Coach to Coach: An Efficient and Effective Play Calling System

Last year at this time, I wrote an article on the use of tempo as a weapon. I stated then that tempo was being used by many successful teams and that extremely fast-paced offenses were going to be a standard of football for years to come. Today, the use of the fast-paced, no- huddle offense is becoming more the norm than the exception.

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word tempo as the “rate of motion or activity”. In today’s football terminology, the word tempo refers to how quickly a team can get a play called, a formation set and an offensive play, efficiently executed. Teams take great pride in declaring how fast they can run a series of plays and how many offensive snaps they can achieve in four quarters. The trick is doing it effectively and efficiently.

While coaching high school football in the early 2000’s, I decided I needed a change in philosophy if we were going to have a chance to be a perennial champion. Part of this philosophy change was in the installation of a tempo offense. I explained how my initial plunge into the world of the no-huddle, fast-paced offense was full of challenges that I did not anticipate.

“Trying to efficiently run a new offense without huddling and at a fast pace presented some early difficulties for our players and staff. We found out early on that there is more to becoming a no huddle tempo offense than simply not huddling and moving fast. Logistical issues like play calling, personnel packaging, conditioning (high school teams often utilize two-way players adding a different dynamic than most college teams) presented problems that had to be addressed. Over a span of several seasons, I spent countless hours developing a system that helped solve these problems for our team. I found a way to call plays, execute them at a high level and expand the playbook while maintaining the ability to work at a desired tempo in an efficient manner”.

Years later, however, most of these issues have been solved. After several seasons of trial and error and the testing of several play calling strategies, I developed a play calling system that has changed the way I coach football.

After the 2012 season, I made the switch from coacing high school football to college. I accepted the offensive coordinator position at Shasta College in Redding, California. In 2012, Shasta averaged around 26 points a game and won one conference game. In 2013, we averaged 43 points a game and won a share of the conference title. One of the primary reasons for our success can be attributed to the play calling and offensive installation system that I took with me to Shasta. It was awesome to see how well our system translated to the college game. Players and coaches loved it. It saved time, eliminated mistakes and made offensive installation simple. We had an extensive offensive play bank while at the same time eliminating  the basic playbook. The result was in what we did do - more plays, more points and more wins.
   

This system is now available to everyone through American Football Monthly. AFM has made the system available to download or to own in disc format. The system is called the EZ Call Play Calling System and you can find it at the AFM website. It’s the best coaching aide that I have ever used.

Last year, I described our play calling system this way : “We do not have a traditional playbook. Our typical game day call sheet has over 200 plays on it and we rarely make assignment errors. On the surface, that may sound impossible but our play system is built on a simple, position-specific spreadsheet that is displayed on a wrist coach (play bands) worn by all skill-position players as well as offensive linemen. In my 21 years of coaching, the change from traditional play calling and play installation to what we are doing today is the best thing I have ever done.”

The basic methodology is this: In our system we have replaced formation names, personnel packages, play assignments and snap counts with colors and numbers. What used to be “10 personnel … trips right, zoom 50 delta Y option on two” is simply  “Yellow 5” today. We have replaced the need to call personnel, formation, play call and snap count by simply calling out or displaying a color and number. This simple change has allowed us to execute plays at various tempos based on our game plan.

If we want to go fast, we can, and if we want to slow the game down, we can do that as well. In the above example “Yellow” is the column that represents our trips formation, and “5” refers to the box (cell) in that column that will display a player’s specific play assignment. If the play calls for the Y to run an option route, the Y wrist coach will say “Option Route” in the 5th box on the yellow column. As far as the snap count goes, we always dedicate certain colors as specific snap counts. Yellow might be dedicated as a “on two” snap count. This eliminates the need for the QB to call out a snap count and it allows us to practice with the same snap counts all year long. It also helps to eliminate mistakes and allows us to get off the ball very quickly.

The wrist coach also eliminates the need to huddle. The players simply look to the sideline to get the color and the number. Once they have that information they know the formation, their assignment and the snap count. The system is very easy, fast and efficient. Expanding a playbook without having every player memorize every single play is another advantage of using this type of system. Regardless of how many pass plays we put in, our receivers only have to know the passing tree and where to line up and that information can be applied to countless pass plays. We may have ten plays that have the Y receiver running a sail route, but as long as he knows what a sail route is and where to line up (based on the color, which is a formation), he can run the play. His wrist coach will simply say “sail route” in the colored play cell that I call. This eliminates the need to have him learn the entire play call.

This system also allows players to play numerous positions if needed simply by changing wrist coach bands.  Another advantage  is that our receivers never know if they are only a decoy or if they are a primary target. Due to the fact that they only have a route on their bands, they do not know if they are a primary or a secondary choice. This promotes 100% effort on each route. In this example our offensive line would have their protection identified in their designated play cell. Where the Y receiver was told to run a sail route, the OL wrist coach would display their protection for that particular play. Each player would have their specific assignment identified on their wrist coach band simply by identifying the called color and number. This applies to all run and pass plays. The plays and assignments can be tailored to every offense and to every assignment. Once the plays cards are completed, the work is done and results are awesome.

At Shasta College, after only one season of using this system, the players and the coaches all agree that we would never want to go back to the old way of calling plays and learning a traditional playbook. There are so many other advantages of the system when it comes to practice scripts, game scripts, and changing personnel packages that it would require many pages in order for me to accurately describe all of them.  If you are considering a way to simplify your system, speed up your offense, eliminate mistakes and erase delay of game penalties, you definitely should check out the EZ Call Play Calling System. My purpose in sharing my Coach to Coach articles with you over the past few years is simply to help you be more successful and enjoy this great game. I really believe that the information that I have shared in this article and the information about this unique coaching tool will go a long way in doing both.