Air Raid Part II

This is a favorite play of mine. My youth team ran this play and it worked to perfection. This was one of our best plays as we ran it. This is taken from the current Air Raid passing system as well. This play is easy to read and understand and can be deadly.

On this play the first read is actually the flat defender covering the H position. It's a read by the QB and H defined by where the flat defender goes. Second read is the Y then Z then F. X is designed to clear the area by going deep but if you have a blitz coming the QB can hit that route to. Sometimes the CB might even leave the X to cover the flat which you can exploit.

Again ease of simplicity of the reads, and getting rid of the ball quickly is a reason for my liking the Air Raid. This is an offense that can score quickly and bring you back into games. I was able to run this one pass play out of four formations another bonus of the Air Raid.

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Air Raid

Being a graduate of BYU I have had a chance to study more the Air Raid passing system. In my opinion this is one of the easiest ways to pass and not confuse your players too much. Another reason I like the Air Raid is that you can run many of the same plays out of different formations. There are some plays where the routes will always be open. Let me give you an example of such a play.

Below is 50 check shallow that BYU uses. The first read on this play is actually the middle backer. The main route is not the post but actually the dig done by the H-back. As Coach Anae puts it, the dig is always open. What you will start to see is that safeties will come up hard on the dig which opens the post deep. The X route would be a check route to see if the safeties are coming up. The Z and F routes are the last routes of the progression but if you notice that the defense is having trouble defending those two routes on the backside you can let your QB know to look for those routes.


This is what I love about the Air Raid passing system. Quick short routes, that will allow you to be able to get rid of the ball quickly. The defense has pressure put on it to defend and the reads are easy. If you are looking for a fun offense that is easy to learn. This would be a good offense to start out teaching in my opinion.

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Spread Offense too Soft????

I have heard at times comments that the spread offense is not really a line em up and pound it type of offense. What do I mean by pound it? Usually when you hear pounding the ball means to line up in a tight formation and run the ball right at the defense. So why do some coaches and people think that you can't pound the ball in the spread?

Well in the spread the main running play is the zone block. In the zone block you block an area and not necessarily a man. So even if you just get in the opposing players way you can still block him, without having to blow him downfield. It's because of this type of play that some feel that you can't pound the ball in the spread offense and if you run the spread you are a soft team.

In my opinion this is a false idea. I think you can run the ball in a hard pounding way in the Spread offense. You can run the ball with a back leading on QB dart. You can have two backs in the backfield and have one lead the other up the hole. Counter is an effective run play in the spread offense at the HS level and below.

In the state championship game we ran for over 300 yards, and we run the spread. If you watch game film when we pulled the tackle downfield he hit the corner so much that eventually the corner gave up taking him on. You can pound the ball when running the spread, just not in the normal thought of idea.

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Championship Ring

So I finally have put some pics of my championship ring on the computer, I thought it would be nice to share for others that haven't seen the ring that are my friends who check this blog too. Here you go folks.

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Spread offense

Many probably wonder why the spread if gaining in popularity in football. Well one reason is because of the success teams are having running the offense. In football there is a lot of copying of offensive and defensive schemes as teams become successful running it. That is why in college and the levels below you are seeing an increase of teams running this offense.

Another reason it is becoming popular is that you don't have to have a super huge line to block. Remember how I said that the spread is a pick your poison type offense? Not having a super huge line can still give you a chance to be successful on offense because you can pass or run the ball with athletes out in space. If you are looking for an offense to run take a look at the spread as it could help even the playing field for your team.

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Rules of football

I have some foreign friends who don't know much about Football so I decided to write an article explaining a little bit more about football for them to understand. Football.com has a listing of the rules for football but also so does Wikipedia. Both of these have very basic explanations about the game and the rules. There are even links to the history of the game which help you understand.

When the game first started out there were no formations and it was just a wave of human beings running together over people. This led to deaths and almost to the ban of the game. However Walter Camp helped develop the rules that were important. Understanding the rules of the game will help you learn and understand what you are seeing.

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Football's JailBreak Screen

I love this screen. Others call it tunnel screen but basically it is a devastating play if run right. I call it a jailbreak screen cause basically everyone on offense breaks out to block downfield. For youth teams this could be a big gainer because a lot of teams blitz. When we ran it in the youth team we averaged at least 15 yards a time. We ran it 6 times in the championship game and the only time it was stopped was because we dropped the ball.

If you are looking for a big gainer and a fun play for lineman and kids, look at running this play. It is also a major play in regards to using the Air Raid system as well. Here is how we blocked the jailbreak screen::

1. The second receiver goes to the corner covering the outside receiver and block.  
2. Back goes and blocks the slot receiver's defender. 
3. The tackle on the play side needs to stay with the defensive end by inviting him upfield and taking him that way.  The other linemen set pass for 1.5 seconds and then release down field finding looking for linebackers and providing basically a wall for the receiver to run behind.  

For those of you who don't know what this screen even looks like, here is an image of how we blocked it. As well as an article explaining about it.

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