Playbook Gems: Game-Tested Offensive Plays (7 pages, PDF)

Playbook Gems is a digitised edition of the printed Gridiron Strategies Special Coaching Report of the same name, compiled by the Gridiron Strategies editors from the best plays ever to appear in the magazine's "Playbook" section. It solves a narrow, familiar problem: you do not want to rebuild your offense, you want a short list of proven calls you can drop into the scheme you already run. Every play here was submitted by a working coach, comes with a diagram showing player movements and blocks, and is explained in the contributor's own words — most with position-by-position player assignments. Sixteen titled plays across 21 diagrams, from fourteen coaches. This edition is 7 pages, scanned from the printed original with an OCR text layer, so you can search it and the diagrams reproduce exactly as printed.

What's inside

• East 41 — an unbalanced 1-back play off a Jet Sweep fake, with the QB rolling five steps and reading the free safety. The contributor writes that it has scored 123 touchdowns for his team over a 15-year period (Sherwood Haydock, head coach, Harding High School, Fort Wayne, Ind.).
• Pass Play Vs. Prevent Defense — an answer to a conservative or prevent secondary: two "secondary stretchers" clear the safety and corner, receiver 1 runs a 20-to-22-yard post behind them, and a dragging X holds the linebackers as the outlet (Brad Dehem, assistant coach, First Presbyterian Day School, Macon, Ga.).
• Special Play: Zone Left-Reverse, Right Pass and Wide-Receiver Middle-Screen — a play-action reverse pass with an F-to-X read progression, and a shotgun middle screen built to beat an aggressive pass rush. Both carry a full line-by-line assignment list (Charlie Stubbs, former quarterbacks coach, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.).
• Four 2-point and goal-line answers — a Confusion Set that puts the slot and wideout off the ball to make the center eligible (Sam Albert, Freeport High School, Freeport, Pa.); Lee Zip Green 3 Throwback, a full sprint-out with the QB snapping his head back to the A-back (Jerry Teel, offensive coordinator, Davenport Assumption High School, Davenport, Iowa); a Fake Field Goal run from holder to upback with the tight end dragging across the back of the end zone (Les Roggenkamp, Republican Valley High School, Indianola, Neb.); and Left Far, 60 Hitch-N-Pitch, a hook-and-lateral off a quick three-step game (Mike Mizer, quarterbacks coach, Columbia High School, Columbia, Tenn.).
• Double-Wing Motion Series — four diagrams in one package (sweep, sweep pass, fullback trap, and sweep pass throwback for the goal line) from the "Scissors Series," a Wing-T derivative with flat, fast motion and a symmetrical formation that gives away no strength clues (Jerry Valloton, assistant coach, Foothill High School, Bella Vista, Calif.).
• Midline Option trick plays — three linked diagrams: midline option to twins, option reverse when the free safety rolls over the top, and option-reverse pass with the tailback throwing to a split end running away from the safety (Johnny Metcalf, former head coach, Erwin High School, Birmingham, Ala.).
• Run and play-action staples — Ray-Load 471 Quick Pitch, built off a fullback shift to a wing (Peter Moe, head coach and athletic director, Washburn High School, Washburn, N.D.); I-Right Counter, Pass Right with a four-step QB read progression for short-yardage and first down (Al Fracassa, head coach, Birmingham Brother Rice High School, Birmingham, Mich.); Split-Right, 32 Base Option-Pass for two points, with the No. 4 back as the hot receiver (Sam Albert); Trips Right, Left-Guard Screen, a legal backward pass to a pulling left guard who can then run or throw (Bruce Eien, Brethren Christian High School, Garden Grove, Calif.); Tight-Wing R. Reverse Pass for when the secondary comes up to play the run (John Castelamare, Wesley Chapel High School, Wesley Chapel, Fla.); and a 2-Point Conversion To The Tight End that the contributor says has come open practically every time he has run it (Mitch Mitchell, Copiah Academy, Crystal Springs, Miss.).

Who it is for

Offensive coordinators, head coaches and position coaches at the high school and small-college level who want a handful of change-up calls — goal-line and 2-point answers, a trick play or two, and play-action off plays they already run. The plays come from a wide range of schemes (unbalanced 1-back, double wing, Wing-T, I formation, twins, trips, shotgun), so almost any offense will find something that fits without a scheme change. The diagrams and assignment lists are written for coaches, using standard position and route terminology, and they transfer directly to an install sheet, a scout card or a wristband. It is a collection of individual plays contributed by coaches, not a complete system or a full playbook — read it as a source of ideas to steal, which is exactly how the editors framed it.