Here There be Tygers - A Look at the Tyger Offense

A hybrid spread offense utilizing five receivers
by: Heath Hamrick
Rio Vista High School, Rio Vista, TX
by: Todd Allen
The Colony HIgh School, The Colony, TX
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In the years before adventure died and exploration became pointless, maps were filled to bursting with blank spaces where the roads stopped, mountain chains disappeared, and no flag claimed sovereignty. In these spaces European cartographers placed one phrase: Here there be Tygers.

It was a warning; the territory so marked was virtually unexplored and potentially dangerous. As we wrote this article, it became clear that we had stumbled onto such a territory. In Coaching the Spread Bone Offense:

Spread the Field, we outlined a hybrid offense designed to wed the spread’s precision passing game with a running attack based on the misdirection and multiple ball carriers of the Wing-T; utilizing a double slot set as the base formation for our offense, we were able to achieve this goal (a sample, the Short Trap series, can be found in this publication’s March issue). One daunting question we faced was how to run our Spread Bone running game out of the “Tiger” set (Diagram 1), the truest incarnation of the spread offense, a formation incorporating an empty backfield and five wideouts. The trouble most spread teams have with an empty, wide-open set is getting any kind of running game out of it without a complex change of terminology or personnel; in our Tiger set, we sought to run our standard Spread Bone running game while still utilizing the advantages of five receivers in a spread formation. The more we fiddled with the question of a successful running game out of the Tiger set, the more excited we got: what we came up with ceased to be the Spread Bone and became its own offense, something completely new.

Diagram 1

We call it the Tiger Offense; it incorporates a quarterback as the lone set back, in the shotgun, a true tight end, two wide slot backs, and two wide receivers.

Why do teams use the five-wide set? Is it to create mismatches, to spread the defense thin, to create confusion and force the defense to second-guess their original call? The Tiger Offense is designed to accomplish all of these goals and to dictate the defensive alignment in order to run the ball with optimum efficiency. The Tiger could just as easily have been called Spread, or Empty, or Nickel-Wide, but it gains its distinctive name from its aggressive personality. The Tiger Offense is coming after you, whether in the air or on the ground—and it cannot be stopped. The offense incorporates four possible ball handlers and is fully capable of running a powerful ground attack by utilizing a short, fast motion from the slot-backs or even a rocket motion from the widest receiver off the ball. Of course, one can argue that this isn’t truly running out of an empty set, since you’re motioning a back into the backfield. However, the enterprising offensive coordinator can motion the slot back all the way across the formation to flood a passing zone or, indeed, motion the slot in and then back out into a route to confuse the defense. The important thing is maintaining the simplicity of the offense without using an abundance of different personnel. We believe one of the plights of many offenses is the inability to run different plays with similar back paths and motions; the series shown in the following paragraphs and diagrams will dictate the defense’s alignment by formation, create confusion with motion and run three different plays under the same façade: the Zone Read, the Quarterback GT and the Quarterback Zone Counter. For the purposes of this article, we will present all plays against both a 4-3 defense with widened outside linebackers and safeties in a standard Cover 3 look, and a standard Odd front with a cover 3 secondary.

The three plays outlined in this article all stem from a shotgun snap, use the exact same motion, and have very similar line play. The shotgun snap delivers the football to the mesh point of the play instantly, preventing catastrophic blocking failure by the offensive line from being necessarily destructive; in other words, a shotgun snap allows the offensive line a moment’s weakness, the room to recover, and the time to make their blocks while at the same time allowing the backs the time to adjust to a failure in the protection up front.

The Zone Read

The first play from the Tiger Offense we’ll look at is the Zone Read (Diagram 2), offering two options and two points of attack. The quarterback must call for the shotgun snap with perfect timing; ideally, the ball arrives in the quarterback’s hands at the same moment the motioning slot back is crossing the mesh point. This action should almost appear like a short jet-sweep, with a hard, fast motion as opposed to a slow, measure motion; this will give the defense less time to react on possible tendencies. The quarterback will ride the handoff at the mesh, reading the backside defensive end. His choice is simple:

Diagram 2

should the defensive end appear to be behind the quarterback’s hands, keeping a wide contain on any possible bootleg or quarterback sneak, the ball will be given to the motioning slot whose path will be just wider than the offensive tackle. If, however, the backside defensive end chases the play hard down the line or appears to cross the quarterback’s hands then the snap-caller should pull the ball and attack the crease between the collapsed end and the backside outside defenders.

As our line approaches the line of scrimmage two things must happen: the center must identify his play side near linebacker, which in this example is the middle backer, and the Y must identify his playside outside linebacker. This identification tells these two players who they or their partner will zone up to, essentially creating a two-on-two combination as illustrated in Diagram 2.

Line play for the Zone Read follows simple zone-blocking rules. The backside tackle will take three hard steps to the right before advancing to the second level in search of the outside linebacker. Should the outside linebacker flow to the outside in attempt to contain the quarterback keep, the offensive tackle must track said linebacker. The backside guard will zone the 1-technique while the center and playside guard combo block the 3-technique, with the center most likely zoning up to the middle linebacker so long as the defensive tackle has not crossed his face. The right tackle and Y will combo the defensive end and the playside outside linebacker with the Y working to the outside backer barring any slant from the defensive end or linebacker stunt. The playside slot will track the rolled up strong safety and attempt to place his head on the outside allowing for the back to bounce the play.

The wide outs will take hard route steps before beginning to stalk block their respective corners.

Against an Odd front (Diagram 3), the Zone Read still retains it simple combo scheme. The difficulty lies in the left tackles ability to work off of the defensive end and track the weak outside linebacker. The tackle will follow the same rules as he did against an even front taking, three hard steps inside. However, should the end crash with the offensive tackle, he will lock on and drive the defender inside.

Diagram 3

Obviously, this would be a give read for the quarterback. The remaining linemen follow the basic zone scheme. The left guard and center will combo the nose and weak inside linebacker and the right guard and tackle will combo the strong side linebacker and defensive end. Against an Odd front the Y’s identified outside linebacker has placed himself directly over him creating a base block. The playside slot, as he did against the even front, will track the rolled up strong safety. The quarterback’s reads and the slot’s motion path remain unchanged.

The Tiger GT

The natural companion piece to the Zone Read is the Quarterback GT (Diagram 4), utilizing the same slot back jet motion across the formation and attacking a defensive end who has taken away the quarterback read by moving up field to contain. The GT will take advantage of this eagerness; the backside guard and tackle will pull at the snap, with the guard kicking the overeager defensive end out and the tackle moving up inside the hole looking outside to clean up a defender at linebacker level, most likely the outside linebacker. The rest of the offensive linemen will block down, resulting in the playside tackle blocking down on the middle linebacker, the playside guard on the 1-technique defensive tackle, and the center on the 3-technique defensive tackle. The Y will take a hard zone step to the left to gain leverage on the defensive end and await his help from the chipping slot back. The quarterback, on receiving the shotgun snap, will offer the ball to the sweeping slot back, withdraw it as the back reaches the mesh point, then attack the line between the two outside GT blocks and the down blocks of the playside offensive linemen. If all has gone according to plan, the first defender he should encounter would be a safety at ten yards, already a nice gain.

Diagram 4

Against an Odd front (Diagram 5) the play of the defensive ends can complicate the issue. However, for the purpose of this article we will assume our defensive ends are playing according to plan. The left tackle will work underneath to the weak inside linebacker. The left guard and center will combo the nose guard, with the left guard moving off to linebacker level to block the strong inside linebacker. As the right guard pulls he will look for the first threat, which should be the defensive end. The guard will place his head on the inside and kick the defender out. The pulling tackle will follow through the hole looking for any trash and more specifically the weak side outside linebacker.

Diagram 5

The Y has a difficult job in that he must scoop the strong side defensive end in attempt to prevent him from getting on the pulling tackles hip and making the play in the backfield.

The Zone Counter

Finally, we have the Zone Counter (Diagram 6), an odd-looking little play that nonetheless has proved its worth in game situations, particularly against teams that have seen their fill of the two plays mentioned above. It is designed to attack a defense that is reacting strongly to the quarterback pull on the Zone Read and the quarterback carry on the GT, essentially ignoring the jet sweep or having successfully contained it. The Zone Counter will assault the defense where they think they are safe- the outside zone normally attacked by the sweeping slot back. After calling for and receiving the shotgun snap, the quarterback will fake the give to the slot back in the jet motion and take a hard step towards the uncovered defensive end. This one counter step, along with the diet of quarterback reads and GT’s, will cause the defense, especially the linebackers, to react quickly towards the backside to stop what they think is yet another quarterback pull. That first step, however, is a feint; the quarterback will complete the counter-step and turn back towards the play side, following the sweeping slot back, who has become the lead blocker, essentially, in a quarterback power sweep. The most likely point of attack is up the crease between the corner and the outside linebacker. Line play remains the same as on the Zone Read.

Diagram 6

Together, these three plays accomplish all the goals of a true spread offense: they thin the defense and open wide running lanes for any potential ground assault. From the Tiger Offense, an offensive coordinator can shred the defense either on the ground or through the air.

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