The ability to throw the ball down the field isn't just about having a strong-armed quarterback – it's about having the right concepts that put your players in a position to succeed.
In this breakdown, 7 x State Championship Coach Josh Niblett of Gainesville (GA) HS discusses 3 schemes he uses to stretch the defense. These 3 explosive passing concepts that can be adapted to any offensive system and skill set. Each concept comes with multiple tags that allow you to attack different coverages while keeping your base rules simple for players to understand and execute.
You can see Coach Niblett's entire Glazer Drive presentation at: Passing Game: Chin, Grab + Up, River/Lake, Rope/Lasso, Fire/Flame, Verts, & "Stutter" Tags
We can turn our down-the-field throws into play-action just by flashing the back, meshing the back.
We want to make sure we have concepts that we’re good at, concepts we can motion to or shift to, but that don’t change the quarterback’s reads. It still gives him his rhythm throw, his "yes-no," and then his progression.
One of the staples in our program is a triangle curl flat principle, which is "chin."
Let’s say we’re working backside (BS). That’ll be a yes-no for our QB—if he likes it, he’ll take it. If he doesn’t, then he’s coming off.
If we get cover two, we’ll want to do a good job of pulling this and then working the curl off the nickel. If the nickel tries to work flat, then he’ll probably work curl, and we should be getting it in the second window.
Another thing we do is adding tags, which changes things. When you look at our passing game, if you’ve got the number three receiver, number two receiver, and number one receiver, and we ever want one and two to switch responsibilities, we add a "Twist" tag. If we ever want three and two to switch, we add a "Switch" tag.
If we’re in a 3x1 set, with the "Y," the "H," and the "Z," we’re running verts on the backside. If we call "Chin Switch," two and three are switching. Normally, three is the seam, and two runs the out. Now, it puts two on the seam and three on the out, while one is still on the curl. This helps us get different matchups.
If we want to "Twist," we’ll motion the "Z" in off the twist. They’re going to swap responsibilities, putting number three in the flat. When we call twist, he’ll be in, with the stem and the curl, and three different ways to run it while getting the ball to three different people. We don’t have to change protection and can do whatever we want on the backside, but it gives us variations based on what we think we’ll see.
Now, for our 2x2 route concept called "Chop," the back is always a check-down to the field side. So, if the boundary is here and the field is over there, we’ll displace them. He’s got a corner on "Chop" with speed outs. The tailback is a check-down at seven yards.
If we add a tag to it, such as "Chop H," that tells the "H" to run a corner post, isolating the safety. "Chop Y" means the "Y" runs the corner post, and "Chop X" means we’re running a no-depth corner with a scissors concept. We don’t change the name of the route, just who runs it.
For "Fire and Flame," which is essentially Y-Cross, if we’re running it out of 11 personnel, we’ll fast or flash the back. We call it "Fire" if the Y-Cross is coming from the right, telling the back to go right. We can run any backside concept we want, but we like to run an option route. The quarterback reads under one and over two, either taking it or flattening it off.
If it’s one-high, we’ll peek the backside post curl. If he doesn’t like it, he’ll work the curl flat. With a free-release back, he can work the option side if it’s two-high, or read the safety to that side.
We tell our quarterback, when in doubt, throw the speed out. If it’s one-high and you don’t like the chop, just come down. The speed-out guys are on a four-step speed out; if they don’t get the ball, they reverse back inside. That’s been big for us in the red zone.
