TED--Run & Shoot..compairison of Ellison and Black

[Rebel Yell]

Ted- Being the resident passing guru i have a few questions for you.

How would compare the Gangster Package from Ellison to the routes that Black & Mouse Davis run from their 3 x 1 set such as Slide, Go, and Choice?

If you were going to categorize the Black & Davis routes how would you do that. I guess what i mean is when and where would you call them vs. certain known coverages. I understand that routes will adjust on the "fly" based in coverages. But where is a good starting point?

How would you compare Ellison to Black and Davis?

Thanks coach for any insight you may be able to give.

[tedseay]

Reb: Sorry it took so long to see this -- work is once again interfering with football...



The Run and Shoot began life in the late 50's as an experiment by Coach Glen "Tiger" Ellison in Ohio. His Gangster pass involved a number of reads involving different contingencies (i.e., backside receiver uncovered, playside OLB blitz, etc.), but eventually evolved into a 3x1 route package where a receiver motioning to the playside would run a bubble route, the outside receiver would run a hook, and the middle receiver would run a pick on the defender following the motion man. (This closely resembles Mouse Davis' Slide package, by the way, but the Davis version does not include the overt pick.)

Mouse Davis took the Ellison offense in high school in Oregon in the 60's and put it together with some other route packages he liked, and came up with the classic Run and Shoot pass offense: Slide, Go, Switch, Choice and Smash. With the addition of a few running plays, draws and screens, Davis proceeded to set amazing offensive records in high school and college (Portland State).

Although Davis made a very useful set of videotapes on his version of the R&S in the early 90's, he never wrote a book on the offense. This gap was filled a few years later by Coach Al Black, who did a very nice job of capturing the essentials of the Davis system in print.

And that's your basic run-down on the Run and Shoot. For those coaches who are interested in joining the flexbone offense together with some Run and Shoot passing principles, have a look at this downloadable playbook:

savefile.com/files/475342

I have included some play-action passing ideas from Al Black's book off of the incredibly powerful IV play fake...so even if the rest of the R&S is Greek to you, check out the two play passes toward the end of the playbook.

[Rebel Yell]

TED- Thank you very much for the info.

I have been talking with the few R&S coaches that are here in my part of the world. Thanks to your help with the playbooks, and theirs, our staff is looking at using the
Choice, and Go. With Go we figure the teaching of #2's adjustments may be easier given the time commitment with the option. Along with Go we will use special and swap tags that have 1 & 2 exchange routes or #2 & #3 exchange theirs respectively.

I RELAY like they gangster pass (slide) I have some HS cut ups from a team about 35 miles form us that run the R&S almost verbatim as Tiger Ellison lays it out in his book. I met with him and he went through his teaching progression and drills for the Gangster pass. It is very effective for them. My fears are two fold 1 the practice time used in the gangster and 2nd the ability to complete the bubble pass. The bubble seems to be such a precise route and would need much practice time to get that apart alone right.

[tedseay]

admin said:

TED- Thank you very much for the info.

I have been talking with the few R&S coaches that are here in my part of the world. Thanks to your help with the playbooks, and theirs, our staff is looking at using the Choice, and Go. With Go we figure the teaching of #2's adjustments may be easier given the time commitment with the option. Along with Go we will use special and swap tags that have 1 & 2 exchange routes or #2 & #3 exchange theirs respectively.

I REALLY like they gangster pass (slide) I have some HS cut ups from a team about 35 miles form us that run the R&S almost verbatim as Tiger Ellison lays it out in his book. I met with him and he went through his teaching progression and drills for the Gangster pass. It is very effective for them. My fears are two fold 1 the practice time used in the gangster and 2nd the ability to complete the bubble pass. The bubble seems to be such a precise route and would need much practice time to get that apart alone right.

You are thinking all the right thoughts. The passing game is a jealous female dog, and will take up all your offensive practice time if you let it (kinda like the option...)

;D ;D

I've been working on simplifying the Go package by removing all receiver route-change options and replacing them with tags that you can call from the sidelines when you see certain coverages and/or situations. This way you decide when to supplement the power of Go with: frontside Switch, backside Y Cross, Kentucky Mesh, and frontside Crease. I know most coaches would rather be able to control these adjustments themselves rather than leave the adjustments to 16-year-olds with girlfriend problems...

I posted some of this in the flexbone passing thread previously, but I have also put them in document form and they can be downloaded here:

www.savefile.com/files/485708

[Rebel Yell]

TED- Thanks I will be reading it with great interest!!! What do you think about Choice on the backside. The team I mentioned above only ran the OUT. If the Out was not there the QB was told to airmail it to the front row of the bleachers.

[tedseay]

admin said:

TED- Thanks I will be reading it with great interest!!! What do you think about Choice on the backside.

Like just about all the Mouse Davis route packages, Choice can be as simple or as complicated as you care to make it. With more complexity comes more power, but also more teaching time...I like this set of rules with Choice:

If the corner plays inside leverage, run a Speed Out at +5 yards;
if the corner presses, run the Fade route;
if the corner plays outside leverage, run the 3-step Slant; and
if the corner maintains more than a 6 yard cushion, run a 3-step Hitch.

As far as the rest of the package goes, you can either assign routes to each receiver, or you can give each one options based on coverage, or (and this is what I suggest for flexbone or other option coaches looking to include Choice in their passing game) you can just tell everyone else to clear out and throw the ball to the Choice man.

This doesn't have to be rocket science...