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AFM Magazine


Henderson State\'s \'Scorched Earth\' Offense

by: Dan Weil
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Scott Maxfield, head coach at Henderson State University, a Division II college in Arkadelphia (AR), was one of the early adopters of the spread offense, as he started to employ it eight-nine years ago. It’s such a potent attack that it’s often referred to as the “Scorched Earth Offense.” We talked to him recently about how he deploys it.

    One key issue, Maxfield said, is that so many offenses are going to the spread that defenses are starting to adjust. “It’s like the wishbone offense, which was real hot in the 1970s,” he said. “In the early ‘80s, the defenses caught up to it. Pretty much the same thing is happening with the spread offense. When I started using it in 1997-98, people didn’t know how to defend it. Now, they’re catching on. That’s part of the reason why we’re using tight ends more – to give the defense some different wrinkles.”

    Maxfield’s basic philosophy is to use as many formations as possible, but to run a small number of plays out of all those groupings, “making it as simple as possible for our kids, and as complicated as possible for the defense.” So he will utilize just about every set-up possible, with up to four wide receivers, up to two tight ends and up to two running backs. “We use pretty much every formation known to man,” Maxfield said.

    Out of those formations, he uses five basic running plays, 10 three-step passing routes, seven drop-back passing routes and three different screen passes. Maxfield will add variations week-to-week if he sees from films of his opponents that something else might work better. He also tries to create a 50-50 balance between pass and run. “That’s very difficult to do sometimes depending on the flow of the game,” he pointed out. “Last year we weren’t as balanced as we wanted to be: we were about 65 percent pass. We were young and not very good on the offensive line, which made us throw the ball more. I expect a more balanced attack this year.”

MAXFIELD’S BASE RUNNING PLAYS

1-2. Inside Zone and Outside Zone plays. “We feel we can run these plays against any defense,” Maxfield said. “That’s important in today’s college football, because there are so many different looks from the defense. You have to have something you can run against any defense.

3. The Draw. “We’ve always had great success with it because we throw the ball so much,” he said. “When the defense pins its ears back and rushes hard, we’re able to offset the pass rush and use their momentum against them. It slows down the pass rush. Those are probably the three running plays we use the most,” Maxfield said. But also on occasion, he’ll call for counter plays and the option.

4. Counter plays. “The idea is to get the defense flowing one way and make it look like you’re running a zone play. You use the flow of the defense to your advantage. Last year that was our No. 1 play in terms of yard per carry.”

5. The Option. “We’ll run it out of the shotgun to make the defense play assignment football and slow down the pass rush.”

THREE-STEP DROP PASSES

    These constitute the bread and butter of Maxfield’s offense. “Our kids have great confidence in it,” he said. “You have to have something to hang your hat on. I feel we can go to those plays against anything we see. You don’t have to have a quarterback with a cannon of an arm. You just need a guy who’s smart and accurate. You should have a high completion percentage. They’re like running plays for us. You should complete 75-80 percent. So you can move the chains and make first downs.

    “And if we break one tackle, we can turn a six-seven-yard gain into a 20-yard gain real quick. Also it gets the ball out of the quarterback’s hands very quickly. We usually go to it in a shotgun, where we’ll throw within 1.5 seconds. It’s very difficult to get to us, even if the defense if putting on pressure.”

Here are several of Maxfield’s main three-step-drop pass plays.

1. The Inside Receiver Fade. “The only time we use this is if we get man coverage across the board, with no safety coverage. It’s not called in the huddle. The quarterback calls it at the line of scrimmage. Going from left to right with two receivers on each side of the ball, the first wide-out runs as if he’s receiving an outside screen, comes down the line of scrimmage and settles. The first slot receiver runs a fade route, and the second slot does the same. The second wide-out replicates what the first wide-out did on the other side of the ball.

    “The outside receivers are just trying to hold their defenders. It gives the two slots the whole field to work with. They can make a wide release and let the quarterback throw it out to them. You have a higher percentage on this than the fade to an outside receiver, because you have more room with the slots.”

2. The Smash. “We like to run this against a man or cover two,” Maxfield said. “Again going left to right, the first wide-out runs an outside hitch, six yards out to pressure the outside corner. The first slot receiver runs a corner route, breaking at 10-12 yards. The other slot and wide-out do the same things on the other side of the ball.

    “If the cornerback stays low covering the hitch, the quarterback will throw over his head to the corner route. If the cornerback sinks back and gives round, the quarterback will go short. It’s a high-low concept,” Maxfield said. “Whichever way the cornerback goes, we go to the other receiver. It’s an easy read for the quarterback.”

3. The Sluggo. “This is a complement to our slant-bubble combination. If we run that combination several times during a game, and the cornerback and safety are biting on the slant, we turn it into a go route and try to hit the deep ball on them.” Going left to right, the first receiver runs a slant and go, breaking at six yards, taking three steps into his slant and then bursting into a vertical route. The first slot runs bubble route outside. The other wide-out and slot do the same things on the other side of the ball.

    If the deep receiver is covered, the quarterback will look to the bubble receiver as an alternative. “If the bubble doesn’t get the ball at the numbers, he’ll run a wheel route up-field. That’s because the sideline is unattended, and the linebacker may be in the flat. So if you turn the bubble receiver up the sideline, he should be more open.”

4. The Hitch. “We run this anytime there’s a soft corner. If he’s leaving a cushion of six or more yards, we’re taking the six-yard throw and giving our guy the ball in open space,” Maxfield said. Going left to right, the first wide-out runs a six-yard hitch, and the first slot receiver runs an inside seam, throttling down in the hole after the first linebacker. The other receivers do the same thing on the other side of the ball.

    “It’s a high percentage throw,” Maxfield said. “The inside guys open the field for the outside guys. If the flat defender flies to the hitch, then we’ll come back and throw the seam route. It’s an easy read for the quarterback. He already knows there’s a soft corner. So all he has to do is read the defender with the slot receiver.”

DROP-BACK PASS PLAYS

1. The High-Low play. The quarterback only has to read half of the field. “There’s one specific defender we’ll read on the route, which gives us a higher chance for a completion percentage. We try to high-low a defender, preferably a linebacker. If the defender goes to the receiver who stays low, we try to throw over the top of his head to the other receiver on a dig route. And if he stays with the dig, we will try for the shallow route.”

    It doesn’t matter which receiver – the wide-out or the slot – runs which route, Maxfield said. “We’ll use a different formation and personnel groups, but we will run exactly the same routes. Whatever the defense does can’t be right. After the first three steps of the route, the quarterback should know where he’s going with the football,” dictated by what the defender does. “Our philosophy on the passing game is to keep it simple, execute and let our players play.”

    If the defense applies strong pressure on that play, “We have a built-in hot route on the back side of the play to give the quarterback another option. That way we don’t have to check out at the line of scrimmage. The back-side receiver can run any three-step route. The quarterback will just give him a hand signal as to which route he wants him to run on the back side. The quarterback will read the defense on the back side to determine which three-step route is run.”

2. The Stick play. “We try to get horizontal strength on a particular linebacker. We’ll flood his area with two receivers. If the linebacker holds to the inside, we’ll throw to the receiver outside of him. If he widens to the outside, we’ll throw to the inside receiver.”

    Again, a back-side receiver will run a three-step route to provide the quarterback with an alternative if the defense doesn’t give him time to run The Stick or covers it well. “It’s a great third down play,” Maxfield said. “It has a high completion percentage and gives you the chance to run up field and make some more yards.”

SCREEN PASS PLAYS

    The idea behind the screen is to slow the defense’s pass rush – “to use their technique against them,” as Maxfield put it. “It’s also good against a blitz or man coverage to get a positive play.”

1. Tunnel Screen. This goes to a wide receiver. One receiver blocks for the other, who comes back to catch the ball underneath. “We try to build a tunnel for him toward the line of scrimmage. We should get two-three linemen out as lead blockers on the play.”

2. Running Back Screen. “We try to simulate pass blocking as much as we can with the running back and the offensive line. He’ll slip off to a screen, just getting behind the guard. The center and back-side guard will be the lead blockers. The quarterback wants to draw the defenders to him and then slip the ball to the running back. You’re using the defensive line’s rush against them.”

    Sometimes in this play, the running back will fake a block, and other times he will actually engage a defender before sliding away for the screen. If the running back does make contact with the defender, “he has to fake well that he was whipped and then break out for the screen,” Maxfield said.

FORMATIONS

    Maxfield and his assistants script the first 15 plays of the game. “We’ll use seven to 10 different formations in those plays. We find out how the defense will adjust to each formation. Then we look at which one they haven’t adjusted as well to, and that’s the one we’ll try to work on.”

OVERARCHING PHILOSOPHY

    Find a mismatch and exploit it. “It’s just like basketball or any other sport,” Maxfield said. “You want to find the opponent’s weakness.”





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