Maximizing the Shotgun Formation

by: Dan Weil
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The shotgun formation has become more and more popular, with some teams now using it to run as well as pass. We talked to three outstanding coaches about the intricacies of the shotgun. Lew Johnston, head coach of Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, VA, uses the shotgun as a change-up to his standard Delaware Wing T offense. New Mexico State quarterbacks coach Matt Mumme is part of a team that uses the shotgun about 50 percent of the time. And Keith Simons, head coach at Santa Rosa Junior College in California, uses the shotgun 90-95 percent of the time.

KEY FACTORS
    For Simons, the fundamental advantage of the shotgun is that it “gets the quarterback away from the bad guys in a more comfortable position to see the defense better.” For Johnston, the shotgun represents an attractive way to pass the ball, adding variety to his run-oriented Wing T. “If you’re just going to run the ball, you aren’t forcing the defense back on their heels and loosening them up. The thing that you have to keep in their minds is that they have to protect against the pass.”

    In Mumme’s view, the shotgun gives his team an opportunity to go for long passing plays. “The quarterback doesn’t have to worry about drops and can keep focusing on routes of 10-20 yards or more.”

THE PLAYS
    Johnston utilizes a lot of play action passes, as an outgrowth of the Wing T. “I think that has sold our [shotgun] concept to other Wing T coaches – the fact that we haven’t tried to get away from the basics of the Wing T – spread the formation and do play action.” He also employs a quick-fire passing game. “Make quick shots to wide receivers and let them run after the catch.” And finally, he likes to stretch his offense vertically. “We’ll take a couple of shots down the field per quarter. That keeps the defense on their heels. They have to defend against the deep pass.” Spreading your receivers can be a big advantage, he said. “The whole point is to get better one-one match-ups. It gives your athletes a chance to catch the ball in open space, and then they’re off.”

    Mumme’s Aggies run a lot of crossing routes from the shotgun. “We’ll send the receiver across the field shallow. It’s something we got from Mike Shanahan. We’ll send a shallow crosser, a medium receiver on a dig or curl, and two guys will usually go clear, running fade routes. Against man-to-man teams, it’s hard for the corner to run with the receiver all the way across the field.”

    Here’s how the receivers could line up, left to right. First would be the flanker, who would go vertical, on the inside of him would be the slot man who would run the shallow cross. Moving to the right side of the ball, the tight end would run a curl pattern in the middle of the field. And the outside man on the right would run vertical route.

    Another of the school’s favorite plays is what Mumme calls a “Y Cross” with the tight end. The team learned the play from Lavelle Edwards, the legendary coach at Brigham Young University. Going from left to right again: the outside receiver on the left runs a fade route, the backs run underneath routes, and the tight end runs across the field. The back-side receiver to the right runs a curl pattern. “Those are our two No. 1 plays,” Mumme said.

    One of Simons’ favorite plays is run out of a 2 x 2 formation, meaning two receivers on each side of the ball. Against a zone defense it works like this: “One of the outside receivers runs an out or corner. The slot receivers criss-cross in the box and then sit in a dead area. Then we release the running back to the flat and sit him down as an outlet.

    “The quarterback looks to the guy running the out or corner first, then the mesh route with the two slot receivers. And if he doesn’t like those two options, he can throw to the running back in the flat. Our guys are just looking to sit in open gaps.”

    Against a man defense, the quarterback will still have the man running a corner or out as his first option, Simons said. “If he doesn’t like that, the mesh receivers, instead of sitting, criss-cross and keep bursting with speed. You’re looking for a pick. The running back does the same thing as against the zone. The quarterback goes through the same reads. Hopefully at the mesh, there will be a guy running free. If not, the quarterback can always go to the back in the flat.”

    Simons runs the play out of four different formations, “but with the same routes and reads for our QB, so we’re staying simple.” The man running the out or corner makes the decision as to which of those routes he will run based on how the cornerback defends him off the ball. “So he and the quarterback have to be on the same page,” Simons pointed out.

    He is partial to short passes, where his receivers can run with the ball. “We’re big on completion percentage. Last year our two quarterbacks combined for 67 percent, throwing the ball more than 500 times. We like flats, curls and screens.”

RUNNING OUT OF THE SHOTGUN

    All the coaches like to use some running plays out of the shotgun to keep the defense honest if nothing else. As Johnston put it, “If you pass all the time, like some teams do, the defense can adjust. If the passing game is working more, we’ll throw, but we prefer a mix.”

    And if you’re passing game has forced the defense to bring in an extra defensive back, you’ll probably have plenty of room to run. “What it all boils down to is if there are six people in the box you throw it, and if there are five in the box, you run it,” Simons said.

    He likes to keep his running plays simple. “We just like to attack all the gaps. We’ll run an inside zone, an outside zone to the B gap and a sweep into the C gap. We’re just trying to attack all three gaps. The offensive-line technique is the same on all three of those plays, so we don’t have to spend time in practice on a bunch of different blocking schemes.

    “We do a lot of zone blocking by the offensive line. We’ll give the ball to our running back and let him run with his eyes to the open spots. We throw so successfully that we see a lot of five man boxes, so there are a lot of big running lanes there.”

    Simons would ideally run the ball 30-35 percent of the time. “Last year, we weren’t strong enough to knock people off the ball in the running game, so we ended up passing about 90 percent of the time. We saw a lot of teams running a four-man box against us, with a three-man line and one linebacker. That’s a lot of people in the secondary to throw on.”

    At New Mexico State, “In general we want to run a lead or zone – to the left or right, with an entry point from the center to tackle on each side,” Mumme said. “We may run a draw, but not so much outside. We throw swing and chute routes to take up the outside plays.”

    Just like for Santa Rosa, the Aggies’ potent passing game opens up opportunities for the run. “When you throw the ball as much as we do, you typically have less defenders in the box,” Mumme said. “They move another defensive back into the game. So when we you’re spread out, it enables you to run the ball straight forward. I tell my QB it’s not rocket science. Just take advantage of what they give you. If the numbers are inside the box, we’ll throw. If the numbers are outside the box, we’ll pass.”

    Johnston stresses making his team’s runs from the shotgun look the same as its runs from the Wing T, its basic formation. “I want to sneak it on to the field, to catch the defense unaware,” he said. “The difference is that the backs are set back and straight back in the backfield” for the shotgun. Blocking schemes don’t change for Johnston’s linemen when Western Branch runs out of the shotgun. “We have enough work getting the handoffs straight in the backfield. I don’t want our linemen to have to learn a whole new scheme. It’s the old KISS principle.” (Keep it Simple Stupid).

QUARTERBACK READS
    Quarterback reads are perhaps the most critical element to success in the shotgun. “If I’m calling a play from the sidelines, and I say ‘run,’ and the quarterback realizes there’s man coverage and a blitz, he has to understand to get out of the running play,” Mumme said. “We don’t want to run right into the blitz. He’s responsible for reading it out and getting it done.

    “A lot of coaches don’t believe in quarterback audibling. We put a lot of weight on our quarterback’s shoulders, and he has to get it done. We audible more than 65 percent of the time, and our quarterback is only a sophomore. By the time, he’s a junior and senior, it’ll be more like 80 percent. He’ll be calling most of the game.”

    At the high school level too, quarterbacks will audible. Johnston sends in plays from the sidelines when he and his staff see how the defense lines up. “Then it’s cat and mouse,” he said. “The defense can shift. That’s when you let the quarterback make the second call. It’s all about staying one step ahead of those defensive coordinators.”

MISMATCHES
    Finding and exploiting mismatches are as important in the shotgun, as they are in any offense. “Obviously the first thing you look for is weakness in the secondary,” Johnston said. “You’re always trying to find the weaker of the two corners.”

    He also likes to pick on linebackers. “Most linebackers at the high school level are coached to be run stoppers. So we teach our quarterbacks to throw medium and under routes at linebacker depth.”

    Mumme relies on his quarterback to find the mismatches. “The most important thing is having a quarterback who understands coverage. I teach reading from left to right. Look for the one-on-one match-ups and understand the numbers in the box.”

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