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AFM Magazine


The Combination Triple Option

by: Scott Dieterich
Parkview Baptist High School (LA)
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At Parkview Baptist, we have been running a flex-bone/slot-option type of offense over the past nine seasons. During that stretch, we have been able to maintain a high level of consistency as an offense and as a program as evidenced by the following statistics:
• 2 State Championships; the most recent being in 2007 (15-0).
• 9 straight playoff appearances; quarterfinals or further 7 years.
• Offensive averages of 35 points, 350 total yards, and nearly 30 minutes of possession time per game.

A few of the reasons why we believe in this style of offense are:
• It’s an unselfish offense. This is truly team concept offense.
• The option makes a defense play differently than any other offense and differently from the way they’re trained.
• Personnel reasons; I don’t believe that a team has to be great or overly talented at any position in an option offense to have a chance to move the football against more talented teams.
• Lack of familiarity and hard to prepare for. Since many teams no longer run the option, many coaches are not familiar with how to defend it. We are probably the only option team on most of our opponents’ schedule each year. Defensive coordinators have to decide how to defend us, then they have to try and prepare a scout team to give a good look.

The base play in our offense is our triple option. I refer to our triple option play as the “combination” triple option since we combine some principles of both the inside and outside veer into one play. We believe we are able to get the advantages of the inside and outside veer without the disadvantages that come with having two separate plays. Against some defenses, it will look like inside veer and, against other defenses, teams will think we’re running outside veer. This will probably be better explained through our triple option concepts:
1. Have one triple option quarterback/fullback mesh point for footwork, read, and reaction consistency.
2. Have consistent O-line splits for combination blocking and fullback aiming point consistency. We maintain two-foot splits across the line.
3. Be able to run our base triple option play vs. the five major defenses that we see and identify. We don’t want any defense to force us out of our base triple option play.
4. Have the flexibility to attack “problem” defenses by changing the dive key or pitch key to take advantage of what the opponent is doing to defend our triple option without changing our mesh point.
5. Not get locked into an “arc” blocking scheme. We are a wall/seal blocking scheme by our play-side slot-back. Most inside veer schemes are forced into an arc blocking situation by certain defensive alignments.
6. Avoid reading stack defenders. We read only one defender on the triple option. Reading stacks correctly is difficult and time consuming.
7. Always protect the quarterback/fullback mesh by having the play-side tackle releasing between the dive key and the mesh point. No “loop” releases by our offensive tackle. We believe that this gives the defense an opportunity to blow up our mesh and inflict a lot of punishment on the fullback.
8. Avoid fast double read situations for the quarterback. One example of this is when an inside veer team sees a 50 defense and dive reads the 4-techinque tackle then pitch reads the 9-technique defensive end.

Formations
We do not have many different formations so we can focus on execution rather than confusion. Before we will run any formation in our offense, there is one main demand that we have for all of our formations: we must be able to run our triple option to at least one side but usually to both sides of any formation we align in.
Our base or starting point for formations is our “Ace” formation (See Diagram 1). I really believe in this formation. If football rules changed to where a team could only line up in one formation, our ace formation would be it for us. A few reasons why this formation is effective are:
• It threatens the defense with the threat of four running backs and four receivers at one time. The potential to throw the football is never greater than in Ace. The secondary has to make a strong commitment to defend the run which gives us great potential in the passing game.
• Balanced and spread: it tends to balance, simplify, and clearly define how a defense is aligned and how it is trying to defend the offense.
• We can run every play in our offense to both sides of this formation. This allows us to take advantage of any personnel mismatches we may have.
• The position of the slots creates great blocking angles on bigger defenders inside and the motion of the slots gives the offense great misdirection potential.
• Slot backs are easier to find than the true tailbacks and true tight-ends that many conventional offenses need.
Combo Triple Option Rules
& Coaching Points
Note: The blocking scheme is determined by the dive key & pitch key.
Dive Key: 2ND down lineman past a ‘0-nose’.
Pitch Key: Force defender; rover or safety/corner read.
• Play-side tackle: veer release or zone with play-side guard to the play-side linebacker to the next linebacker inside.
• Play-side guard: zone with tackler or center to near linebacker.
• Center: covered (0-nose) scoop to back-side linebacker; uncovered zone play-side; possible zone with play-side guard.
• Back-side guard: vs. 0-nose scoop; cut-off 1st down lineman back-side; switch vs. a 3-technique switch with the back-side tackle.
• Back-side Tackle: cut-off b-gap to climb to level 2; switch with back-side guard vs. a 3-technique.
• Play-side slot: wall the play-side linebacker to safety level.
• Back-side slot: 2-step sprint motion. Work for 4-5 yards outside and 1-2 yards behind the QB pitch relationship. Expect it, catch it, and stretch it.
• Fullback: mesh with QB thru the outside half of the b-gap thru the inside half of the play-side tackle. Expect the ball and react to a pull. Accelerate off the mesh with or without the ball.
• Quarterback: mesh read with fullback. Think give-and-react to a pull. On a pull read think run and react to a pitch.
• Play-side split-end: vs. 1-safety stalk the corner. Vs 2-safety secondary crack the near safety if it’s obvious. Don’t force a crack block.
• Back-side split: cut-off technique. Sprint to the middle of the field and block for the play if it is still going.

Note on pitch key: vs. an 8-man front, the pitch key is always the “rover” as we call it. Versus a 2-safety defense, the pitch key can be the safety or corner depending on how the split end blocks it: crack or stalk. Either way, the QB has time to react.

Quarterback & Fullback Mesh Techniques
Talking triple option football and not talking about QB/fullback mesh techniques is the same as a spread passing team not talking about throwing and catching the football. The first thing needed is to define the mesh point. Our fullback is running a path thru the outside half of the b-gap thru the inside half of the play-side tackle. A few coaching points and techniques that we emphasize for each position are:

Quarterback:
• Narrow stance, take 1st step between 3 and 4 o’clock to the right, 9 and 8 o’clock to the left. Reach ball straight back to the fullback and get your eyes on the dive key now! This is a “momentum” ride in that we never really stop. As the QB feels the fullback, he gets his 2nd step on the ground.
• Think give-and-react to a pull. Only one reaction is a pull. Be decisive. Make a decision before the ball leaves the framework of your body.
• On a give read, relax your hands and finish with front hand. On a pull read, jerk the ball out strong with ball hands.
• Sprint off the mesh with or without the ball to attack the pitch key.

Fullback:
• Align with hands two yards behind the heels of the QB. Narrow and balanced stance, take 1st step at your crease point. On 2nd step make pocket. Come off with a low pad level; run from low to high and from inside to out.
• Mesh with QB. Soft squeeze the ball. Expect the ball and react to a pull.
• On a give, stay in the crease and key the b-gap/tackle area. If you cut, make it quick and on the run so you can square up and get north and south as fast as possible. We can stay in the crease, square up in b-gap, or slide into the c-gap depending on movement.
• Sprint off the mesh with or without the ball. Expect a collision on a pull and react otherwise to being a late blocker.
Defensive Identification
There are many ways to identify defensive fronts and secondary looks. I personally believe that many times coaches make this part of offensive football harder than it needs to be. We will categorize any defense that a team aligns in as one of five. For secondary looks, we don’t talk in terms of coverages but rather in terms of the numbers of safeties: 1-safety, 2-safety, or 0-safety secondary looks. As mentioned previously, it is critical to be able to run your base play vs. any defense you may see. You can see how we label, identify, and attack each of these five defenses with our base combo triple option. In each diagram, the dive key is circled and the pitch key is inside of a square.

1. 3-3 front with 1-safety (See Diagram 2)
2. 40 front with 1-safety (See Diagram 3)
3. 5-1 front with 1-safety (See Diagram 4)
4. 4-3 front with 2-safeties (See Diagram 5)
5. 50 front with 2-safeties (See Diagram 6)

Numbers 1, 2, & 3 are what we call 8-man fronts and numbers 4 & 5 are 7-man fronts. Each defense can have variations but we can at least refer any defensive look into one of these five for simplicity and communication purposes.
This is our base way of running our combination triple option play from our Ace formation vs. the five defenses we identify. We also run our combo triple option from a variety of formations as well as being able to adjust it to change who the dive key or pitch key is vs. any defense that may be causing us problems. The best thing about this is that we never have to change the quarterback/fullback mesh point and mechanics because it is always the same regardless of the defense or scheme.

Coach Dieterich just completed his 17th year of coaching – the past ten years as OC at Parkview Baptist High School (LA). In 17 years of coaching, Coach Dieterich’s teams have reached the playoffs 16 times with three semi-final appearances and two state championships.


Diagram 1.


Diagram 2.


Diagram 3.


Diagram 4.


Diagram 5.






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