Hey Coach,
The margin for error in the red zone is razor thin, and if you’re not playing your season right now, you’re looking for ways to get better and score more points next fall.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this when I put my book together, 101 Red Zone Plays.
Here’s a short 3-step process to help guide you in the right direction:
1. Study the Top Offensive Minds in the Game
This one is obvious, right?
There aren’t a lot of new ideas in this game. There are only so many things you can do with 11 men on a football field, and it’s safe to say that most of them have already been done in the 150 years since this game was invented.
Everybody, and I do mean EVERYBODY in this game got their ideas from someone else.
This is why we all study up on what the latest and greatest schemes are in the offseason, and try to come up with a couple of new ideas to throw at our opponent next fall.
For starters, I’d take a look at Dan Mullen at Florida, Joe Moorhead at Oregon, and Jamey Chadwell at Coastal Carolina just to name a few.
So then what?
2. Draw Up Every Detail of Your Favorite Plays
If you’ve been following me for any length of time, this won’t be a shock to you.
I am a HUGE believer in drawing up stuff by hand as much as possible.
Guess who else is? Bill Belichick.
In fact, he still makes all his brand new assistants and interns start out with what they call “The Pads”.
Those guys have to draw every detail of every single play of every game of the next opponent.
Why does he do that? Because drawing it up by hand FORCES you to pay attention to EVERYTHING on the field.
You’ll start to notice things you didn’t know were there, and not only that, you’ll start to notice big picture trends within the game that you hadn’t even considered.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. I honestly hate doing it, because it can be grueling work to get everything right. But once I’m finished, I’m always glad I did it, because I always learn something new.
3. Extrapolate it to Your Playbook
This is the MOST important part of the process.
After all, you can draw up all the plays you want, but if they don’t fit with what your players do well, or they’re designed to beat a defense that you’re not gonna face, what good are they?
Whenever I’m watching a game on TV, or watching film of a college or pro team and looking for ideas, my first thought is always ‘How does this concept fit with what we do?
Even if the scheme itself doesn’t fit, I always try to run it through in my head a few times to see what I can learn from it.
The best play designers are the ones who find ways to get the ball to their best players, and do so in a way that puts the defense in as awkward of a situation as possible.
Now here’s the best part…
I’ve already done all that for you!
I took some of the most unique and creative plays from 41 different offenses in the 2020 season and dissected them all.
One thing the book covers A LOT is how you should think about these plays in the context of your own offense.
Want More?
Click HERE to see how to improve in the Red Zone!
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