The No Huddle Spread

My father has coached football for 30+ years (obviously this is where I get my extensive football knowledge). When he became a head coach we both sort of brainstormed to come up with an offense. It is primarily a pro-I offense where the flanker is in motion nearly every play. The idea is to utilize the different placement positions of the flanker via motion to create a different formation from the same starting point. This results in an additional blocker in many cases and the flanker is also used as a decoy. The pro-I forms the base of the offense. However, it is always prudent to have a hurry-up or no-huddle offense. Recently my father asked me to take a pass at a no-huddle or hurry-up offense.

A little explanation of my philosophy behind a no huddle offense is necessary. First, it should be of the same vein as the base offense. Two, it should be fairly simple both in the number of plays and in the variety of routes. This set of plays only employs a handful of routes: the out, short post/slant, post, bench, seam, lasso, and hook. Third, it should be able to attack all of the defenses it will likely face. For high school that would primarily be man, cover two, and cover three. Fourth, it should have an element of the run. Five, it should have some form of a screen play. And finally, it should be able to get to the sideline to stop the clock.

Here is likely what I would run, at a first glance, as a no huddle spread offense. Everything (but the players themselves) is drawn to scale and I have used the following nomenclature:

X - SE or #1 receiver
Y - FL or #2 receiver (even though I refer to Z as the flanker in the play names it is just because he is off the line)
Z - TE
W - FL or #3 receiver

Red indicates motion, blue the place the ball is designed to go, and the vertical black dashed lines are the hash marks.



Obviously this is more geared towards a no-huddle offense than a hurry up. The abundance of motion would slow the play execution tremendously (although in hurry up you could just line the Z receiver wherever the motion leads him). Additionally, it is run heavy and only has one play (#8) that goes explicitly for the sideline.

It is, however, highly effective against man and zone, has enough similar looks to be effective at confusing defenses, is versatile, and has a significant run presence. It has an answer for just about anything a defense would dial up.

That said, you can't do any of it if you can't protect the QB with six (5 OL + HB).