Offensive Plans (7 pages, PDF)

Offensive Plans is Gridiron Strategies Special Coaching Report #3, written by Hank Schrader, credited on the cover page as a former offensive coordinator and the current defensive coordinator at Bellevue High School, Bellevue, Wash. It answers the part of offensive football that sits between your scheme and Friday night: deciding what to run and throw, when to call it, how to attack the technique the defense is playing in front of you, and how to build, script and practice a game plan your staff and players can actually execute. The report states up front that its basic offensive principles apply whatever scheme you prefer, so the material works from a Wing-T just as it does from a spread.

This is the digitised edition of the printed report: all 7 original pages as they appeared in print, supplied as a PDF with a searchable text layer so you can search it, copy from it and read it on a laptop or tablet. The content is written coaching text, question sets and situational call lists rather than diagrammed plays.

What's inside

• Offensive Plans: Preparing Your Successful Offensive Strategy (page 1). The four main objectives Schrader uses to formulate an offensive strategy — balance, diversity, flexibility and deceptiveness — followed by "Factors That Aid Execution": seven things that help players carry out the plan, from making roles easy to know and maximising personnel to controlling tempo and designing plays that inspire confidence. Includes the toughness drill he credits on his own team, 11 versus 13 from the 5-yard line.
• Establishing A Powerful Running Attack (page 2). The three components of a complete run game — the power game, the speed game and the finesse game — plus attacking all eight gaps on the line of scrimmage, a systematic way to adjust blocking schemes, and a play-action package that limits defensive recognition of the run. Then 12 Critical Questions To Develop Your Running Attack: what to run and where, how to dictate defensive alignment with formations, shifts and motion, yards and carries needed to win, practice repetitions, one-, two- and three-back sets, tight end and split end formations, audible run planning, field position by hash mark and vertical position, and a run plan for short yardage, goal line, danger zone, red zone, 2-minute, slow-down, 2-point conversions, must-have first downs and "stop-a-drive" defenses. The page closes with Running Strategy For Various Defensive Techniques — answers against hit-and-react and penetrating line technique, stunts and blitzes, good and poor pursuit, crashing and boxing defensive ends, good and over-aggressive trail players, and deep and shallow linebackers.
• Running Strategy For Down And Distance (page 3). Ten situations, each with its own short call list: first and 10, second and long, third and 12 or more, third and seven to 10, third and four to six, third and three, red zone plus 25, red zone plus 15, red zone plus 5 and danger zone offense from the 1 to the -30. Practical detail throughout — cutting sweeps inside on first down, draws against zone defenders who drop sooner and deeper, one-cut running with no dancing, best back behind best blockers inside the 5.
• Components For Building A Potent Passing Game (page 4). What a total passing package contains — three-, five-, seven- and nine-step drop-back series, quick passes, sprint-outs, play-action passes, screens and some form of blitz control — why time to throw is the deciding factor, and drills to help receivers catch under pressure (knocking the ball away at the reception, one-hand catches, chase and strip). Then 12 Critical Questions To Develop Your Passing Attack, the passing counterpart to the running list, and Passing Strategy By Defensive Technique: loose secondary at eight-plus yards, loose zone, normal zone, man coverage, heavy pass rush, linebacker quick-pass drops, secondary rotation and secondary blitzes.
• Passing Strategy By Down And Distance (page 5). The same ten situations from the passing side — option or choice routes on first and 10, rhythm throws and a hot-receiver plan on blitz downs, deep flag, switch and dig routes on third and 12 or more, routes run past the first-down marker on third and medium, maximum protection, and red-zone coaching points at plus 25, plus 15 and plus 5 including running routes over the goal line and working to the back of the end zone when a pattern breaks down.
• 9 Steps For Developing Your Offensive Game Plan (pages 6–7). The weekly routine, step by step: breaking down opponent film (with a warning about scouting film of a team that runs a different offense from yours); self-scouting, illustrated with Schrader's own wide receiver screen that opponents began jumping and the counter he ran off the same motion and set; gathering printed scouting material; writing the scouting report, from a personnel profile through fronts, coverages and blitz percentages by down and distance to a closing wrap-up of what your team must do to win; staff chalk talks and a master list of plays and blocking-scheme adjustments; developing the plan, where he explains why he scripts and how many plays he scripts, and names the only three situations in which he goes off script; educating players with a weekly mini-playbook and "the play"; designing practices with a theme for each day Monday to Thursday and a rule about how many repetitions a play needs before it is called; and executing the plan — a private dress rehearsal with film, the documents booth personnel should carry, headphone and game-time communication procedure, scripting the first six plays, series-by-series feedback and the three questions to ask yourself at halftime.

Who it is for

Offensive coordinators, head coaches and play callers who want a written game-planning system rather than more plays. The report is written from high school experience — Schrader's examples come from coaching a high school offense, and he notes how widely passing philosophy varies at that level — and the scouting, scripting and practice-design steps carry directly to small-college staffs, with one step written specifically for college-level coaches preparing two opponents at once. It also suits a first-year coordinator who needs a checklist for the week, and any staff that wants a common language for down-and-distance and red-zone calls. No particular scheme is assumed.