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The idea of putting the formation into the boundary isn’t new- offenses have been doing that for decades.
However, Ferris State’s offense has used this particular wrinkle with great success to create an electric offense, especially in the run game. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at this offense that won another National Championship this season.
This is taken directly from: Speed In Space – The Ferris State Offense: The Complete Series
Motion to FIB – Bunch Formation
The Coaching staff at Ferris State loves putting the formation into the boundary, because usually it limits what the defense can do in response. Most defenses have a very limited menu, or a small number of calls when an offense puts the formation into the boundary. This is because it usually takes up such a small percentage of plays in a game that most defensive coaches don’t spend much time preparing lots of answers for it.
Offensive coaches, like the guys at Ferris State, love taking advantage of this, because once you figure out what the defense’s answer to these plays are, you can easily formulate a plan on how to attack it, knowing that they probably don’t have a lot of different ways to adjust.
The offense is starting out in a condensed formation and then sending a man in motion to create a FIB bunch just before the snap. The motion to the boundary triggers the secondary to roll down into an 8-man box, giving the defense a 4-4 look, and the coverage call turns into a form of Cover 3, what Ferris State calls 3 Fox.
At first glance this doesn’t look good for the offense, especially when they’re trying to run a form of the zone read to the boundary, where the defense appears to have numbers. You have four defenders show up as immediate threats between the hash and the numbers, and several more who aren’t that far away either. The defense looks to have a big advantage at the point of attack, with an unblocked defensive end for the dive, and a scraping linebacker to take away the QB on the keep.
However, since the offense went formation into the boundary and moved to a bunch set, they have a 5-on-4 advantage, with every defender either being blocked or read.
As the quarterback carries out the mesh, the unblocked end closes down the line and takes away the dive, so he keeps the ball.
The defenders start to converge on him in that space between the hash and the numbers, so he spots the “pitch” option and fires it out to him to the boundary. The offense has done a great job of pinning the defense in the alley, and since they are so out-leverage, the offense picks up a 15 yard gain.
Get everything you need to install and run a championship-caliber offense with Speed In Space – The Ferris State Offense: The Complete Series
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