We Are Improving!

[gofurman]

For years Furman lined up in the "I" with QB under Center. Everyone knew what we were going to do but our guys did it anyway. Now we are lucky if we get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, much less gain the necessary yardage. Not saying we should go back to the "I", but what we're doing now ain't working.

Yep - FUBeAR hears ya … Toss Sweep back in FUBeAR’s days & Fullback Belly G into the 2000’s.

These were my thoughts too. I hear this from the old guys "we were gonna run right and the opponent knew this and they couldn't stop it". That always hits me when we can't get 4th and 1. We definitely struggled with that v Mercer. That is a HUGE down to keep the O on the field and keep momentum. We do need to be able to convert those or it may cost us vs a better team.. I was scared when we failed to convert and gave it to Mercer on their side of the field (only 40 yards to go ).. thankfully they turned it over soon thereafter I think

[Furmanoid]

Some teams even shotgun the victory formation. Good grief.

The under center snap only requires maybe 10 minutes a day to perfect, but apparently even that is too much for most teams. And if you aren’t willing to do even minimal preparation, you fumble. I think maybe the coaches who are familiar with it are dying out.

The shotgun requires tons of practice and leads to really disastrous fumbles, but everybody is fine with that. They just dog cuss the poor center. The center didn’t come up with the stupid shotgun idea, but it’s his fault when there’s a problem. Sometimes it’s the center, but usually the qb takes his eye off the ball to look downfield. They still blame the center.

Under center the qb never has to look at the ball. All he has to do is take it. But he does have to practice footwork: reverse pitch, reverse handoff, 3 step drop, 7 step drop. They can master all that by 9th grade, but they don’t do it. Learning it all in college is tricky, so instead of the qb learning and practicing a little bit, the poor ol’ fat boy is expected to do 60 or so no look passes between his legs without missing. If he takes anything off of it, the quick passes aren’t quick enough, certainly slower than a pitch to get to the edge. But if he drills it back there and misses you lose 20 yards or worse.

If he concentrates too much on the snap, his first step is too slow and he gets beat. But if he even leans too quickly to make that step, the snap will miss.

The shotgun is just a way to make life even easier on qb’s at the expense of under-appreciated linemen. Everybody prepares for it. It’s all they’ve ever played against or coached against. The I is now a gimmick and most teams don’t even have the right guys to stop it. I wish we’d at least put in a few plays and master them: reverse pitch sweeps, off tackle to either side, a dive/ inside veer and a couple play actions (to TE preferably). Work on it a little now and let qb’s master the footwork over the winter.

Except for it only taking 10 minutes/day to perfect the under center exchange (FUBeAR still says it was the QB’s fault on the UNC Goal Line just before halftime in ‘80. FUBeAR put the ball there. QB pulled out early), the rest of this is painfully true.

Did see us running some pure old-school Power scheme out of gun or pistol vs. Mercer…so there’s still hope for this new-fangled generation.

I normally defer to your awesomeness, but you can take 10 minutes at the start of practice to do 50 or more reps of this VERY simple procedure. Do that all spring and you should be pretty good at it unless you are kinda uncoordinated. Just talking about the snap. The qb footwork is the tricky part, but it isn’t that tricky.

I thought a lot about this when coaching little kids. The only problem with under center was that most kid centers can’t control the ball with one hand. So I had them do it two handed 60’s style (qb with thumbs together instead of rotated around with wrists together). Everything is fine until assistants or daddy’s yell at the qb to place his hands like he would for the modern one handed snap instead of the snap we were actually using. That’s an automatic fumble. But once you iron that out it’s very simple and repeatable. Little kids who are coachable (coachability decreases with age) even pick up the pitches and stuff very quickly. The shotgun, on the other hand, leads to much under the breath cussing. Sometimes you have a guy who can do it. Sometimes you just don’t. The only real advantage is that the QB doesn’t have to learn all the skills qb’s used to learn, and that saves time.

[FUBeAR]

Done it as a C from LL thru College & as a QB in MS

Coached it from LL thru MS, HS, & College.

Some combination of about 30 seasons.

Neither is easy. Both have complex issues related to C’s blocking assignments & QB’s movements AND Defenses’ alignment / actions.

Best to do both comfortably, but if you do either rarely, don’t do that one in critical situations (inside either 20 and/or short yardage)

BTW - Was thinking bout that UNC exchange fumble…thinking FU QB maybe didn’t have confidence FUBeAR was gonna be able to keep Lawrence Taylor from body slamming him. Prolly was right. So, guess it was FUBeAR’s fault after all.

[FUBeAR]

For years Furman lined up in the "I" with QB under Center. Everyone knew what we were going to do but our guys did it anyway. Now we are lucky if we get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, much less gain the necessary yardage. Not saying we should go back to the "I", but what we're doing now ain't working.

Yep - FUBeAR hears ya … Toss Sweep back in FUBeAR’s days & Fullback Belly G into the 2000’s.

BUT…The Center / QB under-center exchange is not as easy as it looks and it’s really not easy when there are a bunch of 300+ pound wildebeests a-snortin’ and a-brayin’ a credit card’s width off the ball … and the Center is adjusting his stance to get his head and body under the wildebeests and the QB is trying to get out a little quicker to be sure the wildebeests don’t grab him as soon as he gets the ball. HIGH probability of FUMBLING the exchange.

If you don’t practice it often and it’s not something you do regularly, FUBeAR recommends NOT trying to do it in the extremely high pressure situation of 3rd or 4th and short or goal. Since FU never gets under Center in this Offense, then we don’t want to in those situations either. Big fan of Shiflett (a good-sized dude and a former dual-threat QB) in the Wildcat on those short yardage situations. Just gotta execute better and not be afraid to let him toss the ball to, say, Ryan Miller, after faking another smash into the line. Thinking we might see just that down the road a piece.

Hmm?

Maybe Woffy Coaches should read TheUFFP