TRIPLESHOOT

The Triple Shoot Offense is divided into four basic sections: run game, play-passes, drop-back
passes & exotics. The offensive system is balance & explosive and is able to score quickly or
“milk the clock”. Below are brief descriptions of each section of the offense. Once you have an
understanding of each, click on the link to view each play.

RUN GAME: We feel it is imperative that an offense must be able to move the ball on the
ground. Our premise is to outnumber the defensive alignment and take advantage of the
weakness in the way they align their front. We are also able to exploit defenses with use of
motion to make our players faster at the point of attack. Our base plays are: Belly, Pop Out,
Option & Traps.

BELLY: This is just one play in a series that is designed to get the ball to the running back. We
start off with full speed motion of the receiver to get the defense to show their hand. Our linemen
will take advantage of our splits and create a seam for the back to run through.

Note: Brian Shay (Emporia State) was able to put together back-to-back 2000 yard+ seasons and
rush for nearly 7,000 yards in his career. The Belly was his feature play!

POP OUT: This play is designed to use full speed motion by the inside receiver and hand him the
ball so he can get around the reach block of the front side tackle.

TRAPS: These plays are designed to attack the open bubble of the defensive front. We are able to
take advantage of our QB action and deliver the ball to the back in a way that assures him a
gaping hole to run through. We have the ability to pull guards, tackles or both in this series.

OPTION: The option plays are designed to attack the outnumbered defensive alignment. We can
execute this series with or without motion. As with the rest of the offense, this series is also
utilized from a Shotgun formation.

PLAY-PASS: An explosive run game makes the defense adjust their secondary and underneath
coverage to adjust to the offensive attack. In this case, we are able to take advantage of any way
that the defense adjusts and go for the “home run”. Our base play-passes are: Switch & Wheel.
SWITCH: We start off with full speed motion of the receiver to get the secondary to roll and take
the free safety out of the center of the field. When this happens, out backside receiver will adjust
his route according to his rules and catch the ball for a game breaker of a play.

WHEEL: This play is designed to use full speed motion by the inside receiver and create a
problem for the frontside of the secondary. After faking the Belly , the QB will read the frontside
and deliver a blow to the defense.

DROP-BACK PASSES: Our protection is simple, yet effective and this enables us to maximize
our ability to exploit secondaries. Each of our pass schemes will enable your quarterback to
easily “pick apart” any look he encounters and each scheme will automatically adjust to any
coverage. Our base passes are: Choice, Scat & Hook.

SLIDE: This basic pass scheme will adjust too all defensive looks. Once the ball is snapped the
receivers attack the frontside of the secondary and adjust their routes simply to take advantage of
the seams in the secondary.

CHOICE: This play is designed to utilize the roll of the QB towards the frontside receiver. We
are then able to isolate the receiver on the frontside while also leaking the back & spreading the
field with our three back side receivers. (Adjustable to all coverages).

SCAT: This scheme really puts the frontside of the secondary in a bind. We have the ability to
threaten deep with the two frontside receivers, while also holding down the underneath coverage
by our #3 receiver. (Adjustable to all coverages).

HOOK: Let’s put the frontside corner in a bind. In hook, we are able to get a hi-lo read on the
frontside corner, as this is a great way to move the chains. (Adjustable to all coverages).

EXOTICS: In order to maximize the effectiveness of our balanced offense we put ourselves in a
good position to get the ball underneath to our backs and receivers via exotics. Our base exotics
are: Running Back Screens and Receiver Convoys.

SUPER SCREEN: This play is designed to use the flow of our drop-back passing game to set up
the release of three offensive linemen downfield while we release the back into a screen position.
CONVOY: This play is designed to use the influence of our QB to set up the defense for an
attack on the perimeter. We then leak out three linemen and deliver the ball to one of our
receivers.

Using The Freeze And Belly Options As An Introduction To The Option (part 1)

If you’re a coach who is thinking of installing the option for next season, you may want to read
the following.

First, let me say that I think that without a doubt, the one offensive system that gives most teams
an edge over their opponents year in and year out is the option. If you ask defensive
coordinators any time any where what the most difficult offense is to defend, nine out of ten will
reply, “the option.” The main reasons seem to be the difficulty in preparing for it… forcing the
defense to play assignment football… forcing the defense into fewer and simpler coverages –
making them susceptible to the play action pass. The reasons are many… yet few coaches opt
to run the option - even as teams like Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern, Navy, Army, and Air
Force rack up the wins running various flavors of it. I found myself asking why this is the case
and came up with the following:

1. It’s not the Spread Gun, The Wing T, or the Power I. As coaches, we know what we know
and not many head coaches are familiar with the system. Many guys just don’t know enough
about the offense to stick their necks out for it.

2. It’s hard to teach. This is a deceptive statement, as I strongly feel that once a good coach is
familiar with the offense and the drills and skills necessary to become proficient, the option is no
harder to teach than the Spread Gun or the Wing T systems. But until you are proficient, there is
a danger of “getting in over your head” with the offense… and there are many misconceptions
and pitfalls that can trip-up a rookie option staff.

3. Coaches don’t want to sell-out to the option. No other system is predicated on making the
defense stop one play as is the option offense. Almost all the supplementary plays take
advantage of the defense “robbing Peter to pay Paul” in order to stop your base play – be it the
Inside Veer, the Midline, or even the Outside Veer. You have to commit to learning – and
running- your base play over and over and over again until it is ran to perfection – each player
knowing what do do and every adjustment needed to counter defensive tactics used to stop it.
But many coaches insist on hedging their bets – spending hours of practice time getting in the
Gun, or Power I, or whatever they turn to when things just aren’t going their way.

4. Knowledge. With the advent of several option groups springing up on the Net (and even sites
like this one) finding our specifics on running the option has never been as easy as it is today.
That said, like any offense, there is much detail and expert knowledge that goes with coaching it
well- and there simply is no substitute for experience. Since the option isn’t ran half as much as
any of the other popular systems of today, finding coaches that have spent time coaching the
option can be a challenge. A line coach that has spend half a career coaching zone blocking and
pass setting is facing a huge paradigm shift when switching to the option. Size and heft take a
backseat to quickness off the ball and knowing who to block. An OC that’s used to running the
Tony Franklin system is no doubt mystified when he sees an option QB has thrown for over
1,000 yards in a season – mostly using simple two -and sometimes single- receiver routes. And
what’s keeping them from being eaten alive by the blitz – look at how small that O-line is!
Heh… I’ve heard all that… and more. Those of us that have run the option know the reasons
why, but to a novice option OC, all this can seem like a mystery.

5. It takes athletes. Many coaches like to use the excuse, “well, I just don’t have the kind of
hosses it takes to run the option.” While it’s true that great athletes can make almost any coach
look like a genius (well, almost any), No other offense has the potential of spreading the ball
around like the option. The fact that the option coach can truthfully claim not to know who’s
going to get the ball each time he calls the bread and butter play is the single best argument I can
make. And if great athletes are all it takes to win, how can Navy and the other service academies
manage to play with so many teams where their players couldn’t even get a scholarship?

So having given you 5 good(?) reasons NOT to make the Triple Option the linchpin of your
offense, you’re probably wondering when I’m going to start telling you to drop everything you
know and start running it. And that would be the funny part.

I’m not.

Using The Freeze And Belly Options As An Introduction To The Option (part 2)

Chalk it up, mark it in your calendars – this is the day when Coach Steve Smith said, “no, I don’t
think you need to run the Triple Option, guys.”

What’s this world coming to?

Okay, here come the caveats, men. By all means, drop everything and start running the Triple -
if you manage to hire a couple of coaches who have experience installing and running it. But if
you’re an old Wing-T coach, or Spread Gun Coach who hasn’t had a QB under center for years,
and you don’t magically have a few new hires who are God’s Gift to installing the option, then
you might want to calm down and consider a less radical approach.

All things considered, unless you’re just blessed with all things happening at just the right time,
such as the planets aligning or such, then you might want to put the Triple on hold for a while
and start off by putting your toe in the water – not holding your nose and jumping in off the deep
end. In your current offense, you may already have the makings of a nice called-dive and double
option package. So let’s take a look at some of the possibilities and see if this makes any sense.
If you do and if it does, then you may find out that running “an” option (or two) can be almost as
good as running “the” option.

The Belly Option Series:

Basis – I’m not sure of the exact origin of the Belly Series, but it looks like something a Wing-T
coach cooked-up somewhere along the line. (It wouldn’t surprise me if those guys at Delaware
didn’t dream it up.) The whole notion of the Belly Dive appeals to me due to the old quote
attributed to Lou Holtz. “Easy to Read, Hard to Block -- Hard to Block, Easy to Read.”
Stemming and slanting teams can make an option coach’s life hell if he doesn’t have an answer
ready to dial in. But if you consider that quote and what it says, then you can begin to see why a
simple play like the Belly Dive can be a great supplementary play for an option team. The
defense is trying to blow-up your QB’s reads – but in doing so it can provide easy angle and fan
blocks for the linemen… while the LB’s and DB’s still have to play their assignments and can’t
just run to the ball. So even when you’re not actually running the Triple Option, the threat of it
can assist you nonetheless.

But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Belly Dive and Belly Option can be the meat
of the offense – and not just the potatoes. I’ve seen huge gains made on simple dive plays made
by option teams facing defenses hell-bent on stopping the option. The same goes for the Rocket
Toss – when you get a 5 and 9 tech pinching so hard that they are helpless against a simple pitch
to a wingback motioning to the perimeter. But why were they pinching so hard to start with – to
get heat on the QB.. trying to give him hot 1st and 2nd reads in succession so he will make a bad
read. As for a counter play, either the Counter Trey or the Sally complement the backfield action
of the Belly Dive and Belly Option well.

But the Belly Series isn’t the only one available for those seeking to ease into running the
option. Attacking right up the gut is the Freeze Option Series – which like the Belly Option –
eliminates the QB’s dive read and takes the pressure off making a correct read right after the
snap. Like the Belly Option, the QB has some time before making a pitch or keep read- and
doesn’t have to worry about defenses forcing him to make two correct reads quickly. Between
the two series, I like the Freeze a little more. By using some different backfield motions and
actions, both the called FB dive and the perimeter Double Option can be used as counter plays as
well. If you’ve seen Navy’s or GSU’s Counter Option, then you’ve seen pretty much seen the
Counter Freeze Option.

Hey, any time I can teach two plays to my linemen yet make the defense think we’re running as
many as six different ones (using sets and motions), I’m going to do it.

Okay, now you’ve heard my reasoning. In the next installment, we’ll look at some diagrams and
see how the Belly and Freeze Series can help you get some option into the mix.