Draws, Screens and the Sprint Out Pass

Draws, Screens and the Sprint Out Pass

By: Mark Batton - Magnolia High School, West Virginia

Originally Published in the: 2011 Nike Coach of the Year Clinics Notes

I want to start out with something a little different from what you may have seen before. I will get to draws and screens in just a minute. I found this at a clinic that I went to a few years ago. I had never seen this at a clinic before, and I have not seen it at any clinic since then. I have been going to clinics for a long, long time. I wanted to give you something that you could take back with you that might be of benefit, even if it is not on sprint-outs, draws, or screens. This really helped me out a lot, especially in my relationship with our parents and my players.

I meet with my parents in the first week of August. This is what I go by. This is what I use to build the relationship with my parents. For our purposes, I will list the items that I cover on our agenda and make a few comments about some of them.

• Weight room: We discuss the importance of the weight room, and we make attendance as mandatory as possible. I include a calendar that shows the days and times the weight room is open. I include information on the proper ways to hydrate and prevent heat illness. This information comes from the Journal of Athletic Training. I also include what not to drink and why.
• Attendance at practice: Attendance is mandatory. Move your haircuts and dental appointments around so that you can be a practice.
• Practice clothes and personal hygiene: I usually have a lot of mothers look at me and laugh when I bring this up. I do discuss it, and stress it with our parents. I include documents from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Public Health that covers staph infections and ways to prevent skin infections.
• Magnolia football concussion management program
  WVSSAC return to play (RTP) protocol: We implemented the concussion management program this year at Magnolia. Focus on concussions started with the NFL and then moved to the college level, and now it is at the high school level. We include a letter that that describes the impact test that we give.
• Impact testing: We bought the software program this year, and we give every player the impact test at the beginning of the season. If there is a problem later on, we have a baseline to go off from the beginning of the year. I include the National Federation of State High School Associations publication, entitled "A Parent's Guide to Concussion in Sports" and a copy of the West Virginia State Return to Play Protocol.
• Zero tolerance: This covers being good citizens, whether it is in or out of school. The Magnolia High School Athletic Department puts together an athletic participation packet that includes information from physicals to insurance. We also include information from the state of West Virginia and Magnolia High School, concerning athletes, policies, and agreements. We cover personal conduct, use of tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, reasons for suspension or removal from the team. There is a piece in there about the role of parents in interscholastic athletics, as well as guidelines for parents' behavior.
• Uniforms and equipment
• What I expect from players
  - At Practice
  - At School (attendance)
  - In Public
• Field house and facilities
• Laundry service: The laundry service fee is a school fee that must be paid before report cards are issued or records released.

I include the varsity and junior varsity football schedule in our packet and information about the tradition of the football program at Magnolia High School. 1 include the history so the parents can see the tradition that we have had at Magnolia. We started football in 1902, and we are one of the few teams in the state of West Virginia that has over 600 wins. We have two state championships, with the last being this past season.

I finish off the packet with forms that must be completed and signed by the parents, indicating that they have attended our meeting and understand the contents and requirements of our program, including the concussion management program.

I hope this is something that you can use; again, it has helped me a lot. When I first started meeting with the parents prior to the season, my assistants thought I was nuts. I have received a great reception from our parents with this, and everybody knows the rules from the beginning.

We are an AA school in the state of West Virginia. We average about 40 to 45 players each year. We are the second-smallest AA school in West Virginia. I generally only have one quarterback, so I cannot afford to lose my quarterback. We pass a lot out of the sprint-out. We use these two base formations. We can run this from under center, or out of the shotgun, it does not matter. Generally, we operate out of the gun.

When we call this formation to the right, we call it River (Diagram #1). When we run this formation to the left, we call it Lake. It is R for right (and for River), and L for left (and Lake).

We call Rip to the right, and we call Lip to the left (Diagram #2). We tell our receivers to have their inside foot up.

Our sprint-out is a run/pass option. A couple of years ago, we had a quarterback who liked to run the ball. He was a tailback playing quarterback. He liked the idea of getting on the edge. If he did not like what he saw when he got on the edge, he would tuck the ball and run. He ran for 1,700 yards and passed for 1,300 yards out of this offense.

Let me draw up our top play out of this formation (Diagram #3). If we have the ball in the middle of the field, the outside receiver is located just outside of the numbers. The inside receiver is located on the hash marks. It is crucial that the outside receiver runs to 12 yards, and then back to 10. He comes back at an angle to put the defender on his inside shoulder, so he has his outside shoulder and hand free. We will sprint to him.

We hinge block on the line of scrimmage. The focus of the tight end is to get to the outside shoulder of the defensive end and keep him pinned inside. The running back will come up to the outside shoulder of our tight end. Our interior linemen will hinge-block. When we hinge-block here, we retreat. All we are doing is forming a wall. We do not attack it, we do not slide; we hinge block, and the pivot point is the tight end.

We tell the quarterback the ball must be delivered before the receiver makes his cut. If the receiver sticks it at 12 and pivots out, the ball is going to be on its way. Not every quarterback can throw the ball on the run. We have drills that we use to make him better at it. The quarterback is opening up, and he gets depth. He has to get depth because the deeper the quarterback, the better off he is. The quarterback will sprint out with the ball, armpit-to-armpit, and then get his shoulders square to the receiver. He will throw it and follow through.

Another play we like to use in the sprint-out is this (Diagram #4). There is no tight end now, so we hinge off of the right tackle. The right tackle must get his head to the outside of the defensive end. The outside or #1 receiver will run everybody off. The #2 receiver gets into the flat right away. Our #3 receiver runs an 8- to 10-yard banana route. We tell our quarterback to deliver the ball to the #2 receiver, if he is open, right away. What this amounts to is a long handoff. The quarterback is reading the strong safety. If the strong safety covers the flat, the window is open behind him. We will now throw the ball to the #3 receiver in that window.

We can move our receivers in closer together into a bunch formation (Diagram #5). We have the same thing.

We like to run these plays with motion (Diagram #6). Some time around game five, our opponent has identified our go-to guy. Now, all of a sudden, that go-to guy is double covered. It is hard to double- cover a receiver who is in motion.

We can line up in our River formation and throw to the left, to our motion receiver. It is the same read, just to the left side. We are sprinting back toward the weakside of the defense. We have found that, in this formation, the defense will line up with their strongside to our right side. This can give us an advantage. When we throw this to the left, the quarterback has to get his shoulders turned around and square to the receiver.

Let me show you a couple of drills that we use for the sprint-out pass (Diagram #7).

In this first drill, the quarterback is going to jog for five yards, keep his shoulders square to the receiver, and throw the ball for 10 yards. We will get 8 to 10 reps in each direction.

In the second drill, we set out three cones that the quarterback has to go around in order to get depth (Diagram #8). If he can get depth, then he can get his shoulders square. If you want to find out whether or not your quarterback can throw the ball on the run, put him through this drill a few times. We can run this drill from the shotgun or from under center.

Our philosophy on screens is you can run them out of any formation. If you are not running screens in high school football, you are missing out. We will run a screen three or four times during a game. We will do most of the screen practicing during team time because of the coordination and relationship the back has with the offensive linemen.

We do have to put some time in on it. We have found that most defensive coaches do not put a lot of time in defending the screen. I know our defensive coordinator puts in a lot of time to stop the screen, and we still get screened on. This is why we put so much time in, offensively, on the screen pass. The screen play will get into the defensive players' heads. If they are looking for the screen, they cannot be as aggressive as they normally would be. This is to our advantage.

If we are going to screen to the left, we will set our running back to the right (Diagram #9). At the snap, the back will sprint directly toward the left guard. We want him to stay low and hide behind the left guard.

On our screens, we will send the tackle, guard, and center out to block. They will set for a count of 1001, and then go. If someone is bleeding through, our center is usually the mop-up guy. Once the left guard has left, the back must come back at an angle. We emphasize he is coming back at an angle, not going down the line of scrimmage. We do not want our running back to drift across the line of scrimmage, where we get a penalty. We tell the running back not to cross anybody's face as he approaches the left guard. The minute he crosses the defender's face, the defender will go with him. The running back will just let him go.

We tell the quarterback to sprint until he gets to a position behind the right tackle, he stops, and then we have him backpedal to get depth. Let those 6'4" and 6'5" defensive lineman who weigh 240 and 250 come.

When we run this out of the two-back set, we always screen to the fullback (Diagram #10). The fullback will hide behind the guard. The quarterback will reverse out. We will fake the power, isolation,

or slam. The quarterback will set behind the right tackle and backpedal once again. The quarterback has to work on this. It can be difficult to backpedal and throw the football. The tight end on the left must release and clear downfield. If he does not release downfield, the corner will stay. Any screen to the tight end side, the tight end must release. The back must come back away from the line of scrimmage.

The last thing I want to cover is the draw play (Diagram #11). Our draw is based on the sprint-out series. We use the same type of formations. The

running back is going to set back just a little bit on the draw. We are still going to hinge-block it, we are just not going to retreat quite so quickly. We are going to take a few retreat steps, and then we are going to get into them.

Our linemen cannot get beat to the inside. We want to force the defender to the outside, and we will take him wherever he wants to go. The quarterback will take the ball like a sprint-out, and then he will hand it to the running back as he is coming back upstream. The running back will act as if he is going to attack to the right, and then we are going to give the ball to him with an inside handoff.

We can also run the draw right with a lead concept (Diagram #12). The quarterback will reverse out. Both the tailback and the fullback will step together. On all of our draws, the wide receivers will run off their defenders.

I have used up my time. I appreciate your attention. Thank you very much.