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AFM Magazine


Coach to Coach – Offensive Game Planning: Strategies for Success

by: Bryon Hamilton
Head Coach, Foothill High School, Palo Cedro (CA)
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I love designing and developing offensive schemes. When I was a kid, I would sit for hours designing plays on my electric magnetic football game. Years later, I am still designing plays and offensive schemes. The challenge of designing a play and teaching players to execute it with precision in the midst of violent chaos is one of the things I love most about coaching. Once the plays and schemes have been designed and installed, the next aspect of being a successful offensive coach is putting together and implementing a solid game plan. The ability to develop and install a good game plan is essential in becoming a consistent winner. Twenty years of developing schemes and constructing game plans has taught me that success requires a convergence of philosophy, creativity, study and a solid understanding of what your team does well. I want to share a few of the concepts that I use to formulate a cohesive and effective offensive game plan.


Creating Space

As I type this I am watching Tom Brady carve up the Miami Dolphins to the tune of 517 yards passing and four touchdowns. The Patriots offense has spread the defense from sideline to sideline and the amount of space that has been created by formations and play designs has proven to be a nightmare for the Dolphin defense. In my opinion, creating space is a key component in establishing an efficient and explosive offense. 

I categorize space on the football field in two ways – horizontal / vertical space and hat advantage space. An example of hat advantage space can be demonstrated by a common counter trey scheme where by pulling offensive players to a certain area, we outnumber defenders, thus establishing a hat advantage. An example of vertical/horizontal space would be three vertical routes from a 2 x 2 formation with an under or shallow route by one designated receiver. The vertical routes assures us that we will get a one-on-one vertical match-up with at least one receiver and the under/shallow will give us a horizontal option vs. the blitz or man coverage schemes. 

These are just a couple of examples, but the point is that creating both types of space within a game plan is crucial in developing an effective plan. In establishing my play selection, I look at the oppositions’ defensive schemes and identify the space that they are optimal at taking away and areas that, by design, they may have a weakness in. Once I have identified their strengths and weaknesses, I look for plays that we have in our play bank that can exploit the optimal space advantages that we may have. Every play that makes it onto our final game script has a purpose and is designed to create and take advantage of space allowed by the defense.

Segmenting the Field

Another way I game plan to attack a defense is by segmenting the playing field and assigning a combined defensive strength number to each segment. While studying our opponent’s game film, I assign each defender a numerical rating. A five would be a great player and a one would be a less than average player. By doing this, I can add up the anticipated defensive strength in each segment of the field by formation. Knowing our players numerical ratings, I can then compare segments of the field and identify areas that we would have an advantage in. 

Based on those numbers, I choose plays or add variations to a play that will attack the areas that we have an advantage in. I also include aspects to our scheme that help keep highly rated defensive players in their field segments (alignment and assignment areas) by faking to those areas on run plays or running a decoy route to occupy them on pass plays. This keeps them out of the areas we want to attack or at least delays their entry into those areas. This is a more scientific way to game plan than just guessing or assuming where the defense is weak.

Balanced Distribution

In game planning, I think it is important to try to stay balanced in my game script. To me, being balanced is not just having similar numbers in the running and passing game totals. Being balanced means that we distribute the ball to our skilled positions in a fairly equal way.

As I write this, we are three games into the 2011 season. We are 3-0 and are averaging 49.7 points per game. Here is a breakdown of our distribution. In the running game, our F back has 30 carries for 305 yards and six touchdowns; our H back has eight carries and three receptions for 132 yards and four touchdowns; our starting QB has rushed for 110 yards on 18 carries and one touchdown and has thrown for 508 yards with six touchdowns; our Z WR has rushed  two times for  31 yards and one touchdown and has six receptions for 180 yards; and our X WR has five receptions for 188 yards and four touchdowns. In the passing game, our QBs have thrown for 549 yards with seven TDs and we have a combined rushing total of 646 yards and 12 TD’s. 

When you look at those numbers, you can see that we are achieving balance in both distribution and production. By adhering to this strategy, all of our players are involved in the game plan and, as a result, the defense has a difficult time shutting down all of our options. In my quest to be balanced, I script plays for each player and I try to get them involved early in the game. I also script plays that are tailored to the strengths of each player. If you were to take a look at my call sheet, you would see the names of our athletes next to many of the plays. This is a reminder to me that those plays are designed to get a specific player the ball.

Creating One-on-One Match-ups

One of the most effective ways to create a successful game plan is to implement formation and scheme variations that allow your best players to be matched against inferior players. In scripting plays for a particular game, I make it a priority to move players around in an effort to find the most optimal match-ups available. In addition, we have scheme variations and specific plays that get the ball into the hands of our best players in a variety of ways. By doing this our offense is less predictable while at the same time creating one-on-one match-ups that favor our players. 

This strategy makes it difficult for a defense to completely take away our best players by simply assigning their best defenders to them.  In my opinion, it is easier and more efficient to add formations and formation variations than it is to add completely new play concepts. Motion, shifts and scheme variations are a great way to create a successful game plan that allows your best athletes to be defended by athletes who are not as skilled.

Knowing Your Players Strengths

In constructing a game plan, I always script plays that take advantage of the skill sets of my players. This may sound obvious but it always amazes me how often I watch film of players who are expected to execute plays that they simply cannot execute effectively. For  example, if I have a wide receiver who is  good at finding holes in a zone defense, I will script plays for him that utilizes that skill, but I won’t ask that player to run vertical stretch routes as a primary receiver if he is not skilled physically and confident mentally to do it.  

One of the ways I will evaluate the confidence of my offensive players is by allowing them to periodically call their own plays at practice. I watch what plays they choose and I make a note of it. Players will always choose plays that they like and feel that they can be successful in executing. Scripting these plays is an important part of my game planning. When the chips are down I certainly want my players running a play that they feel they are superior at executing and have 100% confidence that they will succeed.

These strategies have been very instrumental in allowing me to construct successful game plans and I hope they are beneficial to you and your offensive coaches. If you have any questions regarding game planning or if  there is anything I can do to further assist you, please feel free to contact me.






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