Coaching An Offense In Football

What is a 'ground game' in football?

A ground game is considered the run game. Handing the ball off to your running backs and letting them do what they do. They're special athletes, they're able to see the field and have vision. So the ground game is definitely getting the ball to your running backs and letting them gain the edge for you. The advantages of a ground game are if you are not a very good passing team, and you're playing a team that is a very good passing team, it enables you to eat the clock up. Which means you get to gain time possession and it shortens the game. As you know, when you run the ball the clock keeps running. So as you keep getting first down the clock keeps running. So if you're playing a team that has really good offense you want to control the clock, and you gain advantage by continuing to get first downs in offense.

What is a 'passing game' in football?

A passing game is being able to consistently throw the ball to your receivers, which I call the playmakers. Those guys are your playmakers. They make the big plays down the field. The passing game is able to have the quarterback get the ball into their hands consistently; get the first downs, controlling the clock and getting points by getting it to the end zone. The rules are: by completing a pass to the receiver by throwing the ball in the air without it hitting the ground; the receiver has to catch the ball, maintain possession by having two feet inbounds and then that is considered a complete pass. An incomplete pass is when a the ball is thrown to a receiver and he drops it or the ball is not secured consistently with two feet inbounds. That is considered an incomplete pass.

How do football coaches change up the looks of their formations?

The key when I am coaching formation-wise is that when I want to change my formations I basically try to run similar packages, I try to run similar plays out of different formations what that does is that it gives the defense a different look. But as far as your offensive scheme goes it keeps it simple for the players, the players know what they're doing as far as play goes, we just change formation. So instead of having 3 receivers on this side I may bounce it up and go 2 by 2 so I've got 2 receivers on this side, and 2 receivers on that side. And that just creates match-ups for the offense players, but also lets you run the same stuff in a different formation.

How does a football coach 'manage the clock'?

Usually the football coach -- it's more late in the game, when a football coach manages the clock. It's usually, when we're getting in the fourth quarter, and we might have the lead -- might be up by two touchdowns. So, we want to protect the ball, but also maintain possession. So, what we'll do is we'll run the ball, and try to get first downs to keep the clock going -- to keep their offense off the field --keep them from scoring. So, a coach can definitely manage the game by running the ball, completing passes, and getting first downs, and keeping the other team off the field.

When does a football coach decide to 'go for it' on forth down?

It depends, I mean, some coaches go for it in the first quarter on fourth down on their own 40. It just depends on the situation in the game and also depends on the coach. Every coach is different, every coach is going to manage his team different so I think that's on the individual who's coaching that team. But if it's late in the game and it's fourth down and 1 and you're on the fifty yard line and you're down by 4 points, you're going to go for it on fourth and one.

How does a coach decide what play to call?

That's definitely up to the coach. Every coach is definitely different on what play to call. And it depends on the situation, depends on the match-ups on defense, what kind of defense is in the game, where the match-ups are. So I think, for each coach, the plays depend on how the defensive formation lines up.

How is an offensive football play named?

They're all different. I've been in a lot of different systems. I can give you an example. One of our plays this year was Viking right, Denver quick orbit double two. There's no reason or rhyme why they're named the certain things they're named, they just came from different coaches who put these systems in. Some protection might be Lion protection because it has the L in it, so it means left. And then Ram might be, it's for the right, so if it's Ram protection, it means we're turning off at the line to the right. Everything has a reason why it's named, but sometimes you have no clue why it's named what it's named.

What is a quarterback's 'cadence'?

A cadence is the quarterback's cadence. He'll come up to a line of scrimmage and it's a verbiage used on the offense in order to snap the ball. He might go, "down, radiate, radiate, set hut" and that's a cadence. And every team has a different cadence. In Pop Warner it's "down set hut one." But as you get older the cadences get more specific and tells you when the ball is going to be snapped.