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Mixing in the Gun – Integrating Shotgun into Your Spread Option Offense

by: Nathan M. Cochran
Asst. Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator, Blackburn College
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At Lincoln University, we adopted the spread option offense because we felt it gave us the best advantage going into the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). To complement our spread, we started to run some of our option plays out of the shotgun. We started playing with “the gun” because we have a good center who can shotgun snap the football and block anyone and we wanted to improve our 3-step passing game. It also provided a psychological boost for our athletes who needed more than the monotony of our normal 12-and 13-triple option. In this article I will talk about how we align our backfield to run our base options, what types of adjustments we have to make in our base plays, and some of the wrinkles we were able to incorporate in the offense.

    All we really did was move the fullback over and back up the quarterback (See Diagram 1).


We kept the fullback’s heels at five yards so it wouldn’t throw off our alignments or motions and we told him to “split the crotch of the guard” with his outside foot. We set our quarterback’s heels at four yards. We did not put our fullback directly behind the quarterback. This is because we did not want the fullback’s alignment to be too deep and throw off the slot back motions. Our slot backs kept their normal alignment, with their inside foot just inside the offensive tackle’s outside foot and one yard off the line of scrimmage. Most option teams put their slot backs one yard by one yard, but we do not. Because of NCAA rules on “cut blocking,” we keep our slot backs within the frame of the offensive tackle so they can “cut block” back toward the ball on both inside linebackers and defensive linemen. We call our formation “Gun Right” which puts the fullback to the side of the call. If we use a trips formation, we call it “Trips Right Gun” (See Diagram 2).


    The new alignment changed some of the angles for our quarterback. Our quarterback really had to focus on the path of the dive read. It was great for our fullback. He got a full head of steam and was able to read the offensive line blocks on the front side much better. In our first game running it, our fullback rushed for 128 yards and we scored 38 points. We did not run our triple option like traditional “Zone Teams.” The fullback’s path was straight downhill through the play-side guard (See Diagram 3).


Our fullbacks also had to be patient enough to wait for the QB to catch the ball and turn to mesh before they started running. We added a drop step in their start to help them with timing.

    To eliminate some of the “ricochet problems” (the dive read attacking the fullback and then being able to play the QB) we made our offensive tackle take a four to five foot split (See Diagram 4).


This seemed to give the quarterback a “true read.” Our slot backs kept their normal motion and timing so it wouldn’t throw off the pitch phase of our triple option. During the season, we started running the triple option out of our normal trips formations (See Diagram 5) and we were even able to do it out of the gun (See Diagram 6).



    We were also able to incorporate our mid-line play. It was very good for us and I believe our quarterbacks were more comfortable running this play out of the shotgun than from under center (See Diagram 7).


We still ran the play to what our staff calls the 3-technique. If the quarterback had to audible, we would move the fullback to the other side and audible. We were concerned that the fullback, being on the playside, would give the defense an advantage. So, we also incorporated our counter option play to keep the defense honest (See Diagram 8).


We also incorporated a reverse off of the triple option out of trips in the gun that ended up being very successful as well (See Diagram 9).


    By getting in the gun, we weren’t able to use our rocket toss due to timing issues (See Diagram 10).


Thanks to the University of Nebraska’s rout of Kansas State, we came up with our own version of the “Read Jet Sweep” (See Diagram 11).


In our sweep, our quarterback would read the nose tackle. If the nose ran with the sweep, our quarterback pulled the football and ran downhill like it was our mid-line play. Our backside tackle and guard blocked the backside end and linebacker. Our center slipped to the middle linebacker and the rest of the offense blocked for the sweep. This play gave us the perimeter play we lacked without the “Rocket Toss.” The play ended up being very successful for us.

    Incorporating the shotgun helped us improve our passing numbers by eliminating the need for the quarterback drop. Our quarterbacks were able to “catch and throw” on our normal three-step routes. This allowed them to be more comfortable in our limited passing game. It gave us a more effective passing game. This helped us to “back-up” some of the defenses we faced and allowed us to score more points. I think this addition to our offense will allow us to attract kids that are not always fans of an option offense. We will never abandon what we run at Lincoln University, but we are always evolving as an offensive staff in an effort to win.






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