
Another common problem is when the Quarterback stops to throw. This is a run pass
option and is always thrown on the run per the detailed instructions in the book. The
Quarterback has to get immediate depth and speed that takes him wide of the End and
gives him a clear line of sight to his throw. This is something you have to perfect during
individual and group time. If you see the defense putting 8 or 9 players into the box, there
really is no need to even send the Blocking Back out for the pass. Call “stay” to key your
Blocking Back to help protect your Quarterback on the throw and just send the Wing out
on the pattern. We run 18 Sweep Pass as a “stay” 90% of the time now.
When teams Corners are playing wide and shallow, sometimes the Wingbacks fake to the
Linebacker is not needed. In those cases it is more efficient to just tell your Wingback to
run a straight corner pattern.
18 Sweep Pass Both

If you see the Safety jumping your Wingback on the 18 Sweep pass, call 18 Sweep Pass
Both Look to hit the Left End on a post pattern deep for a big gain. This works well after
you throw the 18 Sweep Pass a few times and you get the Safety flowing hard. It also

41
works against teams that are running Cover 1 with a Safety in deep zone, force him to
make a choice.
In youth football you have to maximize your

equation, that means you either move kids around
or make adjustments on plays to give your team the
best chance it has to score. Some years your Right
End may be a better pass receiver than your
Blocking Back. In 2010 our Blocking Back was a
great kid but he quite possibly one of the worst
receivers we’ve ever had. In those cases you can
always make the Tight End your flat receiver.
You could even make it a Y-stick type play if your

Tight End is a real player, we have done that as
well. If your Right End is your best receiver threat you could even run the 18 Sweep Pass
with him running the deep route instead of the Wingback. Always use your chess pieces
to the max grouping potential, but don’t sacrifice the integrity of the play within the
series by coming up with something that is a one-off one trick pony.

42
18 Sweep Pass
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
WB- He takes a 16 power path as to block the linebacker, at the last step before
hitting the Linebacker, he plants his left foot and runs a corner pattern away from
the Safety. The Wingback must make a good fake at the Linebacker to get the
Cornerback to come off of pass coverage and to take the run fake.
BB- He runs 16 power path too, but cuts up inside the Defensive End and runs a flat
pattern. This pattern is just 1 yard past the line of scrimmage, make sure he
squares his shoulders towards line of scrimmage on the pattern.
FB- He blocks the Defensive End head on the outside.
QB- He runs deep looping 2- 2 ½ yards deeper than his stance. He accelerates upon
securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit can make a tackle and to make the
play look like a run. He must not throw the ball until he clears the contain of the
defensive end. Unless the coach tells him otherwise, the TB looks to the throw to the
WB, if he is not wide open, the Tailback runs the ball downfield. If the WB is open,
the TB takes short choppy steps toward the line of scrimmage, getting his shoulders
square with the line of scrimmage and throws the ball right at the wing, no need to
lead him. Make sure the throwing elbow is above the ear, the non-dominant foot is
stepping right at the target. The TB follows-through with the throwing hand ending
up at his non-throwing pants pocket.

43
18 Sweep Pass Both
LE- 7 Yard Post

LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
WB- He takes a 16 power path as to block the linebacker, at the last step before
hitting the Linebacker, he plants his left foot and runs a corner pattern away from
the Safety. The Wingback must make a good fake at the Linebacker to get the
Cornerback to come off of pass coverage and to take the run fake.
BB- He blocks the Defensive End to the inside.
FB- He cleans up any leakage or blocks the Defensive End head on the outside.
securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit can make a tackle and to make the
play look like a run. He must not throw the ball until he clears the contain of the
defensive end. Unless the coach tells him otherwise, the TB looks to the throw to the
WB, if he is not wide open, the Tailback runs the ball downfield. If the WB is open,
the TB takes short choppy steps toward the line of scrimmage, getting his shoulders
square with the line of scrimmage and throws the ball right at the wing, no need to
lead him. Make sure the throwing elbow is above the ear, the non-dominant foot is
stepping right at the target. The TB follows-through with the throwing hand ending
up at his non-throwing pants pocket.

44
Stay
Switch
Stick

45
43 Reverse Pass
One of the great things about working with so
many youth coaches all across the country is I
get to gain from their experiences as well.
Todd Reeves from Topeka, Kansas sent some
film of his team to me over Hudl to take a
look at. He had a play that wasn’t in our
playbook, 43 Reverse Pass. His preferred way of
running it was as a flipped formation play, flip
44 reverse pass. When Todd studied his
competitors, he found they often times put their
best corner to his right side, but were not able to
switch in time when he flopped his formation to
go strong left.
The linemen blocked GOO and the backfield

used a backfield action close to what they would
do on 43 Reverse. The Blockingback would
block the weak side Defensive End out, the
Fullback would block the playside
Defensive End, the Wingback would come
under the Quarterback and fake the reverse
action. The Quarterback would take the
snap, run towards the 8 and fake to the
Wingback coming under. Once he had
made that ball fake, he brings the ball to
his shoulder and flips a pass to the Right
End on a corner pattern.
The pattern has a 6 yard stem to it and the ball

hits him at about 12 yards. If you want to go for
the homerun you could have the Right End delay
for a count or even run the Left End out on a
post. We decided to run it just like Todd had
drawn it up and had great success with it in the
first season of running it.
In our 2010 Bowl game we traveled to Kansas

State University and played in Bill Snyder
stadium. We used this play twice during the game, both completions. One of the
completions was on our game winning drive, where we drove 80 yards in 8 plays in 1:50
to take our first lead with just 52 seconds left. This play turned out to be a lifesaver as we
had been very well scouted and our opponent had our 2 biggest passing threats, our Left
End and Wingback blanketed with man coverage by their 2 best defenders.

46
For teams overplaying the strong side, the Flip 44 Reverse Pass, is a play that can be a
home run as well. That is the play pictured in the sequence.
43 Reverse Pass
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- MOMA
RG- He pulls left to block the play-side Corner to the outside, head on the inside.
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Runs a corner pattern with a stem of about 6 yards.
WB- He takes an inside path to the tailback and fakes receiving an inside handoff
from the TB, right arm down with palm up, left arm up on top. The WB reads the
block by the blocking back, if the BB is kicking out the defensive end, the WB runs
to the 3 hole, inside. If the Defensive End has crashed and the Blocking Back is
blocking the Defensive End to the inside (log block) the WB takes a path to the
outside, at 5 or 7.
BB- He kick-out blocks the play-side Defensive End, with his head on the inside. The
BB makes sure and gets a lot of movement on the defensive end. If the defensive end
has crashed far to the inside on the play (this happens quite a bit), the BB pins the
defensive end inside with his head on the outside (log block).
FB- He takes 1 step towards the line of scrimmage then comes inside the Wingback
to block the playside Defensive End.
QB- He takes the snap and runs an 18 sweep path and fakes hand-off to the
Wingback coming to his inside. The QB watches the Wingbacks belly as he comes
around, then immediately takes the ball to his shoulder to make the throw. The QB
continues on his 18 sweep path gains about 2 yards of depth and throws to the
outside shoulder of the Right End who is running a corner pattern.

47
24 Iso and 14 Power

The 24 Iso and 14 Power plays can be used sparingly when defenses are in certain looks.
You use the 24 Iso when you see the defense following your Blocking Back and the
Right Guard. This also allows you to hit every gap with a play. Some defenses will try
and overplay the 6 hole against this offense so you have to have several countermeasures
to overcome this tactic. You only want to call this play when the defense has a player in
the gap between your Power Tackle and Right End and no one in the gap between your
Right Tackle and Power Tackle. You want to run this at the “bubble” the open gap. In
most cases that is the 4 hole.
Most defenses are terrified of the wedge and will not leave the 2 hole vacant, if they do,
obviously run the Iso over one hole to the 2. There are a multitude of options if you are
playing a team that overloads and puts a player in every strongside gap, the 16 Pass, 18
Sweep Pass stay come to my mind immediately. If the defense puts up a wall, there are
always other cracks in the Dike that can be exploited.
Key Breaker
Very few teams can spy your Blocking Back or Right Guard with any degree of
consistency, but if you see one, the 24 Iso is a key killer. Remember, once you break the
key, the other teams defenders have lost confidence in their defensive “rules” and often
start improvising on their own which often opens up many things for you.
This is also a great complementary play to the 43 Reverse which we run a lot more than
in the past. The Wingback may have to go just a tad deeper on his fake to the 3 Hole on
this play, as the Fullback is running under the Wingback on this play. Remember, you
don’t want to run this play until you have run the 43 Reverse at least twice and maybe
even the 43 Reverse Pass.
Running the Bubble
Some older youth teams will let the Blocking Back view the defense to see which gap is
uncovered and will then have him call out which hole the bubble is at. You can certainly
do it this way, but understand that then you have to invest practice time in order to insure
your offensive linemen are making the part in the correct fashion.
The 14 Power can be a very valuable play, especially for the second year Single Wing
coach. It is used when teams are stacking your 6 hole trying to take away your 16 Power,
either by putting their very best player in the 6 real tight or by just adding an additional
linebacker or even safety over the 6. Other teams may put their very best down lineman
in the 6 hole and dare you to run the 4. When these situations present themselves to you,
you need to be able to run the 4 hole with plays like the 14 Power. All you are doing is
running the 16 Power inside 1 hole tighter and allowing your Right End and Power
Tackle to block Linebackers. There is no need to block the playside Defensive End- he is
too far outside to worry about.

48
We found that the Blockingback’s kickout block on the Defensive Tackle hits pretty tight
and there wasn’t enough room for the Fullback to get through the hole without causing a
bit of a traffic jam, so we widened him out in Omaha. This is more of a trap type play
than a power play, since we are letting the Defensive Tackle come in unblocked.
There are variations of this play. If there are only 2 Linebackers, run the play as drawn, or
you can run the Wingback away from the play on an outside handoff path just off the
outside hip of the Quarterback. This will help freeze the Linebackers and you really don’t
need the Wingback anyway to double team the near Backer. If there are 3 or more
Linebackers, the Wingback gets the Outside Backer, Right End gets the next one inside
and the Power Tackle gets the next one.
This is also a play where you can sneak your 3-Back in real snug like he is running a 32
Wedge, the tighter he is the better angle he will have on the Defensive Tackle you are
letting come though. Some teams will creep their Linebackers in real tight when they see
this which makes them targets for very easy blocks by your Right End and Power Tackle.
Sometimes they will even get caught in the wash when they cheat up try to sniff out your
apparent Wedge play. Again these are nuances you can refine and introduce as the season
progresses to keep make your team better as well as keeping them interested in learning
new things.

49
24 Iso
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps Playside
RG- GOD
RT- GOD
PT- GOO
RE- Seal Defensive End Outside
WB- Fakes 43 Reverse but gets a little deeper, after making the fake he runs to 3
like the 43 Reverse.
BB- He lead blocks the Linebacker at the 4 hole.
FB- He takes the snap runs parallel to the line of scrimmage, plants his foot at the 4
hole
QB- He runs straight at the 8 hole with his right fist in left hand and gives a fake
handoff to the Wingback passing him on the inside. After the fake he continues the
8 hole.
You could also use a “Paul” call and have the Quarterback fake a 16 Pass to the
Left End to get the Linebackers to drop off. Just like on 26 G. This is a very effective
tactic if you have thrown the ball some or have a legitimate pass threat.

50
14 Power
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps Playside
RG- GOD
RT- Backside Backer.
PT- Middle Backer if there are 3 Linebackers, Backside Backer if there are 2. Near
Backside Backer if there are 4.
RE- Near Backer if there are 2 Linebackers, Middle backer if there are 3 and inside
near backer if there are 4.
WB-Near Linebacker.
BB- He cheats in a little tight, like he is aligning for 32 Wedge, kickout blocks
the Defensive Tackle with head to the inside.
FB- Always align in Omaha on this. He blocks the Cornerback
QB- He runs straight at the 4 hole.
You could also use a “Paul” call and have the Quarterback fake a 16 Pass to the
Left End to get the Linebackers to drop off. Just like on 26 G.

51
Chapter 3
The Burst Series

The Burst Series was developed like many things, out of
necessity and seeing the answer to my problem in another
offense. One thing some of the better teams do to try and
slow down this offense is to key the Blocking Back or 3-
Back. While we have used the “wrong” call and a “G”
blocking scheme to throw that defensive approach off its tracks, we wanted a series we
could use without key breakers.
The answer came from watching a number of High School teams running another
dinosaur offense, the “T” also called the Dead T, Power T, Straight T or Bay City T.
These teams used a very simple three play series to just demolish teams and set some
unprecedented rushing records in the state of Michigan. The three play series was the
Fullback trap or wedge, Halfback off-tackle and Quarterback keep sweep (to same side).
All of these plays were used using the same exact backfield action on every play. Teams
like Zeeland West have won countless state titles running just these three plays over and
over again.
I thought with our backs in so tight, if we sent each to a different point of attack on every
play and just modified the blocking slightly we would have quite a series. After weeks of
doodling elaborate plays, I ended up coming back to the simplest of answers almost a
carbon copy of the base Power T series. The play series is: Burst 32-wedge, Burst-26 G,
Burst 18-sweep, Burst 43-G, Burst pass and Burst 33. This is a series that takes very little
time to put in and reaps big rewards. The only new thing we really had to teach was the
“G” block by the Right Guard, which wasn’t very tough at all.
In the first game we tried this series we scored on the Burst 26 G twice, as our opponent
was spying our 3-Back and was very concerned about our 1-Back who had well over 100
yards in the game. We have been able to run it successfully at age 7-9, 10-11 and 12-13.
This is a simple series that when run at full speed really puts defenses in conflict and
throws off all those wacky defenses we’ve been facing of late. The keys are the backs
have to follow out their fakes at full speed and run their fakes down the field to 20 yards.
We found that many times our faking backs were being tackled and even told our 3-back
to run his wedge fake a little high to attract attention to himself and maybe even veer left
a bit and break tackles.
This is a very “cheap” (time wise investment) play series to put in once you have the base
series in because your players already know most of their assignments from the base
sainted six.

52
Burst 32 Wedge
LE- Wedge
LG- Wedge
C- Wedge
RG- Wedge
RT- Wedge
PT- Wedge
RE- Wedge
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
WB- He seals the nearest Linebacker to the
inside, with his head on the outside.
BB- Takes snap and runs the Wedge at 2,
staying low and looking for an opening
inside.
FB- He runs straight to the 6 hole, with a great fall fake running inside the defensive
end. This fake must be carried out to 20 yards.
QB- He runs straight at the 8 using his 18 sweep fake technique. This fake must be
carried out to 20 yards.

53
Burst 26 G
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side.
RG- Pulls right to just past the Power Tackle and Right End double team and
blocks the Defensive End to the outside with his head to the inside.
RT- GOD, if he has an inside gap or down block, takes a very flat first step to
protect and cover for the pulling Right Guard.
PT- GOD, looks to get his head inside and double team the Defensive Tackle with
the Right end. Drive the Defensive Tackle to the second level is his goal.
RE- GOD, if double teaming with the Power Tackle, he keeps his head on outside
and hips glued to the Power Tackle. He drives the defender to the second level.
BB- He runs a 32 Wedge fake, making sure to run high and attract attention by
breaking to the left and breaking tackles. Ball fake has to be at least 20 yards.
FB- He takes the snap and runs straight to the 6 hole, running inside the kick-out
block of the Right Guard.
QB- He runs straight at the 8 using his 18 sweep fake technique. This fake must be
carried out to 20 yards.

54
Burst 26 G “Paul”
LE- Seam pass route straight down the field with arm outstretched.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side.
RG- Pulls right to just past the Power Tackle and Right End double team and
blocks the Defensive End to the outside with his head to the inside.
RT- GOD, if he has an inside gap or down block, takes a very flat first step to
PT- GOD, looks to get his head inside and double team the Defensive Tackle with
the Right end. Drive the Defensive Tackle to the second level is his goal.
RE- GOD, if double teaming with the Power Tackle, he keeps his head on outside
and hips glued to the Power Tackle. He drives the defender to the second level.
FB- He takes the snap and runs straight to the 6 hole, running inside the kick-out
block of the Right Guard.
QB- He runs straight at the 8 but looks back at the Left End like he is going to
throw a 16 Pass. He cradles the “fake ball” to his right shoulder, using his left
shoulder to shield anyone from seeing if he has the ball or not. This should be a very
deliberate fake, with him slowing down, spying the Left End and looking to make
the throw.

55
Burst 18 Sweep
LE- GOD, crab block.

LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side.
RG-He pulls right to just past the Power Tackle and Right End. He comes off that
edge and seals the Linebacker that presents the biggest threat (first you see) head on
the outside. If any leakage occurs, he picks that up first.
RT- GOD, if he has an inside gap or down block, he takes a very flat first step to
protect and cover for the pulling Right guard.
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He seals the Defensive End to the inside, with his head on the outside.
FB- He runs straight to the 6 hole, with a great ball fake, running inside the
Defensive End and drawing the attention of the linebackers. This has to be a 20
yard fake.
QB- He runs deep, looping 1- 1-½ yards deeper than his stance. He accelerates upon
securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit makes the tackle. He looks to takethe
play to the far outside.

56
Burst 43 G
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- MOMA
RG- He pulls left to block the play-side Defensive End out, head on the inside.
PT- GOD, pulls left, if there are any penetrators he picks them up. He pulls inside
the kick-out block of the BB and seals the nearest Linebacker to the inside, or the
biggest threat if that is the Cornerback.
RE- GOD, crab blocks to cover the inside gap.
WB- He takes an inside path to the tailback and receives an inside handoff from the,
the blocking back, if the RG is kicking out the defensive end, the WB runs to the 3
hole, inside. If the Defensive End has crashed and the Right Guard is blocking the
Defensive End to the inside (log block) the WB takes a path to the outside, at 5 or 7.
FB- He runs straight to the 6 hole, with a great ball fake, running inside the
Defensive End and drawing the attention of the linebackers. This has to be a 20
yard fake.
QB- He takes the snap and runs an 18 sweep path and hands-off to the Wingback
coming to his inside. The QB watches the ball into the Wingbacks belly as he comes
around. The QB continues on his 18 sweep path 20 yards downfield and DOES NOT
LOOK BACK AT THE WINGBACK.

57
Burst 33
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG-Steps play-side
RT- GOD
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He seals the Defensive End to the inside, with his head on the outside.
BB- He takes the snap and runs to 3, inside the kick-out block of the Tailback.
FB- He runs straight to the 3 hole looking to block the most dangerous threat, either
the Linebacker or Cornerback.
QB- He seals the Defensive End to the inside, with his head on the inside.
Note: Could also run this with the Wing aligned to the left and having him block the
Cornerback to that side.

58
Burst Pass
LE- Step inside for one count then run a seam right down the field.
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG-GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE-Step Inside for one count then run a seam right down the field.
WB- He takes a 16 power path as to block the linebacker, at the last step before hitting the
Linebacker, he plants his left foot and runs a corner pattern away from the Safety. The WB
must make a good fake at the Linebacker to get the Cornerback to come off of pass
coverage and to take the run fake.
BB- He runs a 32 Wedge fake, making sure to run high and attract attention by breaking to
the left.
FB- He runs straight to the 6 hole, with a great ball fake and blocks the play-side Defensive
End.
securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit can make a tackle and to make the play look
like a run. He must not throw the ball until he clears the contain of the defensive end.
Unless the coach tells him otherwise, the QB looks to the throw to the WB, if he is not wide
open, the QB runs the ball downfield. If the WB is open, the QB takes short choppy steps
toward the line of scrimmage, getting his shoulders square with the line of scrimmage and
throws the ball right at the wing, no need to lead him.
Note: You can tag the play for who you want to go out on the pass patterns. Add red
or blue or both along with the Wing, who is automatic.

59
Chapter 4
Flash and Spinner

Series
The Spinner Series has changed very little since

our first implementation of it 14 seasons ago.
What we have added is a simple play action
pass that is nothing more than the 16 Pass but
using the Spinning Fullback or Quarterback as
the thrower. The key points are, the Fullback
does not need to move towards the 6 hole after the spin, as soon as he comes out of the
spin he can hop up and throw. You can call it
Blue to the Left End or Red to the Tight End.
The Wingback also has to go a little tighter on
his spinner motion since you are going to need
him to cut off the backside Defensive End.
If your Quarterback is a better thrower and you

don’t want to move him to Fullback to make
this throw, you can just snap it to your
Quarterback and let him make the throw off
an 18 sweep like action. Kevin Justice
taught me that play in 2008 at a clinic I was
doing for his team in Florida. When you are
coaching non-select teams we realize you
won’t always have competent throwers at
both spots.
Adjustments Based on
Players
Since both your Quarterback and

Fullback are in so tight, there isn’t a
chance the defense even knows which of
them have the ball, so there is really no
need for the Quarterback to take a
handoff from the Fullback on this series.
Have the Quarterback get some depth
and come towards the line of scrimmage
on his throw, similar as to what he does
on his 18 sweep pass movement, but much quicker and tighter.

60
We also now allow the Fullback the option to pitch the ball to the Quarterback downfield
on Spinner 26 Power. This is not an option play, we are not purposely leaving a defensive
player unblocked and then optioning off of him. The Fullback is still running inside the
kick-out block of the Blocking Back and trying to split the Linebacker and Corner,
getting upfield as quickly as possible. What he is
doing it looking for the pitchman as he enters contact.
If the Quarterback is in a reasonably good pitch
relationship, the Fullback can pitch it to him. A good
pitch relationship is 3-4 yards wider than the fullback
and 2 yards deeper than him.
We found that if the Quarterback felt there was a

chance he could get the ball downfield, he was much
more apt to run very fast and to the edge, drawing
both the Defensive End, Corner and sometimes the Outside Linebacker with him. The
half hearted fakes just seemed to disappear. In practice tell your Fullback to always pitch
the ball. Don’t spend a ton of time on the mechanics of the pitch, as they enter contact
have them pitch outside with their right hand pushing the bottom half of the ball, left
hand on top, which will result in an end over end pitch. The very first time we sprung the
pitch at 5-6th grade the play went for a near score. We only used this with a pretty savvy
group that had a very experienced players at both Fullback and Quarterback.
We copied this from Rick Darlington at Apopka High School in Florida. His kids pitch it
about 25% of the time. Ours pitched it about 20% of the times when we ran 26.
Flash- No Motion
Another thing we learned from Rick was that he did not put anyone on motion on his spin
plays and by doing so he was able to run his weakside counter play much more
effectively than ours. While we like the Wingback in slow motion for the spinner series
because it does take the defenses eyes away from where we are normally going to run the
football, it makes it very difficult to run to the weakside off-tackle hole. On the regular
Spinner 43 Reverse play, the Wingback has to really cut sharply to run inside the kick-out
block by the Blocking Back, it’s a pretty tough play to execute and the Blocking Back
rarely gets there in time.
When running the Full Spin series without motion, you have to make a few adjustments.
The Wingback has to creep in about a half yard tighter and about a foot deeper than his
normal alignment. This helps him get into the mesh quicker and gives the Fullback a
better shot at making the handoff. The Wingback takes his normal path on the outside of
the Fullback on the Spinner 26 and Spinner 32, but on the Spinner 43 Reverse he now
takes the handoff in front of the Fullback rather than behind. By using this approach the
Wingback now can easily cut inside the kick-out block of the Blocking Back and he
doesn’t have to wait for the Blocking Back to get there.

61
Using this approach is also very beneficial for the Spinner 26 Pass play. The Wingback is
now in position to block the weakside Defensive End. The Wingback has to make sure he
is deep enough to get by the Blocking Back who is heading to the strongside on the play.
This is a nuance that we only showed very late in the season and took very little practice
time. In fact we didn’t even add it to the wrist coaches, when we signaled in say Spinner
26 Power- we just added the word “Flash”, which just meant the play was going to be run
without motion. The Spinner 32 Wedge out of flash was a good play and the Spinner 31
Trap would be as well, in both of those plays the Wingback is passing behind the
Fullback on the mesh. The only plays the Wingback passes in front are the 43 Reverse
and Spinner 26 Pass.
Spinner 26 Power (Option)

62
Spinner 26 Power Pass
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
LE- Takes one step to the inside like on a down block then runs a seam pattern,
straight down the field. He makes sure not to drift toward the center of the field and
looks to catch the ball on his inside shoulder.
WB- He motions to the outside hip of the Fullback as his aiming point. Leaves on
the “R” of Ready at a slow jog, when he hears “go” he should be behind the Right
Tackle. On “go” the WB accelerates to full speed and fakes receiving a handoff
from the Fullback on his outside by clamping down as he rubs by the Fullback, left
arm under, right on top. He cuts his usual fake short and blocks the weak-side
Defensive End.
BB- Kick-outs blocks the play-side Defensive End. He has to keep his head to the
inside.
FB- He takes the steps per the spin installation section. His first step is forward with
the right foot at 6 inches, second step with left foot towards 6 o’clock, last step with
the right foot to get his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. At the end of his
spin steps he just jumps up and throws on the third step to the inside shoulder of the
Left End.
QB- He runs a very deep 18-sweep path, clamping down with his arms to the outside
of Fullback, faking receiving a handoff from the FB. The QB dips his left shoulder
and instead of going on his normal 18 sweep path, he pulls up and blocks the strong-
side Defensive End.

63
Spinner 16 Power Pass
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
LE- Takes one step to the inside like on a down block then runs a seam
pattern, straight down the field. He makes sure not to drift toward the
center of the field and looks to catch the ball on his inside shoulder.
WB- He motions to the outside hip of the Fullback as his aiming point.
Leaves on the “R” of Ready at a slow jog, when he hears “go” he should be
behind the Right Tackle. On “go” the WB accelerates to full speed and
fakes receiving a handoff from the Fullback on his outside by clamping
down as he rubs by the Fullback, left arm under, right on top. He cuts his
usual fake short and blocks the weak-side Defensive End.
BB- Kick-outs blocks the play-side Defensive End. He has to keep his head
to the inside.
FB- He takes the steps per the spin installation section and runs to 4. His first step is
forward with the right foot at 6 inches, second step with left foot towards 6 o’clock,
last step with the right foot to get his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. He
takes 2 steps toward the line of scrimmage and continues to the 4 hole.
QB- He runs a very deep 18-sweep path after his 3rd step he comes toward the line of
scrimmage towards the 6 hole and throws to the Tight End on the run. He brings
the ball to his shoulder after his third step.

64
Spinner 21 Trap
LG- GD
C- Steps Right
RG- Pulls Left, Traps Defensive Tackle
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- GOO
LE- Blocks Near Linebacker, head on the inside.
from the Fullback on his outside by clamping down as he rubs by the Fullback, left
arm under, right on top.
BB- Kick-outs blocks the strong-side Defensive End. He has to keep his head to the
inside.
the right foot at 6 inches, second step with left foot towards 6 o’clock, last step with
the right foot to get his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. He runs inside
the trap block of the Right Guard at the 1 hole.
and instead of going on his normal 18 sweep path.

65
Spinner 24 Trap
LE-GOD
LG- Pulls to right, traps first player outside shoulder of Right Tackle.
C- MOMA
RG- GOD
RT- GD
PT- Inside Linebacker, head on outside.
RE- Near Linebacker, head on outside.
from the Fullback and accelerates through the 7 hole.
BB- Kick-outs blocks the strong-side Defensive End. He has his head to the inside.
Get a little deeper so you don’t block the Defensive Tackle.
He runs inside the trap block of the Left Guard at the 3 hole.
and instead of going on his normal 18 sweep path.
Note- You could wrong way the Blocking Back if you like, but you would need to
scoot the 1 and 2 Back another yard deeper to give the Blocking Back room. The
Blocking Back would also need to make sure he went deep enough to clear the
pulling Left Guard.

66
Flash 43 Reverse
Flash 26 Pass

67
Chapter 5
The Buck Series

The Buck Series like much of what we have come up
with over the lifecycle of developing this offense over
the course of the last 15 seasons, it was developed as an answer to a specific problem. It
helped us get the ball more to a pretty good little running back that wasn’t quite the
player as our Quarterback, but wasn’t physical enough to play the Blocking Back spot. It
also gave us a way to hit the weak side wide without motion and without reach blocking
or shifting the Blocking Back to a wing position there. It allowed us to hit the off-tackle
and the sweep to the weak side with good leverage, angles and numbers.
While the weak side really isn’t technically weak anymore, since the formation is now
balanced, we are still going to call it weak side for the sake of this discussion. It also was
a nice key breaker series for those following the Blocking Back and Right Guard, on
Buck 14 Trap, neither of them take you to the play. I’ve always been a fan of cross-buck
action as well, something that seems to give our teams a bit of a problem from time to
time.
It is a series that hits the weakside quickly and with numbers but once the defense starts
leaning in that direction or relying on keying the Blocking Back or Right Guard, the 14
trap ends up being the big play in the series. Very similar to how the Burst 26 G is the
homerun of the Burst series. The Power Pass also can be a big play once the playside
Corner gets tired of getting run over on the Power play again and again.
Series Football
Once the defense starts sitting on the Buck 23 Power and Buck 27 Sweep, you can run
plays like Buck 18 Sweep or Buck 18 Sweep Pass. These are simple nuances to plays you
already know and already run well. So while this may be a new set of plays, they do go in
a bit easier than you might think at first glance.
In the Buck alignment the Blocking Back aligns between the Center and Left Guard. The
Right End aligns about 3-4 yards outside the Left End on the line of scrimmage. The
Right End aligns wide enough to widen the Cornerback, but tight enough that he can pin
the Defensive End in and get to the Linebacker to his side. He is in a two-point stance,
but I guess it doesn’t really matter, in 2010 my Right End just felt more comfortable in a
three-point stance.
The Quarterback and Fullback also align at about 3 yards deep rather than 2. It gives
them a little more room to operate and you’re going to need it as those guys are crossing
in front of each other on nearly every play in the series. That crossing action negates the
need to be in tighter, as the defense is not going to know which of those players has the

68
ball. This may be a series you hold back and don’t use until you really need it or in a late
playoff run. While it is not terribly complex it hits parts of the field in ways you don’t
with other series. It also stresses the weak side, putting the defense in a real bind there.
Buck 23 Power
SE- Blocks Near Linebacker, Head on

inside.
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- MOMA
RG-He pulls left to Cornerback.
RT- GOD, if he has an inside gap or down
block, he takes a very flat first step to
protect and cover for the pulling Right
guard.
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He seals near Linebacker.
BB- He kickout blocks the Weakside Defensive End, head to the inside.
FB- He gathers the snap fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1 back, then keeps
and runs inside the kickout block of the 3 Back at the 3 hole.
QB- He fakes a run to the 4 hole, passing in front of the 2 back. Left arm down,
right arm over the top.

69
Buck 14 Trap
SE- Blocks Near Linebacker, Head on inside.

LE- GOD
LG- Goes right to trap block the Defensive Tackle, head on inside.
C- MOMA
RG- GOD
RT- GOD, if he has an inside gap or down block, he takes a very flat first step to
protect and cover for the pulling Right guard.
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
BB- He kickout blocks the Weakside Defensive End, head to the inside. He needs to
align a little deeper so the Left Guard can come under him.
FB- He gathers like he taking the snap. fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1
Back, then fakes like he has the ball, right fist in left palm and runs inside the
kickout block of the 3 Back at the 3 hole.
QB- He gathers the snap and runs to the 4 hole, passing in front of the 2 back.
Note- You can run the Wingback on a fake 43 if you feel that will take that near and
Middle Linebacker away from the play as pictured on the next page.

70

71
Buck 27 Sweep
SE- Seals Defensive End inside, head on the outside.

LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- MOMA
RT- GOD
PT- GOD
BB- He runs outside the pin block of the Defensive End and blocks the near
Linebacker to the inside.
FB- He gathers the snap fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1 back, then keeps
and runs inside the kickout block of the 3 Back at the 3 hole.

72
Buck 23 Pass
SE- He approaches the Linebacker like he

is going to block him on the 23 Power,
when he gets 1 yard away, he pivots on his
right foot and runs towards the corner. He
needs to look back toward the Quarterback
once he makes his cut.
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- MOMA
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
BB- He kickout blocks the weakside Defensive End, head to the inside.
FB- He gathers the snap fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1 back, then pivots
on his right foot and throws the ball to the Split End over his outside shoulder. This
is about a 7-10 yard pass.

73
Buck 18 Sweep

LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps Playside
RG- Pulls to Playside looking to seal Linebacker inside.
RT- GOD
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- He seals near Defensive End to inside.
BB- He attacks playside Cornerback taking him where he wants to go.
FB- He gathers like he taking the snap, fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1
Back, then fakes like he has the ball, right fist in left palm and runs to the 3 hole.
QB- He gathers the snap and runs to the 8, outside the pin block of the Wingback,
passing in front of the 2 back.

74
Buck 18 Sweep Pass

LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- Steps Playside
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOD
RE- GOD
WB- Attacks outside in on the near linebacker, plants foot about 1 yard before
contact and then runs modified corner route to open grass at about 10-12 yards
BB- He attacks playside Defensive End head on the outside.
FB- He gathers like he taking the snap, fakes a handoff passing in front to the 1
Back, then fakes like he has the ball, right fist in left palm and runs to the 3 hole.
QB- He gathers the snap and runs to the 8, making sure to get about 3 yards of
additional depth. Approach the line of scrimmage before releasing the ball.
Remember this is a run pass option, if the Wingback is covered, get what you
can at the 8.

75
Chapter 6
Flip
Since the very early days of running this
offense I have warned everyone against
Flipping the formation and mirroring
everything both ways. You have plenty of
plays in your playbook to attack the entire
field without the struggle of mirroring the
entire offense. In fact many of the high school teams running this offense don’t even
flip their formation. I have seen so many teams including one in my own organization
that flipped the formation and they did just awful. This team was probably the most
talented team ever to come through my Omaha program, yet they only went 6-2 and
averaged just 10 points a game. On defense they were giving up an average of just 2
points a game, so they were loaded, yet they were poor on offense. Why do you suppose
that was?
We put so much emphasis on getting the offensive linemens first 2 steps down faster than
the oppositions first 2 steps that these steps become second nature as does the shoulder
and head fits. When you flip everyone around to the opposite side, they are now leading
with different feet and hitting with a different shoulder etc. My experience has been the
play is far less aggressive and once you start adding in handoffs and pulls, it ends up
taking a ton of practice time with little upside not to mention how it often blows the
minds of most minimum play player.
But there is often a time and place for such a thing. If your team is playing in a playoff
scenario and is facing a team for the second time, this may make sense. If you have been
scouted every game and your playing a team late in the season for a league title, it may
make sense. If you have a minimum play rule and all your minimum kids have their
snaps in, it may make sense.
In order to make it work without stealing all of your valuable practice time, make sure
when you go flip that it is only with your top unit in a real game. Don’t hassle with
running all of your plays both ways, just put in the mirror of 16 Power- 15 Power and the
mirror of 18 Sweep- 17 Sweep. Your former Right End is now your Left End, your
Power Tackle is now on the left next to your Right End so on and so forth. The
Quarterback is now on the right and the Fullback is on the left.
If you are no-huddle like us, it can make it even more difficult for the opposition. In one
game last year the other team really loaded up our right side especially if that was the
wide side of the field. All we did was flip to strong left and the midpoint count to the left
was a just 4, it ended up being a big gain and it forced the other team to burn a timeout.

76
The first time we ran this was in an end of season Bowl Game in 2007, it was very
successful for the first 4-5 snaps. Eventually the defense set up correctly and we were
getting very average gains. What we did see is it forced the defense to flop their own
personnel very quickly and caused them some headaches.
These were all experienced teams that had run the offense for several years and it was at
the end of 3 plus months of practice. Please don’t try to mirror the offense right out of the
gate, you’re asking for a lot of headaches and low numbers if you do.
You will need to practice having your linemen switch, otherwise it is going to be chaos
on the field. Just have the Left End and Left Guard pass behind the Right Guard, Right
Tackle, Power Tackle and Right End as they make their switch. Get very good at quickly
making the switch, getting set and snapping the ball. You do not want to make the call
until the referee has placed the ball and it ready to play.
Flip 15 Power

77
Flip 17 Sweep

78
Chapter 7
Super
Super, like many of the nuances we
use was born out of necessity. When
the defense puts their most aggressive
player in the 6 hole to take away the
16 Power or have a monster player at
Defensive End squeezing down the 6
hole, you have to make adjustments.
There are also teams that will try and spy your 3 back as well. Super is something that is
a combination of blocking adjustment, formation adjustment and new play that helped us
with teams that tried to over adjust to stop our 16 Power.
Simply nasty split your Right End out about 2 yards and put the Wingback and 3 Back in
the Slot, with the 3 Back set inside the Wingback. The Right End is going to block the
widened Defensive End out, the Wing is going to seal the Corner and the 3 Back is going
to block the near Linebacker. If there is a Middle Linebacker, have your Right Guard
jump through to seal him if your Center can handle the Nose Tackle by himself. By
moving your 2 Back to the 3 position and running him opposite the play, you can often
times take the Middle Backer away from the play without blocking him at all.
When you add an “Omaha” tag to the play, just move the 2 Back outside as a flanker as
you would when you normally go “Omaha.” Now that you have the Corner occupied
your 4 Back can now be used to wall off the Middle Linebacker.
Once the Corner tires of this and wants to get involved in the play, just throw to the 2
Back. This is called 16 Super Omaha Pass. You can also run 43 Reverse out of this as
well as 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Pass, 16 Pass, Mouse 16 Power and Mouse 16 Pass.

79
16 Power Super
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- GOD- Let him “jump through” to Middle Backer or Backside Backer if
your Center can handle the Nose Tackle or player in the gap between the
two.
RT- GOD
PT- GOD, He looks to get his head inside.
RE- He is in a Nasty Split of about 2 yards. He shields the Defensive End
outside, head on inside.
WB- Stalk Blocks nearest Defensive Back.
BB- He is our strongest blocker, we put him inside the Wingback shoulder to
shoulder, he seals the near backer.
FB- Move him to the former 3 Back position. He runs to 3 kicking out the
Defensive End.
QB- Takes the snap and runs on straight line path to the 6 hole.

80
16 Power Super Omaha
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
two.
RT- GOD
Defensive End.

81
Super 43 Reverse
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- Pulls inside the kickout block and seals first Linebacker
RT- GOD
WB- Runs inside the 1 Back taking an inside handoff, right arm down, left
arm up. Runs inside the kickout block of the Defensive End.
shoulder. He leads the play inside the kickout block, looking to block first
other color which is either the Corner or Linebacker.
Defensive End.
QB- Takes the snap and runs on straight line path to the 8 hole, hands off to
the 4 Back on the inside.

82
16 Pass Super Omaha
LE- Seam pattern, with slight fade, looking for ball on third step.
LG- GOO
C- Steps play-side
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO, He looks to get his head inside.
FB- Move him to Flanker Left. He runs a fly pattern with slight fade.
QB- Takes the snap and runs on straight line path to the 6 hole. Coach calls
who he is going to throw it to. If the defense is overplaying the strongside
throw it to the Left End. If he defense is staying home but the strongside
Corner is playing aggressively or tight, throw to the s Back.

83
18 Sweep Super Omaha
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
two.
RT- GOD
RE- He is in a Nasty Split of about 2 yards. He blocks anyone on the line
inside of him, if no one is there, he seals the next Linebacker inside.
WB- Stalk Blocks the playside Corner.
FB- Move him to Flanker. He blocks first man to his inside.

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32 Wedge Super Omaha
LE- Wedge
LG- Wedge
C- Wedge
RT- Wedge
PT- Wedge
RE- He is in a Nasty Split of about 2 yards. He blocks anyone on the line
inside of him, if no one is there, he seals the next Linebacker inside.
WB- Stalk Blocks the playside Corner.
FB- Move him to 3 Back, take snap and run wedge at 2.
QB- Fake taking the snap and runs on straight line path to the 6 hole.

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Balanced Line Single Wing
Some coaches are intrigued by running this offense out of a balanced line and some may
even be compelled to do so by special rules in their leagues. Pop Warner and AYF do not
require balanced lines, nor do 99% of Independent Leagues. We did experiment a bit with
the balanced line in 2002 and 2003, but found what we were getting which was very little
didn’t justify the time of going balanced.
When you run out of an unbalanced line, the Right Guard is the midpoint of your line. He
is equidistant to both sides. When you are unbalanced, it is very easy to get him to both
off tackle spots and even both edges. If you go balanced he has much further to go to the
weak side, so most balanced like Single Wing guys are forced to pull both Guards. That
is all fine and dandy if you have a real deep and athletic team, not so fine if you don’t. In
non-select youth football you only have so many athletic players. You just don’t often
times have 2 kids that can consistently pull effectively by first getting there and secondly
making effective contact once he arrives. Most of us have a tough enough time finding 4
athletic enough kids to play the 4 backfield positions, let alone a Right Guard, Right End
and now another Guard. That is 7 athletes most of us just don’t have unless you are
getting to choose from a pool of 50 or more kids.
If I had to guess how many Single Wing teams run out of balanced sets, I would venture
to say it would be less than 7%. There are teams that have run the Single Wing out of the
balanced line. Menominee High School in Michigan runs out of balanced and has won 3
State Titles in the last 10 years or so. According to Ken Hofer their head coach he runs
balanced just so he has a better feel for the defenses he is likely to see. I get that, when
you run unbalanced you are going to see some very odd looking alignments. But that’s
why I’m a big proponent of rule blocking, if you stay with the blocking rules, you will
account for the defenders you want to block regardless of the alignment.
If you do go balanced there are a few easy adjustments you will need to do to make the
offense work. Your Left Guard will now be your best offensive lineman and your second
best will need to be your Right Guard. Your third best is now the Right Tackle. On the 16
Power, 18 Sweep and Spinner 26 Power your Left Guard pulls instead of your Right
Guard. On 31 Trap, 43 Reverse, Burst 26 G and 43 G your Right Guard is the puller. You
would wedge on the Center instead of on the Right Guard.

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Chapter 8
The “Jet” Series
The “Jet” series is a great integrated series of

plays that can help your team stretch the
defense horizontally. Running the Jet gives
your team the flexibility of running much of the base plays your team learned earlier in
the season, but out of a much different look. The caveat is, this series requires a
significant amount of practice time to put in and you need at least two fast running backs.
This isn’t a series you put in because your team is struggling with execution of the base
plays. If you aren’t executing your base plays well, this will only make matters worse, as
this series requires some pretty precise timing as well as executing blocks that are in
some cases are a bit more difficult than those required on the base plays.
How the Series Came Together
In 2007 I was able to spend time at the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in Northern
Virginia with my good friend John Minteer. John is a coach at Osborne High School in
Manassas Virginia. John is a big Single Wing enthusiast and has coached the Single
Wing at several different High Schools. I had the pleasure of meeting John at the Single
Wing Coaches Conclave in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania in 2002 and based on his
generosity, have been able to stay in contact with him since. I run ideas past him from
time to time to get his thoughts and insight. In 2006 John’s team won their first ever
Virginia State High School Championship and they did it running the Single Wing with a
whole lot of jet motion plays.
His team had more speed and experience on it than they had seen for several years, so
they were looking for ways to utilize this speed and experience to stretch defenses. They
decided on doing a bunch of Jet motion to accomplish this and felt it played a major role
in the teams success. The general rule is the more speed you have the more you want to
play the game “in space”, the less speed you have, the less you want to play “in space”.
John and I had traded a bunch of film and e-mails over the previous months so when we
sat down in February face to face, we were able to cobble together a youth version of
what his team had run. We adapted this series to what my teams had run in the past and to
the blocking schemes that I knew would work at the youth level. That playbook for this
series of plays would be the base we would use for my Jet Series. Over the next season
we did make a number of adjustments to make it work well as we found when we
practiced it and used it in games there were some minor tweaks that had to be made to
make the series a bully killer. There are some excellent clips (over 80) of the series being

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run on the 2007 Games DVD. There are also some excellent clips of the new pass plays
on the 2008 Games DVD.
What You Have to Have to Run the Jet
My personal age 10-11 team was in a similar situation in 2007 that John’s team had been
in during his 2006 season. Our league changed the age groupings for the 2007 season
and when I looked at what I had for a team, over 70% of the kids on that team had at least
one year of experience and about 40% had at least two years of experience. Of that group,
we had two running backs that were probably in the 95th percentile speed wise in the
league. My 2006 squad had gone 11-1 and averaged over 35 points per game. With such
a high percentage of players with experience on this team, it wasn’t going to be difficult
getting them back up to speed with the base plays. Adding in an additional series was not
going to seriously detract from us teaching the base.
I can’t stress enough the importance of having the base play series down before you add
this in and make sure you have the right grouping of kids for it. This isn’t a “We’ve tried
everything else, maybe this will work” type thing. With the limited amount of practice
time we had, even with this experienced group of kids, we didn’t start working on the
series until week 4-5 of practice. We didn’t really run the series much until game 5 of the
season. For some teams this series will be something you won’t put in at all, for others it
may be a late season addition for a playoff run, tournament trip or maybe for a specific
game against a team you’ve already played before. One outstanding Florida Pop Warner
team put was able to put it in about 2/3 of the way through the season, but didn’t run the
series until they made their playoff run to Disney. This was a very well coached age 9-11
team that I had done a clinic for and had blown out everyone in its regular season. They
were executing their base plays to near perfection.
The Base Set
In order to run this series at the youth level we had to develop a formation that would not
only accommodate the backfield action but allow for the right distances for key blocks to
be made.
C
LE LG RG RT PT RE
2 yards
3 yards BB
FB W
5 yards 5 yards 7
QB

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The Quarterback was moved to directly behind the center and at a depth of 3-3 1/2 yards
from the butt of the center. He has to be this deep to accommodate the jet back motion
which will pass directly in front of the Tailback. The blocking back or 3 back is in his
normal spot between the Right Guard and Right Tackle. The Fullback is put out as a
Flanker on the left side, split out 5 yards from the left end and at a depth of 2 yards from
the line of scrimmage. He is in a 2 point stance with his hands on his knees, facing the
line of scrimmage. Some coaches like their players in a 2 point wide-out stance with the
inside foot back, either will suffice, On the other side of the formation the Wingback or 4
back has the same landmarks, he is 5 yards wide of the Power Tackle and at a depth of 2
yards. He is using the same stance as the Fullback The Right End is on the line of
scrimmage and split another 7 yards from the Wingback. He is in the same stance.
This formation will widen the defense out and make them defend the entire field, if they
don’t, you can run jet sweep after jet sweep for big yardage every play. Once the defense
widens, you can run all your base plays under the jet motion.
The Base Motion
There are a number of keys to running the

jet to its full potential, number one in my
book is that the motion HAS to be run at 7/8
speed. The jet back has to run under control
to the mesh point. We found that if they
were going full blast prior to the exchange
they had less confidence in the play and they
often missed their landmarks. If your motion
backs don’t feel confident in their timing or
landmarks or refuse to run at near full speed,
the play will not be very effective. We teach
the initial step of the jet back as a short 6
inch drop step with the players inside foot.
As he drops his inside foot, he should be
facing the opposite sidelines and in a near full sprint to his landmarks.
We ask the motion backs to leave on a

specific letter of a word in the cadence we
use. In our “Shift, Down…. Ready..
Seeeeeeet…….Go”, we ask the motion
backs to leave on the “s” of set. You may
have to alter either the letter of the word the
motion back leaves on or his spacing from
the widest lineman to give you the timing
needed to make the play work. This will
take some time to figure out as you rep the

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plays. Also remember that your motion back will probably be running a full 25-35 yards
at full sprint on these plays, so come game time either have another motion back ready at
that position or make sure to alternate your play calling so you don’t wear those motion
backs out.
Landmarks
Landmarks are important in youth football,

kids need visual keys to help them make the
play work and to make themselves feel
comfortable about running the play at full
speed. Your goal is to have the motion back
on the left side be at the outside shoulder of
the left end when the ball is snapped. This
gives you enough time to have the ball go
through the air and have Tailback seat the ball
just as the motion back arrives. The motion
backs aiming point in his initial motion is the
inside foot of the Tailback. Since the Tailback
is lined up deeper than the motion back, this
satisfies the requirement that the motion back
be moving away from the line of scrimmage during his motion. The right side motion
backs landmark is the outside shoulder of the Right Tackle.
If the motion back sees he is going to hit his landmark too fast, he needs to slow down, if
he’s too far away, he needs to speed up. Obviously it’s very important to make sure the
cadence is being said the same way at the same speed in order for the timing to be
perfect. If the ball is snapped too late, you will have a logjam at the Tailback and the
motion back will have to slow down or stop to get his handoff. If he does this, he will
lose all his momentum and the play won’t go anywhere. If the snap is too early, there will
not be a tight mesh between the Tailback and motion back and you will lose any
deception you were hoping for and give the defense a lot of time to set up to defend the
play.
This is a boom-boom play; the snap has to be in the Quarterbacks hands just as the
motion back arrives in nearly full stride. If you have my 2007 season DVD, you see how
great the plays work when the motion back is running at near full speed and the mesh is
tight, versus when the timing isn’t as tight. There are some great clips of that series in the
DVD and you see the progress we make from game 5 to game 10 with it.
The Handoff
Once the handoff is made, the jet back must accelerate to full speed and dip immediately
away from the line of scrimmage, about an additional yard in depth. This allows the seal
block to be made at the edge and allows room for the pulling Right Guard and Blocking
Back to get out in front of the play.

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Other Important Tips
We are not a big fan of reach blocking in youth football, it is the hardest to teach and the
least effective, especially against very wide defensive ends as many of us see. The all
important perimeter block on the jet sweep is done by the Wingback on jet sweep plays to
the Fullback and the block is by the Fullback on jet sweep plays by the Wingback. The
perimeter block is executed against the Defensive End to the side the play is going to.
This block has to be made with the blockers head on the outside of the defender. While
this is often a very devastating block it just has to take the Defensive End off his path or
interrupt the Ends momentum and pursuit for a full second for the block to be effective.
The perimeter block angle has to be where the defender will be, not where he is aligned
originally. This often means this is a very flat angle block.
You may have to adjust the split of the perimeter blocker to make sure he can execute
this very important block, if he’s a real slow player, the split is shorter. Again, this is
something you will have to rep in practice and makes small adjustments based on the
skills of your specific personnel.
Naming Conventions
Try and keep things as simple as possible

and use as few words as possible when
naming your plays, Since we are no-
huddle 100% of the time, that goes double
for us. When the Fullback who is set on
the left side motions right, it is called
“Rocket”, he is motioning to his right,
hence an “R” word. When the Wingback
who is set on the right is motioning left, it
is called “Lazer” an “L” word. Whenever
the kids hear Rocket or Lazer, they know
the formation they use will be the Spread Set.
On some specific plays it makes sense to move the Blocking Back or 3 back to the left
side of the formation. He is still between the Guard and the next offensive linemen but
when he is moved to the left side, this is called “Larry”. We like to use boys names for
some of our tags because it’s simple to throw out dummy calls, the other team has no idea
what our kids names are.

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Rocket 28 Sweep
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- Pulls right to just past the Power Tackle. He comes off that edge and seals the
Linebacker that presents the biggest threat (first he sees) head on the outside. If any
leakage occurs he picks that up first.
RT- GOD, If he has an inside gap or down block, takes a very flat first step to
WB- Blocks defensive end inside, the Wingbacks head is on the outside.
BB- He runs a loop outside the Power Tackle, and behind the block of the defensive
end and looks for the Outside Linebacker or the near Backer/first threat. He tries
to seal the Linebacker to the inside with his head on the outside.
FB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Quarterbacks inside foot.
He wants to be at the outside shoulder of the right end on the “G” of “Go”. He takes
an inside handoff from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up, then cradles
the ball in his right elbow. He gains depth just after the handoff to a spot just
deeper than the Quarterback and runs to the boundary, looking to outflank the
defense. He looks to the far outside and runs off the block of the outside receiver, if
the end can’t seal the corner to the inside, he looks to the cut it up into space.
Fullback to arrive, hands the ball to the Fullback, looking the ball all the way into
the backs belly.
He then fakes a 16 power run keeping his body low and with his hands in the faking
position, left palm into right fist, elbows in.

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Lazer “Larry” 47 Sweep
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- GOD
FB- Blocks defensive end inside, the fullbacks head is on the outside.
BB- He runs a loop outside the Left End, and behind the Fullbacks block of the
Defensive End and looks for the Outside Linebacker or the near Corner. He tries to
seal the threat to the inside with his head on the outside.
WB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Quarterbacks inside foot.
He wants to be at the outside shoulder of the right end on the “G” of “Go”. He takes
a handoff from the Quarterback, right arm down, left arm up, then cradles the ball
in his left elbow. He gains depth just after the handoff to a spot just deeper than the
Quarterback and runs to the boundary, looking to outflank the defense. He looks to
the far outside and runs off the block of the Blocking Back, if the Blocking Back
can’t seal the corner to the inside, he looks to the cut it up into space.
Wingback to arrive, hands the ball to the Wingback, looking the ball all the way
into the backs belly. He then fakes a 16 power run keeping his body low and with
his hands in the faking position, left palm into right fist, elbows in.

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Lazer “Larry” 12 Trap
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- GD- Gap, Down, We are trapping first player on or outside him.
RT- Far Linebacker. If there is a 5-3 it is the Middle Linebacker, if it’s a 6-2 it’s the
far linebacker. He must avoid the defensive lineman and seal the Linebacker to the
inside, head on outside.
PT- Near Linebacker. He must seal to the outside, head on inside. He must avoid the
defensive linemen and get to the linebacker immediately.
FB- Blocks defensive end inside, the Fullbacks head is on the outside.
BB- He trap blocks the first player to his right, Keeping his head on the inside and
comes straight across for a crushing block on a blindsided Defensive Tackle.
WB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Quarterbacks inside foot.
takes a fake handoff from the Quarterback, right hand into left fist, elbows in,
right shoulder dipped. He gains depth just after the handoff to a spot just deeper
than the Quarterback and runs to the boundary, looking to outflank the defense.
He looks to the far outside and carries his fake out 20 yards at full speed.
Wingback to arrive, fakes the ball to the Wingback, looking the ball all the way into
the backs belly. He then runs right at 2, just under the trap block by the Blocking
Back.

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Rocket 18 Sweep
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- He steps play-side
RG- He pulls right to just past the power tackle. The RG comes off that edge and
seals the Linebacker that presents the biggest threat (first he sees) head on the
outside. If any leakage occurs he picks that up first.
RT- GOD, If he has an inside gap or down block, the RT must take a very flat first
step to protect and cover for the pulling Right Guard.
PT- GOD, he looks to get the head to the inside.
RE- He stalk blocks the nearest Defensive Back.
WB- He stalk blocks the nearest Defensive Back.
BB- He runs loop outside the End and then looks for the Outside Linebacker or
near backer or first threat. The BB must seal the Linebacker to the inside with his
head on the outside.
FB- He motions to just past the Defensive End, on “go” he blocks the Defensive End
to the inside, with his head on the outside.
QB- Ball is not snapped until after the Fullback clears the Defensive End. The
Quarterback runs a deep looping path, 1- 1 ½ yards deeper than his stance. He must
accelerate upon securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit makes the tackle. We
look to take this play to the far outside. The Quarterback runs off the block of the
two outside receivers, if they can’t seal the Defensive Backs to the inside the
Quarterback looks to the cut it up to the inside.

95
Lazer 17
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- He steps play-side
RG- GOD
RT- GOD, If he has an inside gap or down block, the RT must take a very flat first
step to protect and cover for the pulling Right Guard.
PT- GOD, he looks to get the head to the inside.
WB- He seals the Defensive End in, head on the outside.
BB- He runs loop outside the End and then looks for the Outside Linebacker or
near backer or first threat. The BB must seal the Linebacker to the inside with his
head on the outside.
FB- He motions to just inside the Defensive End, on “go” he blocks the Defensive
End to the inside, with his head on the outside.
QB- Ball is snapped before Fullback clears the Defensive End. The Quarterback
runs a deep looping path, 1- 1 ½ yards deeper than his stance. He must accelerate
upon securing the ball to insure no backside pursuit makes the tackle. We look to
take this play to the far outside. The Quarterback is one-on-one with the
Cornerback.

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Other Plays Out of the “Jet”
The possibilities are fairly endless for plays

you can run out of your base playbook using
jet motion. We like the Rocket or Lazer 32
wedge, a simple direct snap to the Blocking
Back or 3 back, but now you are threatening
the edge with a jet sweep as well as the 6 hole
with a fake Tailback 16-power. You also have
at least 3 fewer defenders “in the box” on this
play.
We also like the Rocket 31-trap and Rocket

16-power out of this series. Once you have the
defense flying to defend the edge with the jet motion, it is very easy to run under the
motion with your base plays. Our best play in this series was the Rocket 16 -power, in
2007 we averaged over 14 yards per carry with it as our Quarterback would run under the
pursuit and with fewer defenders to deal with. We also averaged over 20 yards per carry
on both the Lazer 12 Trap and Rocket 43 Reverse.
Make sure and set your complementary plays up with the base play (jet sweep) first to
condition the defense to flow to the motion. Once you have the base jet sweep timing
down, adding back in your base offense and the complementary plays to the jet is very
simple and goes in very quickly. This is an area you can experiment around with quite a
bit, We had success with both the Rocket and Lazer 12 Trap, see which motion gives you
the biggest advantage to get defenders flowing away from the play and use that motion.
The hardest part about putting the Jet Series in is timing up the motion. You don’t have to
put all your base plays in under the jet, but it is very easy to do. Put the plays in that you
believe in most, for us that is Rocket 16 Power, Rocket 43 Reverse, Rocket 31 Trap,
Rocket 16 Pass, Lazer 12 Trap, Rocket 18 Sweep and Rocket 32 Wedge.

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Rocket 16 Power
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- Pulls right to just past the Right Tackle. He comes up into the 6 hole, inside the
kick-out block of the Blocking Back and looks to block the Linebacker. If any
leakage occurs he picks that up first.
RE- He stalk blocks the near Defensive Back.
WB- Stalk Blocks nearest Defensive Back or Linebacker.
BB- He kick-out blocks the Defensive End, head on the inside.
He wants to be at the outside shoulder of the right end on the “G” of “Go”.
He takes an inside fake handoff from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up,
then has right fist in left palm with elbows in.. He gains depth just after the fake
handoff to a spot just deeper than the Quarterback and runs to the boundary,
looking to outflank the defense. He looks to the far outside and continues his fake at
least 20 yards.
Fullback to arrive, fake handing the ball to the Fullback, looking the ball all the
way into the backs belly. He then runs to 6, inside the kick-out block of the
Blocking Back.

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Rocket 32 Wedge
LE- Wedge
LG- Wedge
C- Wedge
RG- Wedge
RT- Wedge
PT- Wedge
WB-Blocks near Defensive End, just like Rocket 28.
BB- He takes the snap and runs wedge right, placing his hand in the back of the
Right Guard.
He wants to be at the outside shoulder of the Right End on the “G” of “Go”. He
takes an inside fake handoff from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up,
then has right fist in left palm with elbows in. He gains depth just after the fake
least 20 yards.
QB- After faking to receive the snap keep hands in midsection staying low, waiting
or the Fullback to arrive, fake handing the ball to the Fullback. He looks the ball all
the way into the 2 backs belly, then he runs to 6, right fist into left palm, elbows in.

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Rocket 43 Reverse
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- Pulls left to just past the Left End. He comes up into the 3 hole, inside the kick-
out block of the Blocking Back and looks to block the Cornerback as the
Linebackers are flowing to the jet motion. If any leakage occurs he picks that up
first.
WB- Takes a direct path to the inside of the Tailback to receive and inside handoff
with right arm down, left arm up. Takes the handoff and runs inside the kick-out
block of the Blocking Back.
BB- He kick-out blocks the Defensive End to his left, head on the inside.
FB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Tailbacks inside foot. He
wants to be at the outside shoulder of the Right End on the “G” of “Go”. He takes
an inside fake handoff from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up, then has
right fist in left palm with elbows in. He gains depth just after the fake handoff to a
spot just deeper than the Quarterback and runs to the boundary, looking to
outflank the defense. He looks to the far outside and continues his fake at least 20
yards.
Fullback to arrive, fake handing the ball to the Fullback, looking the ball all the
way into the backs belly. He hands the ball off to the Wingback on the inside after
taking two steps to the Quarterbacks right. After giving the handoff, he runs to 6,
right fist into left palm, elbows in.

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Rocket 31 Trap
LE- Near Linebacker- head to the inside.

LG- GD
C- MOMA
RG- Pulls left, traps the first man to show to his left, head to the inside.
PT- GOD.
WB- Stalk Blocks nearest Defensive Back or Linebacker.
BB- Takes the snap, hesitates in place for a full “One Mississippi” count to allow the
Right Guard to pass, then runs inside the trap block of the Right Guard at 1.
takes an inside fake handoff from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up,
then has right fist in left palm with elbows in.. He gains depth just after the fake
least 20 yards.
QB- Fakes taking the snap, fake handing the ball to the Fullback, looking the fake
ball all the way into the backs belly. He then runs to 6.

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Chapter 9
Passing Game Out of
the Spread Single
Wing
When you spread the defense out with the full
goal and intention of running your base plays out
of the spread Single Wing, you must be able to
threaten other parts of the field. When you take
defenders out of the box, with the spread, they will drift right back into the box if you fail
to have a legitimate passing threat. Now I’m not suggesting you throw the ball 40 times a
game and ask your players to do anything high risk or something that requires a lot of
talent. What I am suggesting are some very safe, low risk, high completion passes that
most Quarterbacks can make. Most of the passes are quick hitters that require very little
in the way of long term quality pass protection. The secondary goal is to take advantage
of the what the defense is giving you while putting them into conflict.
The Cross Path series which is the Cross Pass, Cross Pass and Go and Cross Pass Sluggo
is a series much like the 16 Power, 31 Trap and 43 Reverse are part of a series. When
defenses are crowding the line of scrimmage and not respecting the weakside, we like
Cross Pass Left. This play hits so quickly, the ball is out of the Quarterbacks hands
almost as quickly as he can grip the ball. Remember the Quarterback is back a bit further
in this set, about 3 yards from the Centers rear. Against teams that are playing man, we
like Cross Pass. With teams that are playing zone we like Flat Pass or 16 Pass All. With
teams that don’t play zone real well we even like Cross Pass. Of course we like the Cross
Pass and Go and Cross Pass Sluggo against man teams as well.
The first few times you throw Cross Pass, the inside receiver is almost always open. If it
is Cross Pass Left, that is the Left End. Once the defense starts jumping the flat it is time
to either start throwing to the outside receiver on the slant or running the Cross and Go.
At the youth level we don’t have our Quarterback pump fake. He just has to use his eyes
and shoulder, that is enough. When he opens his shoulder quickly while staring down the
flat receiver, the flat is going to be jumped if you have thrown the flat several times
already.
The receiver has to make eye contact with the Quarterback and put his hands out like he
is ready to make the flat pattern catch before he takes it up the field on the go. All you
need is for the defender to take that initial step towards the pattern for your receiver to
gain the advantage. The Quarterback does reset with just a hop after opening the
shoulder, you don’t want the receiver to get too deep, this is about a 15 yard pattern.
Once the defense is concentrating it’s eyes on your Left End it is time to throw the slant
to the Fullback. Once the defense starts jumping that pattern, time to run the Sluggo. Like

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the Cross and Go, the slant receiver just makes sure to show slant, making eye contact
with the Quarterback before turning his slant pattern into a go. The Quarterback like on
the Cross and Go makes the shoulder fake and eye contact before resetting and throwing
long. On both the Sluggo and Cross and Go, you need to protect for 2.5 to 3 seconds, so
you can set the Quarterback back at 3.5 yards instead of 3. All of these patterns use just 3
receivers, so you have 7 protecting on every snap.
Rocket Flat Pass
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Fly Pattern
WB- 7 Yard slant mini curl pattern.
BB- Blocks the play-side Defensive End.
FB-Motions to the right , at the snap cuts upfield and gets abut 5 yards of depth
before cutting into the flats. He continues running on the cut and do not get
additional depth.
QB- Takes the snap, bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at
the hands of the Fullback, the Quarterback doesn’t take his eyes off of the
Fullback. The QB steps back with his right foot and then steps with his left foot
towards the target as he makes his throw. Make sure the pass is slightly forward,
and not a lateral. If you have a mobile Quarterback and want to make the play
more of a run-pass have the Quarterback use the footwork from the 18 Sweep Pass.

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Cross Pass Left
LE- Runs short 5 yard crossing route just inside the Fullback, a short arrow. Look
early.
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Run deep seam pattern
WB- Blocks strong side Defensive End
FB- Runs short 5 yard crossing route behind the Left End a short slant.
QB- On the snap takes 1 short hop step back with his right foot. Read the
Cornerback and get the ball out early stepping hard with the left foot (right handed
Quarterback).
The same play can be run to the right with the fullback blocking the backside
Defensive End and the Blocking Back blocking the strong side Defensive
End. The Wingback would be running the crossing pattern outside, the Right
End running the deeper crossing pattern to the inside. This pattern should be
run so tightly that the receivers nearly run off each other.

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Cross Pass Left

105
Up Pass Left
LE- Runs short 5 yard crossing route just inside the Fullback. Look early.
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
FB- Runs short 5 yard crossing route behind the Left End.
QB--Takes the snap taking the 1 short hop step back with his throwing foot,
Bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at the hands of
the Left End. The Quarterback immediately opens his left shoulder quickly to fake
the throw. Do not have the QB pump, it takes too much time. After the quick
shoulder open the QB takes 1 hop back to reset his feet and then throws to the inside
shoulder of the LE.
The same play can be run to the right with the fullback blocking the backside
Defensive End and the Blocking Back blocking the strong side Defensive End. The
Wingback would be running the crossing pattern outside, the Right End running
the deeper crossing pattern to the inside. This pattern should be run so tightly that
the receivers nearly run off each other.

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Cross Pass Sluggo Left
LE- Runs short 5 yard crossing route just inside the Fullback. Look early.
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
FB- Runs short 5 yard crossing route behind the Left End, just after his break he
takes it vertical on a go pattern in essence a “sluggo”, slant and go.
QB- Takes the snap taking the 1 short hop step back with his throwing foot,
bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at the hands of the
Fullback. The Quarterback immediately opens his left shoulder quickly to fake the
throw. Do not have the QB pump, it takes too much time. After the quick
open the QB takes 1 hop back to reset his feet and then throws to the inside shoulder
of the FB.
The same play can be run to the right with the Fullback blocking the backside
Defensive End and the Blocking Back blocking the strong side Defensive End. The
Wingback would be running the crossing pattern outside, the Right End running
the deeper crossing pattern to the inside. This pattern should be run so tightly that
the receivers nearly run off each other.

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Smoke Series Passes
The Smoke Pass series was developed to

help us move Corners and Linebackers out
of their comfort zones and base alignments.
If they like playing deep, it often forced
them to not play deep. If they liked to play
press coverage, it forced them not to play
press. It also allows you to get mismatches
if you have athletes or even a single athlete.
Any time you see a Corner playing

deeper than 7-8 yards the Smoke Pass
should be a nice gain. Run the Smoke
Pass a few times and see if the
Defensive Backs don’t start playing
much tighter. Any time you see a
Corner playing tighter than 4 yards the
Smoke and Go or Go Pass looks like a
nice option. Run this play enough and
see teams switch to cover 2 and your
strongside run game opens up huge
with nice numbers advantages.
The Smoke Pass is a very low risk, high

completion percentage play. It is one we
practice a lot as a base for teaching players
proper hand placement and ball seating.
The receiver takes 3 aggressive steps
forward and pivots on outside foot and
then takes 2 steps back towards the line of
scrimmage. On the left side that means
your Fullback leads with his left foot, on
his third step he pivots to the inside on
that same left foot and comes right back
on the same path 2 steps. The receiver
has to come out hard like he is running a
go pattern and stick his third step with
out shortening the stride too much or
flailing the arms, which will give the
defense and hitch read.
The ball is thrown as soon as possible.

The Quarterback takes a hop back with
his right foot as he takes the snap. He must take the ball over his shoulder on the hop, set
his back foot, step directly at the receiver and throw the ball to a spot, not the receiver.

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He needs to put some heat on this throw, it has to come out quickly and be thrown on a
rope. If you have a Quarterback with real small hands who has a hard time seating the
ball and getting a grip, this isn’t a good play for him.
Coaching Points
If you practice this enough, the ball is being thrown just as the receiver is making his
pivot and is taking his first step back. You want the target to be high so the receiver can
quickly gain control of the ball, seat it and head upfield. This is why the play takes some
time to perfect, it is not intuitive to lead a player moving back toward the line of
scrimmage. Make sure and rep the receiver getting his hands out in a nice triangle. Also
make sure this is a forward pass and not a lateral another reason the receiver has to take 3
full steps beforecoming back just 2 and the Quarterback being aligned at 3 -3 ½ yards
behind the Center.
The lead blocker must use the receivers initial starting point as his aiming point. If the
blocker does not get out quickly or uses the defenders existing position as his aiming
point, he has little chance of making that block. The blocker must anticipate that the
defender will respond and be near the line of scrimmage once the blocker arrives.
Smoke and Go Pass
Once the defense starts playing for the smoke pass you can either throw the Smoke and
Go or just the straight Go pass. The Smoke and Go is thrown very similar to how you
throw the Cross and Go. The Quarterback needs to start a tad bit deeper, as the play takes
a little longer to get off. The Quarterback uses the same open shoulder and reset hop as he
used on the Cross and Go. He is looking for the inside receiver who is running as if he is
going to make the clearing block on the defender over the outside receiver. Once the
inside receiver just clears the outside defender, he turns up the field and looks for the
football.
The Go Pass
You can run the straight Go Pass a few different ways. If the closest defender is in press
coverage your Go receiver just has to clear him and run a fly pattern. If the defender is
inside, the pattern may fade a little, if the defender is on him, an inside release often
works well to shield the defender. If the defender is playing 5 yards and is looking to play
the ball deep, the receiver can hesitate after 3 steps to give the defender a short hitch read
to get the defender to bite.
We prefer to throw this when we know we have a long ball advantage so the Quarterback
can get rid of the ball early and the receiver catches the ball in stride at about 16 yards.
We also like this when we see we may have an athlete advantage. This is not a situation
where the other team has a minimum play player in, but where we place our best athlete
against their average or good athlete. In any case, once you threaten the defense with the
pass, your run game will open up

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Smoke Pass Left
LE- Aggressively blocks the man covering the Fullback.

LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Runs 7 yard post pattern at the Safety.
FB- At the snap, takes two steps forward, plants and steps back 3 steps and faces
towards the Quarterback, give him both hands as a chest high target. Once the ball
is caught, seat the ball and take it upfield off the block of the Left End. If he drops
the ball or it is incomplete for any reason, make sure he dives on the ball, as this
may be a lateral pass.
BB- Blocks the weak-side Defensive End.
WB- Gets in tight enough to block the near side Defensive End inside.
QB- Takes the snap, bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at
the hands of the FB, the Quarterback doesn’t take his eyes off of the Fullback. The
Quarterback steps back with his right foot in a short hop step as he receives the
snap and then steps with his left foot towards the target as he makes his throw
(assuming he is right handed). Make sure the pass is slightly forward, and not a
lateral. He releases the ball to a point, not after the Fullback has made his cut. The
Fullback is coming back to the ball as it is in the air.
Note: To run the play to the just switch the responsibilities of the Wingback for
Fullback, and Right End for Left End. The 3 back would block strongside Defensive
End.

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Smoke and Go Pass Left
LE- Runs right at the defender covering the FB and just before making contact cuts
up the field on a go pattern.
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Runs 7 yard post pattern a the Safety.
FB- At the snap, takes two steps forward, plants and steps back 3 steps and faces
towards the Quarterback, give him both hands as a chest high target and really look
like you are getting the ball.
QB- Takes the snap taking the 1 short hop step back with his throwing foot,
bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at the hands of the
Fullback. The Quarterback immediately opens his left shoulder quickly to fake the
throw. Do not have the QB pump, it takes too much time. After the quick shoulder
open the QB takes 1 hop back to reset his feet and then throws to the inside
shoulder of the LE.
Note: To run the play to the just switch the responsibilities of the Wingback for
Fullback, and Right End for Left End. The 3 back would block strongside Defensive
End.

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Go Pass Left
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Runs 7 yard post pattern at the Safety.
FB- Go Pattern, if the Corner is inside position he fades a bit to the outside. If the
Corner has outside position get inside and shield the defender with your body.
QB- Takes the snap, taking the 1 short hop step back with his throwing foot.
Bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at the hands of the
Fullback, the Quarterback doesn’t take his eyes off of the FB. The Quarterback
steps back with his right foot and then steps with his left foot towards the target as
he makes his throw (assuming he is right handed). This is not a deep throw, looking
to hit the FB in stride at about 10 yards.
Note: To run the play to the just have the Right End run the go, the FB runs the
post, WB blocks playside Defensive End. The 3 back would block weakside
Defensive End.

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Bust Pass
LE- Seam Pattern.

LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- GOO
RE- Runs 12 yard stem, then corner pattern.
FB- Runs 12 yard stem, then corner pattern.
WB- Seam Pattern.
Bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks directly at the hands of
Note: This is a nice play against a 6-3 style defense, the Corners have to commit to
covering the deep outside, leaving the middle to be covered by the Mike. He can’t
cover both inside receivers. This play works well against most types of Cover 1,
Cover 2 or Cover 3 type defense.

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Shallow Pass Lonnie
LE- OT
LG- OT
C- OT
RG- OT
RT- OT
PT- OT
RE- Runs shallow crossing pattern right at Linebacker level to take them away
from the play
FB- Shallow pattern right at the heels of the Defensive Linemen on full sprint. Cheat
In a little if you need to.
BB- Blocks the strongside Defensive End.
WB- Runs corner pattern with an 8 yard stem to draw the Corner and Safety away
from the play.
Bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks away at the crossing Wingback
to his left. The Quarterback then picks up the crossing Fullback and passes to him
just as he clears the Defensive End. The Quarterback steps with his left foot towards
the target as he makes his throw (assuming he is right handed). This is not a deep
throw, looking to hit the Fullback in full stride.
Lonnie just denotes a full slide type protection scheme where the Offensive Linemen
block in the direction of the call- Lonnie, to the left while the Blocking Back blocks
the end man on the line of scrimmage in the opposite direction.

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Shallow Pass Randy
LE- Corner pattern with 8 yard stem to take the Corner away from the play.
LG- OT
C- OT
RG- OT
RT- OT
PT- OT
RE- Runs post pattern with 6 yard stem to take Safety away from the play.
FB- Runs shallow crossing pattern right at Linebacker level to take them away
from the play.
BB- Blocks the weak side Defensive End.
WB- Runs Shallow pattern right at the heels of the Defensive Linemen on full
sprint. Cheat in a little if you need to.
Bringing the ball to his ear in one motion and looks away at the crossing Fullback
to his right. The Quarterback then picks up the crossing Wingback and passes to
him just as he clears the Defensive End. The Quarterback steps with his left foot
towards the target as he makes his throw (assuming he is right handed). This is not
a deep throw, looking to hit the Wingback in full stride.
Randy just denotes a slide type protection scheme where the Offensive Linemen
block in the direction of the call. Randy, to the right with the blocking rule being
On, Towards while the Blocking Back blocks the end man on the line of scrimmage
in the opposite direction.

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Smash Pass Right Randy
LE- OT
LG- OT
C- OT
RG- OT
RT- OT
PT- OT
RE- Runs 7 yard hitch pattern.
FB- Go Pattern, if the Corner is inside position he fades a bit to the outside. If the
Corner has outside position get inside and shield the defender with your body.
WB- Runs a corner pattern with a stem of about 9 yards.
QB- Takes the snap, taking a 1 step drop, keeping his eyes on the playside
Cornerback. If the Corner stays shallow, he throws to the Fullback on the Corner
route, if the Corner runs deep, he throws to the hitch route.
Randy just denotes a slide type protection scheme where the Offensive Linemen
block in the direction of the call- Randy, to the right while the Blocking Back blocks
the end man on the line of scrimmage in the opposite direction.
Note: To run the play to the left just have the Fullback run the hitch and the Left
End run the Corner. You can block it Randy or Lonnie

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Chapter 10
Formationing
Formationing is one of the oldest tricks in the book to

get your team numbers, angle and mechanical advantages. It is often the simplest method
to improve a play or to take advantage of what the defense is giving you. The first year
we ran this offense, we ran everything out of the base unbalanced set. We did very well,
winning the league title with an 11-1 record as well as the league scoring title. The next
year with an age 8-10 select team, we went 12-0 and scored on every possession of every
game with just 3 formations.
As time moved on we added and subtracted formations until settling on just a handful in
2010. Here was the latest breakdown for the teams I had in 2009:
Grade 3-4: 3 Formations, 14 plays, 3 adjustments
Grade 5-6: 5 Formations, 22 Plays, 5 adjustments
Grade 7-8: 6 Formations, 28 Plays, 8 adjustments
Each year the number of plays, formations and adjustments varies just a bit, as no 2 teams
are ever exactly alike. It all depends on how well they master each building block as to
how big you build your “house.”. Remember my kids have been running this system here
for their entire playing “careers”. My coaches are also well versed in the system with
many having 2-3 years with me by now. We are going to talk about formations, which
ones we think you should use, why and what the best plays out of them are.
Base

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Double
Double
Double just means you are going to move the Blocking Back to the left wing. You it
when you want to run the weakside wide or when the defense is trying to send blitzers off
of the weakside edge. When teams are blitzing off the weakside edge it is very simple to
just outflank them, pin them in and run outside of them. The simplest way to do this is to
move your Blocking Back to the wing.
Plays you can run out of Double: 22 Wedge, Mouse 22 Wedge, Mouse 47 Sweep, 43
Reverse, 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Pass, No Play, Spinner 47, 16 Pass
War

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War means wings all right. Just move the Blocking Back to the Wingback position and
move the Wingback to the outside shoulder of the Blocking Back. This is an easy way to
get numbers to the edge and putting your Blocking Back in a position to be more
effective on a number of plays.
Plays you can run out of War: No Play, 22 Wedge, 16 Power, 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Pass,
Mouse 22 Wedge, all 16 Passes, Spinner 18 Sweep, Spinner 26 Power, 43 Reverse (have
the 2 Back kick-out the Defensive End), Mouse 16 Power
Omaha
C
2
Omaha
We started using Omaha in 2007 when we had a team of all rookie 7-9 year olds. The 2
Back was having a real tough time getting out on the Cornerback on the 16 Power. This
Fullback wasn’t very quick and he was clogging up the 6 hole on 16 Power, creating
quite a log jam. Out of desperation we started splitting him out wide about 7 yards. By
having him split this wide we were formationing the Corner out of the play and allowing
the Fullback and unimpeded path to his blocking target. This also works well if you have
a Defensive End or Corner screaming off the strongside edge. If a Defensive End is doing
this outside your Wingback, you pin him in with the Fullback and run wide. If the Corner
is doing this you just run a Go Pass.
In 2010 my age 10-11 team also had a very slow Fullback. To max out our team
dynamic, he was our best choice. In his rookie year he had played Left Guard. In his
second year, he was our best choice to play Fullback. No matter how hard he tried, he just
could not effectively block the corner. His lack of speed and body control often meant
when he was able to get into position to block, his feet were out of position and he would
get called for holding. He was desperate to make the block, he just couldn’t, it happens.

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Omaha was a lifesaver for him and our team that year. As the season progressed we ran
nearly half of our power series plays out of Omaha.
Plays you can run out of Omaha: No Play, 32 Wedge, 16 Power, Mouse 32 Wedge,
Mouse 16 Power, 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Pass (stay), 16 Pass, 43 Reverse, 31 Trap
Nasty
Nasty
Nasty is covered in depth in the adjustments section here. Plays you can run out of Nasty:
16 Power, 18 Sweep, 22 Wedge, 32 Wedge, 18 Sweep Pass, 31 Trap, 16 Pass, No Play
Split
LE

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Split
Split means you just split your left end to the far right. It is something we often use late in
the season or very early in a playoff game. It gives you an additional blocker at the point
of attack since you don’t have to block the strongside Corner with a back. This is a
formation we rarely use for more than a play or two and may sometimes allow the Left
Guard to use a 1 foot split to widen the edge.
Plays you can run out of Split: 16 Power, 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Pass, No Play, 32 Wedge

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Chapter 11
Trick Plays
First let me go on record that I am not a fan of
so called trick plays. Too many youth football
teams spend time on trick plays that could be
better spent on perfecting fundamentals or by
putting in a couple of simple blocking or
formationing adjustments to their base plays.
On the other hand you may be in an odd situation just before the half or the end of a game
where a trick type play may make sense. It’s always good to have a throw away play that
can be used in these type situations. To me trick plays are plays that are high risk, high
reward and are long yardage plays. The three we have had the most success with are
Rocket 47 Reverse, Fire Truck and Power Tackle Special.
Don’t bother putting in trick plays until midway through the season after you have found
your team identity and you have the rest of your offense down. Then start with Fire Truck
and hope you don’t ever have to use any of them.

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Rocket 47 Reverse
LE- GOD
LG- GOD
C- Steps play-side
RG- Pulls left to just past the Left End. He comes up into the 3 hole, inside the kick-
out block of the Blocking Back and looks to block the Cornerback as the
Linebackers are flowing to the jet motion. If any leakage occurs he picks that up
first.
WB- Takes a direct path to the inside of the Fullback to receive and outside handoff
with left arm down, right arm up. Takes the handoff and run to daylight at 7.
BB- He blocks the Defensive End to his right, head on the inside.
FB- Motions on the “R” of “Ready” to a landmark of the Tailbacks inside foot. He
wants to be at the outside shoulder of the Right End on the “G” of “Go”. He takes
the ball from the Quarterback, left arm down, right arm up. He continues on a
shallow path to the 8 and hands the ball off on the outside to the Wingback. Once
the Fullback makes the handoff he continues to the 8 faking as if he has the ball.
Fullback to arrive, handing the ball to the Fullback, looking the ball all the way into
the backs belly. He hands the ball off to the Wingback on the inside after taking two
steps to the Quarterbacks right. After giving the handoff, he runs to 7 and looks for
most dangerous opposite colored jersey.

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Fire Truck
LE- Fly Pattern

LG- Riley- Slide
C- Riley Slide
RG- Riley Slide
RT- Riley Slide
PT- Riley Slide
RE- Post Pattern with 8 yard stem.
WB- 7 yard curl pattern opening to the inside.
BB- He blocks the Defensive End to his left, head on the inside.
FB- Classic shallow pattern running at the heels of the Defensive Linemen, takes
pitch from the Wingback just past the Defensive End. Take ball to the sidelines.
QB- Throw to the Wingback at chest level so he can make the pitch. Get rid of the
ball as the Wingback is making his break to the curl.

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Power Tackle Special Pass
LE- GOO
LG- GOO
C- GOO
RG- GOO
RT- GOO
PT- Engage Defensive Tackle for one count then
get immediately into the open area look for the
ball at 7 yards.
RE- Post Pattern with 8 yard stem.
WB- Post pattern with 7 yard stem.
BB- He blocks the Defensive End to his right,
head on the inside.
FB- Fly pattern.
QB- Throw to the Power Tackle, outside shoulder at about 10 yards. Once you have
conditioned the defense to think the Right End is on the line of scrimmage and the Full
Back is off, they can usually be fooled with the Power Tackle eligible pass. The Right
End now must come off the line of scrimmage and be even with the Wingback. The
Fullback must move to the line of scrimmage to insure we are compliant with the rule
that requires you to have 7 players on the line of scrimmage. The Left End is now
covered and can not go out for a pass. However now the Power Tackle is uncovered and
he is eligible. This can be an effective play especially if you have a deep threat player at
Right End or Wingback that the defense is paying attention to. If you this is a play you
think you are going to use, you need to review it with the referee staff prior to the game.

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Chapter 12
Blocking
Adjustments
Blocking adjustments are often time the biggest bang for your buck after you have
mastered most of the basic fundamentals and plays. The key is combining these
adjustments with what you have isolated as problems in the play calling section of the
book and this addendum.
Nasty
“Nasty” means nasty split. “Split” out the Right End out about 1-1/2 to 2 1/2 yards, with
the Wing still in the same 1 x 1 wing relationship to the Right Ends outside. You are
trying to widen the Defensive End out to make an easier block for our 3 back and give
your Right End a better angle for his down or double-team block. Pay careful attention to
what the Defensive End (DE) does on this. If the DE widens, tell your right end to keep
scooting wider, the wider we can get the DE to go, the wider the hole is to start with on
our 16-power. If the DE does widen, your wingback may have to take a route inside the
defensive end to get to his linebacker blocking responsibilities. If the DE doesn’t widen
he is easy pickings on the sweep, a simple down block will pin him in.
Nasty 16 Power

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Tunnel Call
This tells your Right End to block the Defensive End outside instead of his usual GOD
rule. Do this if you see your right end doesn’t have a player to his inside gap and you
have widened the Defensive End. On this adjustment, the Wingback also blocks the
Corner out instead of going to the Outside Linebacker (OLB). Lead through with the
Blocking Back looking inside for a Linebacker, with the Right Guard (RG) looking inside
for the Linebacker too. The Fullback is now looking outside instead of blocking the
Corner. The combination of nasty and tunnel has been our most used adjustment. We also
use that call on the 18 sweep as well when we see the Defensive End slide inside the
Nasty Split. You can play games with that Defensive End and make him wrong all day
long with this simple adjustment.
Nasty Tunnel 16 Power
When you go no-huddle there are so may more options for you and you are so much
more efficient at calling the correct plays for the alignments you see. In the above
example we probably called a Nasty Tunnel 16 Power, but once the Defensive End slides
inside the nasty split, he is easy pickings for an 18 Sweep. If I see that I simply change
the play call, even if the players have started the cadence. That is why it is important that
the wrist bands go on the arm that is not being placed on the ground.
Remember that if you decide to call Nasty- Tunnel there can not be a player on the
outside shoulder of the Power Tackle or wider. Using the GOD rule and with the Right

127
End blocking out, the player on the outside shoulder of the Power Tackle would be
unblocked.
Adjustments on the 16 Power
Not all of the adjustments we make on the 16 Power were in the original materials. We
have added and subtracted them over time based on their long term effectiveness. With
some of these adjustments there is a call made on others, we let the player determine the
adjustment based on alignment.
Under
When a Defensive End widens and your Wingback can come under the Defensive End to
get to the near Linebacker, the “Under Call” makes a lot of sense. Or if you see a
Linebacker sitting shallow in the 6 hole the Under makes a lot of sense.
You can make an Under call or teach your Wingback to read it and make the decision for
himself. This is one of the simplest and easiest adjustments to put in.

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When a Defensive End is giving you a tough time, try coming under the Blocking Back
with the Guard kicking out the Defensive End. Cheat your Blocking Back in real tight so
the Right Guard can get in front of him to make the “G” block. Sometimes you can even
earhole that Defensive End when he gets used to spying the Blocking Back.
You can use a G adjustment on both the 16 Power and the 43 Reverse plays.
Wrong

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When you see a Linebacker spying your Blocking Back, Wrong is a good place to start.
Start by running 22 Wedge with the Blocking Back running hard to his left, taking the
weakside Defensive End. If the Linebacker continues to spy your 3 Back, run the 16
Power Wrong, but use your Right Guard to kickout the playside Defensive End.
Spying the 3 Back is a good deal for your offense, as you will be able to take one of the
other teams best players away from the play without even having to block him. Usually
once you go “wrong” a few times, that Linebacker gets completely confused and isn’t
worth a darn.
Gap On Double Team
Some teams will try and sit in your 6 hole or have their Defensive Tackles slide to the 6
hole just before the snap. If your Power Tackle follows his blocking rule of GOD, many
times you are not going to have a double team block at the point of attack if you are
running the 6 hole.
If your Power Tackle is pretty bright you can tell him that for him the GOD rule doesn’t
mean Inside Gap, On, Down, it means Inside Gap, On, Double Team. It just means the if
there is not a defensive player on his inside gap or on him, he has permission to go to his
outside and double team the defender in the 6 hole with the Right End.
You can also do this with your Right Tackle if you think he can handle it. If he has no
one in his inside gap, he looks on, if there is no one on, he looks to the outside to see if he
can double team the defensive tackle with the player to his outside, if he can’t he just
down blocks.
Again, I’m not a big fan of using this approach with kids 9 or under or rookie teams
under the age of 10. But if you have a good group of kids that have experience with these
blocking rules and they are smart and are playing well, they can be candidates for helping
you get another body where you want it on the power and sweep.

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Gap On Double Team
Special
Special is an adjustment that makes a lot of sense when you face teams that want to be in
4-4, 4-3 or 3-5-3 stack type defenses. This can even be very effective against a 5-3 or 5-2
defense if your Center can crab block the Nose Tackle and or the Defensive Tackle is on
or outside shoulder of your Right Tackle. While we all know per the book that we are
going to wedge those 4 or 3 man front defenses unmercifully until they call timeout and
move into another defense, if you want them to stay in that defense, special may be what
you are looking for.

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On a base 4-4, 3 man front or even some 5 man fronts, if your players stick to their base
GOD blocking rules, you are often times going to have 3 and sometimes 4 players
blocking the same defender. While we love doubleteams, 3 or 4 on 1 probably isn’t your
wisest use of the chessboard. Special simply means that the Right End has permission to
go to the inside linebacker if he sees that the player he is supposed to block is all the way
down to over the Right Tackle. Your better Right Ends when they step down to block
inside to help the Power Tackle with a doubleteam block can often times feel that the
Power Tackle has control and has movement. When your Right End is athletic ( he
should be per the book) he come off that block and seal the inside backer off to the
inside.
If your Right Guard is quick and athletic, he can make an adjustment to his blocking
assignment as well. If he can get to the near backer with relative ease, he can bypass the
pull and go directly to his target. On a 4-4 or 3-3 where we know both the Right End and
the Right Guard can get to the second level with ease, we just tag it “both” so the Right
Guard is going to near weakside Linebacker and not blocking the same player as the
Right End.
You have to be careful with this call, not every player has the mobility to smarts to be
consistent with this call. Last season my 7-8th grade team had a smallish but quick Right
Guard who had played for us for 5 seasons, he was an honor roll student. The Right End
was a 4th year player, athletic and “football” smart, it was a good fit for that group.
Definitely NOT the type of call you want to use when you are working with first year
kids or struggling teams.

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Technique Adjustments
There are several technique adjustments that have been put in over time. When you play
as many games as we have running the same system, you just end up by trial and error
what works well.
The Center Abusers
One of the most commonly used “strategies” is the torture the center “non strategy”.
When you run the Single Wing and score a lot of points, teams will often times get very
desperate and seek out simple but unconventional ways to stop your offense. After
getting bludgeoned with a small group of plays over and over for consistent yardage,
expect to see the frustration it is inevitable. One of the most common methods these
frustrated coaches use to vent is to try and abuse your center. I hear it all the time, just
last year I was in Baltimore speaking in front of a group of over 300 coaches. As I was
giving my Single Wing presentation I could hear a skeptical coach telling his buddy, “all
we have to do is have our middle backer crush the center on every play, they won’t be
able to get their snaps off.”
I found this to be quite laughable. Did this coach think that over the course of 100+
games that there wasn’t a single coach that had ever tried this ingenious and
groundbreaking breakthrough strategy on one of my teams? Well Lombardi, yes it has
been tried, about 30% of the teams we have played have tried it. None of the teams that
have played against our system for more than a single game ever tried it again, because it
NEVER WORKED. What ended up happening was the defense would use up one of
their very best players against one of my very average players and never make a tackle.
With zero splits and crab blocking there just isn’t much room to make anything happen.
We will make that trade any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

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Make sure and have your centers work with your backs more nearly half of most
offensive practices. Your pre-practice warm ups should always include plenty of Center
snaps to throwing quarterbacks, punters and kick holders. Your back drills and play reps
should almost always include a snapped ball from your center. One way to make sure
your backs get used to contact is to have a coach standing over the center with a tall or
shield bag, who gives the Center a little tap after each snap. We prefer our Centers to
excel at crab blocking after the snap so we always align a coach either on or over a gap or
two any time the center is snapping. On the snap the coach will try and penetrate at full
speed with the tall bag, the Center of course just cuts him off. This gets your center used
to snapping and crabbing, snapping and crabbing. It becomes second nature to him.
By using these ideas your Centers should be making anywhere from 120-180 snaps in
most offensive practices. We’ve had countless games where teams have put their best
player over our center and tried to disrupt the exchange, it has never worked, as our
Center simply snaps and executes a simple crab block in tight quarters to neutralize the
other player. In fact we LOVE it when teams try and do this, they trade one of their very
best players for one of our average ones, a trade I will make any day of the week and
twice on Sundays. If you really get frustrated just keep your Right Guard at home and
have him help your Center out. In most cases if a stud is over your Center you would
need to pull the Guard anyways. While we beat the team that had the coach that yelled,
“punish him” by 38-6, I eventually tired of hearing him say it and ran six 22 Wedge plays
in a row to shut him up and to get him to stop. You can always do that as well.
Wedge Problems
If you’re having a tough time getting the wedge to come together quickly, look to see if
the linemen are standing up or coming up high before stepping or getting high before
they put their shoulder into the ribcage of the player to their inside. Each lineman has to
come out of his stance low and fit immediately to the rib cage of the player to his inside.
If this is a problem for your team go back to doing wedge fits and perfect that again
before you are repping wedge plays.
If you are having a problem keeping the wedge together, make sure you have quick
enough kids on the ends, if not make a change. If they still can’t stay together, start your
wedge fit drills with only wedging the Right Guard with a player on both sides. When
you get that down, keep adding players to both sides until all seven are there. I like to put
two long dummies about 3 yards in front of the line, perpendicular and tighter than the
formation by 3 feet on both sides. Run the drill and make sure you are getting enough
compression to get through the dummies. It needs to look like a V. You have to drill the
wedge every day even for a short time. We found even though we ran the series very
well, when we went away from it, the kids struggled with the play.

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Wedge Divers
If you have a problem with kids diving your wedge, join the group, it happens. The first
line of defense against that tactic is to make sure your kids keep moving. They have to
keep their knees up and pick up their feet. To prepare for this when your linemen are
doing wedge drills, toss small hand shields at their feet as they take the wedge downfield.
With bigger kids we have even rolled the tall dummies at their feet. Your linemen have to
get used to stepping over and sometimes on other players. While we don’t want our kids
to purposely hurt anyone, football is a game of contact and if someone gets their hand
stepped on, that’s part of the game.
We have our players give a hand signal to us when the other team is diving the wedge.
When we see this signal we will go away from the wedge right away and take advantage
of other openings, our motto is “They can give us
the edge or the wedge, we don’t care which.” If
you see divers, remind your kids to keep their
knees up and come back to the wedge later in the
game. It is very rare for a team to dive the entire
game, especially if you have backed away from
running the wedge or they’ve had a few kids get
trampled. In one memorable game in 2003 the
other team came out with A and B gap divers, 4 in
all. We never bothered running a wedge play in
that game, we started with 7 consecutive 16 Powers
in a 40-0 game we could have won by 80.
All of us have had problems with defenders

coming around outside of the ends and tackling
your wedge runners from behind. First of all, that
isn’t such a bad deal, because that means your
wedge runner should be at least 4-6 yards upfield.
The best way to solve this problem is to run mouse
or spinner backfield action behind your wedge
plays. Threaten the defenses flanks. If the defense
continues to have their defenders curl around the
wedge just run a Double Mouse 47, Double Spinner
47, Mouse 16, Spinner 26 or even a 16 Wedge play.
You can even have your 1 and 4 backs pick off the
defensive ends on Mouse 32 Wedge or Spinner 32
Wedge plays.
Again remember your kids can not join arms or grab

onto the jerseys of other players, that is interlocking and is a penalty. For those of you
that like to have your kids slide the inside hand into the small of the back of the player to

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the inside, that can be called interlocking. I’m not a fan of that technique as it often slows
down a fast wedge fit, something that you must have if you want your wedge to
consistently make yardage.
Defenders Blitzing Off the Short Edge
This is a complaint I hear from time to time from first year Single Wing coaches. The
first 3 years we ran this offense we saw this a lot, from about 40% of the teams we faced.
The opposing team would put their fastest player, often their very best athlete just outside
our Left End and have him come crashing in every play. In 2002 I was coaching an age
8-10 “B” team that lacked athleticism to put it mildly. My best running back was pretty
slow and only 85 lbs and he didn’t have great body control, the fastest kid I had was in
probably the 80th percentile in the league for speed, but it was his first year playing and
he didn’t do real well running in traffic. My Quarterback was a little guy that was fairly
dependable, tough and smart, but he was slow too. Early in one game the Quarterback got
kicked in the shins, he had a nice lump going on there, but we didn’t have a dependable
backup. The good fullback, was running the ball a bunch and we needed to give him a
break here and there so we had to run some 16 Powers. Well with the slow Quarterback
now slower because of the egg on his shin, we wee going to be real slow coming out of
the backfield. The other team put their best kid, their burner on the short edge and just
had him screaming in with his hair on fire every play. After seeing the Quarterback get
stung for a couple of losses, I talked to the Fullback when we were on defense. I told him
on 16 Power to just take a step forward, then go backside and level the chaser. It only
took one time, Josh surprised him and cleaned his clock, the kid never saw it coming.
Needless to say they didn’t bother trying that again. That was the birth of the “cross”
adjustment.
We only used that adjustment one more time in the last 14 seasons because there is no
real reason to, there are much better alternatives that don’t require you to waste a blocker
there. First of all, if that chaser is getting into your backfield and past 2 player bodies to
get to your Quarterback he almost HAS to be jumping or timing the snap count. Run a
“no play” and see if he isn’t doing that, invariably you will see he is jumping off sides.
Once he is flagged for it a couple of times, you won’t have to worry about it again.
Another common problem is your Quarterback just isn’t coming out of his stance hard
enough. I see film of far too many Quarterbacks that trot to the hole waiting for an
opening. That isn’t how it’s done, he has to be at full speed as he enters the 6 hole. That
means he is accelerating with a burst of speed at the snap. We get that way from running
Power Hour drills with a chaser.
Power Hour-Chaser
When your Quarterback isn’t running full speed on 16 Power or any other play for that
matter, it may be time to run a “Power Hour” drill. You can do it with a skeleton crew of
your backs and a few coaches. Put your backs in the base set with cones set up to
designate your offensive linemen. Put your starting Center at snapper. Put a player or

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coach over the Center or in his inside gap with a tall bag. Put a coach with a shield at
Defensive End spot, another at Outside linebacker and another at Corner. Run 16 Power
with all backs running full speed, fitting on their respective defenders. Start with the
defenders standing still or the defensive end boxing and giving easy reads, later in the
drill have them move within a reasonable range and try to put the shield on the runner.
Later yet add a “chaser” to the drill by stationing a tackler right behind the Quarterback.
As soon as the Quarterback gets the ball, release the chaser from behind and let him try to
make the tackle. This will force your Quarterback to run full speed right at the hole rather
than bowing his path or “reading” the hole. It gets ugly and messy in the 1 hole and often
does not open up until the last moment. The last think you need is a back who hesitates or
runs outside the kickout block, you want your backs to be proficient at hitting that hole at
full force. Do this for about 30 minutes straight at a clip of one rep every 15-20 seconds
or so. No one will ever run you down from the weakside edge again.
You can also just run Double and pin the chaser down to the inside by running a Mouse
47 or Spinner 47. If you are running Jet series stuff a 17 or 47 would work well also. The
Cross Pass left is a nice choice in this scenario as well and you might even get a nice gain
on Flip 17 or Flip 15 if you have them in. 16 Pass Fred should be a near sure touchdown.
If you happen to have the worlds slowest 1 back you may want to reconsider if you have
the correct player in that position. If you continue to have problems consider using a
nasty split of your Left End. Split him out a distance that still allows him to crab block
the player to his inside gap. If you watch the Offensive Line DVD you see it is very easy
to get even minimum play kids to crab block 2-3 full body widths away. I’ve never had to
do that and we rarely see this tactic used by teams that know us, they know it is a waste
of resources. You may see it in an outside tournament game though by teams that may
think it’s worth a try. If you are using the chaser drill, using the no play and taking
advantage of that defensive player, it is something you hope to see other teams do,
wasting their best player away from the play.

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Chapter 12
Game Day Strategies
Between 15-20% of youth football games will be

decided by how the coaches call the games. Most
games are won or lost well before your team ever
steps onto the field. Far too many coaches try and master this part of the game before
they perfect the ability to teach perfect fundamentals or great execution. If you’re teams
are consistently playing well and you have experience with this system under your belt, it
may make sense to invest some time in being a better game day coach.
As you know we are a big proponent of coaching on game day, rather than spectating.
Unfortunately many youth coaches watch the game rather than coach it on game day.
Sure it’s always a lot more fun to watch the game than concentrate on one component of
the game, but in order for your team to perform to its max potential, you have to coach.
The first step in the process is the no-huddle system. Going no-huddle will allow your
coaches to know which play is being run before you even run it, very important if each of
your coaches is supposed to be coaching up specific areas of your offense. How would
these coaches know what to look for before each play if they didn’t know what play was
going to be run before the snap?
This is what our wrist band for our 3-4th grade team looked like last season:
Red Black
0- 16 Pass 0- 22 Wedge
1- 32 Wedge 1- No Play
2- 16 Power 2- 43 Reverse
3- Mouse 16 Power 3- Burst 26 G
4- No Play 4- 16 Power
5- Mouse 32 Wedge 5- 18 Sweep Pass
6- Burst 32 Wedge 6- Mouse 22 Wedge
7- Mouse 16 Pass 7- Double Mouse 47
8- 32 Wedge 8- 18 Sweep
9- Burst 18 Sweep 9- 38 Buck Wedge

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This is what our 5-6th grade wrist band looked like for the 5-6th grade team in 2009:
Red Black
0- 16 Pass 0- 22 Wedge
1- 32 Wedge 1- Rocket 28 Sweep
2- 16 Power 2- 43 Reverse
3- Spinner 26 Power 3- Burst 26 G
4- No Play 4- 16 Power
5- Spinner 32 Wedge 5- 18 Sweep Pass
6- Burst 32 Wedge 6- Lazer 47
7- Burst 43 G 7- Double Spinner 47
8- 31 Trap 8- 18 Sweep
9- Burst 18 Sweep 9- Smoke Pass Left
We also were able to run Rocket 43 Reverse, Rocket 32 Wedge, Rocket 16 Power and
Rocket 16 Pass by just adding the tag “rocket” to the play when we called it in. When
using blocking tags or formation tags like Nasty/Tunnel or Double, just add those at the
end of the play calling sequence. If you wanted to call Nasty/Tunnel 16 Power and the
first number was live on the code you would call our Red 287 Nasty Tunnel. If you are
concerned about teams picking up those calls you can always figure out code words of
your own for those tags as well. Quite frankly it has never been a big deal in our league.
If you are concerned you could always use dummy tags as well. Say you are running a
Spinner 32 Wedge, the kids know you would never run a Nasty/Tunnel on a wedge play,
so you would just call in Red 513 Nasty/Tunnel. That will break the code. Using the
youth wrist bands, 2 columns using a 10 font was very doable. This team was made up of
a lot of veteran players.
Red Black Purple

0- 16 Pass 0- 22 Wedge 0- Cross Pass Right
1- Cross Pass Right 1- Rocket 28 Sweep 1- 32 Wedge
2- 16 Power 2- 43 Reverse 2-Spinner 26 Power
3- Spinner 26 Pass 3- Burst 26 G 3- Go Pass Left
4- No Play 4- 16 Power 4- Spinner 32 Wedge
5- Go Pass Right 5- 18 Sweep Pass 5- Smoke Pass Right
6- Burst 32 Wedge 6- Lazer 47 6- Burst 32 Wedge
7- Burst 43 G 7- Rocket 12 Trap 7-Smoke and Go Pass Left
8- Cross Pass Left Slug 8- 18 Sweep 8- 31 Trap
9- Burst 18 Sweep 9- Smoke Pass Left 9- Rocket Flat Pass
Like the above example we were able to run our base 43 Reverse, 32 Wedge, 16 Pass and
16 Power by just adding the tag “rocket” to the base play. We added in simple tags to run
plays like 16 Pass- “both” and “Fred.” This was a VERY senior team with very few
rookies with a number of kids that had run the offense for 4-5 years. Using the adult wrist
bands and a 10 font, you can put 3 columns of plays on the wrist coach.

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Changes in No-Huddle
Of late a number of teams have tried to throw a wrench in our no-huddle play calling
system by yelling as we are trying to call our plays in. Some teams even have involved
their crowd by having them make a lot of noise as we call in plays. The simplest thing to
do is just huddle and shuttle your plays in like everyone else does. That is something you
probably should practice some in case you see something like that. In one game the wind
was so loud it was hard for the kids to hear when they were at the far end of the field,
since coaches are only allowed to go to the 35 yard line in our league. In that same game,
the other teams parents and kids were yelling, so huddling made the most sense.
Another simple way to signal in plays is just use hand signals. I would wear a green hat,
black pants and a red shirt. If I touched my hat, that meant it was green, when I touched
my pants that meant black and when I touched by shirt that meant red. Then I would just
hold fingers up for the play number. Those are things you probably should practice so
you don’t get caught flat footed and put your team out of sync. The first time we had to
go away from our voice no-huddle system, it kind of freaked the kids out some. They had
that deer in the headlights look and got a bit flustered. That is why you should always
practice the back-up plan a little bit here and there. We always do and now when those
situations arise, it isn’t any big deal, the kids have practiced for it and know what to do.
When we play in playoff games we always change up the play card inserts every week, as
all those games are filmed. You can always have an extra set of insert cards ready for a
halftime change if need be.
No Play Go
Running the “no play” has been a very important part of the offense. Not only does it
often times get you a free 5 yards when you need it, it helps you keep the defense from
jumping your snap count. When you go on “go” or run “no play” and stay in your
stances, it takes the pressure off the kids of having to remember the snap count. The play
is either on or not on, kids seem to get that much better than going on 1,2,3 etc.
In the first 15 seasons of running this system and running “no play” we have had the
following percentage of successful plays, meaning those plays that got the defense to
jump off-sides. These are listed from our first year to the present, in that order: 95%,
90%, 80%, 75%, 90%, 85%, 80%, 70%, 75%, 70%, 80%, 85%, 70%, 60%, 65%. It varies
a bit based on age and the teams we have played. The younger the team the more times
they jump and the less a team has seen us, the less they jump.
For many of the teams in our league, they have seen us many times. In fact we are so well
known for our “no play” that when it is 3rd or 4th and short the other teams coaches and
even parents will be yelling to their players, “Don’t jump, watch the ball.” Well that is
what we want them to do, not jump our snap count, so having the “no play” in the arsenal
is a valuable and important weapon.

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However in big games you probably want to preserve as many time-outs as you can. In
those championship level games you never know if those timeouts are going to be needed
or not. In 2010 in our big Bowl Game at Kansas States Bill Snyder stadium, we had to
use 2 of our timeouts just so we could get the ball back. Our opponent had the ball with
3:45 left to go on their own 40. We started on our own 20 with 1 timeout left. Had we
used 2 of those timeouts on “no plays” that didn’t work, we wouldn’t have had any time
to mount a drive. We ended up going 80 yards on 8 plays to win it with 52 seconds to
spare.
By using a “no play go” play you can preserve your timeouts while still gaining the
benefits of the “no play.” Just run your regular “no play”, but if no one jumps, have your
quarterback yell “black”, that tells your kids the next time they hear the word go, they
will run 16 Power. This is a very effective method for more experienced teams, teams
that know the system, teams that are using Single Wing 303.
Play Call Sheets
Over time you may find it is much easier using a sheet that has your plays listed in order
rather than trying to find a little used play on a wrist band in the heat of battle. Once you
get over 20 plays on a wrist coach, sometimes it takes time to find them on the wrist
coach, you can lose momentum and time if you are searching for it on your wrist.
Laminate it and put your keys on it as well if you like. We use one like this:
12 Lazer Trap Green 9

16 Pass Black 9
16 Pass- Fred Green 1
16 Power Red 5
18 Burst Sweep Black 6
18 Sweep Red 4
18 Sweep Pass Red 7
22 Wedge Green 6
26 Burst G Black 5
26 Spinner Pass Red 0
26 Spinner Power Red 2
28 Rocket Sweep Red 3
31 Trap Black 2
32 Spinner Wedge Green 2
32 Wedge Black 3
32 Wedge Burst Red 8
43 G Burst Green 8
43 Reverse Green 7
47 Lazer Sweep Green 3
Cross Pass Left Red 1

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Cross Pass Left Sluggo Black 0

Cross Pass Right Green 5
Go Pass Left Black 8
Go Pass Right Black 7
No Play Black 4
Rocket Flat Pass Black 1
Smoke and Go Left Green 4
Smoke and Go Right Green 0
Smoke Pass Left Red 6
Smoke Pass Right Red 9
Complementary Play Coach
As most of you know we standardized on this approach in 2008. None of us can see the
entire field and if your assistants are all assigned to 2-3 positions, there is no way you can
accurately determine your best play calls. We have the offensive coordinator key the
point of attack. He can look at specific keys or for execution, just make sure you know
ahead of time what you are going to look for and what the complementary play coach
will be looking for on every snap. The complementary play coach typically looks for
keys for the complements off of the play called, in most cases the backside. Of course
your complementary play coach can NOT be that overly proud parent who only watches
his own kid on every play, he has to consistently watch his keys.
You need to have a chart like the one below with all your plays listed not in order like
you see, but by number so it’s easier to look up what play is being called. So they would
be listed on order of Green 0-9, Black 0-9 and Red 0-9. If you don’t have enough room
on your wrist coaches it’s simple just add in a tag. For 16 Power Super Omaha, just use
the code for 16 Power and use the verbal tag of Super Omaha. These are the keys we
used for our offensive coordinator and complementary play coach.
Offensive Coordinator:
12 Lazer Trap Trap Block by BB, RE and PT on Backers

14 Power Is BB kicking out Defensive Tackle, If Defensive Tackle not coming hard don't run it
Is the Left Guard trapping the Tackle, if Defensive Tackle not coming hard don’t run
14 Trap it
Is the Left Guard trapping the Tackle, if Defensive Tackle not coming hard don’t run
14 Trap Buck it
15 Flip Did the defense adjust proper numbers on the formation- No- Keep running it
16 Pass BB kickout of DE, 3 Steps and Hop by QB
16 Pass- Fred BB kickout of DE, 3 Steps and Hop by QB
16 Power BB kickout of DE, QB Run Inside KO Block- Playside DE Pinching- Run 18 Sweep
16 Power Omaha BB kickout of DE, QB Run Inside KO Block- Playside DE Pinching- Run 18 Sweep
16 Power Super Omaha Is the RE blocking out on the DE, Can you widen the Nasty Split?

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16 Wedge BB kickout of DE, WB seal of LB

17 Flip Did the defense adjust proper numbers on the formation- No- Keep running it
18 Burst Sweep WB Seal of DE, DE boxing, Run Burst 26 G
18 Sweep WB Seal of DE, DE boxing, Run 16 Power
18 Sweep Pass BB and FB Block DE, QB getting depth and running towards LOS on release
18 Sweep Rocket FB seals DE to the inside, QB waits until FB motions through to snap
22 Wedge Wedge Fit- Crabbers
23 Power Buck BB kickout of the DE- SE on Linebacker
23 Power Buck Pass BB kickout of DE, 1 Step Throw by QB
23 Trap Spinner Is RG trapping the weakside Defensive Tackle, if he is not coming hard don’t run it
24 Iso Is there a player on the inside gap of the PT- Yes- don’t run it
26 Burst G Playside DE squeezing, Run Burst 18 Sweep
26 Spinner Pass BB kickout of strongside DE, WB seal of weakside DE
26 Spinner Power BB kickout of strongside DE, Strongside Corner filling strong- Spinner 26 Pass Red
27 Sweep Burst Is weakside Defensive End pinching- can SE pin him in- If no, don’t run it
28 Rocket Sweep WB seal of DE, BB block on near LB, DE flowing hard to outside- Rocket 16
31 Trap Trap Block by RG, LE on near Backer
32 Spinner Wedge Wedge Fit- Crabbers
32 Wedge Wedge Fit- Crabbers
32 Wedge Burst Wedge Fit- Crabbers
43 G Burst Kickout block by RG, PT getting to hole
43 Reverse Kickout block by BB, Is DE pinching-Double Mouse or Spinner 47 or Lazer 17
43 Reverse Pass FB kickout of the playside DE, QB squaring shoulders to Line of Scrimmage
47 Lazer Sweep FB seal of DE, BB block on near Backer
Cross Pass Left BB block of weakside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
Cross Pass Left Sluggo BB block of weakside DE, QB 1 hop, reset and fire
Cross Pass Right BB block of strongside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
Go Pass Left BB block of weakside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
Go Pass Right BB block of strongside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
No Play Defensive line sitting on heels- 22 Wedge on first sound
Rocket Flat Pass Man or Zone coverage, Zone run Flat Pass, 16 Pass all and 16 Pass Fred
Smoke and Go Left BB block of playside DE, QB 1 hop, shoulder open, reset and fire
Smoke and Go Right BB block of playside DE, QB 1 hop, shoulder open, reset and fire
Smoke Pass Left BB block of playside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
Smoke Pass Right BB block of playside DE, QB 1 hop and fire
Up Pass Left BB block of playside DE, QB set, reset and throw
Up Pass Right BB block of playside DE, QB set, reset and throw
Complementary Play Coach:

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12 Lazer Trap Is weakside Corner and LB coming hard at 7- Lazer 16 Pass

14 Power Is there 3 Linebackers or 2, if just 2 then run the Reverse fake with the 14
14 Trap Do we need to block the playside Defensive End- If not run the 3 Back Wrong
14 Trap Buck Is the weakside Linebacker flowing with the 1 Back- Yes- run Buck 23
15 Flip Is the weakside Corner flowing hard to the play? Yes- Run Flip 43 Reverse Pass
16 Pass Which way is Safety leaning. Throw 16 Pass opposite strong lean
16 Pass- Fred Is strongside Corner playing wide of RE, is Safety drifting Weak- 16 Pass Red
16 Power Is weakside Corner wide of LE, is weakside LB flowing hard to 6- 16 Pass Blue
16 Power Omaha Is playside Corner coming hard on the play- Omaha Pass
16 Power Super Omaha Is playside Corner coming hard on the play- Super Omaha Pass
Is weakside Corner wide of LE, is weakside LB flowing hard to 6- 16 Wedge Pass
16 Wedge Blue
17 Flip Is the weakside Corner flowing hard to the play? Yes- Run Flip 43 Reverse Pass
18 Burst Sweep Is strongside Corner coming up strong- Burst Pass
18 Sweep Is strongside Corner coming up strong- 18 Sweep Pass
18 Sweep Pass Is Safety filling strong to the Wingback- 18 Sweep Pass Blue
18 Sweep Rocket Is weakside Corner and Linebacker filling hard- Yes- Rocket 16 Pass or Rocket 43
22 Wedge Is weakside LB filling fast- 16 Wedge Pass- Blue
23 Power Buck Is weakside Corner filling hard or pinching- Run 23 Buck Pass
23 Power Buck Pass Is strongside Defensive Tackle coming hard- Run Buck 14 Trap
23 Trap Spinner Is weakside Corner and Linebacker filling hard- Throw Spinner 26 Pass
24 Iso Is the weakside Linebacker staying home- If not run 43 Reverse
26 Burst G Is strongside Corner coming up strong- Burst Pass
26 Spinner Pass Which way is Safety leaning. Throw Spinner 26 Pass opposite strong lean
26 Spinner Power Is weakside LB filling fast- Spinner 26 Pass- Blue
27 Sweep Burst Is weakside Corner filling hard or pinching- Run 23 Buck Pass
28 Rocket Sweep Is weakside LB and Corner flowing to 8- Run Rocket 43 Reverse
31 Trap Is strongside Corner and Safety coming hard on the 16 fake- Throw 16 Pass Red
32 Spinner Wedge Is weakside Corner and LB flowing shallow to Wedge or 26- Throw Spinner 26 Pass
32 Wedge Is weakside LB filling fast- 16 Wedge Pass- Blue
32 Wedge Burst Is strongside Corner coming up strong- Burst Pass
43 G Burst Is Middle Backer flowing with the RG- Run 24 Trap
43 Reverse Is Middle Backer flowing with the BB- Run 43 Reverse G
43 Reverse Pass RE releasing well and running correct pattern
47 Lazer Sweep Is backside Linebacker flowing hard to 7- Run Lazer 12 Trap
Cross Pass Left Is the Corner jumping the Arrow Route- Yes- Run Up Pass
Cross Pass Left Sluggo Is the Corner jumping the Sluggo- Yes- Throw to the Arrow
Cross Pass Right Is the Corner jumping the Arrow Route- Yes- Run Up Pass
Go Pass Left Is near Defensive Back sitting back- Smoke Pass
Go Pass Right Is near Defensive Back sitting back- Smoke Pass

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Is weakside Defensive End crashing- Double Mouse 47 or Double Spinner 47, Laser
No Play 17
Rocket Flat Pass Is Corner following over in man coverage- Cross Pass, Rocket 16 Pass
Smoke and Go Left Is Safety playing back- Smoke Pass
Smoke and Go Right Is Safety playing back- Smoke Pass
Smoke Pass Left Is near Defensive Back filling hard-Smoke and Go Pass
Smoke Pass Right Is near Defensive Back filling hard-Smoke and Go Pass
Up Pass Left Is Corner biting hard on the Wingbacks arrow- if not run Cross Pass
Up Pass Right Is Corner biting hard on the Wingbacks arrow- if not run Cross Pass
Stat Coach
In addition to keeping track of the plays, yardage and tackler via “Easy Scout” your stat
coach should also be tracking minimum play players. In many leagues the minimum play
players are designated before the game and the opposing teams stat person is in charge of
tracking their play counts. If you don’t have that type of set up, it is easy enough to figure
out who the other teams minimum play players are in pre-game by just watching the kids
go through their warm ups and team drills. As a worst case scenario just write down all
the kids on the bench during the other teams first offensive and defensive series and that
will usually give you the data you want.
When your stat person sees a minimum play player come in at safety just use a code word
like yellow to designate when that player comes onto the field. Your stat coach can then
discreetly signal to the offensive coordinator, “yellow safety” which would mean the
offensive coordinator is probably going to go to 18 Sweep Pass or 16 Pass Both, right
away. Using this data to call plays can be the difference between winning and losing
those big games.
A Closer Look at Some Specific Defenses
Before we take a look at how to attack specific defenses we need to talk about what a
defense is. A defense is NOT an alignment, the base alignment is just part of the defense.
It includes base alignment, coverage, base reads, run fits, base technique and base
responsibility. Just because someone lines up in a 6-2 defense doesn’t mean it is a Wide
Tackle 6 Defense, it could be a Split 6, or even my youth version of the classic Wide
Tackle 6. There are many ways to run a 4-4 just like there are many ways to run a 5-3 or
5-2. Add in the fact that you are running an unbalanced direct snap offense and it comes
down to like Forrest Gump said, “You never know what you’re going to get.” That is
why guys like Ken Hofer at Menominee High School in Michigan run a Balanced Line
Single Wing, so they have an idea of what they might see.
At the youth level- you just never know what the defense you are facing is going to align,
especially when you are scoring lots of points and winning big every week. When that

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happens you often times get to see all kinds of different defenses, some of which you
won’t find in any book, they are what we call desperation or junkyard defenses. What
you saw your next weeks opponent play on Sunday against a Spread team or Power I
team, probably isn’t going to be the defense they run against your team.
That is why I always like to just get back to the basics and do your midpoint and edge
counts. The midpoint count is simply counting how many defenders are to the right and
left of the midpoint of your Right Guard. If a defender is straddling the line, he is counted
as a half player.
this example there are 7 defenders to the weak side and just 4 to the strong side. Believe
it or not, I’ve seen this type of defense a number of times, more often in tournament
games against teams that have never seen us or when we are on the right hash. I’ve also
seen desperate teams over play the strong side and align like this, with just 4 ½ defenders
to the weak side and 6 ½ players to the strong side. Obviously you want to run plays to
the side you have a numbers advantage.

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The next step is to count the edge defenders. How many players are on the outside
shoulder or wider of your furthest outside lineman? In the below example there are 2
players outside the strong side edge and 2 to the weakside edge. Whenever you have 2 or
fewer defenders outside the edge you want to run wide, anytime you have 3 or more, you
want to run inside.

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In the below example there are 3 defenders on the outside of your strongside edge and 2
defenders outside the weakside edge. You would want to run inside the strongside edge
and outside the weakside edge if you go by the numbers. Add in your midpoint count and
you have a simple way to get started in your play calling. This is very helpful when you
have no clue how many of these defenses are going to align.

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Chapter 13
Attacking Specific
Defenses
Every defense has both strengths and weaknesses.

This section is going to give you some pointers on attacking some of the more common
defenses you will probably end up facing once you start running the Single Wing offense.
GAM
The GAM or Gap Air Mirror was made somewhat famous by John T. Reed. It was one of
the very first books published that dealt specifically with youth football. The GAM is a
very simple minimum player friendly defense that can have success at the younger levels.
Please keep in mind I am NOT criticizing any of the defenses in this book, I am only
trying to suggest how best to attack them. No defense is perfect, they all have strengths
and weaknesses, this is not an indictment against any defense or person by any means
whatsoever.
The GAM defense features 4 minimum play weaker players bearcrawling the A and B
gaps, Defensive Tackles in the D and boxing Ends set out wide. The Outside Linebackers
are aligned on the outside shoulder of the Tight Ends in man coverage. The Corners are
aligned over the Wing Back and over the Left Guard of Single Wing teams at a depth of
about 3 yards. The Corner over the Left Guard mirroring the Quarterback, the player
over the Wing is mirroring the Wing. The Middle Linebacker is the key to this defense
and against the Single Wing, he aligns over the Right Guard at about 4 yards and mirrors
the Blocking Back.
The GAM is an excellent defense against the wedge. They bearcrawl 4 players in the true
A and B gaps to the gaps on both sides of the Right Guard. A well coached GAM team is
also very difficult to sweep and reverse against if you stay in your base Single Wing
alignment. Don’t let anyone tell you the GAM is easy to sweep against, it isn’t the
defense was designed to stop the sweep. The GAM’s deep boxing ends won’t allow you
to sweep or reverse wide. Only extremely poorly coached GAM teams can be swept,
don’t depend on that happening.
GAM teams depend on pressure and great reads to defend against the pass. Deep drops
with multiple receivers usually don’t work real well against well coached GAM teams.
However, quick play action passes with max protection can be very successful.
Since the GAM really only has a single legitimate Linebacker and 2 Corners, there really
isn’t much point to pulling against it. Once your puller got there, there wouldn’t be
anyone for him to block anyways. In addition to that, since the GAM team is filling the

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true A and B gaps with Bearcrawlers, you have to make sure each one of them is
accounted for. Most GAM teams are going to put their very smallest and weakest players
in those spots, which may allow you the opportunity to “jump” your Right Guard to the
Middle Linebacker. But if the defense puts a quick tough player in the gap between your
Right Guard and Center, you may not be able to use this tactic.
Many people try and tell you to punish those Bearcrawlers by sticking having your
offensive linemen dig their shoulders into their ribs or even just step on their hands. I
prefer to just take what this defense gives me and just keep an eye on the Bearcrawlers to
make sure they are staying low and still bearcrawling. If they are consistently staying
low, we aren’t going to bother wedging. In 2003 I saw this defense for the very first time
against the Omaha Cornhuskers. In a page not in Jack Reeds book, this team had it’s
biggest kids in the A and B gaps bearcrawling. There were no minimum play rules in this
league and they were bound and determined to stop our wedge, it worked. We didn’t
bother to run a single wedge play the entire game in a game we led 40-0 in the third
quarter. We are a no-huddle team, when I saw them with 4 big kids on all fours in the A
and B gaps, we just ran Nasty Tunnel 16 Power 7 times in a row to score on that initial
drive. See in the diagram the conflict this creates by using a nasty split.
In 2010 we played a team that came out in a modified GAM with Bearcrawlers in the A
and B gaps. We had scouted them earlier in the year and saw they liked doing that from
time to time so we practiced against it all week. If your offensive linemen are not used to
blocking Bearcrawlers, they can frustrate your kids and make life miserable for your kids.
The keys are to make sure your kids stay extremely low with their helmets less than 12
inches from the ground and that your kids crab block. Your Center is going to have the
most difficult job, but he can do it with repetition. While he is going to get help from
your Guards, if you want to hit the home run on plays like Burst 26 G or Burst 43 G, he is
going to need to make a simple crab block in the gap between the Center and the Right
Guard.
I used the alignment rules right out of Jack Reeds book to make my diagrams of how to
attack that defense with just a handful of plays. Notice when you nasty split with a Wing,
that forces the Defensive End out so wide, he can not make the play in the off-tackle hole
using his sweep spot boxing technique when your backs are set at 2 yards like we
suggest.

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Nasty Tunnel 16 Power Versus GAM
In the GAM book the diagrams show the Middle Linebacker mirroring the 3 Back. On 16
Power Super, the 3 Back takes the Middle Backer away from the play. There is no need
to block the boxing sweep spot Defensive End, he is out to wide to make the play.
16 Power Super Versus GAM

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16 Power Super Omaha Versus GAM
In the GAM book there is no player mirroring the 2 back. The Middle Linebacker mirrors
the 3 Back, taking him away from the play. The A gap minimum play player that is
bearcrawling the cap between the Center and Right Guard is easy to crab block with the
Center, allowing the Right Guard to make the easy G block on the Defensive End.
Burst 26 G Versus GAM

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We have never had a GAM team play within 30 points of any of my own teams. The last
time I faced a GAM team was in 2010 against Plattsmouth. We had them 28-0 in the first
quarter, the first 3 touchdowns were pass plays and the fourth was a 26G in a game we
could have probably scored 100 points in. The GAM is very susceptible to the play action
pass, especially the 16 Pass Blue. Those Linebackers seem to have a heck of a time not
coming up for the off-tackle run fake. Add motion to the equation with Mouse action and
Mouse 16 Pass Red is a GAM killer as well. Since GAM teams do not mirror the
Fullback, 16 Pass Fred is a money play as well.
Once you start bludgeoning a GAM team over and over again off-tackle, they may decide
to take that Defensive End and put him inside the nasty split. When they do that you can
finally run the sweep. Another thing that you can try if you have a pretty good Right
Guard is to have him “jump” through to the Middle Linebacker. Remember in the GAM
those Bearcrawlers are the smallest and weakest players on their team. If the team you are
playing has ascribed to this way of thinking and your Right Guard is the type of player
we suggest you have at this position, have your Right Guard just jump past the
Bearcrawler and seal off the Middle Linebacker, we call this “Jump.” You still have your
3 Back blocking the Middle Linebacker on this play, but slipping your Right Guard out
on him has worked for us against some GAM teams. You of course have to practice your
Offensive Line against Bearcrawlers all week and get your Center used to snapping and
crab blocking a player who will be firing out low on all fours. Of course you could use
the “Jump” call on the power or reverse as well, it isn’t just for the sweep.
Nasty Tunnel 18 Sweep Versus GAM- Defensive End Tight

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Nasty Tunnel 18 Sweep “Jump” Versus GAM- Defensive End Tight
The 16 Pass is one of the most effective plays against a GAM defense. The play action
forces all 3 mirror players away from the play and forces the Weakside Linebacker to
make a perfect play. The Weakside Corner is mirroring your Quarterback, who is running
off-tackle for what seems like the hundredth time. That Corner is going to be flying to
your 6 hole. Once you start bludgeoning a GAM team off-tackle, those Linebackers
directly over your Tight Ends get anxious to make plays. Have your Left End take a lead
step inside like a down block and then just run a streak. That down block read is more
than enough to shake him loose of the Linebacker. In most games, we haven’t even had
to use the down block step. The Left End will run inside the Weak Linebacker while
running just outside the Weak Corner screaming to get to your Quarterback at the 6 hole.
If you have been running the 16 Power out of primarily a Nasty set against the GAM, no
need to change that for the pass. Continue to stay in Nasty and run your 16 Pass Far.

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16 Pass Far Versus GAM
WC
WLB
18 Sweep Pass Versus GAM
WC
WLB
Over time the GAM team will tire of getting beat by your strong side running game. Do
you think that Strong Corner is going to follow the Wingback to the inside when your
Quarterback is running right at him? In reality, he comes up to make a play on the
Quarterback, while your 4 back plants his foot about half way in-between himself and the

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Middle Linebacker and runs to the open area. Neither the Middle Linebacker or the
Corner is in a position to make the play. There is no need to send the 3 Back out in the
flats, you will need him along with your 2 back to protect against the Defensive End and
Strong Corner.
Burst 43 G Versus GAM
Burst 43 G is a great way to attack a GAM team and use their rules against themselves.
On the base Burst backfield action, the Middle Backer will have to stay with your 3 Back,
he will meet him in the 3 hole. The Weakside Corner will mirror your Quarterback right
out of the play and the Strongside Corner will never be able to get to the 4 Back all the
way over to the weak side, he may also get occupied with the 2 Back after you’ve hit
them with a few well placed Burst 26 G plays.
Depending on how the defense is playing you, you may even be able to create a much
larger gap by running that Weakside Linebacker off playing over the Left End. This is
especially effective, after you have thrown a few 16 Pass Far’s and now that Linebacker
is bailing out anytime your Left End comes off the line of scrimmage. Just call out the
Paul- tag which tells your Left End to go on a streak pattern, make sure he makes it look
good by putting his hand out and looking back for the ball. When the linebacker is
trailing the play and looking at that streaking receiver, he has no chance at making the
play on the reversing Wingback. Remember, well coached GAM teams will NOT let you
run outside, to that 43 Reverse is going to hit inside the kick-out block of your Right
Guard and hit at the 3.

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Attacking the 3-3 or 3-5-3 Defense
Every few years a new defense comes out that seems to get a lot of peoples attention.
The 3-3 stack or 3-5-3 seems to be the latest of these. It is a simple attacking style
defense that is used in various formats at the High School, Youth and even if you stretch
the definition a bit, at the small College level. This defense features 3 down Linemen and
3 Linebackers stacked behind the down Linemen. One of the most popular of these
schemes has the Linebackers blitzing every down, opposite of the direction the Linemen
go. In most cases the Linebackers just tap to the side they want to go and the Defensive
Tackle goes opposite of the tap. The idea is to bring pressure at different angles from
different players. The Defensive Ends align wide and use a spill technique to drive
sweeps wide. The Monster Back is the teams stud and plays the middle while the Corners
are in deep halves playing zone at depth of about 8 yards.
To run this scheme effectively your opponent is going to need 3 strong Defensive
Linemen and 5 players that can play well in space along with 3 competent Linebackers.
Some suggest that you can “hide” 3 weaker players in the 3 stacked Linebacker positions,
but I’m not so sure about that. Having a weak minimum play player in a 2-point stance in
space rushing forward to fill a gap at the snap isn’t something that adds much value on
most snaps. True minimum play players have a tough time taking on blocks high,
changing direction or making plays in any type of space at all.
There really aren’t many adjustments you have to make against the base 3-3 Stack
alignment to make our version of the Single Wing offense work. With the tap and go
blitzes all your offensive linemen have to do is make sure they block the defender to their
inside gap, they will always have a defender in their inside gap when a 3-3 Stack team is
in their base alignment.
When they are in this alignment with just 3 down linemen and their minimum play
players standing up in the stacked linebacker positions, they are extremely vulnerable to
the wedge. Just 3 down linemen, slanting to one side or the other of your Right Guard,
Left Guard and Power Tackle makes for a very inviting wedge opportunity, especially
with weaker players standing up and coming out of the stacks at linebacker. Add in some
spinner or mouse type motion and you have a very good chance of seeing their Monster
and Defensive Ends move away from the play. In 2008 when I first coached against this
defense at the 7-8th grade level, we wedged about 70% of our snaps in the first half as we
got out to an early 28-0 lead. The wedge was there for the taking pretty much the entire
game.

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3-3 Stack
16 Power Versus 3-3 Stack
You can pull your Right Guard if you feel you need to, but there really shouldn’t be
anyone there when he gets there. With the Center stepping playside, both gaps on either

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side of the Right Guard are going to be covered and every defender in the front six is
blocked.
16 Pass Blue or Far Versus 3-3 Stack
The Monster is the main key to making the 3-3 Stack work, he is their best player. His
initial read is the Quarterback, on run reads his job is to aggressively stop the play at the
line of scrimmage attacking downhill, inside out. Well on the 16 Pass, the Quarterback is
attacking the 6 hole downhill, it looks like an off-tackle run. The Monster will be
vacating the middle, the Left End varies his route just a bit. Since he has inside leverage
on the Corner, his pattern looks more like a narrow slant than his typical seam pattern.
The ball is thrown at the usual 7 yards or so and you have the potential for a very big
play. Against that Auburn team we played in 2008, we scored 3 times on this play out of
the base and Rocket as well. The following year, same play we were 5-6 for over 120
yards and a touchdown. It is definitely a vulnerability.

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Rocket 16 Pass Blue or Far Versus 3-3 Stack
There are also some soft spots at how they play their Defensive Ends. When a play flows
towards them, they are supposed to attack the deepest back immediately. Of course the
Monster on a run read is running downhill inside out. That leaves the short zone to the
flow side open. If the Monster did read pass, he is supposed to be playing the deep
middle zone. On 18 Sweep Pass, the play looks like a sweep run the Quarterback runs
wide and attacks the line of scrimmage, throwing the ball as he approaches the line.
Either the Defensive End is attacking the Quarterback or he is in the short zone, he can’t
be in both spots. Usually he is attacking the Quarterback which leaves the 3 Back alone
in the flat, while the 2 Back blocks the Defensive End. If the Monster does not stay back
in pass coverage when you call 18 Sweep Pass, just call 18 Sweep Pass Both and send the
Left End on a Post to the open middle of the field. We don’t care about blocking the last
man on the weakside, as we are running away from him and throwing on the run, if you
feel like you need an extra blocker jut peel your Right Guard off and have him pick that
player up.

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18 Sweep Pass Versus 3-3 Stack
If you want to make the hole even bigger for the 16 Power before you even snap the ball
is go Super Omaha. With a player shooting the gaps on both sides of your Right Guard
and with the Center and Right Tackle covering both of those gaps, your Right Guard has
an open path to the Monster as well. It depends on your personnel as to if you can pull a
jump call off or not, my 2010 5-6th grade team could have done it, our Center and Right
Guard were pretty quick.

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18 Sweep Super Omaha Versus 3-3 Stack
If the Defensive End chooses to fight his way inside of the nasty split, you finally have a
chance to run your sweep against the stack and you will easily have the edge. When you
are going Super Omaha on 16 Power or 18 Sweep you may want to flop your 3 Back and
Wing, put your 3 on the outside to block their best player, the Monster. Have your Wing
block the minimum play stack linebacker or defensive tackle to his inside.

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16 Power Versus 4-2 Stack Adjustment
Some 3-3 Stack teams will morph into a 4-2 type look and bearcrawl a player in each of
the true “A” gaps. If that happens lay off the wedge until they go back into their base set.
However all the previous plays as discussed will work just fine against this minor
alignment adjustment. Again, don’t look at this as a slam against this defense, many
people have had great success with it in many leagues against a variety of offenses, it is
well thought out and I like many of the concepts in it. But like every defense, it has soft
spots and there are plenty of ways to attack it with our base offense along with a few
minor tweaks.

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The same is true if they morph into a 60 type alignment like this:
16 Power Versus 60 Stack Adjustment
If the stack team decides to go to man coverage, it is time to throw your short rub type
routes like Cross Pass Right, Cross Pass Left, Shallow and Up Passes to both sides,
making sure to stay away from the deep middle where the Monster is waiting to rob
anything deep. Using the spread Rocket Flat Pass or Shallow is an easy and safe one to
complete, that Corner is going to have a tough time running all the way across the
formation and getting to the ball before the Fullback can look over his outside shoulder.
Often times when they move into man or press coverage they get out of the 4-2 and stop
bearcrawling, making the Rocket 32 Wedge a nice play to call in that situation.
The 5-3 Defense
The 5-3 Defense is one that most youth football coaches will see quite often if you coach
long enough. It is a simple defense to put in, has a few different flavors and can use man,
zone or combination coverages. Against the Unbalanced Single Wing, you never know
what the alignment will be, but in order for it to stay balanced, they should put the Nose
Guard over the Right Guard. However, many teams just hate to give up attacking the
Center and will grudgingly keep that Nose Guard over your Center.

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Midpoint Count is 5 ½ - 5 ½
Edge Count is 2 and 2
Midpoint Count is 6 Weak, 5 Strong

Edge Count is 2 and 2

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The coverages do vary with the most common one being Cover 1, with the Corners in
man coverage over the last man on the line of scrimmage to their side and the Safety in
deep zone. In this version of the 5-3, the Linebacker to the strong side, is in man coverage
on the Tight End to his side. They can also go into a pure Cover 3 Zone defense with the
Corners and Safety playing deep thirds and the Linebackers in zone coverage underneath.
Another option is straight man coverage with the Safety covering the inside receiver on
the 2 receiver side, Corners on last man on line of scrimmage and align a Linebacker on
any additional slot receiver.
Of course there are a variety of typical slants and blitzes you can expect to see out of this
defense, but nothing you shouldn’t be able to handle. It is one of the most simple
defenses to attack with the Single Wing. The first thing you have to determine where the
Nose Tackle is lining up. If he is over the Right Guard, then you don’t pull the Right
Guard, as the Nose Guard is often times the toughest player the 5-3 team has. The Nose
Guard is usually slanting to one side or the other, with the Middle Linebacker taking the
gap to the opposite side the Nose Guard is slanting. Against the Single Wing, some times
the Nose Guard will always slant to the strong side. In any case, your Right Guard is one
of your strongest players and if Nose Guard is over the Right Guard, your Center will be
giving him help if the Middle Linebacker is not filling the gap between the Center and
Right Guard.
I’ve always found having a player directly over the Right Guard makes the wedge easier
to fit, so Wedge is usually a pretty nice play, putting the power of 7 players against that
Nose Guard and just 3 interior linemen. Wedge with backfield action taking players away
is always good against this front, with Spinner 32 Wedge or Mouse 32 Wedge. If the
Middle Backer is mirroring your 3 Back, Mouse 22 Wedge is an excellent choice.
This defense is aligned in such a way that your base plays will succeed with little to no
adjustments needed. But if you want to get back big numerical and angle advantages
there are a few minor adjustments you can employ. Against this defense we tell our Right
Tackle and Power Tackle that their GOD rule means Gap On Doubleteam. There is no
need for the Right Tackle to go all the way down to the Nose Tackle on a down block
when the Right Guard and Center are already blocking him, that would be overkill. Allow
the Right Tackle to locate the doubleteam and go outside gap if necessary to make that
block. His rule now is; inside gap, on, doubleteam. Since we are doubleteaming the
Defensive Tackle, the Right Ends down block is no longer needed, that would be
overkill. So the Right End is now on a Special call where he blocks the Middle
Linebacker, sealing him off to the inside.

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16 Power Special Versus 5-3

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Our Centers or so great at crab blocking he doesn’t need any help with players aligned
over him. See the section on Center abusers for more detail on how we train our Centers.
When a 5-3 team aligns a player over our Center, the Right Guard can also jump through
and block the Middle Linebacker or even Backside Linebacker if he is making plays
against you. The Special call, allows the uncovered Right Guard and Right End the
option of blocking at the second level if they have no one on their inside gap and can
make it unimpeded to the Linebacker.
Against many 5-3 teams the inexperienced ones will often bring the Middle Linebacker
in tight and blitz that Linebacker opposite the way the Nose Tackle is slanting. If he is
aligned further out than 1 yard from the line of scrimmage, he won’t ever be able to get to
an off tackle or sweep play, that plays right into your hands. With no line splits and a
simple gap or down block to make, even an average offensive lineman can impede the
Linebackers progress. However if that Linebacker decides to creep up within 1 yard of
the line of scrimmage, he is now someone we can effectively crab block in that tight
space as well. This is a very simple and effective block that the weakest youth football
player can use to stop even the other teams best player.
Against any Cover 1 team, 18 Sweep Pass Both is an excellent play. Make that deep
safety in deep zone pick one side or the other. Run the 18 Sweep Pass first, then come
back with 18 Sweep Pass Both. The Safety has to pick his poison, the Wingback on the
corner route or the Left End on the Post. The weakside Corner does not have the inside
position to take away the post pattern.

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18 Sweep Pass Both Versus 5-3
If the 5-3 team you are playing is in man coverage the Cross and Shallow are always
good plays you can count on working well. If they are in man and the Weakside Corner
follows your Jet back on Rocket 28, the Rocket 16 Pass is a play that works real well
against that look.
If the Middle Linebacker is causing you issues and you do not like the match up of your
Right End on the Middle Linebacker, you can always go Nasty-Tunnel and put your
Blocking Back on him. This opens up some nice space at the 6 hole, but does require
both your Fullback and Blocking Back to make a block in space. Like all things, it is a
trade off, it’s up to you the play caller to determine which is the optimal choice for your
team against the defensive personnel of the team you are playing that day.

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16 Power Nasty Tunnel Versus 5-3
To give your Blocking Back an even better angle you could also run 16 Power Super
Omaha.
16 Power Special Super Omaha

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Some of the better 5-3 teams will try and mirror your Blocking Back with their Middle
Linebacker, their best player. Like we’ve mentioned before just start by wrong waying
the Blocking Back on a play you don’t need him on like 22 Wedge, if the Middle
Linebacker is following, you can run Burst Series plays till the cows come home. Plays
like 16 Power Super are very nice key breakers for that play as is Burst 14 Trap.
The 5-2 Defense
We won’t spend a lot of time talking about the 5-2 Defense, because you are not going to
see much of it if you are running the Single Wing. The 5-2 is a defense that can work
very well at the youth level against option or pass happy teams and can even give teams
that like to run wide some problems if those Safety’s are playing in tighter and are great
athletes. However you have numbers inside and will be able to wedge and power 5-2
teams all day long. Most 5-2 teams play a zone defense with the Safety’s in deep halves
and the Corners under with Linebackers in the middle.

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Plays that will work well: 22 Wedge, 32 wedge, 16 Power

Plays that will work really well: Spinner 26 Power, Spinner 32 Wedge, Mouse 32
Wedge, Mouse 22 Wedge, Burst 32 Wedge, Burst 26 G, Buck 14 Trap, Buck 23 Power,
14 Power
Plays that you shouldn’t run: 16 Pass, 18 Sweep Pass, 18 Sweep, Rocket 28, Lazer 47
If they morph the 5-2 into a 5-2 Monster and put the Monster on the strong side, you just
treat him like a Linebacker and you now have a 5-3 defense more or less. Notice that now

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your midpoint count is 6 strong and 5 weak, so your weakside plays look good here.
When you run no-huddle you can formation the 5-2 Monster some as the numbers tell
you to run weakside and wide. Try a Laser Larry 47 Sweep or Double Mouse 47 and see
if they come out of the Monster look. Sometimes they can, but not soon enough to affect
the play.
When you run the same offense for 150 games you are bound to see some odd defenses.
One that caused us some problems the first time we faced it was a 5-2 with the Monster
wet up just off the line of scrimmage and about 3 yards wider than the Defensive End.
The Defensive End was crashing hard and the Monster was their contain player. When
out kids saw this defense for the first time, it really confused our kids, they couldn’t
figure out who the defensive end was since there were 2 players right at the line of
scrimmage that were outside our Right Tight End.
Plays that worked really well against this look:

14 Power, 43 Reverse, 24 Iso, War 18 Sweep, 18 Sweep Super Omaha

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14 Power Versus 5-2 Monster Defense

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The 4-4 Defense
The 4-4 is another College or High School type defense that very few youth teams will
use against a Single Wing team. When you see this defense against you, you will know
that your opponent either didn’t scout you or he is just trying to copy what he played in
High School. This is one of poorest choices to use against the Single Wing. There are
many flavors of 4-4, but the most common is a stack.
In most 4-4s the Defensive Ends are in very tight and are rush type ends, that are not
responsible for contain, that is the Outside Linebackers job.
Whenever we see a 4-4 team we just wedge them every single down until they come out
of the defense. Spinner or Mouse 32 wedge plays are very good choices to make as the
backfield action will either freeze of take Linebackers and Defensive Ends away from the
play. We prefer to get teams to do things that they are not comfortable doing. Another
approach would be to not overuse the wedge, keep the team in the defense so you can get
your 5-7 wedge yards any time you need them. In 2009 at the 7-8th grade level we did
play a team we couldn’t wedge. They had a 6’2” 300 pound player that had pretty good
feet, he was no blob. This was the only 4-4 team we’ve never been successful wedging.
Now mind you that year we had the smallest Midget team in youth football history. My
linemen tight end to tight end were: 115, 118, 120, 140, 212, 120 and 115. We were
forced to do things other than wedge to be successful against that team, but in the end we
ended up winning big using a handful of adjustments and by not panicking.
Again, with the unbalanced nature of the Single Wing, not all 4-4 defenses are going to
align alike against you. In any event, there are going to be two gaps side by side that are
going to be open at the line of scrimmage. If the Nose Tackle slants to the strong gap, the
1 and 3 holes are both open at the line of scrimmage. If the Nose Tackle slants to the
weakside, the 0 and 2 holes are open at the line of scrimmage. Most 4-4’s definitely have
a tendency to slant towards one side or the other as a base slant. Find out where that one
double open gap is and run right at it.
The 4-4 does offer many different blitz and stunt combinations. For our “select” teams
we have used a 4-4 variation we call Viper. It was taken from Canyon Springs High
School in California. They won two USA Today National Titles with it and one of their
long time coaches, coached for me for four years, we used a more youth friendly version
of it. But remember, that select teams are chocked full of very good athletes, there are no
minimum play players on those teams and you are typically defending more athletic
teams at that level of play. There are inside crosses where the Defensive Tackles goes to
the outside gap and the Inside Linebackers blitz through the outside gap. There are
outside crosses where the Defensive Tackles go through the inside gap and the
Linebackers go through the outside gap. There are Outside Linebacker blitzes where the
Defensive End will stunt through the gap between the Tight End and the next inside
player, while the Outside Linebacker comes off the edge and plays contain into the
backfield.

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In most 4-4 defenses, the Outside Linebacker is the contain player, in other 4-4s he is a
two gap player, he has both the C gap and contain. Some 4-4 defenses play man, while
others play zone. The 4-4 can be balanced, but always do your midpoint count, because
you never know where that Defensive Tackle on the weakside is going to align. The math
says that the edge count is two to each side, but some 4-4 teams will slide their Outside
Linebackers outside a bit. You will need to do your midpoint and edge counts and find
the bubbles in the defense.
Edge Count is 2 Midpoint Count is 5 1/2
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

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Inside Cross
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Outside Cross
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

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Outside Go
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
With so many stunts coming off this defense, you can see why wedge blocking is so
effective against it. What do you care what angle a player is coming in at or even which
gap, on wedge plays your offensive linemen are shoulder to rib cage, they aren’t blocking
any defender, they are making a fit with the offensive linemen to their inside. The
defenders are just the snow being plowed downfield or just like snow, sliding off the very
edge of the plow and away from the runner.
Plays that work against most 4-4 defenses: 22 Wedge, 32 Wedge and 18 Sweep.
Plays that work REALLY well against 4-4 defenses: Spinner 32 Wedge, Mouse 32
Wedge, 16 Wedge, 16 Power Special, 14 Power and Burst 26 G.
Coverage will determine what makes the most sense when you decide to pass. If they are
in man; the Cross, Up and Shallow will work well. If they are in zone; Rocket Flat Pass.
Smash Pass and 18 Sweep Pass Stick are your best choices.
Plays you don’t want to run against this defense: 16 Pass, Nasty Tunnel 16 Power, 31
Trap, 14 Trap and 24 Iso.

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3 1 0 2 4 6 8
14 Power Versus 4-4 Defense

179
When you face the 4-4 team always see how they align on the spread set with Rocket
motion, you never know what type of alignment you may get. You may discover several
weak spots that you can exploit by doing just that. Always remember to look for weak
players, there is no place to hide in the 4-4 defense. If you play in a league with minimum
play rules, at some point the other team is going to have to try and slip a weaker player in
here or there. When they do you need to make sure and exploit it.
One trick we use is to have our stat person who tracks our minimum play players alert us
when the defense subs in a weaker player. In many leagues you have to declare your
starters so the minimum play kids can have their plays counted. We just look who is
starting on offense and defense and then take the remainder from the roster, those will
usually be the other teams weaker players. When one of them comes on the field, the stat
person just says “red 12.” That tells us that number 12 is a weaker player. If an opposing
coach chooses not run a defense that is not minimum play player friendly, he needs to
take the consequences of that choice, which means attacking the softest area of the
defense. The 4-4 is a defense like the 4-6 and 4-3 that has no margin for error, there
simply isn’t anywhere to out a weaker player. The 5-2 and 5-3 aren’t a whole lot
friendlier.
The 7 Diamond or 7 Box Defense
The 7 Diamond and 7 Box Defenses are defenses that were widely used back in the 30s-
the early 60s. They went the way of the dinosaur many moons ago. But just because it is
an old defense doesn’t mean it is a bad choice. It is a much better defensive choice for the
youth game than most of those 50 fronts, but like any defense it has its soft spots too. The
coverage on the Diamond is usually man coverage with the Safety in deep zone. The Box
can be man or zone, but probably lends itself more easily to zone coverage with the two
safeties.
The W and S Linebackers jobs in the Diamond are pretty tough. They have to attack the
Tight End and run with him if the play is pass play. If it is a run play in the C gap, the
Linebacker has that responsibility too. While the 16 Pass is not a very good play against
this defense, it makes sense to throw it and possibly alter you approach a bit to use this
defenses rules against itself. If the W and S Linebackers are in man coverage against the
Tight End, why not just threaten the 16 Pass and run them downfield and out of the play
when you are running the 16 Power?

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Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Box
W S
M
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

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16 Power Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Unfortunately you can’t really create a double team at the point of attack on the 16 Power
without really going crazy with alignments and assignments, but as long as your Power
Tackle can hold his own on a down block against the Defensive Tackle, you can make
hay with the 16 Power. Since you only have to block a single Linebacker on the play,
there is no need to get the Defensive Tackle to the second level, so even a stalemate crab
block would suffice, the easiest block to make in football. Obviously there is no need to
pull the Right Guard as there would be no one there to block once he got there.
If you choose to throw the 16 Pass as a “throw away” play to set up your 16 Power, keep
an eye on the W and S Linebackers. Once they stop running with the Tight End, the Tight
End will need to go back to his GOD blocking rule.
The wedge does not look like a good play against this defense as you have 5 defenders
pushing against 7 offensive linemen, not the type of mismatch you are looking for to run
wedge plays. In most 7 Diamond Defenses, the Defensive Ends play to deepest back and
may even box, they are usually fairly tough to sweep against if they use this technique

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and the Defensive Ends are obedient and well coached. That is something you are going
to have to monitor and determine on your own. If those defensive ends start creeping in
tighter and try to squeeze the off-tackle hole, they may be worth trying to sweep.
However most the 7 Diamond Defenses I’ve seen like to keep their Defensive Ends out
fairly wide.
The 7 Diamond was not designed to stop spread type attacks so you may be able to
formation this defense out of what they want to do by going into the Spread Single Wing.
I also like WAR against this defense, 18 Sweep Pass looks very good out of that set.
War 18 Sweep Pass Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Plays that look good against the 7 Diamond:

16 Power No, 43 Reverse, Buck 23 Power
Plays that look very good against the 7 Diamond:
14 Power, Buck 14 Trap, Burst 26 G- Paul, War 18 Sweep Pass, Cross Pass Left, Lazar
Larry 47 Sweep, Super 16 Power Omaha
Plays that probably are not a good choice against the 7 Diamond:
Wedge Plays, 16 Pass, 18 Sweep, Nasty/Tunnel 16 Power, 43 Reverse Pass

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14 Power Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

184
Buck 14 Trap Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Burst 26 G Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

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On the Burst 26 G you can even make a “Paul” call to have your 1 Back fake the pass to
make sure the S and Corner go back into pass coverage rather than looking underneath
for the 2 Back running the G.
Lazar Larry 47 Sweep Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
The Lazar Larry 47 Sweep is an excellent play against this defense. The 2 Back is wide
enough to get a nice angle on the Defensive End, the Blocking Back blocks the Corner
and everyone else just sticks with their basic blocking rule. The Wingback takes the
handoff at full speed right over the Center, so there is no way the Middle Linebacker who
is over the Right Guard is going to make it there. You can either have the Left End block
GOD or run the W off with a seam pattern, your choice. Back in the 30s no one ran Jet
Sweep, but maybe they should have. Once the Middle Backer starts cheating towards the
Jet Motion, you can come back with the Power or Reverse.

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16 Power Super Omaha Versus 7 Diamond
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Plays that look very good against a 7 Box:

16 Power No, Burst 26 G, 14 Power, Up Pass Left, Up Pass Right, 18 Sweep Pass Stick
Plays you probably don’t want to run against a 7 Box:
16 Pass, 18 Sweep, Rocket 28, Lazar 47, 18 Sweep Pass, Wedge, Nasty/Tunnel 16, 43
Reverse

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14 Power Versus 7 Box
W S
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
60 Front Defenses
The variations you may see from 60 front defenses are somewhat endless. The most
common ones are the Split 6 and the Wide Tackle 6. Again, you never quite know how
someone will take one of these classic defenses and align it against an Unbalanced Single
Wing. Many of these classic defenses have even been modified a bit to make them more
“youth friendly” like my own version of the Wide Tackle 6. Remember no matter what
defense you face, what is important is not only the base alignment but the base reads, run
fits, coverage, base responsibility, containment and alley support.

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Split 6 Defense
Most Split 6 Defenses typically play a 3 deep zone coverage scheme. Most of them also
align their Defensive Ends anywhere from 1-3 yard wider than the end man on the line of
scrimmage. So while the math says to sweep with just 2 defenders wider than your Tight
Ends, sometimes that can be difficult with Ends that wide. While this scheme takes away
your ability to get a double team at the point of attack on the 16 Power, it has many
vulnerabilities.
With no one over the Right Guard, any wedge will be allowed to fit nicely and get a head
of steam going prior to meeting any linebacker pressure. Add in some backfield motion
like Mouse or Spinner and that wedge is fitting against just 4 defenders, 7 against 4 are
nice numbers to have. With Ends out that wide it is easy to threaten them with backfield
action, they have a long way to go to get to curl around the wedge and get to the Right
Guard.
With the Linebackers in so tight, they are very vulnerable in the flat areas and even very
tight misdirection plays. The Corners are fairly deep at 7-10 yards, so they aren’t doing a
lot of good in run support. The Defensive Tackles are supposed to be giving the Tight
End a shot and controlling the gap, so an outside release by the Tight End can widen that
player a bit. The Defensive Guards in this scheme better be pretty good players to keep
your Offensive Linemen off of the Linebackers.
Note that since there is an enormous gap in the middle, the Center is now blocking back
to the weakside Defensive Guard on every play instead of stepping toward the playside.

189
Plays that look good against this defense:

16 Power (special with Right Guard), 43 Reverse, 16 Wedge, 16 Pass, Buck 23 Power,
Buck 14 Trap, Burst 43 G
Plays that look very good against this defense:
18 Sweep Pass, 16 Pass Fred, Cross Pass Right/Left, 31 Trap, 14 Power, Burst 32 Wedge,
Burst 26 G, Mouse 22 Wedge, Spinner 32 Wedge, Mouse 32 Wedge, Spinner 26 Power
Plays you probably won’t want to run against this defense:
24 Iso, 18 Sweep, Double Mouse 47, Nasty/Tunnel 16 Power
16 Power (Special) Versus Split 6
18 Sweep Pass Versus Split 6 Defense

190
Since the Linebackers in this defense are in the short zone looking to defend the hook
area, your goal should be to get the ball to the flat to the Blocking Back. Since you want
the corner to be out of the play, this might be the time to tell your Wingback to not attack
the Linebacker as aggressively as he normally does on this pattern.
16 Pass “Fred” Versus Split 6
14 Power Versus Split 6 Defense

191
The Burst Series is a Split 6 Killer because you threaten the middle, the soft spot of this
defense. Anytime these Linebackers smell anything in the middle they are flying toward
that action. Once you establish the Burst 32 Wedge, the Burst 26 G and Burst 43 G will
be big plays for you, the 26 being a bit of a better play due to the Corner having to
respect the outside threat by the Quarterback.
Burst 26 G Versus Split 6
Burst 43 G Versus Split 6 Defense

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Cross Pass Left Versus Split 6 Defense
Wide Tackle 6 Defense
I do not run the classic version of the Wide Tackle 6 defense, mine is a youth version
with quite a few tweaks to it that make it a great fit for the youth game. Our version
acknowledges the passing threat some teams can legitimately make while making sure it
has spots in it where legit minimum play players can add significant value on every snap.
I’m not going to include the Wide Tackle 6 in this book simply because there is no reason
to help those that would like to stop you using my own defense.
We have played a number of Single Wing teams back in the day when I was in the
Omaha league. There was a B team division where my organization had multiple B teams
entered. Since some of the Divisions had just 10 teams in them, we would play each other
on occasion. While we had a number of heated battles with our own teams running the
very same offense and defense, we never lost. It comes down to execution and
fundamentals. Many of our books and DVDs are sold to my own competitors, some
probably are going to be sold to your competitors as well. What I won’t do is help those
teams try to beat this offense with my own defense, we hope you understand.

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14 Power Versus 5-3 Shallow
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
Unfortunately we can’t draw up every type of goofy situation you may come across, but
there was one that caused us some trouble until we figured out what was happening.
Some teams get so sick of getting bludgeoned off-tackle at the 6 hole that they will stick
their very best player in there very shallow, making it very tough for the Wing to dig him
out. The first thing you have to do is make sure your 4 Back us coming under the
Defensive End, if he goes outside the End, there is no chance he can make his block on
the 16 Power.
Another tactic is to just run a hole tighter with plays like the 14 Power or Buck 14 Trap.
You can also just run Nasty/Tunnel and leave him exposed on an island for your strong 3
Back to blow up. You could also run WAR 18 Sweep and just pin him inside where he
wants to play.

194
Nasty Tunnel 16 Power Versus 5-3 Shallow
3 1 0 2 4 6 8
WAR 18 Sweep Versus 5-3 Shallow
3 1 0 2 4 6 8

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The 46 Defense
The original 46 defense was invented by Buddy Ryan of the Chicago Bears. It was not
named based on the alignment of players, but named for the jersey number of Buddy’s
favorite player, 46 Doug Plank, the starting Safety. This hybrid Safety/Linebacker player
was just the type of hard nosed player Buddy admired most. This 8 man front defense
was designed to stop the run and put maximum pressure on the quarterback and deny the
deep passing game.
Innovative and unique for its time, the 46 defense is considered a very aggressive high
risk, high reward defense. At the youth level and even in the NFL it features man to man
coverage, press man with bump and run technique. At the youth level, for the few that
run it, it may even appear GAM like and feature some of the mirror techniques suggested
my John T Reed.
Like many NFL type defenses, it is not minimum player friendly, the 46 team is going to
have to play all their weaker players on offense. If they choose to put the weaker player
on defense, with 8 or even 9 players in the box, with most of those playing extremely
tight to the line of scrimmage, it puts the defense in a very vulnerable position if they
choose to put a weaker player anywhere in the alignment. The 46 was extremely
successful in the NFL with the Bears and Eagles during Ryans tenure there, but you
rarely if ever see it in the NFL any more. The short quick passing game and spread
offenses have made it nearly obsolete in the pro game. But since many youth teams do
not pass effectively or efficiently, the 46 does merit a look as a youth football defense.
Not all 46 defenses are alike, but most will try to follow the Buddy Ryan model as a
general template. I will use the one version of the 46 that I know is being used by some
youth coaches out there. We will use the 46 defensive rules against itself to create gaps
and coverage problems that make the Single Wing a real problem for it to defend.

196
Going by the book the 46 this is how the defense is supposed to align against the base
Single Wing:
Base Versus Book 46

F
M C
C
W T
E N T S E
There is very little information on how the 46 would defend a traditional Single Wing
offense because of course the NFL version didn’t see the Single Wing back when it was
invented by Buddy Ryan. The present day youth version of the 46 has precious little
information about how to defend it as well with most questions about how it would
defend the Single Wing either ignored or purposely not answered, leaving the 46
followers to fend for themselves.
When listening how 46 proponents would defend the Single Wing, even they give
conflicting accounts of who to key and what type of adjustments they would make to
keep up against a Single Wing team. A number of them just suggest to get out of the 46
altogether and go to plan B. Either way should be good for you, if they stay in the base 46
you have some really nice ways to attack it, if they go into another defense, they probably
do not have a bunch of experience playing in it. Here is one of the more popular pictures
from what some of the 46 proponents would get into as adjustments to their base 46:

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Base Single Wing Versus Real Life 46

F
M C
C
E W T N T
S E
The Defensive Ends are about 1 ½ yards outside the end man on the line of scrimmage.
The F is at about 9 yards, shading weakside, the W and S are head up rather than inside
shade of he Tight Ends, the Cs and M are at about 3-4 yards and M has moved over his
key which is the Blocking Back. M is also supposed to key the Right Guard as well, to
give the W or C a shout when he is pulling their way. Everyone is in man coverage and
the F is taught to scream to the football in run support. The rule for the mirroring
Linebackers and Backs are “stay with your man, no matter what.” I’ve seen film of 46
teams play and they do just that, they follow their man, which we will use against them to
gain advantage.
46 Versus 16 Power
M C
C
E W T N T
S E

198
There are several ways to run the 16 Power against the 46. First remember to recess your
offensive players that are on the line of scrimmage as far back as is legally possible. That
means the top their helmets need to be able to touch the midpoint of an imaginary line
that goes parallel to the line of scrimmage through the waist of the Center. This will
allow you to pull your Right Guard while allowing your Right Tackle to block the Nose
Tackle. Note that the playside Corner chases the Wingback right into the path of M.
Everyone blocks their base rule, with the exception of the Fullback who now looks inside
to block the Corner or first threat to the inside along with the pulling Right Guard. While
we no longer have a double team block at the point of attack, this is still an excellent play
to run against this defense.
An even simpler way to run it would be to send the Right End on an outside release to
take S away from the play as the rule S follows to the letter is to “follow his man,
period.” You could also release the Right End inside and take S right into the path of M.
However, some 46 teams do shade S to the inside shoulder and fight hard to protect an
inside release. If that is the case, just run him off with an outside release fade using the
techniques we discussed earlier to gain an outside release.
M C
C
E W T N T
S E

199
M C
C
E W T N T
S E
Some other plays that look very promising against the 46:
18 Sweep Pass Wheel
M C
C
E W T N T
S E

200
The Corner’s rule is to follow the Wingback, period, so when the Wingback blocks S, the
Corner follows him, leaving the Right End to wheel around to the outside wide open. On
18 Sweep pass, the Quarterback has depth and is running away from pressure with 2 lead
blockers. F is too far away to make the play and is probably screaming up to make a play
on the Quarterback on a play that looks like a sweep. If you really wanted to get jiggy
with it you could pull your Right Guard away, you really don’t need 3 players blocking
the Nose Guard.
C
M C
E W T N T S E
Using the 46 rules against itself you can run S away from the play by having the Right
End block out on the Defensive End, the playside Corner is easy to run off with the
Wingback. The Blocking Back kicks out an already widened S, the Right Guard and
Fullback lead. If your Right Tackle is up to it you could leave your Right Guard at home
on a No call and have the Right Tackle block M, but the 46 admittedly does not like fold
type blocks so pulling the Right Guard to him probably makes the most sense.
Since the M is supposed to be following the Blocking Back you could always just wrong
way him, sending M right into C as well. That would be Nasty Tunnel 16 Power G.

201
C
M C
E W T N T S E
The 46 rules tell the playside C to replace the E on contain if the E is ever cracked. The
18 Sweep Pass works well against this type of approach with a few adjustments. Widen
the Wingback and instead of having him attack the Linebacker, have the Wingback give
the Defensive End a tap and then get to the open area. If your Quarterback runs the 18
Sweep Pass like he is supposed to , this should be a really nice play, F is too far away
again to make a play. This pass needs to be thrown quickly, as soon as the Wingback has
cleared the Defensive End, not more than a 6 yard pass. You could pull your Right Guard
away if you wanted to, you won’t need 3 players to block the Nose Guard. The 46 makes
throwing the deep ball extremely difficult, but short quick timing type passes do work
nicely.

202
C
M
C
T E
E W N T S
Another play you that uses the 46 Rules against itself is Mouse 22 Wedge Wrong. The
mouse motion takes the C away from the play and into the path of others, the Blocking
Back going wrong takes the M right into the path of the C and you have a nice 7 on one
scenario with the wedge apex on the Nose Guard. This one play would create chaos for
the 46 defense. Some of the best answers are right there in your base playbook.
C
M
C
T E
E W N T S

203
Mouse 16 Power Away is also a play that looks nice against the 46 defense. The backside
C follows the puller and is looking for the reverse. If F makes the tackle from 9 yards
back, we have a nice gain on the play.
C
M
C
T E
E W T S
N
Another play that looks nice against the 46 is the Spinner 26 Power, which we since 2010
have been running as an option play. On this option play, M, C and F would be all
zeroing in on the Fullback while the Corner was run off by the motioning Wingback.
C
C
M
T E
E W N T S

204
Against our version of the Spread Single Wing, the 46 runs into some other issues as
well. The Cross Pass to either side looks good, more so to the right than the left though,
as the inside receiver to the right is off the line of scrimmage and is a little easier to rub
off of the outside receiver.
M
C
C
E T N
W T E S

205
Lazer 16 Power looks very good against this defense as well.
M
C
C
E T N T
W E S
Other plays that look very good against the 46 include Buck 14 trap with the Right End
releasing outside. The Reverse run as a G and Wrong looks good as well, again you if
you want to run that with the Left End releasing outside and taking that defender with
him, more power to you. Most of the 16 Pass plays look good, because of the tendency
for the S and W to shade inside to take away the inside release and the Defensive Ends
playing 1 ½ yards outside the Tight End. The quick fade can be open if you teach your
Tight End the release techniques we discussed earlier, it also takes that player away from
the play. You can just make a habit of running that player off as he will have his back to
the line of scrimmage once your Tight End clears him to the outside. Another tactic you
could try working is swapping out your Right Guard for Right Tackle and just pull him
from that spot instead.
This is NOT a knock against the 46, every offense and defense has its strong and weak
points. The 46 makes sense in a lot of ways, but if you can recognize it, you can beat it
with a handful of plays and a few minor tweaks. Our job as coaches is being able to
recognize what defense we are facing so we know which plays make the most sense
against them.

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Chapter 14
Using Film
The Hudl
Advantage
Using Film is the easiest way to get more “practice” time and to improve your team. Film
never lies, it is the most reliable method of evaluating your players, your team and
yourself. However film unto itself isn’t worth much, how you use it determines how
effective a tool it will be for you and your team.
In the olden days we had a parent film a game, then take the film home, load it into the
computer and burn DVD copies of it for every coach. We would hand those DVDs out on
Monday to the coaching staff if I remembered to take them to practice and by Thursday
we would be able to talk a little bit about what we should do different amongst the
coaching staff. However with a 2 day a week practice schedule we go to after school
starts, that left little room for improvement in the week following thae game.
There are many options these days to make that a much more efficient process due to the
wonders of technology. We now have a local person film the games and use a product
called Hudl. Hudl is one of the top sellers of film analysis services in the High School,
College markets and NFL markets. Hudl now has a youth product that is a real nice fit for
most youth coaches.
Why Hudl
While we don’t use all the features of Hudl, we use a few that are a huge benefit for our
team. After you load your film to your computer and then to Hudl, the system allows you
and your coaching staff via the internet to cut, classify, tag, comment (text and audio) and
draw over the top of existing film. After you and or your coaching staff put in your
comments and drawings over the film, an e-mail goes out to all of your players letting
them know the game film is ready for them to watch. No more waiting until Thursday to
get any benefit from the film, as your coaches are notified via e-mail when the film is
ready for them to view. Your parents love it because now out of town grandparents and
relatives can now watch the games the very next day. It is a great tool to build up those
emotional bank accounts of your stake holders.
If any of you have tried to do a team film session with your team, we all know those are a
colossal waste of time. A group of kids together in a big room throwing ice at each other
and losing interest as you try and remember when to stop the tape and remember which
comments go where. So many of us grew frustrated with that process and quit doing it
years ago, I know we quit doing it back in 2006. For those of you with practice limits,

207
those team film sessions usually count against your limits. Why not let the kids and
parents watch from the comfort of their own homes and when they have time?
Your coaches, kids and parents are going to love it if you aren’t doing it already. It’s also
a great tool for putting together team and individual highlight DVDs. If you go to
www.winningyouthfootball.com and click on the technology tab on the front page, you
will get more details. The cost per team is just $250 but when you use the discount
coupon code: “CISAR” you get it for just $225. Just think about getting in essence 10-12
more free practices every season. For about $20 per game you don’t have to burn any
DVDs anymore and all your players and parents have film access and no more wasted
practice time doing team film sessions.
This is a no-brainer decision for most youth coaches who are serious about maxing out
the potential of their teams. You will be amazed how much harder kids play when they
know they are being filmed and can see on film exactly what you want from them in real
game experiences. Film is the ultimate accountability tool and reality check. Some dads
have unreal opinions of the abilities of their sons. Film tells no lies and can help bring
that outrageous parent back down to earth. You can also put your competitors film into
the system and use the same processes to prepare your team if you are so inclined.
Hudl also a great recruiting and retention tool. Most youth football teams do not offer this
for their teams. If you have it and the teams you compete with for kids don’t have it, you
have a leg up on keeping the kids you have as well as attracting new players. We all
know kids and parents talk and if you have it and the other guys don’t, well we all know
what happens. It was very easy to use and they have a whole bank of very nice people
located in the US that are always available to talk you through things via phone.
We all want our kids to have a great youth football experience and do our part in helping
to make that happen. Leave no stone unturned in your quest to help your team max out.
Work to give your kids those great permanent memories and the self satisfaction of
knowing you did your very best for the kids.
Using Hudl
Once your film is loaded from your camera to your computer, it goes to the Hudl Video
Editor. The film is automatically broken into clip segments, if you don’t like the break,
you can create your own by hitting the splice clip button. You can also delete all the dead
time in this phase. As you watch the film hit the “In” and “Out” buttons to signify what
part of the clip you want included in your final product. You push “In” to start which part
of the clip you want included and “Out” when you are finished cutting the clip. Most
youth football games with 10 minute quarters can be broken down into film that lasts
from 13-17 minutes.
Once you have made your cuts, you “Publish” the film to Hudl.com, by just pushing the
Publish button, which then makes it available to your coaches and players. You can
designate who gets to view the film and who gets to add comments as part of the manage

208
function. If you want to wait until later for others to watch it, just don’t bother sharing it
with anyone until you are ready.
To get started you will want to use the manage function to enter the names and e-mail
addresses of all your coaches and players. You can import the roster from an Excel file
or just enter them in. You can add a bunch of data if you like, the only fields we use are
the players number, his name and his e-mail address.
When I publish the film for the first

time, I only “share” it with myself.
Only after I have made all my
comments and drawn on top of the film
do I “share” the film with players and
coaches. You can designate who sees
what as well. If you have comments that

209
you only want to share with coaches and NOT players, you can do so. Once you do
decide to share the video with your players, an e-mail goes out to all your players telling
them the film is ready to watch- along with a
message from you. Mine usually says
something like; “Nice game against Gretna, let’s
get better this week and have this entire game
watched before practice on Tuesday.”
Inputting Data
You can get as detailed as you want when entering data for each play. You can input the
play, down, distance, yardage gained, defensive front, literally anything. We only input
the offensive play and the yardage we made.

210
You can spend a lot or a little time on this, we choose to spend the minimum amount.
When you enter data it does give you reference points for later as well as you can use the
Analyze function and sort on all of your Rocket 16 Pass plays to take a look at them back
to back. Or all of your plays that lost yardage or all of your plays that went for 20 yards
or more. Again, the possibilities are endless on how you can use the data.
Adding a Text Box
Several of the features we think offer the biggest return on your time investment are the
comments feature which Hudl calls “Add a Text Box” and draw over feature which Hudl
calls “Telestrate.” This allows you to coach up your kids, the most important part of film
study.
If your 3 Back runs the wrong way on say 43

Reverse, you could put a Text Box saying,
“3 Back, you have the playside Defensive
End on this play.” I don’t like to use the kids
names when they are doing something
negative when adding text to film. However
when you do see great effort or excellent
execution, something like “James- excellent
crab block” may make sense. To highlight
the text boxes I prefer to draw arrows from
the text box to the player it is commenting
on.
To add a text box alls you have to do is click

on the Abc button just below the film of your
teams and a text box will pop up. Just add in
your text, you can move the text box to
wherever you need it to be and can add as many text boxes to the picture as you need.
Whenever you add a text box of telestrate on the screen, the film will automatically stop
so your players can read the text box and look at the drawings or lines. All the player has
to do it click on the play button and the film will advance through the film at regular
speed until another text box or telestration is again on the screen.

211
Spot Shadows
Sometimes it’s hard to see a

specific player on film, the
angle of the shot isn’t right,
it may be dark, whatever, it
happens. A simple way to
bring attention to a player is
to use the Spot Shadow
feature. Just click on the
dotted circle just below your
screen and up will pop up
several different type of Spot
Shadows you can insert over
your film. It also gives you
the flexibility of large or
small shadows.

212
A spot shadow is a circular icon that rotates around a certain player. You designate who
the shadow rotates around. There are several types of spot shadows you can use, the one I
prefer is the broken circle. It rotates around the player you designate and the film is
frozen until you push play again to advance it. In the above example you could have spot
shadowed your 3 Back prior to the play as well as the playside Defensive End. Your text
box saying on 43 Reverse the 3 Back blocks the playside Defensive End, along with an
arrow going from the 3 Back to the playside Defensive End goes a long way in helping
your 3 Back understand how to get his assignment down properly. You can also highlight
excellent effort AND poor effort using the spot shadow feature. Want to get your kids to
compete for big hits? Use liberal use of the spot shadow to highlight these. Have a player
who just won’t finish plays or stands around? Do a few spot shadows of him in a row,
mentioning him by position only, not
name and see if that doesn’t get his
attention.
Telestrating
The “Telestrate” feature is probably my favorite

Hudl feature. It allows you to draw over the top of
film. You can free hand using your mouse or use
the straight line, arrow or even blocking lines that
you point and click to add over your film. Just click
on the arrow at the bottom of your screen and a
new block of buttons will appear over your
screen.
You then choose from the different types of

objects you want to insert; a line with arrow, line
with blocking insignia, straight line or even draw
free hand.

213
The first time you click, that will be the

starting point, then just hold the clicker
down and drag your mouse to the end
point, when you release, you have your
straight line, arrow or blocking object.
Or you can just press the squiggly line
button and just draw it free hand. So in
the above example where the 3 Back
went the wrong way, you could draw a
line from the 3 Back to the playside
Defensive End to show who he should
have blocked on the play.
Obviously there are hundreds of examples of how to apply this technology to improve
your team, but just the ability to help players understand their assignments, base
technique and level of effort they will be held accountable to, helps make your team
better. Sometimes all it takes to click is something like when can illustrate to your 4
Back why he wasn’t open on 18 Sweep Pass is because he didn’t run toward the Outside
Linebacker before he makes his cut and the Corner sits on the pattern instead of biting on
the sweep or power fake. You can draw over the film what the pattern should have
looked like and even could draw arrows to where the Corner would have ended up on the
play if the pattern would have been run properly.

214
The Highlight Feature
The Highlight feature is another great feature you are going to love using. Once you have
your roster inputted using the manage function you can designate Any play clip can be
designated to a player, it will be stored as a personal highlight for that player. You can
designate a play to be a highlight for multiple players. You can even make highlights for
say your offensive line as a group or your defensive backs, the possibilities are endless.
Just click on the star next to the play clip number and your roster will pop up. Then just
click on the star next to the players name and it will always be in his folder.
Players and moms and dads can also make their own highlight folder. If you have a little
bit of technical skills you can even burn DVDs or have Hudl do it for you for a very
nominal fee.
As I analyze the film, I just click

all the players names who had
an extraordinary play on that
snap. Each folder is
continuously updated, so every
one of your players can click on
their name and see their game
highlights for the season or
individual game.
For those of you that do a team DVD or even individual player DVDs, you know doing
this takes you an unreal amount of time. One season I had over 80 hours invested in
highlight DVDs for my team. With Hudl you take care of it in the first watch through.
You can also set up subgroups of players and only send out clips that apply to those
subgroups. Say you like the play of one of your Defensive Backs, you can set up as sub
group of all your Defensive Backs and share that great clip only with them. By sharing
only a handful of clips with that group that applies to their needs may improve the Hudl
attention span of your players.
Scouting
If you scout other teams, Hudl can be a huge advantage to your team. In many leagues,
coaches scout and have film on every opponent. In our league we only scout a handful of

215
opponents, but all of us scout our playoff opponents. In the league I’m in now, in 2010
there were 40 teams in our age bracket divided into 4 Divisions of 10 teams each. The
Division winners played each other with the winners of those 2 games playing each other
for the ‘’Super Bowl.” Well to win the Division title, we had to beat a team in our final
regular season game that had only given up a single touchdown all season. We filmed
them as well as the other semifinal game.
We were able to use text boxes and the telestration function to get most of what we
needed across to our players, it was a huge help in our playoff run. Whenever a player
can get a comfort level and familiarity in a situation, it allows him to play more
confidently and with less “nerves.” If you haven’t used film extensively you may be
shocked at how much better prepared and confident your kids play with even a minimal
amount of film time.
Film Exchange
Via film exchange we were also able to get film of our first playoff round opponent. If
the person you are exchanging film with has Hudl, you can exchange film without ever
having to meet. You just designate his Hudl user name and which game you want to
share with him and it’s instantly shared with him. Your comments and telestrations will
not appear, but your film will. Just click on the Manage button and then the Exchange
button and follow the prompts, it takes less than 30 seconds to do.
We didn’t exchange with the opposing team, we exchanged with a team that had played
our opponent, who was playing a team we had already defeated. This is an invaluable
feature if you are playing out of
town. The last out of town
tournament we played in, we were
able to get film via a Hudl exchange
from someone we tracked down in
our opponent’s league.

216
Player Accountability
Accountability is built into the Hudl

product. Using the “Manage”
function and clicking on roster,
Hudl tells you how many minutes
that each player has been viewing
film for that day, the previous day
and the in the last 7 days.
This is just a sample I set up. While

each game film was just 15-17
minutes in length we had players that were watching 2-3 hours of film a week. You
always know how much time every player was accessing his Hudl account.
Another trick is to insert text boxes into the film and have a quiz. You could put a text
box halfway through the film that says; “Our film question of the day is how many onside
kicks have we recovered this season?”
Ask your players what the film question was- if a player can’t answer, the team suffers
some kind of mild consequence. You can even go the high tech route and say whoever
e-mails you the Text Box code words that you inserted in the film- gets to be team
captain this week. The Text Box might read something like this, “The first 4 players to
send me an e-mail or text that says these exact words, will be team captain this week, the
words are: I watched the Gretna Film, Slippery Rock Rocks.”

217
Chapter 7
Taking It Forward
So now you’ve read this new book and maybe watched

some video, what’s next? Again, don’t panic, don’t think
you have to use everything in this book in order to win
most or all of your games. If you perfect your base plays
and use the concepts in the base book to insure your kids
are blocking and tackling well you are going to be fine. As long you are prioritizing your
practice time and using the techniques we suggest in the main book to make the most out
of your practice time, you can call an awful game and still probably win a good portion of
your games.
Unlike the base offense and book where we recommend to use it all as written, this is ala
carte. Use what makes sense for the kids you have, use this to solve problems you are
having, use this to make you play calling more effective and efficient. You don’t need
every play or adjustment in this book to succeed. It would be silly to use them all, you
don’t have enough time to perfect them all, we don’t even use them all in every season.
We start with the base, prefect it and build from there.
Pick the ideas and the processes that make the most sense to you for where you are as a
coach, from where your team is as a coaching staff and from where your players are at
compared to their peers.
If you want to improve as a coach, work with other coaches. If you don’t have strong
coaches in our program or association, go to some coaching clinics and meet some. The
best coaches out there love to help other youth football coaches that have a thirst for
knowledge. Develop a mentor relationship with someone that has had a lot of success and
also has a similar mission as yourself. He doesn’t have to come to all your games or
watch all your film, he just needs to be someone you can bounce ideas off of and be a
listening ear.
Go to a Winning Youth Football clinic, the guys that adhere to this system are a pretty
tight group and most of them are more than willing to help you as long as you won’t be
playing directly against them. I’ve met guys at these clinics that help each other out by
scouting each others film using Hudl. Some of these guys have ended up being pretty
good buddies over time due to their common mission and interest in developing youth.

218
Make sure you continue to sharpen your axe. That means attending a few coaching
clinics, whether they are mine or others. Get on the web site and follow the blog on
winningyouthfootball.com, we are adding posts there weekly.
Don’t be afraid of being successful, it takes some effort, but it does not have to be an
overwhelming passion swallowing up all your free time in order for your team to have
championship seasons. So what if it does take up some of your free time, my wife seems
to think that doing this is much better than what she hears what some of her friends
husbands are doing with their free time. You are in the privacy of your own home trying
to get better as a football coach so you can insure some impressionable young men have a
great season and that your efforts will inspire them to continue to play the game that
teaches life lessons like no other. In the meantime if you are coaching your own child,
you are getting to spend some quality time with him during his formative years. What’s
the harm in that?
Take pride in the fact you are willing to invest time to make sure your kids have a great
experience. The game of football can be such a great influence on our young people. It
teaches commitment, hard work, competion, team work, selflessness, perseverance, goal
setting, taking criticism, overcoming disappointment and graciousness. These are
qualities that seem to see less and less in our young people today and seem to be stressed
less and less in our society today. But in the end all of those things are muscles that need
to be developed in order for our young men to be good students, good employees, good
sons, good husbands and good fathers. Don’t let anyone minimize how influential the
competitive sports environment taught by someone with the goals can be to the long term
development of young men.
My hat is off to you, I appreciate you and your efforts. We are here to make sure you and
your team are a success. We have a vested interest in you, you affect 20-30 young
impressionable men. Do not hesitate to e-mail me at coachdave@winningyouthfootball if
you need some help or have any questions. It is my honor to help you.

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Learn From a

Copyright 2006, Cisar Management Services

Copyright 2006, Cisar Management Services

Author: Dave Cisar

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Winning Youth Football

Single Wing 303

This is an offensive addendum to the “Winning Youth Football a Step-by-Step Plan”

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Single Wing 303

Why Single Wing 303?

Refined Over Time

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Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Who Single Wing 303 is NOT For

Who Single Wing 303 is For

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Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

What Do You Tell Them?

At The Higher Levels

So for those that want to criticize the Single Wing

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The Differences in the Game

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The Youth Football Equation

National Tournament Data

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Run the High School System

The Real World

What the Top High School Coaches Said

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The Youth World We Live In

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Why the Single Wing?

Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

machines, fewer Quarterback-Center

Age Group Skeptics

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The “Talent Argument

My version of this offense has worked extremely

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There have been countless Winning Youth Football

In 2009 Pt St Lucie who runs a multiple offense

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So the net is, forget about what people say,

Throwing the Football

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Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved

Age and Experience Groupings

Age 6-8 Rookies

Age 6-8 Mix Rookies and Veterans

Age 9-10 Rookies

Age 9-10 Rookies and Vets 50/50 Mix or Better

Age 11-12 Rookies

Age 11-12 Rookies and Veterans 50/50 Mix or Better

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Perfection is the Key

What Perfection Means

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Play Teaching Order

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Copyright 2010 Cisar Management, All Rights Reserved