Spread Offense

A good offense is confusing the defense
Head Coach, University of Rhode Island
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A GREAT COACH ONCE SAID, "Good football teams either do something different or they do it better." At Rhode Island, we try to do both. The offense we run is a combination of the run and shoot. We call our formation the spread and have found that it allows us to use alignment to stretch a defense both horizontally and vertically. It stretches a defense horizontally with the option and vertically with four quick receivers at the line of scrimmage. This approach, we think, keeps defenses from ganging up on the running game.


Diagram 1

Here's how it works: The two wide receivers (X and Z on the diagram) line up in the proximity of the numbers, depending on where the ball is. The A-Back lines up with his inside foot three feet from the tackle and one foot off the tackle's hip. He uses a staggered two-point stance with his inside foot back.

The B-back uses a three-point stance lined directly behind the quarterback, and his heels will be grounded five yards from the ball. The offensive line uses a three-point stance with three-foot splits across the front. The guards and tackles line up off the ball so their earholes align with the center's belt.

Rather than run football's 20 best plays from every formation in football, we have five basic running plays. They are the zone dive, triple option, trap option, speed option with trap option blocking, and the trap.

We want to be able to run these five plays against every defense we face. The passing game consists of play-action off ever running play, full sprint-out, and run and shoot.

Our offensive philosophy is to practice these plays as much as we can. A study of sports skills found that to become familiar with a skill you have to perform it 250,000 times, and to perfect it you have to perform it 1 million times.

You can imagine the number of times Mary Lou Retton went over the vault to receive a perfect 10. We believe she achieved the 1 million mark that night in the Olympic games. We want repetitions on the practice field, and we like to keep records of how many plays we can run in 20 minutes.

This philosophy gives us a chance to execute our five basic running plays better than the opposing team can execute its defense against those five plays. The two base running plays we want to discuss are the triple option and trap option.

The triple option is Rhode Island's "bread and butter." The fullback's aiming point is the midline of the playside guard and his read is the first down lineman inside the quarterback's read. The quarterback will read the first down lineman in the B-gap out. He will step at 4 o'clock and ride the fullback to make his read. This enables us to run the zone dive and triple option at the same time.


Diagram 2

The playside A-back blocks run support or No. 3 and the playside wide receiver blocks non-run support. The backside wide receiver will cut-off the backside corner.

The backside A-back goes in tail motion prior to the snap. He needs to get at least a step and a half before the ball is snapped. Tail motion allows us to line up in a balance formation and get the pitchback to the opposite side of the formation before the defense can adjust, the result being a horizontal stretch with the triple option.

We can achieve a vertical stretch with play-action by faking the triple option and throwing to the playside A-back down the seam or playside wide receiver down the boundary.

The playside tackle and guard block veer. Veer tells the playside tackle to release outside any down lineman over him to block the playside linebacker. Veer tells the playside guard to base, meaning inside, over, outside, nearest linebacker.

The center, backside guard, and backside tackle scoop. Scoop means seal the playside gap to the backside linebacker. The center has two types of scoop blocks, wide scoop if he is uncovered and a tight scoop if he is covered.

The best way to describe a scoop block is by imagining two cars running down the road. If a defensive player runs between the two cars, the car in the rear has to block him.

The trap option is Rhode Island's double option package. We can still stretch a defense horizontally with the trap option and vertically with play-action off the trap option fake.

The trap option play has been good for us against a balanced defensive front and balanced secondary. The counting system is the same on the trap option as it is on the triple.

In this case, No. 1 and the playside linebacker are taken care of by the playside tackle and backside guard. The quarterback will pitch off No. 2 and the playside A-back will block No. 3.


Diagram 3

The quarterback will fake the inside veer and reverse back down the line looking for No. 2. The fullback runs his veer track over the backside guard to block the backside linebacker. The playside A-back twirls prior to the snap of the ball and blocks No. 3.

The backside A-back runs the pitch route after the ball is snapped. The playside wide receiver blocks non-run-support. The backside wide receiver will cut-off the backside corner.

The playside guard and tackle block veer-in. Veer-in tells the playside guard to release inside any down lineman over him to block the playside linebacker. Veer-in tells the playside guard to base if he is covered by a down lineman, double team if he is uncovered and railroad to the backside linebacker if the nose goes weak. The center will block back to a 3 technique and the backside tackle will anchor down on the first down lineman over him to the backside.

The backside guard has to have a call from the playside tackle so he will know who he has to block. There are times when the backside guard and playside tackle has to read who to block on the run.

Take, for example, a "5" call by the playside tackle. The playside tackle veers inside for the playside linebacker but on his first step the 5 technique squeezes. He then has to reverse crab the 5 technique and the backside guard turns up on the playside linebacker.

This offense is a run first and shoot second attack. We think it makes a defense defend the entire field. The spread keeps defenses from ganging up on the run. The spread formation usually dictates a balanced defensive formation, and by running the option, defenses have to play assignment responsibility. Plus, we don't have to block everybody.

We think it gives us a chance to move the football against superior defensive personnel. This is our approach to offensive football and two of the base plays we run.

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