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Drills Report: The Skill Drill: The Zone Read, Tunnel Screen and Bubble Screen

by: Tripp McCarty
Offensive Coordinator Madison Ridgeland Academy (MS)
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The Skill Drill was born out of necessity and has become a constant in our practices. My dislike of players standing around during practice helped create this drill sequence. When your players learn the pattern of this drill, practice reps will go through the roof. The drill combines all positions of a spread offense and works them with all of them at the same time. By using this pattern, you can increase your number of reps, coach multiple positions with a limited number of coaches, get all of your players on the depth chart repetitions, and create a fast practice tempo. There are three goals for this drill: no drops, no fumbles, and no walking.


To set the drill up, group a quarterback with your receivers. This QB will throw ten reps of the tunnel screen. While X is working on the tunnel, Z is getting practice on take offs. The WRs in each rep become snappers after their repetition. The other QBs are grouped with RBs. This group will rep the zone read with the second and third QBs alternating each snap. These two QBs provide a read player for each other. After the RB gets a rep, he becomes a snapper. This drill must move fast. Nobody walks anywhere (See Diagram 1).

• The left side of the drill to start is working on the inside zone to the right. The QBs will be each others read.

• The right side is running the tunnel screen.

After QB #1 has thrown ten tunnel screens, he replaces QB #3 and sends QB #2 to the WR group. This pattern continues until all QBs have thrown ten tunnel screens. When QB #1 returns to the WR group, the bubble screen is now thrown for ten reps and the rotation continues. After all QBs have thrown the bubble screen, the drill is flipped and the process begins on the other side (See Diagram 2).


Any part of your run game can be used during this sequence and not just the inside zone. You can also work option game, counter read, or outside zone. This is a good opportunity for backs to work on explosion into the open field and score. We want our backs and receivers to explode up the field and score after they receive the ball.


To make sure the drill stays at a fast tempo, start the drill with extra snappers. This makes the time between reps minimal. If you push the tempo of this drill sequence, the number of repetitions on screens and run plays players can receive in 15 minutes is a huge plus. We don’t use this drill sequence to teach a lot of technique. Rather, we use it for a tempo boost at the start of every practice. When run properly at the start of practice, we’ve set a fast-paced tempo for the rest of practice and gotten more reps in 15 minutes than a lot of teams get in an entire practice.

Tripp McCarty is the Offensive Coordinator at Madison Ridgeland Academy in Madison, MS. He has 13 years of combined coaching experience on the high school and college level. McCarty is also a certified quarterback instructor for QBA by Darrin Slack (www.quarterbackacademy.com).






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