RPO’s – Making Complex Simple

Here are 3 case studies on how to make complex RPO’s simple for any level.  *note – read articles – then playbooks @ 2018 Penn State Offense     We start by “splitting it”, then “powering it” and last “rolling it” (sweep)

CASE 1:  SPLIT ZONE     Case 1-Split Zone, Making Complex – Simple

CASE 2:  POWER             Case 2-Power, Making Complex – Simple

CASE 3:  SWEEP              Case 3-Sweep, Making Complex – Simple

 

NO HUDDLE SHIFTS & TEMPOS – Combine and Condense

Here is a case study on how to combine and condense shifts and tempos in a no huddle spread system

CASE 4:  SHIFTS & TEMPOS        Case 4-No Huddle Shifts & Tempos

 

SIMPLE SPREAD PASS – Fast and Free

Here is a case study on how to teach and install a fast and Back free release no huddle spread system

CASE 5:  SIMPLE SPREAD PASS     Case 5-Simple Spread Pass

 

RPO RESEARCH:  Why use RPO’s and Up-Tempo with your offense today?

#1 = READ Research Article by X&O Labs    *Real Coaches with Real Data + Real Info

#2 = WATCH THE VIDEO @ END (9 mins) – possibly the greatest comeback (+ change of fortunes)

RPOs: Case One – System Development – by X&O Labs – 2016

Category: Special Reports

Published: Tuesday, 05 April 2016 15:19

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By Mike Kuchar, Lead Research Manager, X&O Labs
This special report, The Run/Pass Option Concept Study, could perhaps be the impetus behind some ideas that may drive your offense to become more dynamic. The fact is, we all have run concepts in our offense and we have pass concepts in our offense. This case will focus on the basics, purposes, and methodology behind the fastest growing trend in offensive football.

By Mike Kuchar

Senior Research Manager

X&O Labs

Twitter: @MikekKuchar

 

Introduction:

A bit of clarification is needed before we provide our research. We feel it necessary to provide an explanation of exactly what a run/pass options is. Like many other concepts in football, this has different meanings to different coaches. Some of these terms include run/pass combinations, dual read play calls and run/pass marriages.

This entire special report will be centered around run concepts that involve a pass element where the quarterback must make a post-snap read of a defender and decide whether he is handing the ball off or throwing the football.  Which means that a quarterback is reading a certain defender post-snap (known as a read key) to decide whether the ball is thrown or handed off.

These are not to be confused with run/run options (such as read option concepts) or pass/pass options (such as quick game concepts mixed in with screens).

This special report, The Run/Pass Option Concept Study, could perhaps be the impetus behind some ideas that may drive your offense to become more dynamic. The fact is, we all have run concepts in our offense and we have pass concepts in our offense. A short time ago, a group of smart football coaches decided to package their best runs with their best passes, thus taking the guesswork out of their hands and into their quarterbacks.

Now, that isn’t always a popular choice. We’ve interviewed a good deal of coaches like Charleston South High School (SC) head coach Donnie Mays who said, “If I want to run it, I’ll run it. I don’t want my quarterback making that decision.”

It’s important to note that Coach Mays has contributed to this report, because he does believe in the RPO system. But those coaches who have bought in completely to using run/pass options are a relative new crop. We’ve found that the majority of coaches, 43.3 percent, have been using run/pass options between the last 2-3 seasons.

Benefits of the RPO System:

If taught correctly, a run/pass option necessitates you never getting into a bad play.  At its core, if the quarterback makes the right decision (based off his movement key) it’s a positive play. But we all know our quarterbacks don’t always make the right decision, which is why we dedicated a heavy portion of this research to how coaches are training their signal callers to make the right read. There is a lot of teach time that goes into establishing these run/pass option concepts and many of our contributing coaches detail what they do to progress the system further in this report. We selected several contributing coaches and asked them what they felt the benefits of using the RPO system provided.  Here’s what they told us:

Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University (RPOs consist of 25 percent of his offense): “Not every run has a pass complement, but many of our runs have an ability to (have a pass off of them). We have some concepts where if we have a run called and we see an extra defender in the box, we will check the play. We have other concepts where if we see the same scenario, we’ll read him post-snap. You don’t want to get in a bad situation if that player comes into the box early, now you’re stuck. The quarterback makes the communication with the receiver to get it worked out. “

Brian Flinn, Wide Receiver Coach, Villanova University (RPOs consist of 30 percent of his offense): “We just try to get apexed players in a bind, either they play run or they play pass. Every run game is based off a smoke, bubble or free access throw for us. There is no three-step drop unless there is a two-minute drill. If you want to move defenders, have receivers run block.  We zone block and run two-yard hitches. It’s pass for the receiver and run for the offensive line. It’s the QB that has to think and make decisions. You eliminate a lot of things in your offense by doing this. You eliminate three-step protection and most of your play action menu.”

Drew Owens, Offensive Coordinator, Western Connecticut State University (RPOs consist of 50 percent of his offense): “We are a no-huddle team that wants to keep a premium on play call. We never want to read a guy that is influencing the run, and if he plays run, have to throw and read another guy. We put guys that are aiding in the run and forcing them to play the pass. He’s our run control guy. The quarterback has the built-in option to throw the ball allowing him to take less hits. It puts an extreme amount of pressure on a defense to prepare for the option and pass in a single play. There are two plays in one. Regardless of what the defense is in, you have the right play called taking out the need to audible. It also accounts for the sixth defender in the box in a 10 personnel formation (seventh defender if TE attached) and it forces teams to play one-high in normal situations.”

Pat Murphy, Head Coach at St. Anselm College (NH), gives the following explanations as to why RPO concepts consist of the majority of his offensive schemes:

• Quarterbacks who aren’t run threats become an asset in run game.
• Allows wide receivers to be in run game without blocking or throwing a bubble screen.
• Nothing changes for offensive lineman – they can be physical.
• It takes advantage of defenders with run and pass responsibilities.
• Gives false reads and keys to defenders – (Wing-T false pull).
• Allows field to be stretched horizontally and vertically simultaneously.
• Sets up P.A.P. (play action pass) game perfectly.Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “The benefit we see with the RPOs is that they give you a safe early down passing concept to allow you to get in front of the sticks, since the pass is dictated by the defense playing the run.”Rick Martin, Riverside High School (SC), (25 percent of his offense consist of RPOs): “It’s a great first down play call to get some yards regardless of what the defense is showing.”
• James Stubkjaer of SF Roosevelt High School (SD) uses RPO schemes for the following reasons:
• Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “The RPO benefit we get is that they equalize the talent differential that we see between our players and the talent of our opponents. They allow us to keep our tempo fast with the ability to attack areas where we have a chance to succeed.”
• Mike Volarvich, Offensive Coordinator, Henderson State University (AR): “All of our run game has a throw option built in. This will give us an option to get the ball to an uncovered/guy with great leverage or throw a one-on-one route when we have bad box numbers.”
• It takes advantage of where defenses might be weak (personnel/structure).
• It gives our QB a chance to make decisions, and attack defenses/players, where they are weak. It gives him options, rather than to just call and “run” a play, where the defense may be stronger, etc.  We now can attack defenses where they are weak, or can take what they give us.
• It allows us to put certain defensive players in “conflict,” where no matter what they do, their decision is wrong. Sometimes, that allows us to pick on weaker defenders, even all-state caliber kids, because after a while, it can be mentally/physically draining on them.
• Greg Hardcastle, Offensive Coordinator, Dublin High School (TX): “It gives us the benefit of blocking at least one less defender and taking what the defense gives us to set up favorable down and distance situations so the defense can’t load up on the run. If they do, we have a chance at a quick eight to 12 yard gain.”Nick Coleman, Offensive Coordinator, Itawamba Community College (MS), (RPOs consist of 65 percent of his offensive system): “The benefit of having RPOs in the offense is the ability for the coordinator to call a play and allow the QB to make the correct choice based on the defense. This requires quick thinking and processing by the quarterback. However, I believe it is easier than requiring the quarterback to make checks at the line based on the defense.
• ”Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (OK): “This gives us the benefit of running against a positive numbered box as well as controlling edge pressures. In 2014, 561 of our 3,055 passing yards were gained with our RPO plays. At a completion percentage of 82%, we feel these are safe throws that act as an extension of our run game. In addition, 71% of our play calls were run calls and of those run calls just over 15% became pass plays for us.”
• Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR), (30% of his offense consists of RPOs): “We run RPOs on 30 percent of our offense. This is a great benefit to us because roughly one out of every three plays is a good situation for an RPO. For the defense to always be on high alert for the option to run or pass, this forces them to cover the whole field in width. We match our RPOs with a heavy dose of vertical passing game, so at the same time, we have increased our effectiveness with RPOs because teams have to respect our ability to get the ball over their heads.”

 

Organizing the RPO System:

Once the decision has been made to use run/pass options in your offense, another decision must be made on how to implement the system.

Let’s be clear, RPOs are expensive components to an offensive structure, and there needs to be a great deal of time invested in setting them up. There are certain questions that need to be considered. Which run concepts to you want to use? Which pass concepts do you want married to these run concepts? Which defensive structures do I want to read? What defenders do I want to read in these structures?

We’ve found tempo is synonymous with run/pass option concepts. In fact, 65.6 percent of no-huddle coaches use some form of RPOs. Which tells us that you don’t necessarily need to be in an up-tempo offense to do so. Sure, getting aligned quickly can manipulate defenders to make poor choices, but remember that all of these options are made post-snap, not pre-snap.

So regardless of how fast an offense gets lined up, the play is not decided until the ball snaps. We were curious to find the decision making process these RPO coaches use to design their weekly RPOs. So, here is what we asked them:

Question: What’s the process you enter each week with your staff to decipher which player you want to influence? Is it more a matter of structure, personnel, or both? Please explain.

Reader Responses:

Scott Strohmeier, Head Coach, Iowa Western Community College: “We look at run game and schemes we like that week. There might be a defender that attacks the run game extremely hard or would be a tough block for the offensive line or he could be a plus defender that we cannot block in the scheme. So we then put a pass game tag to read that defender.”

Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “Our reads for the RPO do not change week to week, that’s going to remain the same for our QB. What changes is our presentation of the play. What we see is that many times teams will try to assign one defender to take away our pop receiver. To counter this, we will use a motion or a different formation to force a defense to adjust from their game plan.”

Jeff Russell at Wethersfield High School (CT) will go through the following scenarios when selecting his run pass options: 

• Is there a player in the box that we don’t think we can block one-on-one? Is there a defensive end, outside or inside linebacker that we can’t run or pass block one-on-one because they’re too good. We will try and read this player, or force him to make the run/pass decision for us. Instead of dramatically changing our run blocking rules or pass pro rules for that week, we’d rather do what we practice and work on.
• Is there a linebacker who blitzes the majority of the time? Most of the teams we face have certain guys they like to blitz more than others, and if we can find a player that blitzes a majority of the time, then we will make him our “read” player.
• Is there a formation that commits an extra run defender or an automatic blitzer? We see a lot of blitzes from the short side of the field when we have trips to the wide side. So a lot of our run plays will read the weak side linebacker and our back side receiver will replace the blitzer with a slant.
• Are their safeties purely pass defenders? We ask our players to determine
if a player is a high school safety or an NFL safety, and that means, are the safeties playing eight to ten yards off the ball (high school) or 15 to 20 yards off the ball (college)? If they’re 15 to 20 yards off the ball, then we’ll pick the linebacker whose is most displaced by the formation, and read him.
• Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “It really determines on what they are doing defensively. It could depend on what formation is their base defense, sometimes we read their best player to try and take him out of the game and have him play slower. When we play odd front team, it makes it more difficult to read the EMOLS, because sometimes they walk up a blitzing linebacker, other times they don’t and that adds confusion to which we are reading. What we’ve had success in doing is identifying the read man with a call from the quarterback. We run a MIKE identification system for our pass pro, so our QB is always identifying the MIKE. The concept is very similar for any read plays we run. The quarterback, before starting the cadence or when a blitz is shown, will identify the read player as “Richard.” For example, if we are reading the DE and his number is #53 then our quarterback will yell “53’s the Richard!” This also gives us the freedom to change who we’re reading on a play-to-play basis without confusing our OL.”
• Kyle McKenna, Brooklyn Tech High School (NY): “I would say it is a matter of both. Personnel-wise, we look at matchups. We want to force a LB to cover our best receiver on a stick route or a bubble if he is more of a run stopper. Structure-wise, we take a look at how they cover trips and see if we can take advantage of it. We look at how they will adjust to late motion to trips as well and see what that gives us.”
• Kim Nelson, Roosevelt High School (SD): “We are more concerned about structure than personnel. We base most decisions on outside linebackers and whether they are in or outside the box. Leverage is our most dependable read.”
• Rich Bouch, Waterford Mott High School (MI): “Normally, for us it is not a question of personnel, but of how to attack the structure of the defense. We are beginning to see a shift to teams playing more Odd fronts as a way to better defend the spread offense. As a result, we develop schemes that attack a certain defense. We do what we do. We don’t change our reads. We have toyed with the idea of reading a LB for throw options, but reading the DE when we know we are going to run. However, this takes away the QB’s ability to change at the last second if he gets a well timed blitz from depth and/or width. So it has to be based on what the opponent will do.”
• James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “We have quite a few RPO plays that attack various areas of the field. Depending on the play, it can be a matter of play structure and/or personnel. Through film study, we are able to pick out opponents ‘weaker’ players. Once we have them identified, we look at our plays that we feel would be more beneficial/stronger against that given opponent. When we have that list made, we will whittle that down (depending on the number), and put together a game plan for the week.”
• Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR): “We don’t necessarily change what we do based on the defense’s personnel. We believe that we have enough built-in already that it forces every player on their defense to match up to every guy we have. We don’t waste a lot of time trying to get the perfect receiver on the perfect corner or a specific slot receiver on a safety or OLB. We believe that we have the personnel at this time to sacrifice that in order to go fast and force teams to get lined up. We are structured in such a way that the defense must stop the run first, so in order to do that consistently, they must commit more defenders to the box. If they choose to do this, then we are certainly looking for the best match-up that we can exploit, but we don’t want to micro-manage that and have to go slower (with more signals, personnel changes, formation changes, motions, etc.), allowing the defense to breath and keep fresh legs and mixed coverages to defend us.”
• Dan Winfree, Franklin High School: “Some may be driven by player, but most all are structure driven. We break down the defenses and see which defender can be stressed by formations, technique, etc.”
• Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “It is both structure and personnel. On our draw/stick combination, we identify a dual responsibility conflict linebacker. On our Zone/Bubble, Jailbreak, Shark combinations, we are looking at the structure of the defense. Each week we have coaches assigned to determine if the plays are possible. They are discussed as we work through our checklist of plays, formations and motions. We went into the season thinking that we could utilize some of the zone/throw post-snap read plays that we researched last off-season. We backed away from them again due to injuries. I like to look at how we get out numbered or how a defense attacks our base running game. I study last year’s tape to see who stopped our Power, our Counter, our Buck Sweep, our Jet Sweep and our Inside Zone. I think you can create an answer for these alignments or stunts. In my mind you do have to use things that are already in your scheme to build your RPO. These ideas go in the off-season discussion, in the playbook and on the weekly checklist.”
• Dan Ellis, Great Valley High School (PA): “Against some teams, we will just influence their best defensive lineman or linebacker. This way, we make that player have to play both his responsibilities.”
• Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “It’s always based off structure. We don’t change it based on who that player is. We just may call it more if a guy is more aggressive. In a 4-2 scheme, most of our concepts are designed to read the back side linebacker, because often times they are run-through A gap to flow players. If they are doing that, it gives us the opportunity to throw the ball where they would have had the responsibility to drop. We’ll put an inside receiver or tight end to the gap they vacated. We will also do it to the strong side where we are reading a back side inside linebacker, but now instead of running a spot route, we’re running a slant route through where the linebacker has vacated with a back side single receiver. Sometimes defenses will drop their safety hard and let linebackers run. In this case, we’ve designed RPOs that are more vertical in nature that can get behind those drop safeties. I will say that sometimes you need to be patient and dink and dunk the ball. Take that six-yard route where that linebacker vacated. Try to get him to hesitate where the ball can cut back into the A gap and he’s not there.”
• Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “We focus on RPOs out of 3×1 closed trips formations. It’s a big part of our package each week. So we would decipher how teams were going to defend trips in each down and distance scenario. Then each week, build a route package that would stretch the zones and alignments that were being most left open or would influence players away from the box to help open up Inside Zone. Every week, the width and spacing of the alignment of the trips would differ based on how we could affect the coverage players. The first thing we had to make sure of was that our pull key was clean first. If that isn’t, then you are plus one (in the run game) and all this RPO stuff is worthless if you can’t get that matchup taken care of first and the QB making the proper decision. We had a couple cases where pre-snap we are seeing all kinds of space on the RPO concept, but the pull read wasn’t being read correctly, which led to some mistakes and negative plays that we will have to clean up this offseason.”
• Frequencies in the RPO System:We wanted to ask our readers how much of the offense is needed to be efficient using the RPO system. What’s too much (overkill)?  What’s not enough to be effective? It’s easy to get caught up in all the possibilities of the route concepts and the run actions of these schemes, but we all know sometimes less can equal more.There were some coaches we spoke with, like Wethersfield High School (CT) Offensive Coordinator Jeff Russell who has an RPO built-in for over 80 percent of his run game and there were other coaches like Mike Martin at Madison High School (OH) who said it’s “a critical five percent” of his run game because “the impact it had on giving defensive coordinators fits was well worth it.”Regardless of how much a part of the offensive system it is, all coaches said using the system depends on who they have playing the quarterback position. When conducting our research we found that 34.4 percent of coaches use RPOs between 25 and 50 percent of their offense and 41 percent use between 4 to 5 concepts in their system. These were both majority responses in our survey. So, we asked our contributing coaches the following question:Question: How many RPO concepts do you think you need in your system? What is a number too small to be efficient with them? What is too much?Reader Responses:Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “It all depends on the guy taking the snaps. If he can’t handle it, you don’t do it. These are simple reads for us that all of our quarterbacks can do.”Mike Volarvich, Offensive Coordinator, Henderson State University: “I don’t think there is a number that is too small or too big. I think it is what you can get your kids to execute effectively.”Kim Nelson, Roosevelt High School (SD): “We have a half dozen RPO concepts.  We will usually keep it in that range, if we want to add on, we eliminate another.”Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “The last two years we’ve operated with one RPO. This next year we will use two to three. I don’t think you can have too much as long as you stay within your system. Our RPOs are off our base runs and our base pass concepts. We teach nothing new for our RPOs except how to read it. As long as the QB understands the concept, I don’t think you can have too many.”Jeff Russell, Wethersfield High School (CT): “I think you can get away with one concept, as long as that concept doesn’t
read the same guy every time. For example, if you only want to RPO on
your Inside Zone plays, than occasionally you’re going to have to run
that concept out of a 2 x 2 set, towards trips, and away from trips, to keep the defensive scheme honest. I prefer to have at least two to three RPOs for each backfield variation. For example, two to three RPOs when we have just the QB and the RB in the backfield, two to three when we’re in Empty (just the QB), and two to three when we have two or more backs in the backfield with the QB.”Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “Each week, we would install a detached two receiver concept and a detached three receiver concept and would use one out of each, based on how we felt teams were defending us and get good at that one concept that week. Many weeks they were the same concept, other weeks we tweaked. For example, being a quarters/outside leverage team had a safety that sniffed the box pretty low on us, we changed the outside receivers route from typically a stalk/go fade to a hard slant sluggo, to possibly take advantage of that.”Dan Ellis, Great Valley High School (PA): “For us, we really ended up running two this year. I would prefer to run more, especially on the back side of a trips open set to force the defense to respect it. If you do too many, the QB can get confused (ours did and it was that hard).”Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “Honestly, I don’t think there is a number that’s too small. One play can be effective if sprinkled into your offense. However, you do have to limit yourself on how many you run. These are very complex schemes and, at least at the high school level, you shouldn’t ever ask your players, especially your QB, to do too much. I would say no more than seven RPO plays. These plays are just like any other option play, in order to be effective at it you must run it and run it and run it until you can’t get it wrong. If you are going to run it, you need to commit to running it and practicing it.”Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “I think it depends upon how much your QB can handle mentally and what can your skill and perimeter kids physically do. Our senior QB read and ran the Draw/Stick play very well. He was not very good throwing with the bubble. Our younger quarterback had trouble with Draw/Stick concept, but he made better decisions on the zone throw combinations. I think against a superior opponent, I would like two to three combinations that allow us to ‘hit them where they are weakest.’”Rick Bouch, Waterford Mott High School (MI): “We really only run two – one off of the Zone Read and the other is the draw off of the Stick concept. Now, within those two concepts we run a variety of different things. We can run Zone Read with a variety of pass concepts – bubble, bubble/slant, curl/flat, and more. The same is true of Stick. We run a 2 X 2 Stick, a 3 X 1 Stick, and a few others. I think the number of different concepts depends upon what your players can handle. If you do a lot with your offense, you probably don’t want to add too much more.”Rick Martin, Riverside High School (SC): “We have six (which includes being able to go in both directions) packaged plays. One of ours is the same thing, but out of two different formations and one is a very simple pre-snap read to hand off or throw the screen. Then we have several runs with pass tags. We have a power/post combo, where we read the safety and several ways to tag screens or quick throws to runs.”

James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “I feel there is no set number, just what you feel comfortable running within your offensive philosophy/schemes. I believe the answer can vary from year-to-year, especially with your athletes, most especially your QB. We have five true RPOs in our offense, and are looking into adding two this off-season. Another factor affecting the number of RPOs perceived as being needed in a system will depend on the style of coaching: Does the team two platoon? How much pre-practice and individual time do they get? Will they be able to work those plays in pass skelly, or inside run game? They do take some serious time/practice to really be proficient at running them, in my honest opinion. Lastly, different RPOs attack various parts of the field. We have RPOs, that attack just about every area of the field, and can ‘pick on’ just about every defender out there.”

Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR): “Between three to four is sufficient. That is, if you have some sort of; (1) hitch/fade/glance option for a single receiver; (2) a bubble by a slot; (3) a “now” route by the outside receiver; and, (4) an all hitch or three yard square-in concept. The key is to find the match-up that is going to give you the best opportunity to catch the football, number one, and secondly where can you catch it with the most leverage and space in order to do something with the ball once it is received. If you water it down by giving too many options for the QB, it becomes inefficient. But if you simplify the running game and the exchange mesh between the QB and the RB to one thing, then a modest variety of pass option concepts is okay. In other words, regardless of what blocking scheme you elect to use up front with your offensive line (zone/gap scheme/trap, etc.), make sure to give the RB the same steps and relative aiming point so that the QB doesn’t have to bother with different exchanges and steps. The QB should simply be concerned with counting numbers in the box and finding leverage space so that he can either hand it or pull and throw it.”

Greg Hardcastle, Dublin High School (TX): “We had two concepts that we used this past season. On one of those, we change the run schemes for OL & RB, but WR concepts stay the same. On the other it was the same scheme and concept every time. We are looking to add some other concepts as two are not enough. We must answers for some of the things defenses did to us this season. Too much is based on what you have time to rep. We are limited to about an hour a day on offense because our kids play both sides of the ball, but we try to marry concepts/schemes that the kids already know to make teaching and getting reps easier. Zone is zone, whether it’s a called play or part of an RPO. It’s the same with quick screen for WRs. The QB has the biggest burden knowing who to read.”

Reacting Off the Movement Key:

Every decision in an RPO is based off a movement key, or a defender will influence a quarterback’s decision. For example, a Stick Draw RPO influences the play side inside linebacker. A zone/bubble or slant RPO influences an outside linebacker, etc.  In a sense, whatever this player does is wrong, which can make using RPOs so effective. But getting your quarterback to make the right decision based off his movement is the glue that binds the success of these RPOs. In later cases, we address how each separate RPO affects a certain defender, but we wanted to find out some generalities on how coaches prepare their quarterbacks to make the right decision.

Previously, XandOLabs.com previewed a piece written by Henry Stanford, the Offensive Coordinator at Hiram College (OH) who detailed how he trains his quarterback leading up to game week on making the right decisions in RPOs, which can be found here: Click here to read Coach Stanford’s report.

We posed the following question to our contributors of this study. Regardless of which RPOs they employ, we were curious to see how they prepare their quarterback to make the correct read:

Question: We realize each RPO stresses a different defender, but what general information can you give as it pertains to how you teach the QB to read the movement key? Do you stress eyes, leverage, footwork, etc.? How do you make it simple for him to make his read?

Reader Responses:

Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “We want to keep it as simple as possible for the quarterback. We start by making sure he understands that he is never wrong if he gives the ball to the back. It’s option football; so I’m not going to jump on the quarterback if he makes a bad read, just ask him what he saw. A lot of times they will know it’s a bad read before you ever get to them. To make his read, we come up with simple terms for the quarterback. ‘Flow equals throw’ is what we use for our sweep/pop RPO. If the LB flows, we throw, everything else is a give. Other sayings we have are things like ‘fill equals deal.’”

Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “It’s all the quarterback’s body to respond to what your eyes see. It’s about trusting what you see. You can’t question what you see and get your body ready to throw the ball where it needs to be thrown. You have to get your body set quick and be ready to play with urgency. We just want to put second level defenders in conflict. I think reading is a little too strong a word. We just say if he flows, throw here, etc. If a linebacker doesn’t run, he’s giving the ball. It’s a running play. If a linebacker runs, we throw the ball. A lot of situations where we call a run play and if we have support from the right perimeter defender, we will throw a pass. We just try to outnumber defenders in the box, whether a support player, drop safety, etc. We try to control that guy with our eyes and if he indicates too early or gets too close to the box then we are going to throw it to someone he is responsible for.”

Scott Girlomo, Offensive Coordinator, Liberty High School (VA): “We stress his (the QB’s) shoulder position in the post snap read, so that he can snap off a throw quickly. We want to move our lead shoulder in the direction of the pass read while we catch the snap. As for reading the movement key, we make the rule this: ‘Carry the ball inside every single time, unless the movement key comes TOWARDS you,’ but most of the teaching is done in drill work and is ‘feel’ based.

Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “For us, we went back to the very basics of option play, shoulder turn. If you see shoulders turn, pull the ball. If you see the linebacker’s shoulders turn to commit to the run, throw the seam, etc. Obviously, we don’t live in a perfect world, but with film and repetitions the quarterback gets a feel for the play and understands the concept better.”

Jeff Russell, Wethersfield High School (CT): “If we’re reading the single receiver side (OLB), then our QB has to determine if the LB is within a yard of the LOS when the ball is in his hands. If this is true, the QB is going to pull and throw. Our QB will keep his weight on his plant foot (his right foot for a right handed QB) and only pivot on that foot. His left foot will lift and redirect for the throw, almost like a pitcher in baseball pitching from the stretch. If we’re reading the multiple receiver side (like a Stick concept run to Trips), then we’ll look at numbers first. If there are an even amount of defenders covering the receivers, NOT including the read player, then we will give the ball as it is most likely some sort of man-to-man defense. If we have a numbers advantage with 1 covering 2 (i.e. an outside LB responsible for the Stick route, but also a run support defender), then our QB will read that OLB. Early on we have two ways we consider the defender ‘beat,’ one is ‘beat by alignment’ vs. the run or ‘beat by alignment’ vs. the pass. Whichever the player is beat by, in those scenarios, is what we’re going to do. If we start to find that the linebacker is bailing to the stick route before the ball is in the QB’s hands, then we’ll give it, and vice versa. If he’s beat by alignment for the pass and he bounces or his feet don’t move when the ball is in the QB’s hands, then we’ll pull and throw with the same technique as mentioned above.”

Kyle McKenna, Brooklyn Tech High School (NY): “We stress the initial reaction. Where does he go right away? Most of the reads are of the ‘does he stay where he is or does he vacate’ type, so any hesitation means he is staying. A lot of it is predicated on leverage, like reading the coverage of a linebacker on a Stick concept or a Swing pass.”

Kim Nelson, Roosevelt High School (SD): “We stress leverage more than anything else. We also teach QBs to read the feet of defenders for blitz. Our receivers are signaling to the QB to help him know the leverage of the secondary, the QB must see the leverage of the outside linebackers.”

Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “Everything we do is based upon cushion/collision/cap and route side space. All the key terms that we teach to QBs in route scheme reading in the R4 system applies to the RPOs. Our QBs have a very good feeling pre-snap for what is going to happen. I worry less about the throwing/not throwing the ball aspect as I do the pull read concept, because the problem we ran into, as I mentioned before, is the idea that the QB is looking at route side space and pre-snap read and seeing what is ‘there’ and it is. The only problem is that the pull read, may not be. That is just a case of having to teach the QB to rely on first things first, but kids want to make plays, so that becomes a difficult thing sometimes.”

Dan Ellis, Great Valley High School (PA): “We simplified it to alignment. The basic way we have taught it is to not bog the QB down with movement keys. If we run QB Iso/hitch concept, the quarterback looks to throw the ball. If the LB moves to the hitch, he runs. If he can complete the pass we throw it. So we didn’t try to bog him down analyzing too much, because it slowed him down.”

Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “In our mind, an RPO play needs a running play mentality. We stress the need for four yards first, get what you can after. We try to keep the ‘tells’ simple. On the Draw/Stick play, we will use the play side shoulder of the LB as the key. It will turn if he is dropping. On Draw/Stick, our RB looks for a “tell” each week. On our Zone/Throw plays, we think throw to run. When looking at the alignments of the OLB, CB and S, can we block them and get four yards?  If not, look to the other side. If that side is also dicey, we have an advantage with the zone run. Our WR coach and I focus on the movement and capabilities of our opponent’s perimeter players. We try not to make it too complicated. What hurt us as the year went along, was not knowing if we could get the block to reach four yards. We went through three tight ends, four running backs and played six wide receivers. It was hard to know the capability of each player, so the Zone/Throw RPO plays were very limited.”

Rick Bouch, Waterford Mott High School (MI): “I teach the QB to read leverage. In the Zone Read, for example, if the DE cannot make a play on the RB, the ball is given. When the QB sees that he can out-leverage the QB because he has committed to the RB, he pulls the ball and continues to the next read. Again, that read is based upon leverage. Can the QB continue and gain yards? Or will more yards be gained by throwing the ball?”

Rick Martin Riverside High School (SC): “We teach the QB to basically make a pre-snap decision based on alignment, depth, and what we think of that player from film study. Is he fast/slow or maybe he shows his blitzes. Then he still needs to confirm it post-snap. Something should be the right choice pre-snap and here is what has to happen to take it away. If we ever have uncertainty, then run the ball.”

Dan Winfree, Franklin High School: “First, if there is any indecision, just hand the ball off or pull it down and run. We try to look into the defender’s eyes, but obviously his movement can override the eyes. As for the throws, we had an experienced senior who threw for over 5,700 yards and started three years, so it became ‘make the throw you can make.’”

James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “Basically, we look at three factors of defensive players with our RPOs. First, is Leverage. Where is his pre-snap body position, in relation to the play called? This usually helps to tell us his intentions. Many kids we see, have pre-snap tells as to blitz, drop, etc. Where are his eyes, as the eyes don’t lie. What is he looking at, his key? Many of our RPOs are predicated off of pre-snap alignment. We also have plays that involve real time reads, where they have to read, after the ball is snapped. We usually like to have ‘unless’ rules for our QBs. You always do this, unless the defensive player does this.  It helps to make it crystal clear for our QB as to his decision making process.”

Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR): “Our system is somewhat fluid because there are many variables at play on a given play that can influence the QB’s decision-making process. For instance, if it is third and inches and we have an RPO called, we are much more likely to hand the football off, even if the defensive front has an extra guy in the box. Only needing to make one yard in order to keep the chains moving can override the QB’s normal thought as to taking advantage of space and leverage. The same thing counts for second and inches. If we have a good match-up to throw a fade, and we are not simply trying to hang on to the football and run the clock, then our QB is going to be much more aggressive in taking a shot down field. Otherwise, his basic thought process is to look to hand the ball off on the run plays if at all possible, and then he is thinking to exploit leverage and match-ups in the pass game as a second option. We don’t call RPOs with nearly as much thought about what pass concept we are running as we do considering what run play we want to call. We simply have the ability to get ourselves out of a bad run play-call by throwing the ball away from a disadvantaged alignment or numbers match-up in the box.”

Greg Hardcastle, Dublin High School (TX): “We tell the QB that he is giving the ball every time unless the (defender) does _____. Use run play footwork, but get his eyes on read key. If LB fills, pull and throw. If you can see the DE’s outside earhole, pull and get eyes on overhang.”

Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (OK): “First and foremost, we want to make the read for our quarterback as simple as possible, and as the quarterback coach, I do my best to not second-guess his decisions. From years of running the Zone Read play, we learned that the more you coach the quarterback on reading the defensive end the more the quarterback thinks about his read and stops reacting, thus causing confusion in the read. With this idea in mind, we try to make our read for the quarterback very simple. We base the read off of the leverage of the read defender and pre or post-snap alignment of the read defender. We want to run against a positive numbered box.”

RPO Installation Protocols:

So your RPO concepts have been decided, you know how many you will use and you know how often you will use them. Now the question begs, how will you install them? Do you introduce the run concept first, then build in the pass elements of the RPO? Do you install the entire concept as a run/pass option? These are question we felt needed to be answered before calling and running your first RPO.

We did find that 57.4 percent of coaches include the pass concept immediately when installing the run action. But, below were some general comments on how coaches install their RPOs.

• Within the next day or during the second practice in two-a-days.
• By day three of installation.
• After two to three practices of installation.
• When they (players) feel confident to advance.
• By Day five to six, after base run plays are installed.
• After both concepts are installed separately.
• As soon as the two concepts have been taught.
• Immediately, day one.
• Usually before the opener.
• Last part of installation.
• After the base installations after camp.
• We reached out to our contributors and asked them the following questions.

• Do you introduce the concept first, and then work the reads off of it?
• Do you teach it all as one scheme with reads already built in?
• Is there a more efficient way of implementing the RPO system?Question: Explain your thought process when installing your RPO concepts as it pertains to the following: Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “We will teach the concepts individually by groups. Our offensive line and backs will learn the base run concept while our receivers will learn the base pass concept. Once the groups have the understanding, we will bring them together and incorporate the read.”Jeff Russell, Wethersfield High School (CT): “We don’t try and explain it to the entire team. The QB needs to make the reads, and the simplest, in my opinion, is the single side outside LB away from trips. The offensive linemen need to get the run play blocked as if the ball is being handed off every time. The receivers need to get open and win the route as if the ball is being thrown every time.”Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “We install the whole play on a chalk board in position meetings. Each group goes over their part of the option. WRs will be in one room going over their routes, RBs in another room, OL in another room, and quarterbacks will be separate going over the whole play. We try not to make things complicated for everyone, just teach their part. Obviously, this puts the most stress on the quarterback, but less stress on the rest of the team. After that, we will work each part of the option in practice. For example, quarterbacks and running backs may be working on the Inside Zone Read for five minutes. After that, our QBs may team up with the WRs to work on the pass option of the concept. Then, after everyone has worked on their part, we add both options together on air before going to team period.”Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “We have really been evolving into this, so like I said before, it has become very organic. We don’t push it; we are just kind of letting it happen. All I am doing is trying to put it in parameters so the QBs can understand why they are making the decisions that they are and they are backed up with information to understand why the are good or why they are bad. The quarterback just have to understand how quick the clock is with RPOs vs. rollout/bootleg timing, because we deal with the possible parameter of offensive linemen downfield.”Kyle McKenna, Brooklyn Tech High School (NY): “We will run both options in the play as their own stand alone plays and teach them separately. We will then introduce the RPO and read against our base defense and rep it that way. As our summer installation proceeds, we will work in other defensive looks. Then we will game plan against our opponents’ looks.” James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “What we do at Roosevelt is to introduce the overall concept first, to all of our offensive players. We like to use the whiteboard, to do that. We break it down into its components of: OL, QB, backs, and WRs. I feel we do a very good job of breaking it down into its ‘smaller’ pieces for all of the players, so they can see how what they do is vitally important to the success of the play. We then use HUDL/film, so that the players can see the play being run usually by a college team/high school. We then, as position coaches, individually coach up our position players at PRE, INDY, INSIDE, SKELLY time, to help teach/reinforce the responsibilities, reads for the play. Finally, when we come together and run team, we are able to coach/see all of the parts of the puzzle being put together.”Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR): “We install the run plays for the offensive line just like we normally would in any other non-RPO play. Those guys don’t know or care about what the WRs or the QB is doing. They are taught to block the run concept as if we are handing it off every time. WRs are taught the same way. They have a responsibility for running a specific route and making a specific block as if they will be getting the ball on any play. The QB is the hub of the offense, because he is the one responsible for distributing the ball to the player with the best opportunity to make yards. In short, each position group is compartmentalized and taught separately what to do. The QB is the one who is given a protocol for when to throw the ball to whom and when to hand it off to the back. We compartmentalize our 10-personnel RPOs from our 11-personnel RPOs. If we are in a 2×2 set (10-personnel), then the only thing that concerns the QB is where his pre-snap read side is and where his post-snap read side is. This is only dependent upon where the RB is lined up. Pre-snap read side is away from the back. Post-snap read side is the side of the back. If we are in a 2×1 set (11-personnel), our pre-snap read side is the single receiver (since the corner who is covering him is not going to be responsive to the QB putting the ball in the RB’s exchange pocket. In our experience, 95% of the time, the CB is going to be in some sort of coverage predicated on what the number 1, or outside receiver does. He very rarely blitzes or plays the box). Therefore, if the space and match-up is available on the single receiver, then the QB determines that pre-snap. Our post-snap read side will always be the twins side (two receivers), just like when we are in a 2×2 10-personnel set.”Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (TN): “With our RPO plays we install them first as a full play concept. The front five (or six) blocking scheme, wide receiver rules, and quarterback reads are first installed. Once we determine our players are comfortable with the play concept, we will then add in wide receiver route reads and blocking scheme wrinkles. The quarterback read rules would never change.”Rhett Peltier, Offensive Coordinator, Loreauville High School (LA): “We work through the progression of a play series package. Once we have our five base series packages in and the basics understood, then we will add the dual read concepts. Each practice during the season is based on scheme. Mondays is our zone schemes, that include Inside/Outside Zone and sprint out protection.”
• Nick Coleman, Itawamba Community College (MS): “I introduce a run concept with a screen behind the line of scrimmage first. For example, Zone/Bubble; Power/Fast Screen. I then add the pass option off the run play the next install cycle. I teach the pass plays off the runs as a scheme. The reads are the same no matter what run is tagged to the pass.”
• Greg Hardcastle, Dublin High School (TX): “When we put the RPO together, the offensive line thinks it’s a run play. They are not concerned with the fact we may throw the ball. Their job is to block the run. The QB is taught to make his read and get the ball out if he’s throwing so OL are not downfield. We do have one concept where we emphasize to QB and WR that ball must be caught behind LOS. I feel that the best way of implementing is using things the players already know and packaging them to put defenders in a bind. This requires minimal teaching time. Receivers only have to learn what pass concept is used when a call is made. RB has to know what run scheme it is. QB has to tell OL what the run is and know whom to read. Again, biggest burden is on QB.
• Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “We do it from day one of spring ball. We started getting so good at it that our first team guy not only read linebacker flow, but he also read support. So if that safety dropped and played where that linebacker was supposed to be, then we threw it someplace else.  You can do that with repetition. We start with just the simple read of the back side linebacker and determining is he going or is he not going? How far is he flowing?  You need to give them a guideline. It’s based off film, too. Once you watch him long enough you can kind of tell if he’s going.”
• Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): I think you need a support system for your younger kids using these plays. Our middle school used a three-color or three-name system to help the QB. One color or name meant throw it left, one meant run the ball and one meant throw it right. By week five, the QB could read it and only used the coach on an as needed basis. Our freshman QBs used the coach during pre-season and during their scrimmage.”
• Anonymous: “We put each part of the combination in first. For instance, we will put Y Stick along with our five and six-man protection in during June camp. Lead Draw will be installed during July camp. When we get to two-a-days, we put the two together and show they how the conflicted defender cannot be right. The same is true with our Zone/Throw combinations. Inside zone is installed during July camp. The Bubble/Jailbreak/Shark screens are installed during our pre-contact two-a-days. We put the two together the first days of contact. Once they know the assignment, it is easier to show them the advantage of reading alignments and angles to allow us to have the most success. In our first playoff game, our opponent had a very good inside linebacker. We would not have had much success leading on him with a running back. We had good success with the Draw/Stick RPO, because he could not get to the six to seven yard hook and wait to check draw. We ran both RB and QB draw through the vacated hole once he started worrying about the hook. With our Power run, our opponent’s force/flat defender was squeezing his alignment and giving us problems. We combined power with a jailbreak throw to attack this concept.”
• Kim Nelson, Roosevelt High School (SD): “All of our RPOs are in a 3×1 set. So, much of the reads are the same for the QB and receivers. The run play changes depending on the type of front and players in the box. We always use routes and run plays that are already in the offense and can be taught at all levels in our program:  Tackle Wrap; Counter Trey; Shovel Pass; Bubble screen; Stick Route; Hitch; and, Verticals.”
• Scott Strohmeier, Head Football Coach, Iowa Western Community College: “We teach it as a run play first. The QB will then know the unblocked defender or the defender that the wide receiver has to block in the scheme. From that, we teach the tags/pass concepts.”
• Scott Girlomo, Offensive Coordinator, Liberty High School (VA): “We install the RPO as a tag that can correspond with multiple surface blocking schemes. We install it as a scenario based scheme in pre-season and build the options based on defensive reaction to the formation and movement of the tag.”
• Reader Responses:

Delegating Practice Time:

As mentioned previously, RPOs are expensive components to the quarterback.  There is a great deal of time that needs to be invested into operating these RPOs with efficiency. In order to negate poor decisions (which could lead to turnovers or lost yardage), it’s imperative to devote a sufficient amount of practice time to train players, mainly the quarterback, to really get accustomed to the system. In essence, it’s the quarterback who is mainly affected by these schemes. The offensive line blocks the run called, the running back uses the footwork associated with the run game and the receivers run the paired route concept. It changes with the quarterback. But we did want to research how coaches are diving their practice time during the season to account for RPOs. We did find that 68.4 percent of coaches integrate their dual reads into team sessions and don’t have separate practice time devoted to dual read packages. Some of their responses are below:

Reader Responses:

Bill Conides, St. Stanislaus High School (MS): “Teach the passing concepts to the receivers as an individual period. During this time, the QBs will work a mixed group period with the backs on the H screens or meshes in the run game. The next mixed group period will then bring all the concepts together using the QBs, Hs and receivers.”

Kyle Ralph, New Palestine High School (IN): “We do it within the same practice usually. We do it separate by position group and teach the ‘what,’ and most importantly ‘why’ they are doing what they are doing. Then we combine the involved position groups. So if it is something involving a first level read, we will bring the QBs/RBs and OL together and have them work through it. After that we will then come together as a whole offensive unit. We usually work this all out during the individual section of practice (first 30 minutes), so we can then see it live in team.”

James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD) uses the following progression: 

1. Whiteboard: We draw up plays, have kids draw up plays, and have quizzes on them.
2. HUDL: Play clips of the plays with various defenses; use the arrows and text boxes as teaching tools. We also make playlists, and send to the corresponding positional players to watch.
3. Pre-practice: We work on flexibility, agility, but also play concepts/ w/ the buckets.
4. Indy time: QBs, WRs, OL, all can work on the concepts/responsibilities of the plays.
5. Inside/Skelly: Our QBs get dual time with those plays, in both skelly and inside game.

I feel that with that much time devoted to honing the skills of reads/execution of those plays, in the variety of ways listed above, helps us to be very successful running those types of plays.

Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “We break up our practice session in pieces of the concept. So if it’s a three play read concept, we will have our QB work with the players involved in the first read during a session, the next session he will work with the players involved in the next read, and the third session he will work with the players involved in the third read. Then we will practice the play in its entirety during our team period. This technique happens for all of our plays. ‘Read Spacing,’ we start with just the RBs and the read. Then we bring in our WRs and practice reading an OLB and running the spacing concept. When we run River, it’s the same idea. We will run a skelly period, while the lineman do inside run or something similar and the QBs will read whether he’s throwing the hitch/fade or bubble concept. After working that for five to ten minutes, we will the take the hitch part out of it and work the bubble draw part of the concept reading the ILB. By being able to break each option play into it’s own individual parts/plays/segments, we were able to teach all our kids, most importantly our quarterbacks, the important reads/keys to each part and be more efficient during our practice time. It also gave our QBs a better understanding of taking each segment of the play one part at a time and not looking at it as just a single play anymore.”

Rhett Peltier, Loreauville High School (LA): “Any drills/group sessions will only involve working on these schemes. QBs will work on Zone Reads, sprint out footwork, sprint out concept progressions, and pre-snap reads for our Inside Zone and wide receiver screen concept. RBs will work on zone tracks, reading the right defender, sprint out protection, etc. OL will work on zone tracks and sprint out protection. We use the same procedure for Tuesdays (drop back/WR screen combos and draw) and Wednesdays (gap run game and quick game).”

Drill Work to Simulate RPO Reads:

So, even thought the majority of coaches choose to rep their RPOs during team sessions, we wanted to explore the methodology of the 30 or so percent of coaches that use other forms of drill work such has half-line drills, mesh reads and group work to rep the RPO reads. We asked them to select one drill that they felt reinforces the reads of the RPO for the quarterback. Some of the more general responses are below, followed by specific types of drills.

Question: What is one thing (individual work, group work, walk though, etc.) that you do in practice that best teaches the QB to make the right decisions in the RPO system?

Reader Response:

Jeff Russell, Wethersfield High School (CT): “Our first RPO that goes in is a combination of an Inside Zone
play and our Stick passing concept. Our receivers coach will
be working Stick with the receivers during individual, our QBs and RBs will be working on the mesh keep/give concept of our running plays from different alignments, and our offensive line will be working on zone blocking with an emphasis on double-teaming the LOS, and slowly working to the second level. Then we see how it all comes together in team and troubleshoot it. If we see an uncovered offensive linemen flying up to the second level too fast, and putting us in an “illegal man downfield” situation, then our offensive line coach will talk to them about securing the defensive line first and only attacking a LB who is attacking you. The QB reads usually take care of themselves with repetitions. The QB will slowly start to see that he can’t predetermine the read.”

Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “We evolved into using our perimeter game teaching/thud sessions on Tuesdays (outside zone leverages, WR screens, RPO) as the biggest prep on this. As I scripted Tuesday practice, the RPO aspect of it just evolved into being an aspect of the game plan that the kids knew we would be covering and shoring up at that time. Teach the scheme and any adjustments, walk through any coverage/alignment variations, get some full speed repetition, then just make sure that you create a few definitive pull reads in your team scripts to make sure the kids have comprehension and can execute.”

Josh Franke, Edgewood High School (OH): “Film, film, and more film. Using a flip cam, we have a manager film our team sessions from behind the quarterback. We are then able to break down each read he makes, correct him if need be, and explain why. This teaches the QB to ‘read’ the play and not ‘run’ the play. Too many times, my young QBs get anxious, or want to run the ball, or want to throw it, that they don’t read the play, they know what they’re doing before the ball is snapped. Film can help get them out of this habit.”

Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “I think the key is getting quality teaching periods and then putting the offensive unit in as many live/semi-live/run through reps as possible. We may have only run 33 RPO plays during our games. We ran close to 200 live or semi-live reps of the plays during pre-season practice, scrimmages and game prep practices. With the Draw/Stick, we start with a QB, RB and TE working against a linebacker. The line and defensive front gets added next, so the back can read the draw blocks. We finish with the rest of the skilled positions and defense. When working with the whole unit once they ‘get it,’ you need to add the ‘what if’s’ or defensive adjustments. We show them every defensive answer our opponents have used on film and on the field during the pre-season. During week one, our opponent changed the nickel back’s alignment to take the ILB out of his assignment conflict. Our QB simply threw to a different receiver. The more the QB can react and not think, the better you are with these combination plays. As I said earlier, with the Draw/Stick drill, we start with the QB, the RB and the TE working against one LB. We try not to clutter the teaching process up. Here, we can work on footwork, handoff and throw effectively. We add pieces as the practices progress. With the Jailbreak, Bubble, and Shark, we like to work against the defense. It becomes almost an old fashioned ‘Oklahoma or Hamburger’ drill. We work one receiver against a defender. The ball is thrown to a second receiver who reads the block. A second DB comes from depth or and OLB comes from width to tag off on the ball carrier. This is done once a day in pre-season, while inside run is being conducted. We found that this helps us understand safety leverage and OLB leverage and how it affects our decision making.”

Scott Girolomo, Offensive Coordinator, Liberty High School (VA): “We run our RPOs in our SKELE (perfect pass) and it allows the QB to locate the read defender a little easier. We do not have much time for indy during the week, so the RPO did not get indy practice time after pre-season. We rep a specific RPO in SKELE and then call the same RPO from the same script in team.”

 

Rick Bouch, Waterford Mott High School (MI): “We run a drill we call Triple Drill every day. The drill uses all the skill positions vs. perimeter defenders, including a DE. For example, we can Zone Read with a Bubble. The QB reads the DE first, and then continues to the next read if he pulls the ball. The repetition of the drill helps him make the right decision come game time.”

James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “I feel that the following allows our QB to make the right decisions in the RPO system. It would have to be a combination of running those plays during indy, inside and full team. The reason I say this is, we can break down the play into its smaller/simpler pieces for the QB and allow him to get quality reps with reads. He will get reads vs. an assistant coach at indy time. During inside, he will get more of the total picture, and then get reads against number twos. Last, during full team, especially ones-against-ones, he will get the full picture, and then have real (game situation) reads vs. number twos and then number ones, which is invaluable. I feel that teaching our QBs this way, allows them to not be overloaded, but allows them to slowly work into those plays at a slower pace.”

Greg Hardcastle, Dublin High School (TX): “We do ‘Option drill’ with RB and WRs to work reading DE to Overhang, pitching an extra ball to the QB if he gives to RB to work second read and throw. We will do a similar drill to read LB on Zone/Stick concept and have someone throw the stick if QB gives the ball. We also do a five-minute ‘Team Option’ period after Inside drill to work these against a full defense.”

Pat Murphy, St. Anselm College (NH): “We spend four minutes a day on his reads with our ‘Read drill,’ which on Tuesday is just our QBs and RBs working on the base read as well as all of our interior (ILB, NG and DTs) reads. On Wed we incorporate our WRs and add all of our Triple option attachments (i.e. bubble, spot/smoke, pitch phase, etc.). On Thursday we rip through all of our RPOs for the week such as Bolt, Row, Rox, Buzz, Option, etc. I’ve run a Spread offense camp now for about 10 years and I use the same process with high school kids from freshmen to seniors and they all leave camp with the ability to run this concept easily.”

 

Nick Coleman, Offensive Coordinator, Itawamba Community College: “I do a run/pass drill with 11-on-11 in which one QB is handing the run play off, while at least one other QB is throwing the pass portion of the play. If there is more than one throwing option in the RPO, then I have another QB throw it as well.”

Some specific drills submitted by contributing coaches are provided below:

Pat-and-Go Drills:

Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (TN): “During our pat-and-go period that we start each practice with, we have our WRs run their RGS routes. The routes that the WRs run change not only based on where the ball is located on the field, but also based on the leverage and depth of the CB and/or Flat defender. In order to work this with our QB and WR, we will use a coach at the CB position and he will change his alignment each rep, thus causing the WR to make the correct call of which route to run based on the coach’s alignment. During this time we are also training the QB’s pre-snap read of the CB, he must be on the same page as the WR. Because this is a passing drill, we will always have the QB make a ‘pull’ read and throw the screen. During the pat-and-go period, we also train our QB’s footwork. He will go through the different actions for our Outside Zone RGS, Inside Zone RGS and our pre-snap read RGS. This is a drill that we start practice with every day and it has been very valuable to us in creating a successful RGS package for our offense. To continue with the training of our QB’s eyes and feet, we accomplish this in our individual drills following pat-and-go.”

Mike Smith, Northridge High School (AL): “We spend three minutes on screen reads as our warm up of pat-and-throw to start practice. Then we have a ten-minute option period as we call it. The assistant coaches serve as the defenders to read so we get what we want. The line will execute their rules against the front of the day versus stand up dummies. We spend seven minutes of the ten reading the run portion only. Then we spend three minutes incorporating the screen with it. After that we have a five minute half line vs. our defense with two groups going at the same time.”

 

Using Coaches as Movement Keys:

Collin Eardley, Valhalla High School (CA): “We always test the read with a coach simulating a defender. Other players rarely do a good job accurately simulating defenders.”

Devin Gates, Fitchburg State University (MA): “We have implemented an on air period where coaches are the key conflict defenders and pop up bags represent other defenders to we can hit our landmarks. Nothing earth shattering, just go up-tempo and try to get as many reps in during a ten minute period that we can.”

 

Play Polish Drills:

Dane Evans: “We have a Play Polish period once a week where the QBs, RBs and WRs (and defensive keys) work on the reads and meshes. Then we also have two post practice periods (about ten minutes total), where the QBs and WRs work the route combos on air. The only place confusion could come into play is for our quarterback. However, playing QB for me requires a mastery of these simple schemes, and if/when he makes a mistake, it is giving the ball to the RB.”

 

Two-Ball Drills:

Pat Murphy, Head Coach, St. Anselm College: “We do what we call a Read drill for five minutes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday during the work week. It’s similar to an old school Wishbone drill. We set up a line strip with both quarterbacks lining up over the guards. It’s a rapid fire drill where the running backs are running what ever run action we want as they mesh with the quarterback. Here’s the three-day progression:

Day 1: Work with just the quarterbacks and running backs working an Inside Zone path.

Day 2: We bring the receivers over and we work our Triple option. The back works Inside Zone, Dart or Power action while the receivers work their bubble, smoke and pitch routes. I’ll be the apex player who is the dive read and another coach outside me will be the pitch key. He’ll give the dive, then I’ll flip him the ball and he’ll work the next phase of the option with the next coach.

Day 3: We do the same drill, but now they are on opposite sides of the strip facing each other. Now we’ll mix up the reads he has to make.”

Jim Collins, JP Stevens High School (NJ): “We have a mesh period where we run all our plays with the dual read. We run our play such as Midline and it’s an automatic give, we then flip another ball to the QB and make him throw the bubble route. We then add a defensive end and a linebacker (both coaches) and he then reads him to see if he gives or pulls. Then if he pulls the QB’s eyes go to the LB to see if he keeps it and runs or throws the bubble.”

 

Mesh Drills:

Craig Stutzmann, Offensive Coordinator, Emory and Henry College: “We package RB tracks with our Quick Game periods together. Thus maximizing our QB’s time and getting as much reading and throwing as possible. We have coaches or players play our read and pitch keys.”

James Vint, Seminole High School (TX): “We have a ten minute period where we have all of our skill players together. Backups are on defense aligning based on a card. Our offense has our QB, backs, and receivers working the called concept. The QB will go through his pre-snap process. If we have our pass concept, the QB will throw the concept. The back will run his path just like he would on the run play. If the QB does not like the pass concept, he will snap the ball and run the called run game concept with the back. We work several variations of this drill. This drill began as the ‘Option drill’ when we were running our Triple concepts from under center. We adapted the drill when we got into the gun.”

Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (TN): “As we go through our Mesh period with our RBs, we work both our true Zone Read concepts with a defensive end read as well as our RGS concepts where our QB reads the sixth man in the box (typically a back side flat defender). In this drill, we will have a coach acting as the read man for our QB, whether that is a back side end or flat defender. Our QB footwork for our ‘read to run’ plays and our ‘read to throw’ plays are the same up until the ball is pulled. When we are working our ‘read to throw’ packages, if the QB gets a pull read, he will pull the ball from the RB and get the ball to our screen as fast as possible. When we are pulling and throwing to the left, we use a ‘turn-two and throw’ technique similar to that of a second baseman turning a double-play in baseball. If we are pulling the ball and throwing to the right, we teach a ‘turn-toe and throw’ technique in which the QB turns his throwing toe to his target, steps and releases the ball as quickly as possible. When working our mesh drill we utilize our QB throwing net as the target for our ‘read to throw’ plays. We will move the net to the different places on the field that would mimic the differing RGS routes that we may run.”

Vaughan Mitchell, University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada): “We bring the DL over to work directly with the QBs and RBs. This way, we get game speed reads during an individual teaching session. We find this is much more effective than using extra QBs or RBs as the ‘read’ defender. This also helps the DL work on their techniques as well.”

Kameron Arnold, Uvalde High School (TX): “We work our dual reads during mesh period with the QBs, RBs, and slots (Zone Read and Bubble concept) and then we switch our slots and outside guys and run it with them (Zone Read and outside screens) with coaches being the read keys. Then in team, we work it all together with different screen tags and the QB reads his keys.”

David Durish, Offensive Coordinator, Clarion University (PA): “All of our ball handling drills includes the read key (usually one of our RBs playing the read key). We ask them to give the reaction that we have seen our upcoming opponent use and will also incorporate a reaction that the QB may be struggling with (i.e. running at the mesh).”

 

Multiple Quarterbacks Drill:

Nick Coleman, Offensive Coordinator, Itawamba Community College: “We have multiple QBs, one performing the run play and the other quarterbacks throwing the pass game variation. Our scout team defense is set up with the look you want to run the ball into (light run box). Our wide receivers and quarterbacks are throwing and catching with game-like simulation, while our running backs and offensive linemen will be finishing plays.”

 

Half-Line Drills:

Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “We do a lot of drill work by throwing the spot route off the back side linebacker and trying to get our quarterbacks to snap their eyes from there (linebacker) to there (spot). We do all half-line throws with receivers, running backs, tight ends and secondary defenders. You get through the first part where you’re reading the linebacker often, now you have to work to get your eyes back out to find the second level.”

Brian Callahan, Offensive Line Coach, Western Michigan University: “We use a half-line ride and decide drill with slot receivers and half the defense.”

Gary Brewton, Bridge City High School (TX): “We like to practice half-lines to teach the progression. Sometimes it is 2×2 and sometimes we work the 3×1 sets. I like the concept I learned from Chip Kelly, he calls it ‘Fuji,’ he runs one play from every formation he may run it from, and then he runs it against every front he sees. It is slow in the beginning, but after you do it two to three times you get the timing of the period down better and it goes faster.”

Mike Doty, Dalton High School (OH): “We work these situations or reads in half-line ‘racehorse’ drills. Each side will work a specific read. We flop sides after three reps and players are also taught how to rotate in/out with defense to maximize time. It is important that we don’t rush the QB in his development of making choices. He must be very confident as to why he chooses any option. If the QB is slow in developing, coaches will decide for him pre-snap, until the QB is ready. We progress to situations that require the QB make a decision. For example, give/pull or give/bubble. We teach this drill as early in the season as possible. Players will become very familiar and efficient running the drill, which maximizes quality reps. This drill we be done every week during the regular season at least once if not twice.”

David Buchanan, Mason County High School (KY): “We have drill work with our QB, back, WR/TE, and their read/key defensively. We work our toss/slant read on one side of the drill. On the other side, we work our ISO/Curl read. We get a bunch of reps in a short period of time.”

 

Six-Play Segments and Scripting Plays:

Cory Sauter, Head Football Coach, Southwest Minnesota State University: “In our team sessions, we use six-play segments: 1st, 2nd, 3rd down, 1st, 2nd, 3rd down, of which three are dual read package plays, and three are called plays.Typically they are three different runs and three different passes.”

Justin Bacile, Milton High School (GA): “We script these concepts in during team sessions as many programs do. One thing that helps with our success with these is scripting them consecutively. That way, our QB gets used to running the play and, if he sees a different look than the previous snap, adjusts and utilizes one of the other packaged concepts in the play. Many of these reps are against a defense without ‘carded’ looks. It can be a blitz period, team pass, or general team period. Our offense adjusts to any look our defense gives us. It makes it great work for our QB and offense to work against.”

Circuit Training:

Joe Cornelio, Wolcott High School (CT): “We develop a circuit that allows players to get a high number of reps during read plays, that will run in a direction towards each other so that players are continually switching groups and getting reps. If one group is facing north, running the Power Read, from the left hash on the 20 yard line. They’ll carry out the play with the ball, or carry out their fake without the ball, until they’ve reached the other group, which is on the 35 yard line, left hash, but facing south. The rotation of the players will be, QB 1 switches groups with QB 2, while QB 3 and QB 4 do the same as the second player in line. RBs will rotate from primary ball carry in one group, to ‘edge’ rusher in the other group, to next in line to be ball carry, then back to being the ball carrier in the other group. Players, no matter what level, are rarely sitting out for more than one rep.”

Line Drill:

John Olive, Tullahoma High School (TN): “We started pre- snap reads on all running plays with bubble screens to the slot receivers. We started throwing the ball on quick hitches reading the OLB in the last two years. We are now trying to read the ILB with a slant coming right in behind him. We will paint a line or go across the field to use a yard line for the LB to line up on so that the QB can easily see the LB movement. The LB steps across the line, it is an automatic give or we will reverse his alignment, and then the step across the line is automatic pass. I personally like to make it an auto give as we want to run the ball unless the LB dictates a pass.”

Answers to Man Coverage:

In the subsequent cases we devote a great of time on several run/pass option concept that can be integrated into your program immediately. We explain the concept, detail the route progressions, describe the quarterback post-snap read methodology and explain how formations can manipulate the reads. But before we do that, we wanted to address what can be the kryptonite of RPOs, man free coverage. Because chances are, if you are going to implement these RPO concepts in your offense, you will see some form of man coverage for two simple reasons:

1. There are no apexed (run/pass) defenders; instead there are cover down defenders. There are players who are playing the perimeter and players who are box defenders. No in-betweens that can be influenced by a post-snap read.
2. There are no eyes on the quarterback, for him to manipulate. Responsibilities are already pre-determined pre-snap.

So, what answers do RPO coaches have when seeing some form of man-free coverage? We went right to the source and asked them the question.

Question: What is your answer to man free coverage and cover down alignments?  Will you still use all phases of the Dual Read or will you most likely have a built-in answer?

Reader Responses:

Lee Sadler, Marshall High School (AR): “If we are seeing man free or any type of man coverage (which is usually the first answer teams will try to use to combat our RPO), we will start to use motion and shifts to try and move the eyes of the defender. In the past, we have also had success with switching our pop receiver. For example, out of a 3×1 set, using the #2 receiver as the pop runner instead of the #3 receiver. Small changes like that, or using motion and shifts, causes issues with the defense.”

Jeff Russell, Wethersfield High School (CT): “We usually will read the single side in man-to-man, if the slant window is open back side either by alignment, blitz, or run support by a free player, then we can still win the one-on-one slant back side away from trips. We’ll also go empty, and call a man run play for the QB and a quick screen for one of the receivers with the other receivers blocking the screen. The QB will read the extra defender (most likely an overhang LB). If the LB stays to stop his run, he’ll throw the screen on the move. If the LB sits, then he’ll keep the ball and run. This concept is harder to teach and takes a lot of reps, because the throwing motion is sort of like throwing on the run, it just happens so much quicker. If we don’t block the screen well, we’ll call a man run play for the QB and a ‘shoot’ passing concept (an arrow or shoot route to the flats by the inside most receiver with the other receivers running a vertical and a ‘void’ route behind the underneath defenders.”

Mike Martin, Madison High School (OH): “We widen the WR alignments to vacate the box further and know that if they are definitively +1 to the receivers in coverage, that we are handing off or pull running. Since I am probably not calling this in third and eight vs. a man coverage team, I don’t sweat it too much more than that.”

Pat Murphy, Head Coach, St. Anselm College: “If we get a three-strong rotation, we treat it like man. It turns into a Dual Read by a backer read in the box. The passes out of it is we want to run the ball. We don’t tell the receivers anything. The QB will change it on the fly and now either a hand-off or we read the backer in the box. If he overplays the back, it turns into a Double Option.”

Dan Ellis, Great Valley High School (PA): “Typically, if we are in trouble with a play, we check out of it from the sideline (no huddle). This way we can get into a better play/protection against a play that would result in a possible negative play.”

Doug Taracuk, Dublin Scioto High School (OH): “Walking up a safety for man coverage is an answer we see. We will call a double move, like “Stick + Go” or we will call some type of twisting vertical combination if this is their consistent answer. We do not have a built-in reaction for man, it is a called play. Most teams will adjust the location of the nickel/bumped linebackers first. We do have built-in progressions if they do this and play zone.”

Steve Rampy, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburg State University: “If they roll down to guarding all three of our receivers, it takes the throw out and becomes a quarterback run play. We make a ‘regular’ call and block the back side linebacker with regular zone scheme and the quarterback will read the defensive end. It becomes a straight zone play, because we have numbers. We’ve also run some simple combination routes with quick throws and man beaters such as sending number three straight flat and then sending number two in as a diagonal and then flip him behind number three. Where we get number two in a hole and have something to the flat or have the hole route.”

Rich Bouch, Waterford Mott High School (MI): “You need to have deep route combos and play-action passes to attack down field, some rub/switch routes with possible seven-man protections. Be able to attack them deep and force them to back off or keep beating them deep. Definitely built-in answers.”

James Stubkjaer, SF Roosevelt High School (SD): “If we see any ‘radical’ defenses, or man/man free, we always have two pass plays built-in, and three run plays built into it. Our run plays are usually Speed O either way. Or, we will motion to empty and run QB wedge. Our pass plays are two: We will run all hitches, with our RB running a swing/bubble route. Or, we will run both #1 receivers on a slant route, and our #2 receivers will run a wheel route off of it (rub), and our back will run a swing bubble route.”

Jordan Neal, Hendrix College (AR): “The very best way to stop teams that use RPOs is to have CBs that can man-cover, a free safety that can sit back at about 20 yards and play center-field, and eight guys committed to the box that can consistently stop the run. Most teams do not have that, so match-up wise, teams that implement RPOs will typically have the advantage. At the same time, that defensive structure is probably the best situation against any offense — not just a team with RPOs. That works great against Triple Option, Spread (if you also have OLB/safety-types that can man cover the slots, too), pro-style, etc. But it is my belief that if you have receivers that can get down the field and force teams to at least respect you, then your built-in RPOs that include a fade or vertical option are sufficient against it. One of the things that we have also done against this is to implement Triple Option concepts where we have a run/pull read for our QB and also a pass option in space off of it. This has been really helpful to have a mobile QB that can do this as well as he does the simple run pass option plays.”

Drew Owens, Western Connecticut State University: “When we see man free coverage, we are plus one in the box, but our contours (routes) are dead. You have to change the play. We came up with plays out of 11 or 12-personnel to mimic those plays. We must have interior runs with a read concept. We have two checks, Bible or Bozo, depending on their defensive personnel. Bible is an Inside Zone Read play where we handle the box and Bozo is an interior read, boundary Outside Zone. It’s difficult to defend because the box player is force player in Outside Zone.”

Tyler Schneider, Bixby High School (TN): “Against a man free coverage and cover down alignments we have one RPO pass route that we like to go to. We also have an automatic check to our best run in that week’s game plan. It is typically a week-to-week decision given to our quarterback on whether we want him to stick to the RPO play called and throw the route we like against man free coverage and cover down alignments or check to our best run play in that week’s game plan. This decision is typically based on personnel.”

Scott Girolomo, Liberty High School (VA): “Our RPO was run primarily from 3×1 10-personnel trips. We have a built-in bubble/quick read screen on our RPO, and that is our built-in answer to cover-one, we have a quick game non-verbal option on our solo receiver, which is our option for man-to-man and cover down. As for audibles, man free and cover zero pretty much eliminated the run we called, but it opened some great opportunities for one-on-one routes and rocket screens, so our QB would check to those.”

Kim Nelson, Roosevelt High School (SD): “Versus man free, we go to an Empty formation and use our QB as a runner. That forces the defense to leave the box to cover all five of our receivers and that leaves the box pretty thin for any QB runs such as wedge, trap and counter trey. Our QB must be a runner and also able to throw screens, hitches and verticals. Versus straight man, we are going vertical with our best receiver down the middle of the field. Even if we miss, it usually scares the defense out of straight man. So, I guess we don’t really stay with the true RPO reads, but our QB can still throw screen, or hitch, or vertical as part of our play.”

Nick Coleman, Offensive Coordinator, Itawamba Community College: “I’m a firm believer that man free (cover-one) is going to be the defensive answer to all of these RPOs. I’ve already seen a trend in teams that play us. My answer to this is the drop-back passing game and to get our best player matched up one-on-one on their weakest defensive player. Also using motions and pick routes to get the defense out of cover-one so we can get back to our RPOs.”

Conclusion:

Despite all the content and information above, this is just the tip of the iceberg when presenting our information on run/pass option concepts. The reason why we started with this type of information is because regardless of what runs and routes coaches decide to implement into their system, it’s important to know how to teach them to be effective. So take this case as a very detailed introduction on the RPO system before we get into the nuts and bolts of the concepts in the next two cases.

To read more from the RPO Special Report, click on the report links below:

RPOs: Case One – System Development

RPOs: Case Two – Manipulating Box Defenders

RPOs: Case Three – Manipulating Perimeter Defenders

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