A Unique Approach to Trips: Maximize Reps and Sets, Minimize Mistakes

By David Buchanan
Head Football Coach,
Mason County High School (KY)

In the late 90’s our program was one of many that was riding the spread offense to bigger and better things. And, like many spread teams, we were heavy in the 2 x 2 set. We knew that trips, a 3 x 1 set, was something that we needed. But how could we install it without bringing on a tremendous amount of additional learning for our kids? Our players were athletic, intelligent, and gave us their best. But, our football IQ was very low. We were building a program in an area that had primarily known success in basketball. Football was a new experience for most of our players, particularly the skill positions on the perimeter; they were basketball players wearing football helmets.

Our answer came from the 2 x 2 set. We took the #2 WR from the backside and we made him the front side “trips receiver,” The original front side #1 and #2 WR’s remained the same, running the same routes as always. But, outside of them, 5-7 yards from the sideline, was the “trips receiver.” (See below).

DOUBLES: 2 X 2

L1 O O X O O R1
L2 R2

Q O

TRIPS R: 3 X 1

L1 O O X O O R1
R2 TR
(L2)

Q O

As the #2 WR, this athlete was off the LOS. He stayed off the LOS as the Trips Receiver. This meant that the other 3 WR’s could stay as they were normally as far as being on or off the LOS.

It was easy for everyone to know what to do if we called, “Doubles, Sprint Right Square.” As much as we could, we wanted to keep it the same for “Trips Right, Sprint Right Square.” For the backside #1, frontside #1, and frontside #2, everything stayed exactly the same regardless if it was Trips or Doubles. The “Trips Receiver” knew he would run the “Trips Route.”

TRIPS ROUTE:

The Trips Route evolved in depth, technique, etc. But, it’s primary characteristic was to drive off the ball on the snap to sell a deep threat and then come back to be just behind the LOS; that is, just deep enough to be legal for a screen. In our sprint routes, we had a deep threat and a flat threat. The trips route gave us a flood to the trips side.

QB READS:

To make things easier on our QB, we had him read the route the same as if we were in doubles and we put the burden on the trips receiver. The QB did not worry about the trips receiver. If the trips receiver saw that he could make a 5 yard + gain, meaning he was that wide open, he began to smack his hands together, yell and demand the ball, saying, ‘Ball, Ball, Ball.’ Of course, we put one of our best athletes as the trips receiver to force the defense to either cover him on the LOS or let us throw an easy pass to one of our best athletes in space.

VARIATION:

As we began to have success with our trips route, we would then tweak the set and game plan certain things from week-to-week. One week we may decide to tag the trips receiver with a post route. The next week, we might use the trips receiver to run a deep fade so that we could open up the underneath for our other receivers. Another wrinkle was to start in 2 x 2 and motion to the 3 x 1. Usually motion makes defenders loosen a little and it increased the bubble around the trips receiver. Motion and 3 receivers coming off the LOS hard at the snap tends to make defenders back up and give ground. And, best of all, we could now work a great receiver on the backside away from trips vs. lesser coverage. (See Below).

DOUBLES: Sprint Right Square

L1 O O X O O R1
L2 R2

Q O

TRIPS R: Sprint Right Square

L1 O O X O O R1
R2 TR
(L2)

Q O

CONCLUSION:

We were able to apply this concept to our entire passing game and give ourselves advantageous match-ups, schemes, and multiple looks while our players continued to do the same fundamentals and routes with almost no additional learning. We had found a way to maximize practice reps and become more multiple without opening ourselves up to the mistakes that come with “learning something new.”

About the Author:

David Buchanan is the head football coach at Mason County High School in Maysville, KY. Previously, he was the head football coach at Paris High School in Paris, KY. He has served as President of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association and as Head Coach for the Kentucky All-Stars in the Kentucky-Tennessee All Star Classic. He is the son of John Buchanan, former head football coach at Boyle County High School and Mercer County High School.

Mason County High School Offensive Coordinator Chris Ullery assisted with this article.