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AFM Magazine


Air Raid Offense Drills

by: Matt Mumme
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In the book Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose is a quote by the author of Warriors, J. Glenn Gray: “Organization for a common and concrete goal in peacetime organizations does not evoke anything like the degree of comradeship commonly known in war. At its height this sense of comradeship is an ecstasy…men are true comrades only when each is ready to give his life for the other without reflection and without thought of personal loss.” The players on our team must build cohesiveness close to that in order for our program to be successful.

Attack, Attack, Attack! This is one of the mottos that our staff and team constantly believe in. The Air Raid system is high paced, explosive and exciting. To build success it is important to involve players that are energetic and unselfish. At New Mexico State we have been fortunate in our recruiting. Last year our quarterback Chase Holbrook was number two in the nation in passing with 4,619 yards and 34 touchdowns; this past season he threw for more than 3,800 yards and a total of 26 touchdowns.

With the personnel in place you now have the foundation for a great offense! The two most important features of our system are communication and productiveness. In order to do well with both of these aspects, repetition in practice becomes the most substantial pointer to success. The more our players rehearse a play, the more effective they will be in a game. There are two drills that we do to accomplish this in practice. The first is routes on air and the second is bandit drill.

Routes on Air (ROA)

This is a period in the middle of practice in which the wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks all work together in unison. The idea here is to allow the receivers and running backs to work on their route running while the quarterbacks develop the timing and progression of the play. To set the drill up, allow enough room on the field for your deepest route on the play to be effective. On most days this will be the 35 or 40 yard line, going in for us. We use stand up bags to represent the secondary and linebackers, thus creating the areas of the field that we are attacking. You can set the bags up in the various coverages that you are likely to see that week. The formations in your system will depend on whether there are two backs and three receivers; one back and four receivers; or five receivers going at one time. In order to be productive we place five quarterbacks together so that each player catches a ball. The quarterbacks will rotate from right to left so that they establish their progression on each given play. We usually only work on one or two plays a day for this drill. The diagrams below will provide a detailed example of how this works (See Diagrams 1-3).

Diagram 1: Vs. Cover Two Look – 4 WRs – 1 RB

Diagram 2: Cover 3 Look vs. 3 WRs-2 Backs

Diagram 3: Cover 1 vs. no Backs

The purpose of this drill goes back to what I discussed earlier: the importance of communication and productiveness. QBs learn to communicate with each other and the receivers about who is at each spot. We create productiveness needed for our style of play through high repetition in a 10 to 15 minute period.

One other way that we concentrate on communication and productiveness in practice is with a 10 to 15 minute period at the end of practice called ‘Bandit Drill.’ Here the entire offense will come together. We will either set up a scout team or go against the first team and work up and down the field at ten-yard increments. In this drill we start the ball out on the minus five yard line and the quarterback will be given a formation out of which to call the play. As the quarterback coach it is important for me to educate my quarterbacks on certain plays that will have success against the defensive looks they will see in any given week. The ball is moved 10 yards (spotted by a manager) regardless of the result of the play. Most teams do this in some sort of two-minute drill. However, we make the ball carrier or receiver score by sprinting to the end zone on each play. This instills the scoring mentality into all of our skill players. Since we are a ‘no huddle’ team, we like to set the pace of the game; our quarterback can learn to control this in bandit drill. By creating this scenario we force our offense to communicate and play at a high pace. The more repetitions the offense has the more productive your team will become.

In conclusion, winning is obviously about being productive on the field; ultimately on offense it comes down to scoring points. In the WAC this could not be more important because of the great offensive teams that make up this conference; they are capable of scoring at any moment. Never stop attacking and great things will happen for your offense!






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