Multiplicity

In the world of offensive football, some coaches believe “the simpler the better.” They will use three to four formations per game, which will allow for the reduction of assignment errors by the players. However, the offense becomes limited in its options. Other coaches take the approach of creating personnel mismatches through multiple formations; they will enter a game with as many a 15 to 20 formations. The first step is to introduce your team to the base formation. Everything starts with the Pro Formation (See Diagram 1).


Diagram 1. Pro Formation

From this formation, every play is developed with the idea of implementing it to the other formations. The other formations usually have different personnel grouping.


Diagram 3A. Speed Personnel Florida Formation


Diagram 3B. Ace Personnel Vegas Formation


Diagram 3C. Deuce Personnel Dallas Formation


Diagram 3D. Trio Personnel Houston Formation

Each formation gives the defense something extra to think about. The more formations you enter each game with, the more the defense has to prepare for, thus allowing the offense to dictate to the defense.

Other formations are developed (See Diagram 3).

The use of different personnel groupings will allow you to create better mismatches and put your better athletes in position to get the ball and make plays (See Diagrams 4 and 5).


Diagram 4. Ace Personnel Vegas Formation


Diagram 5. Ace Personnel Florida Formation

As you can see, there is a natural mismatch with the slot receiver and the weak side linebacker in Diagram 4. To increase the offensive advantage, Ace Personnel is used in the Florida Formation where the TE (Y) is split wide and the WR (Z) is placed in the slot to match up with a linebacker.

One of the great advantages of this offense is that you can run the same pass plays with all formations (See Diagrams 6 and 7). In regular base play, you have the ability to run it in a regular – Pro Formation or our speed – Florida Formation.


In Diagrams 6 and 7, you run the same pass play out of Pro Formation and Florida Formation. In Florida Formation, the Z-receiver is taking the Y (TE) route (Pro Formation), the T – receiver is taking the Z – receiver route (Pro Formation), the A – back is taking the B – back route (Pro Formation), the Q-receiver is taking the A – back route (Pro Formation), and the X – receiver route stays the same.


Diagram 6. Regular Personnel Pro Formation


Diagram 7. Speed Personnel Florida Formation

Implementing the same personnel with different formations

The implementation of the same personnel groupings with different formations is done in the classroom and on the practice field. The use of the personnel groupings, with different formations takes place after the installation of all formations. Once this is done, you can use a daily period to implement on-the-field and run plays from the formations. This period is called “show time.” It is also used in a RVA (routes versus air) period and a team period.

Related Videos
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FV 01295B Multiple Formations and Personnel Grouping (Williams and Atkins)
FV 00414 No Frills Belly I Power Offense (Tighe)
FV 01875 Red Zone Offense: Passing Plays to Score (Coker)

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