Making the Most of the Hurry-Up, No-Huddle Offense - Calling plays at the line can let you double your offensive snaps.

His team had just been walloped 56-7 in its spring game last May and Palm Beach Gardens (FL) head coach Chris Davis knew he had to make some adjustments or face another mediocre .500 season. He just wasn’t sure what he was going to change in his system. His teams had been 4-5 and 5-5 in 2009 and 2010.

A few weeks later, Davis was attending a coaches clinic where he heard Gus Malzahn, then the offensive coordinator at Auburn, speak on the advantages of a no-huddle, hurry-up offense. Davis had met Malzahn last spring when Malzahn was on a recruiting trip to Florida. He made it a point to speak with Malzahn at the clinic and began quizzing him more about this offense. Malzahn invited Davis to visit him and Auburn offensive line coach Jeff Grimes the following week to discuss the scheme further. Davis graciously accepted the invitation, and by the time he left Auburn, he was hooked on the system.

Davis returned to Florida, met with his coaching staff and decided he basically was going to scrap the team’s entire offensive playbook. Palm Beach Gardens had been running a basic multiple offense and Power I with emphasis on the running game. One can imagine the inquisitive looks Davis received from some of his players and coaches.

“At first, it definitely was a challenge,” said quarterback J. P. Caruso, who will be a junior next season. “It took about two or three weeks to get the base of it.” But Caruso and the Gators’ offense successfully met the challenge. They scored 53 points in their season opener after less than a month of studying and practicing the no-huddle offense and went on to have a 9-3 season, earning a berth in the state playoffs for the first time since 2005.

Davis attributes a significant part of the turnaround to having the guts to toss his offensive playbook and switch to the no-huddle, hurry-up scheme he learned from his meetings with Malzahn, who now is the head coach at Arkansas State. “A lot of players were uncomfortable with it at first, but our coaching staff did a very good job of establishing our rules,” Davis said of the radical transition. “We looked at the makeup of our team and decided we’d just try to outscore people. And as we scored more, our defense started playing better. Our defense fed off our offense as the season progressed.”

Anyone who witnessed West Virginia’s 70-point outburst in this year’s Orange Bowl game got a good look at how productive the no-huddle can be. It allows teams to almost double their offensive plays while placing more pressure on a defense. Davis said that his team averaged between 30-40 snaps a game during the 2010 season. His offense averaged twice that many after switching to the no-huddle offense in 2011. “We want to snap the ball as many times as we can,” Davis said. “Our goal is to get 70 snaps a game. We try to play two games in one. It’s definitely doubled our offensive output.”

How it Works

The no-huddle, hurry-up offense, or “Pace Offense” as Davis labels it, is similar in some ways to the spread. The biggest difference is the tempo of which plays are run. Instead of huddling after each play, the offense immediately lines up and looks to the sideline for the next play, which is delivered via hand signals from the offensive coordinator or an assistant coach. The quarterback transfers the play call into code words for the other players, particularly the linemen. There are also code words for the snap count.

Caruso, the Palm Beach Gardens quarterback, said that learning the hand signals and code words was the most difficult part of the no-huddle offense for him to grasp, but once he did and felt comfortable with the system, it was fun. “I love it,” Caruso said. “It’s quicker, there’s more pace, it catches defenses off-guard and spreads the defenses out. It’s the new spread offense.”

Malzahn’s no-huddle scheme, which he began developing 15 years ago when he was a high school coach in Arkansas, features unbalanced lines, quick-hitting running backs and constant motion. The pace is frenetic and it’s all designed to confuse defenders, which can cause chaos for defenses, resulting in mistakes that lead to positive gains for the offense.

The offense can work in either a run-heavy or pass-oriented scheme, depending on a team’s personnel. Palm Beach Gardens running back Roshard Burney said that it actually provided him a better opportunity to see holes. “In an I-formation, you’ve got a straight glide and you might bust it, but with this offense it gives me an opportunity to get the ball and see things much easier than in the I-formation,” said Burney, who has signed with West Virginia. “Once we get on a good pace, they’re trying to get different personnel in (on defense). It can mess them up. I like it a lot, but you’ve got to be in shape.”

The Fatigue Factor

Davis, 37, played quarterback in high school and said that one thing he has learned during his playing and coaching career is that when players become tired, they tend to make mistakes. That’s something he said a hurry-up offense tends to do to an opposing defense.

“It doubles their fatigue,” Davis said. “It tries to catch people off-guard and it doesn’t allow defensive coordinators to change personnel groupings for specific situations. It really forces them to have kids do things they’re not comfortable with in passing situations. It makes them do things to defend the run that they’re not comfortable with. Let’s face it. If a guy’s not lined up right, the linebacker is going to be yelling at him. That’s the dynamic that can really make people crumble.”

Davis said the key to running a no-huddle offense is the quarterback, regardless of whether your offensive personnel is run-oriented or pass-oriented. “The quarterback makes it tick,” Davis said. “He’s a reflection of me on the field. You have to have a quarterback who picks up things quickly. He directs the traffic. Tempo is the biggest thing. Our goal is to run a two-minute offense for four quarters.”

Davis found out last season that the up-tempo offense can be costly, however. Unlike in the college game, there’s a ready-to-play whistle in high school football, meaning the offense can’t start a play until the referee signals such. That rule bit Davis more than once last season.

“Our guys are so accustomed to me blowing the whistle so fast (in practice) that we’ve actually gotten penalties for snapping it before the referee whistles it in play,” Davis said, adding that his team had a touchdown nullified because of that rule last season. Davis said his advice to possibly counter that is to alert officials in the pre-game meeting about your up-tempo style, but that ultimately, “It’s up to the guy in the white hat.”

The Code to Success

Davis said that the success of a hurry-up offense is predicated on all the players understanding it and being in tip-top shape to keep up with the quick pace. The installation of the scheme has to be very well thought-out and codes established before setting a foot on the field.

“We don’t call plays like normal people,” Davis said. “For example, on a zone play, the rules have to be followed as the season progresses, the rules of your blocking schemes, the way you call plays. There is no numbering system in our offense.”

To make it simple, Davis has two bread and butter plays his offense uses often during the course of a game – Twins Right Power/Bubble and Twins Right Counter/Bubble. “The Twins Right Power is a great call vs. an over front,” said Davis. “It’s a downhill power play off tackle but with options for a quick pass or bubble screen. If the quarterback sees the blitz, he can fake the handoff and pass off a hot route. It really depends on the defensive coverage if they have 7 or 8 in the box. We run this play 30 times a game for blitz control” (See Diagram 1).

Diagram 1.

Another key play for Davis’ offense is the Twins Right Counter. “In this play, the DT blocks the Will and it is a great play vs. an under front,” explained Davis. “It involves down blocks and angle blocking and is designed to run to the wide tackle. The quarterback has options on this play as well and, depending on what the defense is showing, he can throw a quick pass or bubble screen” (See Diagram 2).

Diagram 2.

Davis said that “The code system was one of the most difficult things to convey to the players.” But he suggests changing the system every season so as not to give anything away to opponents you might face again. It’s also important not to overwhelm your players by trying to install the entire scheme or system too quickly. “Coach (Davis) put it in bits and pieces and worked it in slowly,” Caruso said. “We didn’t just put it in all at once, so it made it a little easier. But every week we were still putting in new plays and new code words and signals. We’d add new plays for different teams.”

Davis said that by the end of last season, he had about 25 different plays installed but that there were multiple looks to the plays, and that most weeks his game plan consisted of only about six or seven plays run out of multiple looks. His mind was working constantly during each offensive possession. “I’m on the next play while the ball is being snapped,” Davis said. “I usually have two plays in my head, depending on the previous play’s success.” He said that once his players understood to just follow the rules of the offense and not worry about what the defense is doing, the scheme became easier for them.

Seeing Is Believing

Malzahn and his new offensive coordinator at Arkansas State, Rhett Lashlee, will be implementing the hurry-up, no huddle offense as well. One of the other staples of this offense is the Counter Trey, somewhat similar to Davis’ Twins Right Counter. It is designed to wear out the second level of a defense because the linebackers are going to be blocked by big linemen rather than fullbacks or smaller players.

“In implementing the counter trey, the goal is to build a wall inside, kick out the edge and wrap through for the frontside linebacker in the box,” said Malzahn. “You direct the play to the nose guard to gain a free release by the frontside tackle to backside linebacker. You can run this with six in the box or less. If the inside gap is covered, the defensive tackle is the guard and tackle’s responsibility. If the gap is uncovered, the tackle releases to hit the backside linebacker” (See Diagram 3).

Diagram 3.

“In this instance, the play is run against a 4-2 front,” said Malzahn. “The quarterback executes a bootleg fake to keep the backside end occupied. The way this defeats a defense is mixing up the keys for the linebackers. Linebackers are told to watch the backfield triangle, but their key is also the guard. It can be confusing to them.”

Lashlee clearly believes in the system. He played for Malzahn at Shiloh Christian High School. “On the outside, our system seems complex, but I think it’s a player-friendly offense and the kids really have a lot of fun the way we run our system,” Lashlee said. “I don’t think there is any question that we have the most fun for an offensive system in the country. It’s fast, explosive, and it gives our players a chance to make plays. It’s also proven to win championships at all levels, and I think winning excites kids. It’s fun to practice and it’s a lot of fun on game days.”

Said Davis, “I hope it doesn’t catch on. I’d hate to have to defend it.”