Run and Shoot Philosophy
Glenn "Tiger" Ellison coached high school football in Middletown, Ohio for 30 years - part of the Greater Ohio League - before becoming an assistant coach at Ohio State. In 1958, his team started 0-4-1 when he drew up the Lonesome Polecat offense. The set had the entire line off to the left with two receivers, two more receivers wide right, and finally just the center and quarterback in the middle of the field. The offense won the final 5 games of the season and posted impressive numbers with mediocre talent.The Polecat was too funky to be a standard offense, though, so Ellison and his assistants formalized it into the Run and Shoot offense. The Ellison Run and Shoot (ERS) only employed one formation: double slot, quarterback under center, single fullback.
Several principles drove the offense:
- Show the fans the football. The fans cannot see the ball when it's buried in a 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense. If the fans can't see the ball, it's hard to get excited. Running to the outside and throwing the ball makes it visible and makes for exciting football.
- Throw to the sidelines. "We discovered that passes thrown into the sideline, long or medium or short, are hardly ever intercepted. . . Therefore sideline passes should outnumber all others in any offensive notebook." (p.27)
- Players must always be moving. Whether this was running fakes, setting up for a screen pass, or even setting up to block, the players in Ellison's system are always moving so the defense cannot key off their actions. If the fullback always runs in a certain direction whether he blocks, carries, or fakes, how can the safety or linebacker make a read off his actions on what the play is until it happens?
- Look to score on every play. As opposed to ball control offense, ERS is not looking to gain small bits of yardage. If there is an incomplete pass or a run for no yardage, no problem. Set up the next down and go at it again. Every play is designed to be able to break for a long gain - there are no plays designed to gain 3 and one third yards.
- Outnumber and outflank the opponent. June Jones, a disciple of Mouse Davis (who was a disciple of Ellison), once repeated the old adage that the Run and Shoot takes what the defense gives it. This is true; if the defense stacks the ends to contain the outside game, it runs inside. If the defense tries to cheat over into position to take away the bread and butter plays, there are designed misdirection and throwback plays to exploit this. A defense that tries to rush the passer will find itself falling victim to designed rollout and anti-blitz plays standard to every play series. The idea is that the defense that overloads one area of the field is obviously underloading a different area - so attack the vulnerable spot.
ERS employs 5 different play series:
- Gangster
- Cowboy
- Wagon Train
- Pop Corn
- Mudcat
As most people already know, the Run and Shoot is designed to spread out the defense by attacking the entire field. The scheme stretches the defense horizontally (through emphasis on throwing to the outsides) as well as vertically (by testing the defensive backs deep on every play). ERS influenced Darrell "Mouse" Davis, a contemporary of Ellison from Oregon, who made a Run and Shoot package which constitutes the modern day Run and Shoot.
Gangster: The Core Passing Game
The Gangster series is basically a flood passing series. One slotback comes in motion to overload the frontside, setting up a two on one situation. Most of the plays are designed to place the frontside linebacker in a hard position, having to choose between covering a wideout or covering a slotback. Either way, one will be open. Many of the strongside rollout pass plays in modern football are very similar to this package.One feature that will be common to all of the play series is the Automatic Pass. Ellison describes situations where a wide receiver feels he has man coverage with a DB who is out of position. He can signal to the QB to automatically throw the ball to him on a quick one step drop instead of running the called play. This is in line with the principle of outflanking the defense and attacking it where it's most vulnerable.
Passes in the Gangster series are all directed to the flooded frontside except the uncalled automatic passes. If the defense tries to overcompensate and cheat extra men over to the frontside, there are predesigned throwback passes that attack the backside and a hitch pass in the package to attack soft corner coverage. To punish overconservative defenses that drop into deep coverage, there is one running play out of this series that works like a double option: the QB rolls out and can keep or pitch to the trailing fullback.
The Counter Pass in the Gangster series is the last backside hitter - Modern waggle plays look very much like this. The quarterback rolls in one direction and the backside slotback crosses the field in front of him for a short pass.
Cowboy: Triple Option
The Cowboy series is exactly the triple option package that was run at the University of Hawaii in the late 80s and early 90s under the guise of the Spread Offense and more recently at the US Naval Academy. In this series, the QB can handoff to the fullback who dives off frontside guard (option 1), pull out and keep it around frontside tackle option 2), or pitch to the backside slotback who is trailing him wider around end (option 3). This is the outside running complement to the Gangster series of sideline passing.This series has a play action rollout pass that can be either directed frontside or backside to punish a defense that tries to overpursue the option. As in the Gangster series, there are backside plays designed to mix it up.
Wagon Train: Wide Sweep Rushing Game
The Wagon Train series is a wide end sweep by the backside slotback. He comes wide and takes a handoff with a pulling guard and the fullback leading the way around the frontside end of the line. "It was more muscular than the first two series; yet it had its deception. It was an old-fashioned guard-pulling arrangement adapted to the Run and Shoot." (p.119)Suppose we have Wagon Train right (left slotback takes a handoff and runs around right end). The QB can fake the handoff and bootleg rollout left, with two options. As always, he can run (continue scrambling) or shoot (throw to the wideouts who run deep routes on every down). There is also a reverse play where the QB hands off to slotback, and then slotback hands off to slotback going in the other direction. This is the kind of deception built into the Wagon Train series. Of course, as always an automatic pass or throwback pass identical to the Gangster or Cowboy series could be called; the only difference would be the types of faking going on (fake Wagon Train handoff instead of fake Cowboy handoff for example).
Pop Corn: Inside Trap
So far, everything has been directed to the outside: sideline passing, triple option, end sweep. To prevent defenses from simply doubling up outside, the Pop Corn series introduces the inside trap. This is a no-frills, standard inside trap play with pulling trap guard. The only twists are the three potential ballcarriers.One set of trap plays works with the FB carrying the ball. Another works with the slotback carrying the ball. Yet a third works with the QB faking to both and keeping it on a draw trap up the middle. Several variations of fakes and trap holes gives sufficient variety. When the trap was successful, there was a regular play action pass that looked very similar route-wise to the Gangster series after all fakes were done.
The standard changeup here was a screen pass. In keeping with the motion philosophy of the offense, everyone was moving at all times, so the defense could not key on a running back sitting in the flat waiting for a pass. The screen and the receiver set up on the move, as the pass was on its way. As always, backside variants and automatic pass checkoffs at the line of scrimmage were standard.
Mudcat: Inside Power Running
Ellison worried that teams could simply stack across the front, drop lots of guys into coverage, and warn their DTs to play for the inside trap. The Mudcat series, designed for bad weather, actually proved to be most useful as an inside running alternative.The Gangster series of outside passes tries to set up a two on one fast break passing game to the frontside. The defenders are outnumbered and outmaneuvered. An automatic pass to the backside gives a favorable situation where the defender is outmaneuvered (otherwise the wideout wouldn't signal for it). The Mudcat works with this idea of outnumbering and outmaneuvering the defense. Suppose the defense drops 3 deep DBs and 2 wide DBs outside the box. That leaves just 6 defenders inside the box to deal with the 9 offensive players (line, QB, and slotbacks) inside. "If we cannot beat them with these odds, we certainly are in a tough league - we should have stood in bed." (p.156)
Mudcat is a basic frontside power run that either goes off guard or off tackle. As in the Pop Corn series, there are plays with the slotback carrying and plays with the fullback carrying. There are also plays where the QB may fake both and run a draw up the middle. This kind of inside power running would take the vulnerable center that the defense gave to the offense.
Only one play out of another series was really well suited to attacking this. When the inside linebacker came as a dog on a blitz, there was an adjustment called the Gangster Red-Dog pass that sent the frontside slotback over the middle into the vacated area. "This play looks great, but we cannot work it fifty times a game." (p.148) A very similar pass play was designed out of the Mudcat series - basically the same route into the empty middle of the defense with Mudcat fakes to deceive the defense.
The home run out of the Mudcat was simply called the Mudcat pass. When the deep middle safety tried to cheat up in run support, the Mudcat pass would slip the frontside wideout behind him on a post pattern for the score. Ellison notes that this play is "the first and only time in our Run and Shoot offense we assigned a specific cut to a deep receiver . . . this specific cut was ordered with the idea in mind that we could now get behind the safety man." (p.161)
Personnel in the ERS
Breaking it down by position, let's see what coach Ellison says to look for:- Quarterback - The quarterbacks Ellison wanted had to have at least fair speed and had to be a pretty good ball handler. Regarding many of his boys who made all-state QB, "none of them was rated great as a passer by his junior high coach, though all were recommended as better than average ball handlers." (p.165)
- Wide Receivers - Although the split ends on the field had to be able to make a few downfield blocks, "the ends above all else had to catch the football." So much was the emphasis on hands that "we hoped they had speed, but we would not bench them as long as they could catch better than anybody else." (p.166)
- Fullback - This guy had to be willing to pound the ball for tough yards inside and take poundings to sell good fakes. The fullback had to be a good blocker for the Gangster series and had to be a good inside runner for the Cowboy, Popcorn and Mudcat series plays.
- Running Backs - "The first requirement of the halfbacks was ball-carrying ability. They needed speed, because an effective Wagon Train Sweep struck suddenly for distance and set up a great scoring weapon in the quarterback's fake to the halfback followed by a throwback to the backside. Secondly, a halfback had to be a catcher of footballs, second only to the ends in this respect, though most of his receiving was of a shorter nature with less maneuvering." (p.167)
- Center - The center is the anchor of the Run and Shoot line. "He did not need great ability - he needed desire, dedication, and devotion, because his vital spot in the line-up was so often unheralded by those who sat in the stands." (p.167)
- Guards and Tackles - Although the Run and Shoot is primarily a passing offense, the interior linemen need the physical toughness to play the power running game of the Mudcat and Pop Corn series. Ellison describes the way he appealed to the guys he wanted to play line: "We selected you because we consider you the toughest kids in the community. We think you boys would be willing to beat a grizzly bear to death with a ball bat if you had to." (p.168)
