The Spin Offense: The Weakside Attack

by: Barry Gibson
Offensive Coordinator, Citronelle HS (AL)
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Six years ago, I was the offensive coordinator at St. Andrews Episcopal High School in Ridgeland, MS. I was at a point in my career where I wanted to design an offense that would not only be different but would also help a team with average talent to compete against much stronger and more talented teams. With 23 years of coaching experience under my belt, I had run just about every kind of offense you could imagine.

It was at that time I created the 'Spin Offense.' By combining some ideas from the 'old school' single wing offense I had been running with a 'new age' spread offensive look, I had just what I was looking for with the Spin. Spreading the field with this formation is what makes this offense so unique and somewhat different from the tight unbalanced formations of the single wing era.

After reading an article I had written on my new offense, Coach Dale Weiner from Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, LA called me along with many other coaches across the country and asked about the offense. I was calling it the 'Combo Offense' at the time. Hats off to Coach Weiner and his staff! After incorporating the 'Spin Offense' (I like the new name even better) into their already successful schemes, Catholic High School has experienced tremendous success the past six years. Like any successful coach will do, Coach Weiner has taken this offense and tweaked it to fit the talents of his personnel.

Many readers have become somewhat familiar with the Spin Offense now because of American Football Monthly and Dale Weiner’s videos. Outside of the spin counter, the fullback screen left and the spin reverse, most of the plays that have been discussed have been strongside plays. What I would like to do in this article is to share with you some ways to attack the weakside which in this offense is away from where the fullback lines up.

Spin Blast Weak

First, let’s look at spin blast weak, without a doubt my favorite weakside play in the entire arsenal (See Diagram 1). After the left slot back comes in fast motion, the quarterback will spin as usual, faking the spin sweep. But this time he needs to make a full 360 degree spin or with his left foot aiming towards the weakside of the formation. The technique involved in getting the quarterback headed in the right direction is teaching him to place his right foot in front and slightly past his left foot after receiving the snap. After he makes his full spin, his left foot will be pointing directly towards the weakside off-tackle hole, exactly where he needs to go. The right slot back carries out his fake off of the quarterback’s spin. He then continues outside of the defense and into a pitch relationship upfield with the quarterback. It’s very important that you coach him to get into that pitch relationship and not give up after the fake. Many times running this play, our quarterback has made the pitch downfield to the right slot back for an easy touchdown when the free safety came up to stop the QB. The offensive line’s blocking scheme is identical to the spin blast with the exception of the play going to the weakside. This play is deadly to over-pursuing linebackers trying to stop the base play of the offense, the spin sweep.

Diargram1: Spin blast weakside

Spin Trap

When we see an eight-man front, particularly some type of split-4 defense with the tackles in a 2 or 3 technique, I will immediately run the spin trap (See Diagram 2). This is a misdirection trap play to the weakside which is extremely effective after establishing the spin sweep and the spin reverse. With the left and right slot backs faking the spin reverse, the center will direct snap the ball to the fullback. A typical trap-blocking scheme is incorporated here with the center blocking backside for the pulling right guard. He will trap the playside 2 or 3 technique tackle. The left guard and left tackle will block down. The X receiver will block the first threat downfield in the secondary. The key to the success of this play is the faking of the slot backs, keeping the outside linebackers entertained and guessing whether or not who has the football.

Diagram 2: Spin trap

Spin Shovel Pass

Another great misdirection play to the weakside and a complementary play to the spin sweep is the spin shovel pass (See Diagram 3). The play starts with the left slot coming in fast motion, faking the spin sweep. The QB will spin and give the appearance of running the spin option, another proven play of the offense. However, instead of running the ball or pitching to the left slot on the option, he will shovel pass to the right slot.

Diagram 3: Spin shovel pass

On the snap, the right slot will take a crossover counter step, turn his back to the line of scrimmage and plant off his left foot. He will immediately look for the pitch from the QB and cut off the kick-out block from the right guard. The fullback also takes a counter step but his is an open step instead of a crossover step. He pulls through the hole looking to block the outside LB or the first unfriendly jersey he sees. The left guard and tackle will block first man inside or use a combo block to the Mike linebacker. The right tackle must do a great job of cutting off the defensive end; his block will be helped by the threat of the option coming right at him. The Sam linebacker must respect the QB running the ball on the option or the option pitch to the left slot. If he does not, we will be running that play at him all night long.

Spin Jump Pass

When you want to bring a tight end into the game and still run the spin sweep and most of the offense, you can do so by running out of what I call our ‘Eagle Formation’ (See Diagram 4). In the eagle formation, we simply align the left slot back in his normal alignment and stance outside of the tight end. This is one yard outside and one and a half yards deep. I bring the right split end down to a ‘nasty’ split of about four yards outside of the right tackle. The right slot back will line up in his normal position from the right tackle as usual. A favorite play of mine out of this formation is the spin jump pass (See Diagram 5). This is a staple play from the old single wing days. It is just as devastating today out of the spin offense because it is rarely seen. The play is so effective because the QB has been spinning almost every play and either giving the ball to one of the slot backs or keeping the ball himself.

Diagram 4: Eagle formation

Diagram 5: Spin jump pass

After the QB spins and fakes the sweep to the left slot back, he attacks the LOS towards the right, off-tackle hole. Just before he gets there he jumps straight up as if he were about to shoot a jump shot in a basketball game. He then delivers a quick pass to the tight end who has run a delay route in behind the linebackers anywhere between seven and nine yards deep. The right split end runs through the safety to draw him out of the middle of the field and the right slot back runs a wheel route. The fullback blocks the edge to the play side and the offensive line blocks big-on-big aggressively. You may have seen Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators run the play this past season. They run it out of a different formation with a slight twist to it, using Tim Tebow at QB. The difference is that Meyer chose not to spin the quarterback off of motion. Instead he ran the QB straight to the LOS and then had him jump up to make the pass to the tight end. Bottom line and anyway you look at it, it’s still the jump pass! I believe using fast motion and spinning the quarterback gives this play even more deception and incredible results.

Spin Pass / X Slant

Anytime you have the success we’ve had running the football from the spin offense, the defense will try to make adjustments and do some things to try to stop all the misdirection and confusion that this offense brings to the table. When they do those things, some defenses will gamble and leave other spin plays wide open. For instance, if we see a defense blitzing the backside linebacker, trying to chase the spin sweep or blow up the spin counter play, I won’t hesitate to call the spin pass / x slant (See Diagram 6). This pass play will expose the open void area to the weakside left by the blitzing Will linebacker. The play begins in normal fashion with the left slot coming in fast motion. Once again, like so many other spin plays, the first part of the play looks identical to the defense. This approach does not give the ‘bad guys’ a clue as to what is about to happen next. After the fake, the left slot will turn up and protect the edge. The fullback will block the backside edge and look for the most dangerous threat to get to the QB.

Diagram 6: Spin pass/X slant

I like a zone protection scheme with the offensive line because occasionally we will use a zone scheme when running the spin sweep. The quarterback will execute his spin, take one drop-step straight back and throw the ball to the X receiver, running a three-step slant route. In case the slant area is not open for any reason, the quarterback immediately looks for the right slot on a swing route. This route has proven to be open many times since most Sam linebackers will attack the LOS aggressively trying to stop the spin sweep. The right split end runs a ‘slant and go’ to give us a deep threat if we need it.

In running the Spin Offense, as in any offense, you must attack both the strongside and weakside areas of the defense to be effective. I hope these ideas will help you in becoming a more complete offense as well as increasing your scoring potential.

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