BLOG

Today we are going to talk about gameplanning against certain coverages. Hopefully this is a practical reminder and can help you as you get ready for the upcoming week.   I am going to be referring to some past posts on the site that you may not have read for a while. But, it’s always good to […]

Hey Coach, I hope you had a great week. Most of us are 4 or 5 games into the season today, so I thought it was time for a little reminder. I am not sure where you stand today. Maybe you are 5-0 and headed toward a league championship. Maybe you are 0-5 and struggling […]

In today’s post I wanted to set the stage for the upcoming summer. For most of us, this is a really exciting time of year. If you are coaching at a small school, you have most of your kids back as spring sports are concluding and kids are starting to focus once again on the […]

Today we are going to talk about the core of this site…the Air Raid Offense. More specifically, we are going to answer a few common questions. 1) Where did it come from? 2) What exactly is it? 3) Why should I adopt it as the core of my offensive philosophy Now, if you are reading […]

Hey Coach, I hope you had a great week. I wanted to drop you quick note today and just encourage you as you enter the offseason. I was reflecting on this as we celebrated at our team banquet yesterday. This year, we did not have the on-field success that we were looking for. There are […]

In today’s video we explore the layers concept. This is a great concept against man or zone coverage. It puts stress on the linebackers and it’s an easy throw for the QB. The read is low to high. The QB is going to start with his eyes to the right and read the playside flat. […]

The scramble drill is one of the best plays in football. Ironically, it is a play that we rarely practice, never have on our call sheets, and never run in summer 7 on 7 tournaments. Yet, it remains one of the best ways to generate huge chunk yardage and absolutely kills defensive coordinators. There are […]

In this clip, we look at QB counter. Using your QB as the ball carrier is a great way to get numbers in the run game. And holding the backside with jet action creates even more of a match up advantage. If you run jet sweep, this is a great counter off of that motion. […]

The Slant Wheel Concept is a staple in the quick game. It is a variation of the slant arrow concept. You can find both of these concepts in the Quick Game section of the Air Raid Playbook. I love the slant wheel because of it’s simplicity. It’s a 2 man read. The QB is going […]

Today we are going to talk about the sprint out flood concept. If you have downloaded the Free Air Raid Playbook from Win With The Pass, this route is on page 90. If you haven’t downloaded the playbook yet, click here to download it now. In the above video I take you through the sprint […]

4 Verticals may be the simplest play in all of football. We have run it since we were kids playing in the school yard…everybody go long!! I think that running 4 verticals in high school is a great way to stretch the defense both vertically and horizontally. Let’s be honest, most high school corners struggle […]

  The all hitch concept may be the simplest route in our playbook. It’s exactly as it sounds…4 hitches. It’s actually kind of embarrassing that it works so well. But, that’s why I love it. It is such an easy throw and such an easy route to coach. And, because most of us see soft […]

  Today we are going to talk about the screen game. If you have not yet downloaded the Screen Game playbook from Win With the Pass click here to download it now. Like all of the playbooks on our site, it is completely free. Personally, I love the screen game. They are easy throws and […]

Well, we are off and running! We just finished up fall camp and our first game is next week Saturday. Many of us already have one game in the books. So, with that in mind, I thought I would entitle this post…”Remember THIS at the start of the season.” Remember to HAVE FUN! It was […]

It’s Spring and that means it’s passing league season. Now, as a passing game guy and air raid enthusiast, I happen to love 7 on 7. But, there are also some inherent flaws with this part of the season that really irk me. So, in reflection of our first 7 on 7 passing tournament of […]

Today we are going to continue our series of posts on Quick Game by looking at Orange, the Slant Arrow Concept and Orange Wheels, the Slant Wheel Concept. Let’s get into it! QB MINDSET Let’s start with the mindset of our QB. This, like most of the routes in the quick game is a mirrored […]

YELLOW – QUICK SMASH CONCEPT Hey guys, thanks again for reading and for being a subscriber. I really appreciate it. In the Air Raid Course, I take you through video and cutups of every single route, but not everyone has seen the course and I haven’t written about every single route in the playbook, so […]

SPREAD RUNNING GAME TIPS Hey Coach, thanks again for checking out this post and for being a loyal subscriber. I really appreciate it. Today we are going to look at a few spread running game tips. I had a question this week on the blog and I thought that our conversation might benefit everyone, so […]

Hey Coach, thanks again for taking the time to check out this post. I really appreciate it. today we are going to look at one of my favorite quick game routes and demonstrate that it even works in the NFL. Let’s get into it. You know what drives me crazy…listening to football analysts on TV […]

Hey Coach! Ok, for the last couple of weeks we have been exploring practice plans and gameplans. I just wanted to let you know that if you didn’t get last week’s email, I attached a call sheet in excel format as an example of how I go about constructing a gameplan. Today I want to […]

The Myth of the Balanced Offense As always, I want to start by saying thank you for reading every week. I love talking football with you. As is so often the case, today’s topic comes from some lessons that made themselves apparent as I was watching football this weekend. I have actually written about this […]

RPO Offense First of all, if you haven’t yet subscribed, click here to get your free air rad playbook! This is the resource that we all have in common and it’s so important when navigating this site! Because I don’t want to assume anything, let me do a quick explanation of what we mean when […]

Hey Coach! Ok, for the last couple of weeks we have been exploring practice plans and gameplans. I just wanted to let you know that if you didn’t get last week’s email, I attached a call sheet in excel format as an example of how I go about constructing a gameplan. Today I want to […]

Today’s post comes from an email question from Coach Jeff Governale. He had a few questions about a few topics related to Gameplanning that I thought were relevant to all of us. So, I thought I would let you in on a little part of our conversation. GAMEPLANNING WITH SCOUT CARDS Let’s start with this…I […]

Hey Guys, Thanks again for checking out this post. I really appreciate it. I love talking football with you guys. Today we are going to look at Practice Tempo. The topic for today’s post is taken form an email conversation that I had with Coach Jeff Nations this week. He recently went through our installation […]

The last two blog posts have been about why I think the Spread Offense is the perfect offense for high school. In the first article we looked at some of the philosophical reasons why this system works…it attracts kids, it keeps you efficient, etc. In the second article, we started looking at some of the […]

Last week’s post was entitled Why I love The Spread Offense. If you missed that, I definitely recommend going back and reading it. It is basically a discussion of my personal philosophy regarding how and why we choose to run certain systems and why I choose to run the spread offense. To summarize, the main […]

For the next several weeks we are going to go back to basics and talk about why we believe in the Spread Offense. I have said it before and I will say it again. I love the spread offense. But there are a ton of great offenses and there are a ton of great systems. […]

I have gotten a lot of questions regarding pass protection via email from those of you going through the Air Raid Course and from those of you that have just downloaded the Air Raid Playbook. There are a lot of pass protection philosophies and I’ve tried them all…slide protection, zone schemes, fan protection, etc.  Maybe you […]

Our culture loves awards. But I hate banquets. I hate awards. I hate all-conference voting. I hate newspaper articles. I hate stats. Maybe it’s just this time of year as fall sports are winding down and people are starting to get recognized (or not recognized) for their on-field achievements. Or, maybe I have just reached […]

Hey Guys, Thanks again for being a subscriber and for reading every week. It means a lot to me. It’s been a grind.  It’s been a challenge.  It’s been really fun.  For a lot of us, the season is over and it’s time to start thinking about the next, and maybe the most important piece, […]

For the last month or so we have been in the middle of a series of posts about the spread running game.  We have looked at Zone, Dart, and Trap.  So, definitely go back and check out those posts if you haven’t read them.  I also want to remind you to download the spread running […]

Today we are going to continue with our series on the run game and take a look at the Trap. Let’s get into it! Before we get going, two things. First, if you want to perfect your run game, you have to check out over 7 hours of video content in the Spread Running Game […]

Today, we are going to continue our run game series by exploring the Dart play Before we start, if you are enjoying these posts on the Spread Running Game, you have to check out over 7 hours of video content in the Spread Running Game Academy. Second, If you haven’t downloaded the playbook on the […]

Hey guys, thanks again for reading. I really appreciate it. Today we are going to begin a series of posts about the run game by exploring what I think is the most versatile run play in the entire offense…Inside Zone. The goal of this post is two-fold. First, I want to talk about the reasons […]

THE LIES OF THE SCOREBOARD Ok, let me start by expressing what should be a common sentiment among all of us. I love to compete and I love to win. Winning is the point of competition. It’s why we work all week and plan all year. We want a chance to win. We want to […]

I believe in this Air Raid system. I believe it is the best way to play. I believe that very few high school teams actually play solid pass coverage. I believe that you can teach a QB to systematically take apart a defense. I believe that with enough reps every passing team can become efficient […]

Hey guys, today is the last post in this series on coverage beaters. Over the last four weeks, we have looked at Man, Cover 2, and Cover 3. Today we are going to look at how to beat Cover 4. In my experience, this is the default coverage against our spread formations. Most teams don’t […]

HOW TO BEAT COVER 3 Hey Guys, Thanks again for checking out this post. Hopefully this series of coverage beaters has been helpful as you game plan and prepare each week. It’s hard to believe, but some of us are already halfway through the regular season and are thinking about league rivals and playoff berths […]

Hey Guys, This is going to be a relatively short message.  I’m not going to go over any X’s and O’s or break down any defenses.  I just have to point out what I think is an incredibly important college football lessons from tonight’s games. I, like most of you I’m sure, was pumped for the start of […]

Hey guys, thanks again for checking out this post. I really appreciate it. Today we are going to continue to look at some of the best plays against specific coverages. Let's look at how to beat cover 2. HOLES IN COVER 2 First, let me give some props to this defense. It is very difficult [...]

Hey guys, thanks again for reading my posts.  I really appreciate it! The next 4 blog posts will be about how to defeat certain coverages. Today we are going to look at how to beat man coverage. Next week, we will look at Cover 2, then Cover 3, and Cover 4.  Let’s get into it!! […]

Hey Guys, Thanks again for reading and subscribing. Today we are going to look at one of the most often addressed topics in your email questions…No Huddle Communication. I have to warn you, this one is a little long 🙂 Before we get started, if you haven’t downloaded your free Air Raid Playbook yet, click […]

Is football ruining high school? I say yes! Actually, let’s back up. Sports are ruining high school. But, because this is a website about football we will stay with that topic and focus on the ways in which, over the last ten years or so, football, and more specifically football coaches, have begun to undermine […]

The SMASH route may be the most applicable concept for every reader.  Because, whether you are an Air Raid guy or not, you probably have some version of this play in your offense.  Let's get into the SMASH route. Ok, first let's talk about the variations of the SMASH route.  There are a number of [...]

Before I even start talking about the all slant route, I am going to give credit to the best receiver coach that ever worked for me, Mykel Terry.  He has gone on to bigger and better things and is now a very successful OC.   On the surface this is a very simple route, but [...]

I have to admit, I am a little biased toward the option route, because it probably accounted for about half of my catches in college.  But, that being said, it absolutely shreds high school coverage schemes.  Like most of the routes in this offense, the option route stretches the defense both vertically and horizontally.  In [...]

The shallow cross dig concept has been killing defenses ever since Bill Walsh picked up a piece of chalk.  LEVELS is probably the most versatile play in the entire offense.  I love it because the first two reads are short, easy throws and because it gives guys the chance to run after the catch.  Let's [...]

BLUE – The Hitch Seam Concept – Is a great way to stretch the defense horizontally and vertically.

Black – The Stick Arrow Concept

MESH

We all know that this is not the same game that we played growing up. It has changed. It is changing. And it will continue to change. Head injuries, and the media’s constant focus on them, have drastically affected football. So, in most articles written by football coaches, this is the point where the author […]

It is no secret that the Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports. The Quarterback is so important that the entire offensive system is designed around his skill set (or lack of skill set in some cases). Despite the fact that this position is so important, it so often undercoached, especially at […]

Time is your most valuable resource. Let’s look at 5 tips on practice efficiency. Let me ask you a question. What is your practice philosophy? If you cannot answer that question in 10 words or less with anything more than the cliche of, “We work hard and prepare,” you are like a lot of coaches […]

I believe that football is fun! Let me say that again… Football is fun. Or at least it is supposed to be. There are a lot of playbooks. There are a lot of systems. There are a lot of people that have prescriptions for your program. There are a lot of people that know football. There […]

Win With The Pass is a version of the Air Raid System that is based on a few very simple principles. It’s fun. It works. It trains Quarterbacks. It helps reduce injury. No matter your situation, I know that the Air Raid system will benefit your team. The Air Raid System is a hard sell […]

Why do you coach football? Have you ever really asked yourself this question? No…really. Why do you coach football? Why do you give up hours after work, sacrifice time with your family, give your Sundays to the film room? Why do you endure the pain of a loss and barely celebrate a victory? If you can’t answer […]