I
t is an honor to submit this article for pub-
lication in the 2003 ACFA Summer
Manual. Over my 14-year career as a col-
legiate head coach, I have been blessed
with outstanding players, loyal assistants
and a tremendous group of friends in this
great profession. The coaches I have
worked with have immensely impacted my
career, as has my association with the
ACFA.
My coaching experience has included
various challenges, from taking over strug-
gling programs to following one of the real
legends in college football here at the
University of Minnesota-Duluth. In each sit-
uation, we have worked hard to develop a
program that has been able to compete at
the national level. The following philosoph-
ical principles have been fundamental in
our approach to the program building
process.
First You Must Believe
It sounds simple, but in my opinion, the
power of belief and positive attitude hold
the key to a program’s success. As coach-
es, we must be the biggest believers in our
own abilities and the ability of our football
team to be successful. Positive attitude
starts from the top and works down to our
players and to all of those around our pro-
gram. Eliminate or down-play the negatives
of your situation while building a positive
and supportive attitude within your pro-
gram. Belief in success is contagious and
will positively affect players, parents,
administrators and fans.
Surround Yourself With Winners
Successful programs are people-cen-
tered and encourage individual and team
development. Hold the highest expectations
for the quality of people in your program.
Build a staff that cares about student/ath-
letes, is loyal and is strongly committed to
success. Having the right people involved is,
in my opinion, much more important than
their knowledge of X’s and O’s.
Develop Shared Ownership
Communicate your plan of success to
those around you, and allow them to be a
part of the decisions that impact your pro-
gram’s success. Everyone in your program
must share the same goals, be held to the
same expectations and accept the same
level of responsibility. It’s “our” program not
“mine” and it is that “our” mentality that
empowers those in the program to achieve.
Teams that have ownership in what they do
Th e “B ig
have pride, and teams with pride are diffi-
cult teams to beat.
Play” Action
Create a Sense of Mystique
About the Way You Play
Emphasize specific things in your offen-
sive, defensive and kicking game schemes Pass
that can make your program special.
Identify certain elements of your play that
you want to “hang your hat on” and that will
make the team unique. This type of empha-
sis will create excitement and confidence
within the football program and give the
team a special identity.
Offensively, we want our mystique to
center around being an aggressive, bal-
anced attack. We want to be able to run
and pass the football with equal effec-
tiveness. Our offensive goals are to rush
for 200-plus yards per game and pass for
200-plus yards per game with a 55 per-
cent completion rate. We have accom-
plished those three goals in five of the
last 10 seasons and have averaged 201
yards per game rushing and 218 yards
per game passing with a 54 percent com-
pletion percentage over the past decade.
We feel our play-action passing game
has been one of the important compo-
nents in developing this level of balance
in our attack and in our overall offensive
effectiveness.
Our play action passing schemes are all
built with the following priorities:
Protection First
We want to keep our play action protec-
tion scheme simple and limit the number of
adjustments that we have to make each
week in facing specific defenses. For
example, our draw pass protection
scheme involves man protection on the
play side (side of the play fake) and area
protection on the weak side. We limit the
number of receivers used, involving our
backs and even the tight end in the pro-
tection scheme in order to keep our rules
simple and consistent.
We are also willing to sacrifice some of
the play-action look with our linemen to
insure sound protection and will rely on
the backfield action to influence and hold
the linebackers and secondary. Utilizing
this simple protection scheme means our
quarterback has only one blitz read that is
his responsibility. This read is the same for
all of our play-action pass series and
allows our quarterback to use a common
check process for all of our play-action
passes.
Throw Downfield (make a big play)
Today’s defenses are built to stop the run
by playing a safety low or attempting to out-
number the offense in the “box.” One of our
responses to this type of defensive philoso-
phy is to create a primary deep throw read in
all of our play-action pass schemes. The
thought here is to provide our quarterback
with the opportunity to throw the ball “over
the top” of an aggressive secondary off a run
fake. In 2002, we had 23 play-action com-
pletions that resulted in gains of over 20
yards and eight of those plays resulted in
touchdowns. The threat of throwing deep off
play action is one way to force defenses to
play honestly and can help slow down sec-
ondary support to the running game.
Throw on Running Downs
Throwing on first down and second and
medium situations is vital to a successful
play-action passing game. In my early
years as an offensive play caller, I strug-
gled with the idea of calling pass plays in
situations where throwing an incompletion
might get us off-schedule. This concern
has been countered by the realization that
throwing on traditional running downs pro-
vides our offense with the best opportunity
to catch the defense with a big play.
Throwing on these types of downs also
provides the ability to absorb incompletions
and remain in down and distance situations
that can be legitimately converted.
Draw Pass
Our draw pass is one of our favorite
play-action pass series. In this series, we
fake the lead or single back draw (depend-
ing on our formation) and time this pass
action with certain five-step route combina-
tions. Our quarterback will set up slightly
playside of the center but our protection
scheme will protect him as if he his in a
five-step drop set-up position. Our draw
pass protection scheme can protect four
rushers play side utilizing man protection
rules with the play side lineman and backs.
The center and backside lineman will
block area and be responsible for the first
three pass rush threats weak side. Our
quarterback must be responsible for and
read a possible fourth rusher on the weak
side (away from the fake). If this fourth
rusher is a pre-snap blitz threat, he will
check the play to three-step protection
and look to throw the ball to the X receiv-
er either with a hitch route (if the corner
gives cushion) or on a fade (if the corner
is pressing).
We feel this check system comple-
ments our play-action pass thoughts
regarding throwing on running downs and
still gives us the ability to make a big play.
In our two-back formations both backs will
have protection assignments playside,
and in one-back sets we will make a
“solid” call to keep the playside tight end
in as part of the protection scheme
(Diagrams 1, 2, 3).
Diagram 1
Diagram 2
Diagram 3
We run three basic route combinations
with our draw pass action. All three of these
route combinations involve reads that give
our quarterback a primary option to throw
the ball deep. The first route combination is
the post-choice concept. In this concept the
quarterback will read the near or playside
safety. If the safety rolls forward or does not
retreat from a two-deep look, his read will
tell him to throw the ball over the top on the
post.
It is important that the Z receiver keeps
his post route skinny, avoiding the backside
safety who may be rolling into the middle
third (Diagram 4). If the near safety retreats
Diagram 4
to help on the post route by Z, the quarter-
back will look for the tight end on a 10-
yard choice route. Agood play fake should
hold the inside linebackers enough to cre-
ate a window making an easy throw to the
tight end underneath. In a “solid” protec-
tion call, we lose the tight end as the sec-
ond option and this concept becomes a
two-man pattern.
Our second route combination is the
post-dig concept and involves a high-low
read on the back side safety. In this
scheme the quarterback reads the far safe-
ty (away from the fake) for the skinny post.
If the quarterback reads the safety retreat-
ing or rolling to the middle third, he will look
to throw the ball in a window through the
linebackers to Z on a dig route. The tight
end will run a shallow route in our normal
scheme but we will often run this from a
one-back set with a “solid” protection call
(Diagram 5).
Diagram 5
The third route combination that we run
with the draw pass action is the divide con-
cept. In the divide concept, we will try to get
the ball deep, down the seam, to the tight
end versus any two-deep or four-deep cov-
erage look (Diagram 6).
Diagram 6
The tight end’s route here should threat-
en the safety vertically then work slightly
inside. Against a three-deep coverage look,
we will sit the tight end down at about 15
yards and curl him inside. Our quarter-
back can throw to the tight end on this
inside route or choose to challenge a cor-
nerback with a deep fade route outside
(Diagram 7).
Our commitment to a strong running
game has certainly provided us with
opportunities to make big plays through
our play action passing game. I also feel
that our willingness to challenge defenses
Practice Safety-First Coaching Techniques
Excerpted from an article by Dick Schindler for the National Federation News
1. Keep the head up.
2. Discuss risk of injury.
3. Keep the head out of contact.
4. Explain how serious injuries
can occur.
5. Involve parents in early season
meeting.
6. Have a set plan for coaching
safety.
7. Clearly explain and demonstrate
safe techniques.
8. Provide best medical care
possible.
9. Monitor blocking and tackling
techniques every day.
10. Repeat drills which stress
proper and safe techniques.
11. Admonish and/or discipline users
of unsafe techniques.
12. Receive clearance by doctor
for athlete to play following head
trauma.
13. Stress safety every day.
14. Don’t glorify head hunters.
15. Support officials who penalize
for illegal helmet contact.
16. Don’t praise or condone illegal
helmet contact.
17. Provide conditioning to strengthen
neck muscles.
18. Entire staff must be “tuned in” to
safety program.
19. Check helmet condition regularly.
Diagram 7 began using our draw pass scheme as a
check-to-play against teams who would
walk their safeties down against our run-
ning game.
Being aggressive with our play-action
pass scheme has become a major part of
our commitment to a balanced attack. Let
me close by again thanking the AFCA for
this opportunity to represent the University
of Minnesota-Duluth and our football pro-
deep through play action has helped our gram. If you have questions regarding any
running game be more consistent and of the information in this article please feel
successful. This past season we even free to contact me.
Coaches’ Checklist
20. Improper technique causes spinal
cord injuries.
21. Helmet must fit properly.
22. Be prepared for a catastrophic
injury.
23. The game doesn’t need abusive
contact.
24. Player safety is your responsibility.
25. It’s a game — not a job — for the
players.
Keep The Head
Out Of Football
Rules changes that eliminated the head
as the initial contact point in blocking and
tackling have significantly reduced head
and neck injuries in the sport.
Coaches can do their part to continue that
trend by teaching correct techniques and
emphasizing proper fundamentals at all
times. That way, players can avoid cata-
strophic injury and coaches can avoid
lawsuits.
Keep the head out of football.