There's been quite a bit of discussion lately relating to youth spread. I thought I'd start a dedicated thread for this so we could continue to discuss the pro's & cons/in's & out's of spread football concepts in youth ball. As some of you already know, I've been pretty enamored as of late with Big C's youth spread playbook. I like the idea of being able to spread 'em out and still run the ball, while also being able make the swing passes for screens and such. Like I said, my research into youth spread started with Big C's playbook but I've also been looking at Jack Gregory's eagle package, and just recently I bought Tom Lewis's spread single wing DVD (he also threw in his hybrid pistol DVD as well, thanks coach!); both of those were great.
I love the tackle trap concepts from Big C's playbook; the simplicity and versatility make for a pretty good off tackle running series IMHO. I like the idea of kicking out one DE while reading and running away from the other, and depending on formation/motion, you could still hit the point of attack with up to three blockers and the ball carrier. TKO blocking would be the ticket for this I believe. Quite alot of heated discussion has gone on regarding the use of wide gaps as well; personally, I would like to use gaps closer to 10", no more than a foot otherwise TKO blocking would be super tough.
Shortpunter's DVD's also have me pondering the possibilities of using an unbalanced line, how a blocking back could be utilized, and the misdirection of the spin. Motioning a slot from a 2x2 spread to the traditional BB position and running buck lateral was really cool IMHO. His hybrid pistol runs off tackle in a similar manner to the tackle trap that run from Big C's playbook.
Thoughts?
J
There are a hundred reasons why it works but there is only one reason why it does not.
Commitment.
You either go into this thing as a pass to set up the run offense or a run to set up the pass offense.
The latter is easiest, the former more difficult regardless of your talent pool. Balance is impossible until you have a few seasons with the same kids. Just not enough practice time.
I played for a very small private HS back in the early 70’s. They were a basketball powerhouse and football was that other sport. Back then you could declare what division you wanted to play in regardless of the size of enrollment. Obliviously to attract the blue chippers for round ball we played in the 5A division.
I played in two Football State Championships.
Why? Tiger Ellison’s Lonesome polecat. I played H back and this was well before this term had been coined.
So that stuck with me. The first opportunity I had to run a wide-open pass first offense with youths I went all in. The very first game I will never forget. A 56-0 beat down of an opponent we had never beaten in 4 tries. I had to go before the BOD for running up the score when the reality was every 3rd or 4th pass was a TD and we didn’t have a running game yet. These were 10 year olds and I even remember how hot it was that day.
Thereafter and having made every possible mistake known to football I learned how to run this offensive philosophy without getting the QB killed. In the last 20 years I have probably won 75% of the time with probably 10 different teams and have 6 youth championships with blind draft no tryout non select teams. Matter of fact, after my son went off to HS I got into the habit of taking over existing teams in different stages of disarray. Been doing that the last few years as well with mixed results but on average they do get better on Offense. Just need to figure out a defensive strategy now.

J…buddy…I have read all the threads and pretty much stop posting anymore because it just does not matter. Coaches will laugh at you and tell you they slaughter every spread team they have played. Im sure this is accurate because we all used to slaughter all of the Pro I offenses that daddy coaches ran after watching Saturday afternoon football as well....still do. Now it’s simply the spreads turn.
I still laugh at the naysayer coaches. They are not as commonplace anymore because so many are intrigued these days but these types just don’t get it and never will until they fully commit and give it a try.
Like anything…go all in and you will see the benefits. Go half a$$ and you will fail.
Coach Mike