Developing Deception with the Spread Option

How Blackburn College uses misdirection to complement their spread scheme
by: Mike Kuchar
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What do spread option and Wing T coaches have in common? A ton of consistency and an utter hell-bent philosophy of running their offensive scheme regardless of any situation or circumstance. For the most part, once you’re induced into the clan of one of these systems, it stays with you forever. Sure some coaches will tweak their systems slightly to fit their personnel, like riding the fullback more if he’s a stud or letting the QB get the majority of carries. But essentially you are what you are and when you’re an option coach, you’re in it for good. It’s like vanilla or chocolate ice cream, Republican or Democrat. You’re one or the other – no flipping allowed.

So when offensive coordinator Nate Cochran took over the offensive duties at Division III Blackburn College in Illinois in 2006, he had quite a decision to make. Cochran’s Wing-T roots trace all the way back to his days as a high school coach a decade ago but he didn’t feel that he had the tools to make it work at the collegiate level. “At our level, it’s just so hard to operate out of the Wing-T because rarely can your guards outrun linebackers moving downhill,” says Cochran. “It’s tough to run buck sweep and try to get the corner against LBs that are clocking 4.6, 4.7 speed.” So, instead of outrunning defenses, Cochran decided to outsmart them. He decided to install a traditional spread/mid-line option scheme; but he would run it out of a more contemporary double slot set (See Diagram 1).

Diagram 1: Double Wing Formation

“We had averaged about 5-10 inch linemen up front, so we definitely weren’t the biggest group around. So, I figured we’ll run the option where we don’t have to block the first two guys at the point of attack and we’ll be successful at it.” And he was right. The Beavers averaged over 280 yards per game, ninth best in the nation among Division III teams. How did they do it? By using consistency and simplicity. According to Cochran, they are the two biggest keys in running a productive offense.

“The number one benefit of running the spread option is simplicity. We kept it completely simple. We can go into a game with six run plays and seven pass plays and just window dress defenses,” says Cochran. “Our offense doesn’t require us to have huge linemen as a benefit. We can also control the clock and protect our defense. We wanted to win the time of possession every game. Plus, nobody else in the conference ran it; teams only had five days to prepare for us. We would see the same defense every week and everyone would play ‘Plain Jane’ against us to avoid blitzing.”

Sure, the Beavers won three of their final four games, but converting to the option wasn’t a smooth transition. They stumbled early, losing the first three games of their 2007 season, being outscored 48-117. The problem was teams were too quick and they were able to chase down the spread option scheme from the backside. “Anytime they would see our arc motion they would anticipate the option coming and start moving in that direction. Next thing that you knew, those linebackers would be flying out of there and scraping down the line of scrimmage, putting major hits on the QB. So we had to change things up.”

So Cochran began to spice up his vanilla scheme by adding misdirection runs which turned out to be tremendous complements to the spread and midline plays. “We didn’t want to change our philosophy completely; we’re a spread mid-line team by heart. We run the inside spread like Navy does with the mesh by the QB and the fullback in the A gap. If we can’t block the 3-technique tackle, we’ll run the mid-line option at him. But we needed to find a way to think outside the box. So we started to complement our plays based on the reaction of the defense. A lot of times defenses will play base to us. Defensive coordinators will start guessing. They’ll start having their kids run with the arc motion. So we’ll look for keys if LBs are either running or bumping with the motion. If that’s the case, we will come back at them with some sort of counter play with our counter option, counter iso or our speed-sweep known as rocket.

Counter Option

One of the first complementary option plays that Cochran incorporated into his scheme was the counter option (See Diagram 2). The beauty of this scheme is the deceptive presence it shows to the defense. Pre-snap, the play gives the illusion of the spread option with the backside wing coming in arc motion. Except, the QB decides to snap the ball right when the wing gets behind the play side guard. This is so that he can re-direct and block the corner to the play side. The backside wing becomes the pitch man but instead of leaving before the snap he sprints to get in a position five yards away, even or ahead of the QB to keep pitch relationship.

Diagram 2: Counter Options vs. 4-3 Defense

The QB steps play side at four o’clock, his traditional steps on spread option with the fullback riding the mesh fake and aiming for the inside leg of the guard. But instead of blocking down, the back side guard will pull and work to block the EMLOS. “He’s basically using a log block working to get to his outside,” says Cochran. “At the college level we cut the defender. His aiming point is the outside leg of the dive read. We tell him to put his inside shoulder through the outside thigh board of the defender.”

Counter Iso

The counter iso (See Diagram 3) is another complementary play to Cochran’s double slot spread scheme – although it closely resembles the counter option. Again, it feeds off the movement of the linebackers bumping and shifting with the path of the wing on arc motion. It’s one of Cochran’s favorite plays to drum up when he sees over-pursuing of those LBs. The Beavers averaged over six yards every time he ran it. It starts out like the counter option (with the arc motion of the backside wing back resembling the spread option) but it ends up something completely different.

Diagram 3: Counter Iso vs. 4-3 Defense

“It looks like spread. We want the fullback to step front side on a dive track. The opposite wing comes in arc motion, coming all the way to the backside A gap. Then he plants and comes downhill to the opposite A gap. The QB is going to open and flash fake the option away from the side of the play, then step back off the mid-line and hand the ball off to the wing coming back downhill on an iso scheme. The fullback leads through the play side B gap with the wing back coming with him.”

According to Cochran, it was a play he devised more out of necessity than anything else. “The LBs just kept flowing way too hard over the top, faster than our offensive line was getting to the next level,” said Cochran. “We had to find a way to slow them down. You have to have some sort of counter to keep them honest. If you have quick LBs coming downhill quick and you’re going to give them good tendencies it’s going to get hairy.”

Rocket Sweep

Without question, one of the most dynamic schemes that Cochran uses to complement the spread is his outside sweep play, known as rocket sweep (See Diagram 4). It’s just another way to create conflict for the defensive end to the play side. In the spread scheme, he’s the unblocked player who must either play the dive or the pitch. In the counter option, he gets logged blocked by the backside guard and in the counter iso he gets base blocked by the offensive tackle. By the time he’s seen all three, he has no idea what is coming.

Diagram 4: Rocket Toss

“We run rocket sweep to three or five man front teams just to mess with the defensive end. It resembles a typical Wing-T jet sweep or fly sweep for spread teams. We started to see a lot of odd front teams with safeties dropping into the box, so we would balance them up by running our double wing formation,” said Cochran. “We really look for an outside LB that we can abuse. Sometimes we’ll check our play to that side. If we have a really quick defensive end, we would do some things to him in space, like running the rocket, that would give him problems. We start running rocket because we don’t block him. We’ll either inside release or arc on him. Usually that defensive end will tackle the fullback and we’ll just pitch it outside on the rocket.”

Instead of spread blocking, the offensive line zone blocks the play side adjacent gap while leaving the front side defensive end unblocked. The QB will reverse pivot and toss the ball to the back side wing back coming in arc motion. The play side wing is arc blocking as well on a corner. The fullback will fill the backside C gap, because by alignment he is already behind the play. It’s a quick hitting play that gets to the perimeter in a hurry. He has to get out of the way so that the ball can be accurately pitched to the wing. “We always leave the front side end unblocked unless he crosses the offensive tackle on his zone track,” said Cochran. “If the tackle can’t avoid him, he’ll block him. But we want to leave him alone; that’s the point of the offense. We don’t have to block the defense’s best defenders at the point of attack.”

Nathan Cochran recently accepted the position of Offensive Coordinator at Colorado College.

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Q1. What if the defense is in a four man front and the two outside linebackers blitz? How do you adjust?

This is a very common blitz. We try to practice this as often as possible. If we are running the rocket toss, our playside WB will pick up the playside blitzing LB. We will try to outrun the defense to the corner. If we are running the lead dive the FB path beats the blitz because it is a quick hitter.

Q2. What if the defense is in a 3-3 Stack and you decide to run the counter option? Do blocking assignments change or are there any adjustments needed?

We have blocking rules for the three different fronts we see. We would run our three man front rules. Our pulling guard still blocks what we would normally identify as the dive read.

Q3. What if you’re in a situation where you can’t effectively run the Rocket Sweep? The defensive end and linebackers are stopping it cold. What changes – blocking or in personnel – would you make?

We might change our formation somewhat that condenses the defense so we can get outside. By packing the defense into a smaller area it opens running lanes outside. We will close our WR slits down to 5-7 feet. This will bring the corner and the safeties into the formation. Now we only have to out run people to the edge.

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