People ask me all the time what I've been reading, or what I would recommend. I'm still working on a canonical football book post, listing "must reads" for understanding the game (to be honest it's not an easy list). But I want to make this "what I've been reading" bit a semi-regular series. It will of course include both football and non-football books.
1. The Great Crash of 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith - Wish it was less pertinent, but them's the breaks.
2. Concept Passing: Teaching the Modern Passing Game by Dan Gonzalez - An important book. I have an article with contributions from Dan that will be up on the site next week; I recommend checking out both (the article and the book).
3. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe - Never read this -- until now -- and am pleasantly surprised how both pertinent and entertaining it is. Read the book; avoid the movie.
5. Wall Street on the Tundra by Michael Lewis - An article about Iceland ("the only nation on earth that Americans could point to and say, 'Well, at least we didn’t do that.'") for Vanity Fair magazine. Great stuff.
6. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - Not sure if it is exactly up the alley of a lot of this site's readers, but it was one of the best novel's I've read in some time. Judge Richard Posner wrote an excellent review of the book for the New Republic that can be found here.
I finally let a few close friends read my blog, and i believe not everyone of them hv yet to visit =b......and i forgot that one of them had this conversation with me which i posted few mths ago...
Oopsy Daisy!
haha!i think she knew who i was talking about that time...and she was the last person whom i want to tell because she is really closed to this person...and to him, she knowg about this is just a VICTORY for him....~*jelingan maut to him*~...he will definitely insult me...and make me sound like the lowest of the lowest...but no, thats not gonna happen...=bbbb~~
but thinking back...~~ what was i thinking?...it just doesnt matter anymore...its just damn tiring and a waste of time..and y i even waste 2-3 minutes of my life writing a sms to a guy who care not to reply a 'friend' sms...
i get the msg...and stop hoping since then...so im officially over you...
[This is Part 2 of a multi-part series on a "Simple Approach to the Run & Shoot." In one sense I mean "simplified," but the series is, more than anything else, intended to diagnose and explicate some of the fundamental concepts behind the shoot, and discuss how I might marry them with some passing modern ideas, all in an effort to just understand passing offense generally. You can see the full series here. Part 1 is here.]
John Jenkins, one of the run and shoot's pioneers and most prolific prophets, is a bit eccentric. Jenkins becamse famous during his time at the University of Houston as offensive coordinator and eventually head coach, where he coached Andre Ware to a Heisman trophy and David Klinger to ridiculous statistics, including the outrageous (in several senses) eleven touchdown passes Klingler threw against Division I-AA Eastern Washington. According to Sports Illustrated, former Texas A&M Coach R.C. Slocum once said of Jenkins: "For somebody who is really a pretty good guy, John has managed to piss off coaches all over the country."
And some of this brashness was instrinsically tied up with his role as run and shoot maven. As discussed previously, Ellison and Mouse Davis (as well as Red Faught) innovated the offense, but Jenkins was there at least from the time it took off. He coached quarterbacks under Jack Pardee and Mouse Davis with the USFL's Houston Gamblers back in 1984 (their quarterback was some guy named Jim Kelly), followed Pardee to the University of Houston, and stayed as head coach after Pardee became head coach of the Houston Oilers. Of course, Jenkins's personality wound up doing him in as much as anything (burning playbooks and refusing to share ideas with other coaches, though to be fair some of these stories are anecdotal). But, when it came to the run and shoot concepts, the man is an encyclopedia.
The Seam Read and Adjusting Pass Patterns
This part of the R&S series is intended to break down the "seam read" (or "middle read") route as a way of introducing the offense's most fundamental principle: that receivers adjust their routes on the fly. Jenkins explained this principle in the manual (maybe more of a manifesto) he gave out to the USFL Houston Gamblers quarterbacks back in the mid-1980s (again, Jim Kelly):
"Any conversation on any type of offensive theory without the acknowledgment, consideration, and complete understanding of defensive opposition is entirely useless. This statement certainly applies to our situation more so than any other team in football today. For with our repeated route altering and adjusting dependent upon the recognition of coverage categories, it is obvious that we must be capable of reading and reacting to coverages properly. When reacting properly, we place the defenses into an impossible state leaving them rendered helpless. In simpler terms, whatever the defense throws up at us should be wrong. Naturally this is due to our own proper decisions in reacting to the specific coverages revealed."
I will at once agree and break slightly with this approach. Again, the run and shoot is all about adjusting pass patterns based on the defensive coverage. Yet these adjustments were largely decided upon by fitting all defensive coverages into five categories and having everyone identify which category the coverage fell into. As June Jones explained back when he was with the Detroit Lions: "The defense may think it has many coverages, but we will fit them all into one of our five categories." I don't think this particular approach can be done as effectively now as it once was, particularly considering how much time that approach takes.
But I do agree that (a) offenses -- coaches, quarterbacks, receivers -- must understand defenses, and (b) that converting and adjusting patterns based on coverage is important. The only difference is a matter of degree: the receiver will adjust his pattern based on certain "keys" given by one or two defenders, and the quarterback will similarly look for keys and "open grass" (the empty spots in the defense), but will not get hung up in knowing exactly what the coverage is. Does this mean he would not be able to explain the difference between Tampa Two and Cover 5 (Cover two man)? Of course not: he better know that. But it doesn't mean that, when dropping back, the quarterback's first thought needs to be "Oh, they are in Cover 3 invert!"
To see what I mean, let's look at the seam read route itself, and then I will talk about the "Go" pattern, one of the offense's (in my view) three or four most important concepts, and maybe the most.
The inside vertical releasing receiver is the seam reader. He might run a seam route (release straight up the field and catch the ball between 16-20 yards deep between the deep coverage), he might break for the post (split the deep defenders and catch the ball between 18-22 yards downfield), or curl or run a square-in (catch the ball about 12 yards deep underneath the deep coverage).
There's been a number of ways to teach this route, and to many it appears intimidating. Indeed, a number of times I have demonstrated on this site two-way choices, but so many? Here's how it is easiest taught:
#1: Identify the safeties, which can be done pre-snap. How are they aligned? Going to be one-high (single free safety down the middle)? Or two-high (Two deep down the middle)? Identify the safety closest to you.
#2: Post-snap, release downfield, attacking the near safety (even if it is the strong safety rolled up, as shown below). Make a decision at 8-10 yards on what you will do.
#2A: If there is a single high safety, can he get to you? If not, continue up the seam looking for the ball between 16-20 yards.
If the single-high safety plays too deep and shaded to make the seam effective, come underneath him on a square-in (keep running against man coverage, settle in the hole on a curl against zone).
If the single-safety overreacts to the formation or your route, cross him. (Sometimes this is communicated in the run and shoot by having the quarterback do a pump-fake, which releases receivers into their "secondary routes.")
#2B: If there are two-deep safeties, cross the near safety to attack the middle of the field. This is not a "bomb" throw, expect it on a line between 18-20 or 22 yards deep.
But if the two safeties play so far deep that the receiver can't effectively split them, he must run a square-in underneath them.
Against blitz man (no deep safeties) some run and shoot teams have the receiver break immedediately into a slant, while others treat it like two-deep and let him run a post. I prefer that approach.
Synthesis
Okay, that seems like a lot to take in. A few points. First, the decision tree can be simplified as "find the open spot between deep defenders, and if you can't get deep, run a square-in or curl underneath them." In other words, you'll notice above that if the defense is in middle of the field open ("MOFO" or a two-high), the receiver tries to get deep down the middle because that's where the grass is. Conversely, against middle of the field closed ("MOFC" or 1-high with one safety deep) the receiver tries to find the deep spot away from the deep free safety -- if he is coming from the far side that opening should be right past the strong safety, or he might have to cross under him if the safety overreacts. So it can be explained different ways.
Second, and most importantly: this is the foundation for the entire offense. The triple-option is confusing and multifarious, but everyone knows you'll practice it all the time. That's how it is with this. You install this route on the first day and everyone must master it because it will show up -- in one form or another -- on almost every play. This will become obvious as I discuss the route in the context of the "Go" (below), as well as "streak" and "switch" and the "choice," and continue to show how it can be a backside combination for other routes like the smash pattern.
Third, even if the seam-read receiver doesn't get open or get the ball thrown to him, having a player running such a dynamic route has its advantages for the offense. Most important of all is that it essentially lets one player dominate and control almost the whole middle of the field, thus further opening up the routes to the outside. That's why, in the 'shoot, the seam read is often the second or third read on the play.
Finally, as an update, I've already gotten some questions on practicing this route. There's more to say about it but here's two quick points. One, the way to begin by teaching it is just to take the receiver and a coach and have the coach act as the single-key defender, usually the near safety. The receiver will adjust his route based on what the coach does (or doesn't do). Once you've practiced that you can move to team "routes on air" -- multiple quarterbacks each running the same play and throwing to each of the receivers -- and use dummies where the defense will align, but again with one coach or player giving the seam reader his key. The second point is that during any team drills the quarterbacks are told not to throw the ball to the seam reader unless he gives them a very clear read and route -- the QB must see what he's trying to do. This gives the receiver lots of incentive to get it right and to be decisive.
Now, onto the "Go" concept.
The Run and Shoot "Go"
The Go is actually relatively simple, and is based all around the seam reader's route. Even without it, it's a nice little hitter in the flat, but with it, it becomes the foundation from which you can build an offense.
It is a "trips" formation play -- in the 'shoot, the concepts are typically designed around whether you are in "doubles" (two receivers to each side) or trips, three to one side and a single receiver on the other. The routes are fairly simple. The outside man to the trips side runs a mandatory "go" or "streak" -- he releases outside and takes his man deep. (Update: A helpful reader points out how important it is that the receiver take a "mandatory outside release" -- i.e. if the corner is rolled up and tries to force the receiver inside, he still must do all he can to release outside and get up the sideline. This is imperative for many reasons, among them to keep the near safety stretched and to widen the defenders to open the flat route.)
The middle slot runs the seam read, outlined above. The inside receiver runs a quick flat or "sweep" route: he takes a jab step upfield and then rolls his route to five yards in the flat. An important coaching point is that this player must come right off the seam reader's hip; you're looking for a rub against man to man.
On the backside, the receiver runs a streak but if he cannot beat the defender deep, he will stop at 15-16 yards and come back down the line of his route to the outside. The runningback is usually in the protection, but if not needed, he will leak out to the weakside.
The quarterback's read begins with the near safety: where is he? Tied up in this is what kind of coverage are they playing on the outside receiver? If there is no safety help on him, he can throw the ball to that guy one on one deep. But that's considered a "peek" or "alert" (in Bill Walsh's terminology): it's a deep route you will throw if it is there but otherwise immediately eliminate it and work with the normal progression.
The quarterback's key of the near safety tells him what he's looking for. If he plays up he's throwing off him: if he takes the seam receiver, he throws the flat, if he takes the flat, he throws the seam. In any event, you usually tell the QB: "throw the seam, unless . . ."
If the near safety plays deep the QB looks for a two-high coverage (Cover 2), and will likely get that. In that case he first wants to see whether the safeties "squeeze" the seam reader as he runs a post. If they do, he knows that he likely has a two on one with the outside receiver on a go and the receiver in the flat on the cornerback. If the QB ends up eliminating those routes he will look backside.
In any event, the quarterback can always deliver the ball to the man in the flat, particularly against man coverage. As Mouse Davis says, you want to keep hitting that flat route as long as they give it to you, because eventually they are going to come up and that's when you'll kill them with a big play.
And that's about it. It seems like a fair amount but basically the quarterback just wants to identify the near safety and then work his seam reader to the flat: somebody is going to pop open. If you thirst for more, June Jones (partially) explains this play to Bob Davie, below:
Finally, below are a few variations on the Go. It should be noted that the most obvious ones just switches the assignment of #2 and #3, the seam reader and the flat runner. Sometimes the defense tries to wall a guy off and by switching assignments you suddenly get a free release downfield and an easy path to the flat. It's all about breaking tendencies.
But below are a few others. One is "Go curl," which adds a curl route to the go concept creating a kind of curl/flat read.
The other creates a kind of "vertical flood" concept by tagging the seam reader with a corner or "sail" route.
Conclusion
So that's the seam read and the Go -- two foundations of the run and shoot. There's plenty more to say, but in many ways it's all down hill from here: this is the tough stuff. The offense works because this stuff is practiced over and over again to perfection, and it provides answers against any coverage. And again, my "simplified" approach here does not require that the quarterback and receivers identify all coverages and fit them into neat boxes because I do not think that is tenable or productive anymore. (I also am ignoring certain other R&S principles like "secondary routes" triggered when the quarterback makes a pump fake.) But you can get the same variable effect -- and the same production -- without identifying fixed coverage categories; indeed, in today's game I think that is asking too much. Instead, I think the best approach is to talk about finding the open spots and running away from coverage. The rest is academic.
HG and I did not get into a fight and decided to stop working together on I am Fashion and started our own blogs instead. (Even our mutual friends wondered about it!) We still email each other daily about the intricate details of our lives and random thoughts we have, and feel extremely empty when the other is away and has no access to the internet. When I freak out, she is the first person I call and she is still my maid of honor when I fantasize about my wedding. Our reasons for closing down I am Fashionstill stands, though I do think that my later rationalization of it in this blog is a better articulation of how we feel.
As for us continuing to blog even more regularly than before, I attribute it to the "newness" of our blogs. Starting a new blog is like starting a relationship. At the beginning everything is new and exciting as you get to know the other person and watch your relationship grow and mature. Every up and every down is a significant moment. Then the honeymoon phase eventually wears off and you reach a happy medium, where your relationship becomes a part of your daily life. With any luck, you will live happily ever after in this state with a few surprises here and there to spice up the norm. If not, your relationship will wane and you grow apart, eventually deciding that you are both better off parting ways.
Clearly I'm in the honeymoon phase. We are starting to explore new things together, trying to figure out what works best for the both of us. Every new post is an adventure. Every comment and email is exciting. I want to spend every moment of everyday with it, checking on its progress i.e. stalking the traffic, the incoming and outgoing links etc. It's an exhilarating feeling that I'd almost forgotten about!
Analogy aside, it is heartwarming to read everyone's encouraging comments and to know that we were able to leave a small footprint on some people's lives. We appreciate your support and remember that we've not left the blogging world for good. Come visit us some time at our new blogs -(Find the links to our new blogs in the post below). We miss you guys!
Mike Leach to NFL Coaches: "I only need a three-hour window. I'll have a great clinic for all the NFL coaches who are so horrible that they can't teach a guy to take a snap under center and go backwards."
What prompted this? Tim Macmahon of the Dallas Morning News asked Leach what he thought about the argument against his former Graham Harrell -- and many similar "spread" quarterbacks -- that it is troubling that they don't know how to take a snap from under center and drop back because they were in the shotgun so much. Macmahon reports:
"You bring up easily the most pitiful NFL cop-out of all!" [Leach] hollered. "And you can send that message to the whole NFL. Any coach who has ever said or uttered those words or considers that a concern, here's my message for them: How could you possibly look yourself in the mirror and consider yourself an NFL coach and not be able to teach a guy to run back three steps, five steps and seven steps? I can teach a child that!
"Any coach in the NFL who can't do that ought to be fired!"
An issue? Maybe. I understand this with respect to lineman who have never been in a three-point stance, and there are related quarterback issues, but this reason (so often given) does not pass the smell test.
The most famous game that involved a team running the run and shoot offense was one where that team lost: the infamous "greatest playoff comeback of all-time," where the Buffalo Bills came back from 35-3 down to beat the Houston Oilers in overtime. The storyline was, to many, that the Oilers' four-wide offense couldn't control the clock and gave up the lead. Maybe so. But something had to go right for them to get the 35-3 lead (and score 38 for the game to send it into overtime). Maybe the offense failed to prepare the defense -- that was a common meme for years, but seems to have receded when spread offense teams like the Florida Gators or the New England Patriots comebine great offenses and defenses.
And it's true, no NFL team runs the pure 'shoot anymore (though some high school and small colleges do, and of course June Jones does at SMU). But the concepts live on, and the "spread 'em and shred 'em" philosophy the 'shoot engendered has found more and more converts over the last two decades. But the offense is not particularly well understood; it is still considered an outlaw approach. And true, the dedication the offense requires to be run well also requires something approaching exclusivity: not much time is left to devote to doing other things.
But, I am a big believer that the 'shoot both can be a very viable offense in and of itself (hello June Jones!), and, even more than that, I think that understanding the offense is one of the best ways to really understand passing offense generally. This is evidenced by the fact that the offense's concepts live on in the playbooks of every NFL team and a great swath of college and high school ones.
So, this offseason I am starting a multi-part series on a "Simple Approach to the Run and Shoot." The series' purpose a few-fold: (1) to explain what makes the Run and Shoot distinct from the larger umbrella of "spread offenses" (including Mike Leach's Airraid, with which it is often compared and confused with); (2) to explain the offense's core tenets in a way could provide insight into all passing offenses; and (3) to provide a possible real-world system that distills the run and shoot's major points (and combines them with some of the best of the modern passing game) into something that could be used at the high school or small college level.
In this introduction, I will begin with some of the offense's core philosophy. In future posts I will address some of the specifics.
Philosophy and tenets
There are four major points that make the 'shoot the 'shoot, and then a few ancillary ones that have come into play over the years.
Pass-first offense. Not all spread offenses are pass-first, and not all teams that use run and shoot concepts are pass-first, but if you're going to commit to the offense, you begin with the past (and often end there too). When the Hawai'i coaching staff under Junes Jones gave a clinic talk to other coaches at the AFCA convention a few years back, they named their talk "For those who like to throw the ball." One of the major reasons for this is just practice time: you can only do so many things well. By specializing as pass-happy team they get an incredible amount of repetitions doing the things they do over and over and doing them well.
Four wide-receiver commitment. Now there's much debate within coaching circles if you can be a "run and shoot" team without being a four-wide receiver team. (Ironically, the Bills who beat the Oilers in that game and helped drive out the pure shoot were themselves a team that used primarily run and shoot concepts but with a tight-end, hence their nickname, the "K-Gun.") Moreover, run and shoot teams are actually far less multiple by formation than the typical spread team. They typically use a two-by-two spread look or a "trips" spread look with a single backside receiver and three to the other side. And they rarely go five-wides. There are many reasons for this -- including specialization of players -- but a big motivator is that their receivers and quarterback do so much reading after the snap they want to keep it simple before it; they want to see where the defense lines up and attack that. If you have fixed assignments, you are more concerned with moving the defense around to open those up; if you can adjust on the fly, that doesn't matter as much.
Receivers read the defense on the fly. This is probably the biggest difference between the modern "spread" and the 'shoot. Some of that distinction is a matter of shades of gray, but in other cases it is quite dramatic. The point about formations was made above, but the basic theory behind the offense goes back to the originator, Tiger Ellison. As the story goes, he wanted an offense that emulated what was most natural, so he observed playground and backyard football. He said you didn't see highly formalized lines and alignments or wedge plays and all that. Instead you saw a kid, on the run, tossing passes to receivers who would keep moving until they found open spots. To Ellison, if you didn't coach the kids too much they began "run and shooting" on their own, so he thought this was how people really want to play. Hence, his receivers would read and react on the fly to get open.
As Mouse Davis, who did as much to develop the modern 'shoot as any human could, has explained: "We are always going to adjust on the run to the defensive coverage," he said. "If the defense sets in one look, we are going to make one route adjustment. If the defense sets in another look, we are going to make another route adjustment."
There are a few ancillary points that have been part of the offense, but to a varying degree. For my purpose in this series they are important but not imperative.
Quarterback movement. In Ellison's original shoot and the versions used by Mouse Davis and in the NFL, the quarterback always began with a "half-roll" or semi-"sprint out," where he moved the pocket and attacked the corner. If you watch the video below of Portland State (now coached by run and shoot veterans Jerry Glanville and Mouse Davis; Portland State is in white and black), you'll clearly see what this looks like. This comported with Ellison's original vision of the run and shoot, and the fact that pass defenders had to contend with the threat of the quarterback running at them distorted the coverage. Nevertheless, some teams now have evolved to more of a dropback look, and June Jones now at SMU uses something of a hybrid. Moreover, what pass protection schemes you want to use will influence how you have your quarterback drop back.
Motion. This is probably one of the bigger changes with the 'shoot. In the original days, the idea was to have motion on every play, constantly moving from twins to balanced and back and forth. Now, however, defenses are better at disguising their reactions to motion and not giving away whether they are man or zone, so most teams have just disregarded it and just chosen to play. Nevertheless it is still a good tool to reveal certain techniques, and never underestimate how much it can affect a defense to change the strength of a formation.
Wrap-up
This is enough for now. In future parts of the series I will address topics like adjusting pass patterns on the fly, the basic run and shoot concepts like "switch," "go," and "choice," pass protection, marrying other pass concepts with the shoots, and quick passes and screens. Below are a few more run and shoot clips.
**** Long time ago, Usagi of Sailormoon used to be my role model...
*sigh* silly mee...
*****
my sis will get her diving license soon...I am sooo jealous right now...
been talking about getting one since last year (or was it last last year??) with my two friends, marie and susi...but we didnt have enough money to just go and get it, and attend the (if im not mistaken)3-days course....so we posponed it.
We have to save money in advance..another thing is all 3 of us didnt know how to swim back then...so we went and took our swimming class...8-hours class..but we didnt finished the whole class...still left 2 or 3 hours i guess...just FYI,u dont have to know how to swim in order to get your diving license...so thats fine with us...we still can get our license...u just have to know how to float, but i think thats not compulsory either...
at first it didnt excite me to get diving license, because swimming with sharks just doesnt excite me, i was scared even to snorkeled at P.Manukan years ago with LK and SG..I was expecting a smiling face shark or shark fin coming toward us...i was totally embarassing...i swam nervously real near to SG maybe almost pulling his hand...i think i have this phobia with the ocean....
Im a Cancerian for goodness sake! Im suppose to be in love with the ocean...weird eh..:(
But I saw alot of pictures taken beautifully underwater...so i decided to go for it anyway...but not yet for now...im out of job....and this is just not the right time...Besides, Marie just got married last december, and i think she is really busy with life alongside with her husband...maybe considering to move to Miri, so chances is she will get her diving license there instead and maybe tutor by her husband...hehe... while Susi...busy with her life...with work...knowing her i think she offers all her time to her career...and diving maybe not her priority right now....so i guess just me and myself alone to take the important action here...its okay...before i go i will definitely tell them and ask them whether they want to join me or not...=b...
, which, while good, often feels somewhat like a bloated chapter out of Fooled by Randomness.
