Being a Complete Running Back – Running with the ball is only one aspect of being a complete running back.

As coaches, we are constantly evaluating our players. And our players are constantly evaluating themselves. How many times have you had a player come to you and ask, “Coach, what do I need to do to get more playing time?” or “What do I need to work on?” At Sacramento State, we emphasis ownership. We ask them to be accountable for themselves and their performance both on and off the field.  

    On the field, we ask the running backs “2B A PART”. This stands for:

Ball Security
Blocking (protection)
Awareness
Play – Action Game (playing without the ball)
Attitude
Receiving and Route Running
Toughness

    This device gives them something to remember and something to reference for improvement. Here are a few of our drills that develop each attribute for our running backs.
Ball Security

    Ball security constantly needs to be stressed. I tell our running backs, “I know it’s remedial and it gets old, but we are going to start with this every day”. This is the drill we do to emphasize the four points of pressure (See Diagrams 1 and 2). We will do 1-on-1 and 4-on-1 every day, rotating back and forth between days.

    We use four points of pressure. I have heard of five points and next year someone will start using six or seven points of pressure. The four points we emphasize are: 1) Hand over the nose of the ball. This point is bigger than most people know. With the new age of the smaller running back, many of them have shorter forearms so they don’t cover the nose of the ball. This makes carrying the ball uncomfortable for them. Having the hand over the nose of the ball is something you must stress and demand day in and day out. It’s the first thing you, as a coach, should look for. 2) Ball against the forearm. You don’t want to see air in between the ball and the running backs forearm. This task is easy to follow if rule #1 is followed – the forearm will follow the hand. 3) Ball must be firmly pressed against the rib cage. This is the task that needs the most work. So many young backs today watch game highlights and don’t see the poor ball management. They just see the moves and the touchdown. 4) Once the ball is pressed against your rib, roll your elbow forward so the ball is roughly three inches from your chin. We consider this “high and tight”. Now, there is no way a defender can strip the ball from behind.

Blocking

    The next emphasis is blocking. Blocking is the fundamental form of protection. For so many running backs this is their worst trait. They have never been asked to block and therefore, don’t know how. The first things we do with them are to get them used to a fundamental football position and shuffle them along the five-man sleds (Diagram 3).

    We emphasize “active feet” and “bring your feet to the block”. Young running backs often want to drop their head when blocking so we stress “head up” as well. The other emphasis is to drop your butt and sink your hips to create a better ‘bend’ in the knees (Diagram 4).

    After we have established that, we can play in a “fundamental position”. The next step is to protect. We will compete with the LB’s as much as the defensive practice will as allow. The protection drill we do to pick up pressure from LB’s is shown in Diagram 5.

    We stress the fundamentals we just drilled on the sled – keep your head up, active feet, hands and hips strike at once. The biggest emphasis in the drill is not to strike and quit – FINISH THE BLOCK.

Awareness  
    Awareness is something that comes with time. To properly teach awareness, the running backs must spend as much time as possible with other position groups (e.g., the OL, TE, QB and WR). Within a one hour and 30 minute practice, we will spend one hour of our practice with other position groups. This starts in pre-practice with our QB/center exchanges for timing and awareness of each QB. Then we will add the WR for timing of motions as well. They need to see who they are affecting and what is affecting them. The drill we do every day in pre-practice to get our minds ready for the days install and to see “what’s around us” is shown in Diagram 6.

Play-Action (Playing without the ball)
    Faking over the ball is a skill that is often overlooked in a running back. We feel it goes hand-in-hand with awareness. A running back has to know what is going on around him, especially in the play-action game. Who is he affecting? Do I have any protection responsibilities? What are my route responsibilities? The same drill we do in “pre-practice” we will do in our play-action period, adding in WR’s (motions) and TE as well as the back seven defenders.

Attitude & Toughness  
    Attitude and toughness are the two hardest traits to judge and evaluate. How do you work on your attitude? Is there a drill? Yes, there are drills that can drill the attitude you want your running backs to have. Running backs need to be in control as well, but some run better with an attitude. How do you get it out of them? You put them in hard-nosed and tough situations. I use a “Sideline” drill and a “Gauntlet” drill (Diagrams 7 & 8). These are drills that have been around forever.

Receiving and Route Running 

    Receiving can be one of the hardest things for a running back to master. It’s not the same as a wide receiver catching the ball. Receivers work outside in. It is rare that a running back lines up outside for a route. Most running backs come into college lacking receiving skills and blocking fundamentals, two things they have never been asked to do. 

    The emphasis for a running back in the passing game needs to be nailing the “end point”. If he floats into the end of his route, his timing is off and that is usually when a quarterback has to scramble. We will watch the previous day’s practice and count how many floats our running backs had at the end of routes resulting in QB scrambles.