Missouri's 4-Verts Concept

The University of Missouri's Offensive Coordinator David Yost recently spoke at a coaching clinic about their 4-Vertical concept. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the clinic, but our head coach got a copy of his presentation.

There is some good stuff below, especially some creative ways to run 4-Verts out of Empty sets (Essentially FIVE-Verts).

2x2 4-Verts:

3x1 4-Verts

2x2 "Swap":

3x1 "Cross":

Empty 5-Verts:

OU "Drive" Concept

Our staff attended the football coaching clinic at the University of Oklahoma this weekend. Thursday night, Coach Jay Norvell spoke about their crossing concepts. He talked through their Mesh and Shallow concepts, and showed a ton of cut-ups.

One new (for me at least) play that he showed was the "Drive" concept out of Trips. It is basically Trips Right H-Shallow - but with one difference: The RB checks his pass pro to the left, then goes through the OL and meshes with H.

The QB reads it: 1. H - Drive (Coach called this route "Drive"), 2. Y-Dig, 3. RB "Burst" (essentially Mesh). This is just a triangle read for the QB - they do not have him look deep.

It looks very close to Franklin's "Pyramid" concept where two receivers mesh, and there is a Dig over the top of it.

This really becomes a nice blend of Mesh, Shallow and Pyramid. They also ran it out of Bunch.

We noticed that this must be a big 1st down call for them - the RB never had to stay in and help protect.

We have our Y and X mesh when we run normal Mesh. Would this concept work if Y and the RB meshed, and H ran the dig behind it?

Does anyone run something similar to this concept?

Y-Corner powered by R4

As a follow up to my previous post "Going Deep with the Shallow Cross", I wanted to show how the R4 principles have given us the opportunity for huge plays with the Air Raid "Y-Corner" concept.

We have borrowed from the ideas of "Y-Corner" and the Snag or Scat concept to make it our own. Coach Brophy has a great breakdown of the concept, with video from Coach Brewer and Coach Mazzone. 

Here is another great breakdown of the concept from Coach Brown on Smart Football.

A few of our coaching points at Olathe Northwest:

• This is a dropback concept for us (three steps from gun), not a quick game concept as described in the link above. We feel like this gives us the best opportunity to "go deep" with the Corner route.
• We can run this concept from Doubles (2x2) or Trips (3x1). The routes stay the same, regardless of the formation. (Diagrams below)
• The R4 Principle of "Capped/Uncapped" applies to this route. Check out the book From Headset to Helmet: Coaching the R4 Expert System by Coach Dub Maddox and Coach Darin Slack for more information.
• We are looking to hit Y on the corner route first. The QB should throw this ball on rhythm, as soon as his third step hits the ground. Last year, we completed the Y-Corner route five times over 20 yards. It has big play capabilities.
• The "Snag" is the "Read" route. The QB should look off the Corner route, then hitch up for the Snag. The QB should throw the Snag open away from the defense. The Settle & Noose drill is a great way to teach this concept. 

Here is video of the concept from the 2011 season. Notice, we did not throw the Check-Release/Bubble at all. Our QB threw either the Corner or the Snag route almost every time, giving us bigger plays.

Below are older cut-ups from my old school. Notice, we never threw the Y-Corner route (However, Texas Tech does on the first play). This was before we started coaching the "Capped/Uncapped" principles. We still had completions, but they were for much shorter gains.

Teaching Shakespeare: Common Core-Style

For the first eight years of my teaching career, my Shakespare daily lesson plans went something like this:

"Good morning! Turn to Act II Scene 1 on page 234. I'm going to push play on the CD, let's listen to a few lines..." 

(Actors performing while students follow along for about 30 seconds. Pause CD.) 

Me: "Ok, what just happened there?" (The same 2-3 students telling me the plot.) "Great! Let's continue on..."

Once in awhile, I would have the students act out a scene or two... but that usually led to monotone recitations and awkward moments helping students pronounce words.

I think many people would relate to these methods. In essence, I was a human Cliff's Notes, regurgitating the plot to the point that we only studied the surface of the story. I usually had the same 2-3 students respond, and when I called on other students I usually got a response that went something like, "I have NO idea what they are talking about!"

We were studying the play a mile wide and an inch deep. That is how my teachers in high school taught me Shakespeare, so that must be the best way. Right?

This year, my English II colleague Blake Revelle and I decided to try something completely different when we taught Julius Caesar. With the onset of the Common Core State Standards, we asked ourselves: "What is more important: That our students know all of the plot details of Julius Caesar, or they know how to read, write and talk about a complex text, no matter what text it is?"

An inch-wide, and a mile-deep

We felt like the answer was clear: In 10 years, it will be far more important for our students to know how to annotate, analyze and explain a complex text they have to read for work or college, rather than be able to answer plot questions or create a poster with all of the characters.

Our mantra became, "We will teach an inch-wide and a mile-deep." 

We decided to go deeper into fewer scenes. Students weren't going to get as much of the plot, but that was not our goal. The text just served as a vehicle to teach concepts in reading, writing and speaking that would prepare them for college and their career.

Going into the unit, we decided to only focus on four of the speeches from the play. We spent about a week studying each piece, and we had our students read & annotate the speeches, write about them, then discuss them through a Socratic Seminar.

We kept it simple: Read it. Write about it. Talk about it.

This unit hit on virtually every one of the Common Core State Standards for reading, writing and speaking. 

Each week followed a consistent schedule:

Monday

• Explain what happened in the plot since the last speech we studied. Video SparkNotes was a great resource for this.
• View a video performance of the speech we were going to study
• Read/annotate the speech. Students circled key terms and underlined claims.

Tuesday

• Chart the text: In the left margin, write what the author is SAYING (summarize). In the right margin, write what the author is DOING (analyze). 

Wednesday/Thursday (90-minute block)

• Timed writing assignment - using templates.

Friday

• Socratic Seminar

Here are the materials we used:

1. Cassius' speech to Brutus (I.ii)
Text for annotation
Writing template

2. Brutus' soliloquy (II.i)
Text for annotation
Writing template

3. Brutus' funeral speech
Text for annotation

4. Antony's funeral speech
Text for annotation

5. Synthesis paper
Graphic organizer to answer the question: "Who delivered the more effective speech: Mark Antony or Marcus Brutus?"

• Students developed this into a 2-3 page argument, citing the text and backing up their claim.

This unit was extremely effective for teaching students the skills they will need to critically read and write about complex texts, as the Common Core asks us to.

• In past years, students would say things like, "I don't understand Shakespeare. It is written in another language." The close reading strategies taught them to closely analyze what they DID know about the text, and make their own inferences. 
• All students were engaged. They could not just sit back and let other people answer the questions. They had to dig into the text, summarizing, making inferences, asking questions. This definitely ups the rigor in studying Shakespeare.
• Students did not rely on me to tell them the plot. It became completely self-driven, with the students asking and answering their own questions.
• In the course of a six weeks, we wrote two short papers and one longer paper. The quality of these papers were the best I had ever seen. The templates served as a guide to help their thinking, and it went far beyond plot and surface-level thinking.
• Students gained confidence in analyzing complex texts. I equate it to lifting weights: In order to get stronger, you have to lift heavier weight. Now that they can read and analyze Shakespeare, other readings will seem easy.

How have you begun to modify your units to fit the Common Core State Standards?

Going deep with the Shallow Cross

The Shallow Cross series has always been a staple of the Air Raid offense. When we first installed the series, it was basically a high-low concept on the linebackers. It was good for a 10-15 yard gain by either hitting the Dig or Shallow Cross. There was very little vertical threat, even though there are two vertical routes packaged in the play (Fade and a Post). I have heard the architects of the Air Raid say that the Fade or Post deserve little more than a "peek" from the QB, and the real focus was on the Shallow/Dig combination.

Last summer, I purchased From Headset to Helmet: Coaching the R4 Expert System from Coach Dub Maddox and Coach Darin Slack. Quite simply, this book made our offense exponentially more explosive, starting with the Shallow Cross Series.

No matter what offense you coach, I would highly recommend this book. It helped me see the passing game in an entirely different light, and gave my QBs a decision-making process to follow that is consistent and easy-to-understand. (Note: If you are an opponent of ours, don't waste your time... It really won't help you much.)

When I speak with other Air Raid coaches about the Shallow series, they struggle with how to coach or teach the deep throws to the fade or post. I was in the same boat until a year ago. I told my QB to "peek" at the fade, but warned him that "he better be open if he is going to throw it!" I had very little confidence in our QBs making that throw, which of course meant the QB was never going to go deep. The R4 system has simplified the decision-making process, and it allows us to take downfield shots when the defense is giving it to us.

Why we like the Shallow Cross:

• Vertical and horizontal stretch on the defense: We want to make the defense cover the entire field, and the Shallow forces the defense to defend sideline-to-sideline, and vertically downfield.
• Versatility: It is good play versus any coverage, man or zone. It is also good on virtually any down and distance. 
• Big play capabilities: A year ago before I read the R4 book, we had only five "explosive" plays of 30 yards or more. This year, after reading the book, we had 25. That is a huge improvement, and many of those explosive plays came on the Shallow Cross. 
• Easy throws to our playmakers in space: You don't have to have a huge arm to throw this concept if you know what the defense is doing and how to attack it. 

We always run Shallow out of 2x2, tagging either of our inside receivers (T or Y) on the Shallow. Here are the rules for the play:

To understand the big-play capabilities, you must understand the concept of "Cap" and "Uncapped" from the R4 book. I don't want to give away the secret sauce, so I would recommend getting the book to fully understand what those concepts mean. Simply put, it helps your QB quickly decide if he can make deep throws or not. Here is a presentation that explains each of the reads with the idea of "Cap":



Note about the film: We were fortunate to have a 6'10 receiver at Z that will play basketball at Kentucky next year. That helped. However, you can see that our QB was confident in taking deep shots because of the "Capped/Uncapped" principle. In fact, we only threw to the Shallow route once all year.

What other wrinkles do you have that help you make the Shallow a successful route? Feel free to ask any questions below.

Packaging Plays: The Double Screen

One trend that is beginning to take over football is packaging two plays together. Chris Brown analyzed this in his article "Combining quick passes and a shovel pass or shovel screen."

This year, our most effective screen play was a combination of a Crack Swing to our RB, and a Jailbreak Screen to a WR on the other side. We ran the jailbreak to every receiver out of Doubles and Trips. It is a simple read for the QB, and it is a very high percentage pass to either side.

The rules for our offensive line stayed exactly the same no matter which way we ran the jailbreak.

Here are the rules followed by cut-ups from this season:

Hudl + DSV = Winning!(?)

A seismic shockwave was sent through the sports video industry today when Hudl announced the acquisition of their main competitor DSV.

It is hard to imagine that when I started my coaching career eight years ago, we were watching film on VHS, and barely doing any video breakdown. With the advancements that Hudl has made, coaches can now watch game film anywhere at any time. I wrote about the amazing iPad app developed by Hudl, and I have heard whispers that phone apps for the iPhone and Droid are not far away.

What does this mean for the future of sports editing? There are definitely many positives to this acquisition, but there are a few unknowns that make me weary of this change.

Winning!

1. Film exchange

Again, I can't believe that five years ago coaches were logging significant time and miles meeting at the McDonalds halfway between schools to exchange film. Hudl solved that problem for us, but only with other Hudl teams. I know many teams around here had just invested in DSV, and did not want to make the switch to Hudl. That meant we still had to swap DVDs on Saturday mornings, while trading with another Hudl team took less than a minute on Friday night.

In their press release, Hudl says that DSV has a "customer base of 3,000 high schools." That is a huge chunk of the market that will now be added in to the Hudl family. This will put a lot of pressure on non-Hudl schools to make the switch over to Hudl. Who wants to be the only school in the league only exchanging DVDs?

If Hudl puts together incentives for all league schools to jump on board, they will quickly lock up many of the schools still reluctant to switch over to Hudl.

2. Innovation

I was a DSV loyalist until I discovered Hudl three years ago. I didn't even want to look at another video editing system because I loved DSV so much. It has many great features, and it is no accident that they were the industry leader up until the last few years.

They were the first to develop a system of auto-cutting plays from the record button being pressed on your camera. They came up with a slick intercutting feature that matched up your press box and end zone views. Their tendency reports are phenomenal. Truth be told, many of the features in Hudl today were inspired by the work that DSV did.

Unfortunately, the DSV system was completely tied in to the one or two computers you had it installed on. If other coaches wanted to watch cut-ups, they had to watch it on their own computer. They added DSV Anywhere a few years ago to try to keep up with Hudl, but that web-based product was really no better than watching game film on YouTube. They were never able to catch up to the things that Hudl was doing with their completely web-based product.

What will happen to DSV's developers and brain-trust? Even though Hudl has a phenomenal team of developers, it is a huge bonus that Hudl will now have access to the brain-trust from DSV that has been developing their product for a decade.

3. Recruiting

DSV and Hudl not only service high school teams, but they also have many big-name Division-I and NFL clients on their roster. This means that the collegiate DSV teams will also likely switch over to Hudl.

One of the best features of Hudl is how you can create individual highlight videos for players, and e-mail it off to college recruiters. With more college coaches becoming familiar with using Hudl, it will make it even easier to get your players exposure through Hudl's recruiting packages.

Winning?

1. Costumer support

With only a month left before the football season begins, Hudl just opened up a huge can of worms.

All current DSV clients who have paid their service contracts will automatically become absorbed into Hudl. This means that DSV clients will spend the next month importing game film and terminology to Hudl, and Hudl will have their hands full training 3,000 new school. Multiply that 3-5 coaches per staff! This was not the ideal time to make this transition.

Hudl has prided themselves on their customer support, which has always been fantastic. What will Friday nights look like now with all of the new clients calling in to trouble-shoot? I am sure Hudl has a gameplan for all of this, but it is going to be a huge undertaking.

2. Consumers

One of the most attractive things about Hudl is their pricing. While DSV had a one-time cost of approximately $5,000+, Hudl only costs $800 a year for their base package. Their price simply can't be beat.

With DSV out of the way, CoachComm and APEX stand as the only viable competitors in the high school market. I may be biased, but neither one of those programs even comes close to matching Hudl's features and pricing.

The question becomes: Where will Hudl go from here? They have already shown that they are the top innovator in the industry. Will they continue to push the boundaries of innovation, while maintaining the same affordable pricing?

A little friendly competition is always a good thing for the consumers.


What do you think this means for the world of sports video editing? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.