Moving the Chains – 3 Top College Coaches Show You How To Convert More Third Downs.

Every coach faces critical situations during a game where calling the right play can mean the difference between winning and losing. Often, those situations occur on third and short. What’s your strategy for picking up the critical yards that will keep a drive alive?

    The top three FBS offenses in terms of third down conversion percentage – Stanford, Nevada and Auburn – share a fundamental philosophy. They run their best plays on the most important down in football.

    “Third down is one of the two most critical things that happens in football, red-zone football and third-down football,” emphasized Stanford first-year head coach David Shaw, who, as offensive coordinator last season, helped the Cardinal lead the nation in third-down conversion percentage. “It’s very critical so we want to make sure to run something we’re good at – a play that we’ve had success with time and time again.” Using that strategy, Stanford converted 57.56 percent of its third downs last season. Nevada was next at 54.01 percent, and Auburn followed at 53.09 percent. Those three teams combined to go 39-2.

    Shaw, Nevada offensive coordinator Cameron Norcross and Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn spoke to AFM about what it takes to be a good third-down offense and specifically, how to reduce the number of times you come up short on third-and-shortThird-down priorities

    As different as these three offenses are – Stanford with its pro-style attack, Nevada’s potent pistol scheme and Auburn’s zone-read game – their priorities on third down are strikingly similar. They strive to be balanced and efficient while focusing play-calling on plays their team executes well.

    “We really want to emphasize our strengths, the things we do well, on third down,” said Malzahn, whose team converted 9-of-17 third downs en route to beating Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game. “We’re going to have a handful of plays in our third-down play book that are our best plays; the ones we run best. Then, we’ll have a few counters off those. But we’re going to play to our strengths.”

    For Auburn, the quarterback power play featuring Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton produced consistent results and was a deadly weapon in third-and-short situations for Malzahn. The play utilizes a pulling guard, who, along with the playside tackle, double teams the Mike linebacker against a 4-3 defensive front. Newton would then read the playside defensive end and elect to either hand to the tailback or cut it up inside.

    “We had a lot of success with the quarterback power this season, especially in third-and-short situations,” said Malzahn.” Eventually, teams began to roll safeties up on the line of scrimmage to try stop the power play. Malzahn, of course, had a play-action pass off of the power play to counter.

    At Stanford, Shaw prefers to have a lot of carryover from what he does on the base downs to what he does on third downs. “One of the biggest mistakes I think coaches make, and it’s a mistake I made years ago, is having a completely separate third-down world,” said Shaw. “Now, there are some things that you use on third downs that you don’t use as much on base downs, but for the most part, we’re trying to do a lot of the same things on our base downs as we do on third downs.”

    Stanford had a 58-42 run-to-pass ratio overall last season and tried to keep around the same ratio on third downs. “Once we’re out of short-yardage territory – deep inside our own territory – I don’t mind thinking aggressively,” said Shaw. “If it’s third and two, we can throw the ball. We can throw it quick or we can drop back and throw it on a five-step rhythm. We can go six-man protection, we can go seven-man protection. It all hinges on what we think they’re going to do and what we’re good at.

    “The other huge aspect of it,” Shaw continued, “is that we have to be willing to run the ball on third-and-medium. On  third and two or third and three and even third and 4 to 6 yards, you have to be willing to run the ball against a team that is more coverage conscious. You just have to do that in order to keep the defense honest but also to take advantage of a team that likes to play more coverage.”

    At Nevada, Norcross’ offense has only five running plays and five blocking schemes. He believes this helps his players process the play-calls quicker and allows them to use tempo as a weapon on third-and-short situations. “We don’t want to out-baffle them; we want to out-execute them,” Norcross said. “Now, we want to baffle them with all the motion and the skill guys, but up front we’re looking to out-execute you.”

    Norcross was especially proud of this year’s third-down success because the knock on the pistol offense had always been it wasn’t a good short-yardage offense. That wasn’t the case this past season. “We’re still running the same down-hill football plays just like you’d run from under center,” said Norcross. “We’re just taking a shotgun snap, and the back’s getting the ball deeper so he has more time to make a decision.”

    In Norcross’ pistol offense, the quarterback is 4 to 4 ½ yards behind center, with the running back set directly behind the quarterback 3 to 3 ½ yards back. The deeper starting point is an advantage in short-yardage plays specifically, Norcross said. “It not only provides our running backs a little better vision, but it also allows them to push into the line of scrimmage longer to make the linebackers and defensive fronts make decisions,” he said. “And when they’re making decisions, we’re able to take advantage of their decisions and make them make the wrong ones. Whereas, if we get the ball more shallow, we’re forced to make a decision faster, and they’re reacting to us. We can push them where we want to push them and make them guess wrong with our running back.”

Preparation

    For Nevada’s Norcross, preparing for third down situations begins in the film room, where the first thing he breaks down is an opponent’s defensive third-and-short and goal-line tendencies. He charts every defensive front and coverage and highlights blitzes for every third and one, third and two and third and three. And he does it all by hand.

    “From watching that video and handwriting it, I’m able to transfer it from the video to the paper to my mind easier,” Norcross said about his old-school methods of breaking down film.  “When Saturdays come and we’re in that situation, it’s in my mind faster than it would be if I was just staring at a piece of paper.”

    Highlighting the blitz packages creates a visual reminder of tendencies. “When I’m done breaking down film, I can look at that paper to see that if I’ve got all third and twos highlighted, I automatically know to expect a blitz. On game day, I can basically close my eyes and remember back to my sheet and know that that’s their pattern.”

    At Stanford, Shaw begins his breakdown of an opponent’s third-down defensive tendencies by first looking at his own protection schemes. “The fastest way a defense can create momentum is hitting the quarterback. So the first thing we’re going to do is protect the passer on third downs,” he said. “From there, we’re going to develop a proper pass and run strategy, which typically is going to be born from our base passes.”

    Shaw spends extra time with his quarterbacks going over possible third-down scenarios throughout the week and directly before games. He’ll even go to the extent of asking them what plays they’d prefer. “I like to present the quarterback with all the third down options and let him choose,” Shaw said. “What’s your first preference on a third and three call? What do you feel best about early in the game?”

     The conversation continues at halftime, when Shaw will let his quarterback know what the likely play call will be on a critical, late third-down situation. “I’ll just say, ‘third and two, game on the line, this is what we’re going with,’ ” Shaw said. So when we get in that situation, It’s not a surprise. He’s heard it before. You build confidence when they’re never surprised by the call.”

    Shaw believes that a specific play call can breed confidence and trust from his offense. “For me, calling a play that I’ve seen my guys execute time and time again in a crunch time situation, I don’t even hesitate,” Shaw said. “A lot of times, one of things I think when guys are in the huddle and they hear a play that they’ve done a thousand times and that they’ve had success with before that they feel the protection is sound, they break the huddle with enormous confidence. They don’t feel, as a play caller, that I’m trying to win the game for them. They feel like that I’m giving them a tool for them to be successful.”

Taking a Shot on Third and Short

   It’s not a secret that third and short can be an excellent situation to utilize play-action and go down the field. If you don’t at least show it on film, you’re going to find it difficult to run the ball against the eight-and nine-man fronts you’ll be seeing on third and short. But when do you take the shot?

    At Nevada, Norcross and head coach Chris Ault pay close attention to how defenses are reacting to their run plays. Each of their play-action plays are built off specific run plays. “The two biggest things we’re looking at are their force players and their safeties,” said Norcross. “If they’re creeping up or jumping plays in the flat, we’ll go play-action and use that against them. Our philosophy is once we get past midfield, if we’re in a third and one situation, we’re going to go for it on fourth down. We can take a shot on third and one, throw a post pattern over the top, if we see those safeties jumping real hard.”

    Shaw, Norcross and Malzahn are convinced their offense’s third down efficiency was one of the most important factors in their team’s overall success. Their third-down game plans are detailed and their play-calling stays focused on the plays they run best. It’s a simple, but effective philosophy, a philosophy shared by the three teams who did it best in 2010.