The Texas City Shotgun/Spread Formation

Coach and Athletic Director, Sept, 2001 by Pete Gareri, Jr.

Not Just for Passing

FOOTBALL TEAMS WITH ATHLETIC quarterbacks usually produce more interesting and prolific offenses. At Texas City High School, we have been utilizing a prototype running back at quarterback since 1993.

In the process, our Multiple I has given rise to a one-back Shotgun/Spread formation in which our versatile QB hands off or runs the ball more often than the S-back or tailback.

In our base I formation, our S-back will run the following plays: 14-15 Iso, 18-19 Toss, 18-19 Sweep, 1617 Counter, and 16-17 F (Power Play).

In our Gun/Spread formation, our QB will run all of these plays as the ball-carrier. Our S-back will be the #1 back and our QB the #4 back. When we want the QB to run the ball, we call the formation and the play as follows: 44-45 Iso, 48-49 Toss, 48-49 Sweep, 46-47 Counter, and 46-47 F (Power).

Our Multiple-I is a ball-control offense in which the play ratio is 70% run and 30% pass. Obviously, our offensive line is going to be more conscious of run blocking than pass protection.

When we began seeing defenses constantly loading up on the LOS with 8-man and 9-man fronts, we had to create a way to move the football via the air as well as on the ground.

That's when we came up with the Shotgun/ Spread formation, which incorporated a tight end in the package (Diag. 1). This gave us a strong side to create the edge we needed. It also gave us a greater threat to pass, as long as we utilized the QB as a ball-carrier. We would use all of our run schemes out of the Gun formation by using the QB in the tailback position.

Since the fullback remains in the backfield in our Gun formation, he can be used as our blocking back, just as in our I formation.

This formation allowed us to create a strong side to the tight end and a weak side away from the tight end. But, since we were still getting defenses aligning strong to our tight end, it made us run our run package to the open side a lot more.

One way to counter a defense that is aligning strong is by motioning our Z receiver across the formation to change to a trips-tight formation (Diag. 2). This can get a weaker force player to the tight-end side, possibly a hard/rolled up corner.

Another option is to motion our SB/A receiver across the formation to make a trey-open formation (Diag. 3). This can spread the defense on the strong side (to our tight end), which will give us an advantage in our run game to the tight end side.

We can also make an over call to line up these receivers in the above mentioned formations without motioning them.

Motion can be an advantage sometimes, but it's easier if you can get the defense to shift their alignment without it. It is simpler to make true calls at the LOS instead of after the motion when there's no time on the 25-second clock. Thus, by changing strengths with motions or over calls out of our basic Gun formation, we can sometimes get an advantage by showing multiple formation to the defense.

The accompanying play sheets show our basic run plays being run by the tailback out of the I formation and by the QB out of the Gun formation (vs. a 4-3 defense).

As you can see, if you have an athlete at QB, you can present the defense with a lot of problems by spreading them out and utilizing the QB as a ball-carrier. You can also see that the blocking schemes are the same for both plays.

At Texas City H.S., we begin converting our QBs into running backs when they reach seventh-grade football. To do this, you have to have the backing of all of the coaches, as you are going to put the young man into a position that will expose him to greater risk than if he was simply a hand-off/drop-back passer.

We believe in our offense and we believe in using the QB as a running back. It has helped our offensive production tremendously and given us two Texas High School Football state championships to show for it!