It Takes Two (Backs) at GMC

From the issue

October 2003

Junior college football at Georgia Military College has been synonymous for years with great defensive football. In addition to setting an all-time NJCAA mark for total defense at 67.6 yards per game in 2001, our defensive unit has finished in the top five nationally four out of the last five years. Our defensive unit has also developed a number of All-Americans, including the defensive player of the year in 2001.

Diagram 1.
Strong vs. 53

Diagram 2.
Strong vs. 35

Diagram 3.
Strong vs. 3-3

Diagram 4.
Weak vs. 53

Diagram 5.
Weak vs. 35

Our team success, however, has not rested solely on the exploits of our defensive unit. Our offensive unit has proven repeatedly to be more than capable of taking over football games and leading our team to victory. Over the last five years, our offense has averaged over 200 yards per game each season, over 35 points per game and finished in the Top 10 three times. Our commitment to a two-back system has allowed us to consistently run the football with success, to develop a successful, “big play” play-action pass package, and to provide our quarterback with a consistently sound protection package for the drop-back passing game. While many teams nowadays are moving to a wide-open, one-back attack, we have enjoyed great success and brought home a lot of wins with our two-back system at GMC.

GMC Ground Attack

While our run package has a good number of different plays, we go into each year with the understanding that we must become very good at two “bread and butter” plays: the ISO and G POWER. We can run the plays from practically every offensive formation and set and with various blocking schemes that can be checked at the line.

ISO

The ISO is a very simple play to teach, but not quite so simple to run. Success with the ISO is often as much due to the state of mind of the offensive unit as it is their ability to execute the play. Briefly stated, our rules for blocking the play are:

WR’s Stalk Man On vs. Cover 3; Push- Crack vs. Cover 2
TE Block Man On;
Fan vs. Quick Support
PST Block Tackle; Fan if called
All other OL Block Gap away from call
B (FB) ISO Block PSLB
A (TB) Attack outside foot of OG,
cut off block of first DL to play

We give the play to our quarterback as a check at the line play, and he has the ability to check to the three-step game or to our option game if the defense aligns nine in the box against us. Against a defense that aligns an outside linebacker or safety to the weak side, we will use a twins formation or motion to twins to get him blocked. Otherwise, we would take the play strong. We also run the play from various sets and motions, a few of which are diagramed below. Running the play from our “GUN” formation gives us a draw with essentially no extra teaching. Using the RIP/LIZ “Fly” set and motion has also given us a great changeup to the play since we run a varied group of plays from that formation and motion.