Sail concept

This next concept is a West Coast Offense staple: the "Sail" concept. Another term for the "Sail" concept is the "flood" concept. In this concept, the objective is to "flood" one side of the field, making it difficult for defenders, especially in zone coverage, to cover every receiving threat.

"Sail" concept in play action game

The sail concept in the diagram shows the read progression through the concept. In the diagram, the Z receiver runs vertical to attack the deep coverage of the defense and forcing the defender in that area to stay on top of him. The fullback (F) releases out of the backfield to attack the flat area of the defense and is the quarterback's first option. The tight end (Y) runs the "sail" route, which is meant to attack the intermediate area of the defense behind the flat defender but in front of the deep defender, and is the 2nd option in this concept. On the backside of the formation, the X receiver runs a dig route across the middle of the field and is the 3rd option in the progression as the receiver is moving behind where the defense is flowing from to cover the frontside routes.

All Verticals Concept - part 3

This is the next concept of my "All Verticals" series. So far, I have gone over what I know as the "Arizona" concept and the "Alabama" concept. This post will discuss the "Alaska" concept, which incorporates crossing routes into the All Verts concept package.

All Verticals Concept - part 2

This is the next concept of my "All Verticals" series. Last time, I went over what I know as the "Arizona" concept. This post will delve into a similar concept that attacks the defense a little differently: the "Alabama" concept.

All Verticals Concept - part 1

Thanks to Mike Leach's Air Raid offense, the "All Verticals" concept package has become one of the most popular concepts in college football today. As the concept package name implies, most or all of the routes in this concept group are vertical routes trying to attack the defense down the field. Over the next 4 posts, I'm going to show 4 different All Vertical concepts and show how each concept attacks the defense separately. The first concept of this series is what I call the "Arizona" concept.

Spacing Concept

The Spacing concept is a concept which, as is in its name, is intended to provide spacing between the receivers so a single defender cannot cover 2 receivers at one time. This concept is a great short-yardage play, much like Blade and Q8, but is also a great open field play to pick apart zone defenses and also get some quick passes off before any blitzes can get to the QB.

"Blade" concept

The "Blade" concept is another nice goal line situation concept to run. In the 2009 Humanitarian Bowl the University of Idaho Vandals ran this concept to score the winning 2-point conversion against Bowling Green. The play begins at 7:25.

"Q8" Concept

  For my first post, I figured a nice concept to look at is what I learned as "Q8". Q8 is typically used in goal line situations, and is a great two-point conversion concept.