• Casey Lewis had one of his fathers watch the opposing free safety. When he cheated up, he would have his single-wing tailback heave a maximum-distance pass with air under it straight down the middle. It would either be incomplete or caught by Lewis's receiver. A tight end would run a post route to that spot. I saw one of the many times it went for a long TD. [Note by Reed. I would see this in scouting and have a safety try to deke you into throwing it when he really was not leaving the area. If it went for a TD, or big gain, I would then be forced to station a safety there to take it away. I will give my fear of the play credit for taking one of my players almost out of the game to play deep safety. But I do not think we would get burned by the play at all and certainly not more than once.]
• Another coach said, "I also read your article about the QB sneak. I found a way to make it effective for my team, and this is something I am going to incorporate into my new offense. First, we would run the sweep using a crack back in motion. This would be the only time we would put anyone in motion. So teams would start keying on this. Especially when the sweep would really work. When I figure I ran the sweep enough, I would call the play again and just give my QB a predetermined hand signal. He would go in the huttle and call the exact same play - minus the hand signal. He would come to the line, put the crack back in motion, do the snap count (you could hear the coaches on the other side line yelling to their defense "SWEEP, SWEEP . . .") and when the ball was snapped found a hole in the one or two gap and ran for what he could. On one occasion he ran straight up the middle of the field for 74 yds untouched for a touchdown. It wasn't until he blew out past the safeties in the defensive secondary that they realized that he had the ball and not the back, who by the way, ran the sweep just like he had the ball." [Note by Reed. Sounds good, but I wonder what the success rate was on the many sweeps to set up the fake sweep. They must be netted against the big success on the fake. Also, I would see this in scouting and focus mainly on staying home for the fake that week in practice. In a 1991 game against Benicia which is in my books, they ran either sweep or fake-sweep naked bootleg the other way whenever they were in slot formation. I taught that to my players that week and we killed them whenever they ran either play.]
• Same coach also said, " I read your observation about the run and shoot offense. I have a friend who was an offensive coordinator for a team and he decided to run the run and shoot offense. Naturally, everyone including me laughed at him. After one year of working the bugs out, the following season, he set league records for scoring and offensive yards. How did he do it? A lot of people took his offense lightly. They thought they could get away with blitzing everything. What they didn't realize was that his QB wasn't a shotgun, but in punt formation. He also called all his plays on the line. When the defense blitzed, the QB would sit back and pick the undermanned secondary apart. If the defense tried to stay back, he would give the ball to the lone RB. Obviously, he had a very good deep snapper who could snap the ball almost fifteen yards. It was very interesting to watch." [Note by Reed. It is hard to get pressure on a shotgun QB. The shotgun or deeper snap can make it easier to proctect the QB, but he still has to make good decisions and long (because of the deep set-up point), accurate throws to recceivers who can get open and catch. I suspect most youth teams do not have the personnel to run any version of the run and shoot. This team sounds extraordinary. Also, I would expect that decent defenders could cover the offense's top two or three receivers in man pass coverage. The fourth-best receiver probably cannot get open or cannot catch or cannot get very far if he does catch a pass. In the case described, I suspect the defense tried to use zone pass coverage.]

Good luck,

John T. Reed