I found this interesting article with diagrams on the wildcat spread offense formation as it relates to the NFL, particularly the Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Seneca Wallace.
Last year we did our first coaches Q&A with Herb Hand, Co-Offensive Coordinator at the University Of Tulsa Golden Hurricane. It's our pleasure to offer our second installment with Coach Hand, as he offers more insight on the team, and the spread offense in general.The Wild-Cat Offense - Just Scratching The Surface
I bet Ronnie Brown let out a sigh of relief with this pick... because now he and Ricky Williams can be in their comfort zone as running-backs with the wild-cat in 2009.
What Pat White will add in terms of a dual threat 'single-wing' quarterback will be the presence of the forward pass with his lightning speed and four years of reading defenses.
It must be hard for the offensive staff down in Miami to wipe the grins off their faces tonight.
Keep Pat White Away From New England and Bill Belichick
It's been known that the Patriots have been eyeing White for about a month now, and you can bet Bill Parcells knew this and didn't want the Patriots and his old buddy taking the wild-cat to the next level in 2009... especially when it was the Dolphins who kicked the door open with it against New England.
The Dolphins Coaching Staff 'Gets It'
I don't know how else to put it, but if anyone deserves the services of Pat White in the NFL to see how far this wild-cat/spread run offense can go, it's the Dolphins coaching staff. It's kind of like how Bill Walsh deserved to have Joe Montana back in 1979 when he drafted him to run his West Coast Offense.
Dan Henning, David Lee, George DeLeone, and the rest of the offensive staff will see how fast this wild-cat car can drive in 2009.... or, as head coach Tony Sparano put it: “There was an awful lot left on the bone that we didn't roll out there in the wild-cat".
Make Opponents Prepare For Another Offense
Coaches out there, think about your preparation week now for the Miami Dolphins offense. You have to get your rep's in for the Chad Pennington/Chad Henne conventional offense and now the Pat White/Ronnie Brown Wild-Cat/single wing offense.
Think about how this can actually extend the careers of all the QB's involved. Lets say in a specific game the conventional offense is productive, you stay with it until they stop it. The same with the Wild-Cat/Single Wing, run it for a change of pace or stay with it until they consistently stop it.
I always thought that a conventional 'sitting duck' quarterback getting sacked 6 or more times a game was more vulnerable to injury then a running QB on designed run plays.
Pat White is a Winner
Pat White was the starting QB for West Virginia University from 2005 through 2008. Every year during that span, the Mountaineer's went to a bowl game (2 games being BCS games vs. Georgia and Oklahoma) and they won every one of those 4 bowl games. White was also named MVP in 3 of the 4 bowl victories.
White has also been drafted 3 times by Major League Baseball (Anaheim Angels twice and the Cincinnati Reds once).
Lastly, Pat White graduated this past December with a bachelor's degree in general studies from WVU.
Pat White Can Throw The Football
White threw for 5,576 yards in 4 years... with 1,844 yards coming in his senior season. The all-time leading rusher for NCAA quarterback's has a very good arm.
Check out the link below of Pat White's Senior Bowl MVP performance:
http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80e54d3c
In the spread offense, wide receiver or slot motion can be used to open up the running game. This article will cover three types of motion, motion to a pistol set, motion to a two-back set, and speed sweep motion. Many of these plays use motion to provide different types of zone read style reads and they are all easy to flip.
My offensive philosophy is that we utilize our pass and screen game to set up the run. This has worked well for us and we always outnumber the defense in the box. Once we start running the football effectively, obviously our play-action is much more effective. One of my favorite play-action looks in the spread offense is the bootleg. The concept of the play is simple and you can run multiple variations of the play without changing the core concepts.
One of my favorite plays in the spread offense is the Jailbreak Screen. It is an integral part of the offensive system that we run. To me, there is never a bad time to call this play. I believe the Jailbreak Screen is indicative of what the spread offense is all about - getting the ball into your athletes hands out in space with room to make a play after the catch.
One of the best attributes of the spread offense is that its formations limit the amount of defensive fronts by forcing them to walk out linebackers to cover receivers. This simplifies pass blocking, because there are only so many things the defense can do without leaving players unaccounted for. It also allows other aspects of the passing game to "assist" the linemen, such as a quick passing attack and easier "hot" reads.
In the majority of spread offenses at the collegiate level, the zone read is a cornerstone of the offense. What do you do if you don’t have the personnel to be successful with a zone run game? I have found that the tackle trap is a great alternative to the zone read in the shot-gun spread offense.
Congratulations to the Florida Gators ! If you watched the game last night, you saw a great play that Urban Meyer has used for some time now even before coming to Florida, but last night might have been the first time some of you may have seen it.If you ever read 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu, he mentions a very important point: "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". If you want to be a great offensive spread coach, you need to know what the defensive coaches are thinking and planning to stop you (and vice versa).
The ability to breakdown film as a coach is a critical skill, not just your teams or your opponents, but what I call 'third party' film. Imagine in your head what you might call that 'third party' play based on your terminology and formations.
When I coached, I had a lot of 'specialty' plays that I stole from the likes of the Ol Ball Coach (Spurrier) and Bobby Bowden, plays like the Gator Counter and the Seminole Toss Pass.
I still have boxes of old VHS taped from the early 90's thru the early 00's that I just can't part from (my wife thinks I'm nuts) with game upon game that I recorded.
Get detailed on paper with notes if you see something you really like, what are the lineman's splits?, are there any influence blocks (or joker type techniques on the O-Line) taking place?, is the slot receiver acting out the bubble screen?, what's the play tempo like?, what's the down and distance?, where on the field is the ball?, what are the backfield splits?, etc.
Try not only praising the video, but be critical of plays when you evaluate 'third party' film. Is the quarterback carrying out his option fakes or carrying out the zone read bootleg fake on the hand-off? Is the tailback carrying out his fakes if he doesn't get the ball on the zone read? Are the X and Y receivers blocking aggressive enough on the bubble screen? Coach the other teams on the video as you would coach your team.
Besides video resources, another free option is to simply call a college or high school in your area that runs the spread offense and ask the coaches if they would clinic with you and your staff. Most staff's are very open to this, especially if you have some solid recruits that may be of interest to them in the future. Even if you don't and you're say a Pop Warner coach, most coaches will be glad to assist.
2) Pay For Resources
There are many good resources that you can pay for, many of these I have personally used and others I am going off references from other coaches.
By Greg Nejmeh, The College Of New Jersey:
We're probably all familiar with using a passing tree to describe the routes to be run on a given play. Often, in the spread offense, numbers aren't enough. An example of this would be if you wanted to run a follow pattern, in which the inside receiver runs a short in and the outside receiver runs a deep in; how would this differ from a follow switch pattern, in which the inside receiver runs the dig, and the outside receiver comes underneath on an in ... say your "4" pattern is a down-and-in route -- is a "44" a Follow or a Follow Switch? Is a 4 route a drag, dig, or square in?
Last week when West Virginia's Pat White broke the all-time NCAA QB rushing record against Louisville, I had mixed emotions. One part of me was so happy for Pat and his WVU teammates while the other part of me was sad that an era was coming to an end. With college football down to two more games for most teams (some only one), I would only get to see #5 in the old gold and blue twice more... man, that stinks!
This upcoming Saturday (December 6th at 8:00pm, televised on ESPN2), West Virginia plays the University of South Florida at West Virginia for Pat White's final home game as a Mountaineer. WVU is officially making it a Pat "White Out" event, meaning everyone in the stadium is being instructed to wear 'White' clothing in honor of #5.
An area of the spread offense that drives defensive coordinators crazy is the pre-snap motion that many offenses use to out-man or gain an advantage on the defensive alignment. This changes the strength of the offense, and the defense must react quickly to re-align. To view a recent article with diagrams on simplifying the pre-snap motion offense out of the spread, go to: http://www.spreadoffense.com/ssp/spread_offense_motion_plays