SIMPLE RPO OFF READ OPTION

Simple RPO off the read option OR 4 Options from one play

Let’s be clear! this is not for everyone. I am writing about how this play evolved for me. Also, I had the athletes that could run the play. They were exceptional players and had come to understand what it was that we, as a group, were trying to accomplish. Without their smarts, football intelligence, and a willingness to evolve we would not have been able to be as successful as we were with this concept.

The concept started with the read option. This was the foundation for the whole concept. Without some success with the Read play we couldn’t have evolved any further. The Read Option starts with the Quarterback. His main focus was the end man on the line of scrimmage, translated like a lot of teams do into short form EMOL. It was key that the Quarterback and the Offensive Tackle were on the same page as to who the Read man was. We used a simple but effective call by the Tackle that told the Quarterback what the Tackle’s thought process was. Whether this was always the right call or not became irrelevant (over 90% of the time the Tackles made the correct call). Simply put if there were two potential threats outside the Tackle he made a “Hard” call. If there was one threat outside the Tackle he made a “Hip” call. A “Hard” would tell the Quarterback that the Tackle would block the first outside man and the Quarterback should Read the second outside man. A “Hip” call told the Quarterback that the Tackle was not blocking the man outside him and he would be going to the second level. This blog is not about the blocking and all the combinations thereof, so I won’t go any further If you wish to learn more about the blocking please feel free to contact me directly.

Back to the Read. There are two basic actions for the Quarterback: “Give” or “Pull”. The Quarterback read the man the Tackle was not blocking. If the Read man crashed or came in far enough and then turned his shoulders this was a “Pull” Read. If the Read man came up field or sat with shoulders square then it was a “Give” Read.

We spent a lot of time practicing the “Give” and “Pull” reads with the Quarterbacks. On a “Give” the Quarterback would ride the running back for a step or two then attack the face of the Read man. We wanted the Read man at this point to go after the Quarterback. Like the old triple option Quarterbacks, the Quarterback was taught to avoid a direct hit and almost slide or fall under the hit. On a "Pull" Read the Quarterback Read the butt of the Read man. If he could get underneath the but, he went inside. If the butt was turned toward the sideline at all, he went downhill right off the outside cheeks. If the defender feathered, he was taught to run an outside zone path. This assured the best possible success on maneuvering the Read man. While we had success running this for a while defenses adapted and started bringing more outside men into the play and quicker. Yes, play action was one answer but we wanted to force the play to evolve.

The first phase of evolution was the bubble screen off the Read Option. We started working on this in practice. Ifthe Read Man was pretty athletic and could make our Quarterback do what the defense wanted we were somewhat stuck (as I tell people all the time defensive players are coached also, and they also have some very good coaches; think Bill Belichick). So to get outside the Read Man, the Quarterback would run at him and then throw a bubble screen. In practice though we did not always hit a player on the run while the Quarterback was also on the run. We had to think up a new strategy.

We still wanted the Bubble, so it was the technique of the Bubble Man that changed. Instead of running an Arc path, we simply turned his shoulders parallel to the sideline and slowly backed him toward the sideline. Immediately the Bubble completion percentage went way up. This became an answer to those defenses that tried to take away the Running Back and the Quarterback. It gave us option number three. The Quarterback’s Read now became the Read Man First then the alley player. To sum this part up: The Quarterback first Read the outside defender that the Tackle assigned him to Read. The second Read became the Alley defender. If the Alley man came to the Quarterback, we would throw the Bubble and the Outside Receiver would stalk block the Cornerback. If the Alley player went with the Bubble, then the Quarterback kept the ball. So our simple Read Option became a three option play and evolved to a Run/Pass Option.

But that was only the beginning. As I said before defensive coaches also evolve, and they learned to play the Alley player on the Quarterback and let the Corner come inside and play the Bubble. We had to adapt again. Evolution, see, is all about adaptation, observing and responding. Our response was evolution #4.

We now taught the Quarterback to Read the Unblocked man outside the Tackle first, then the Alley player and finally the Cornerback. If the Corner was cheating, we just had the wide receiver run a Go Route. At first we tried to have him stalk and go but this proved too difficult for the Quarterback to read. Instead we just had him run the Go every time we ran the Read Option. This gave us the “Long Ball” on several occasions.

So we now had four plays from the Read Option. The Quarterback read the outside defender, then the Alley player and finally the Corner. That was the evolution of the Read Option RPO for us. We ran this mainly from a 2 x 2 set. But as we got better at all the reads we added motions into and out of 2 x 2. Additionally, we used a triple option pitch on occasion. However, we had to be in the absolute perfect place on the field to consider using the Fifth Option.

Thank you for Reading this. I hope it was informative and helpful to you and you enjoyed the read. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Now go evolve some plays of your own. In the words of Darwin or Nike “evolve or go home”.