Having an easy and efficient way to game plan is an extremely valuable asset to have on your side. It can help cut down on the amount of headache, time, and energy needed to effectively come up with a way to move the ball against your opponent. In addition, having an extremely efficient way to game plan can help you out when an opponent does something that wasn't expected. Just like the passing game and defensive coverage, you can have plans to attack certain defensive fronts in the run game. A valuable tool to do this is the "Red - White System".
Red - White System
The "Red - White System" identifies wide (white) sides and reduction (red) sides of a defensive front. In the easiest terms, you are looking to see if the B gap is open or closed to a side of a defensive front. The B gap is closed and considered a red side if there is a defensive lineman either aligned in a 3 tech, B Gap tech, or a 4i tech.
The B gap is open and considered a white side when there is not a defensive lineman aligned in either one of those techniques. Generally, a white side has a defensive lineman playing a 1 tech over the center and 5 through 6i tech over the tackle.
A defensive front can consist of a red and white side, two red sides, or two white sides. For examples, a base over (1a) or under (1b) front consist of a red and white side, a base odd front (2) consist of two white sides, and a base bear (3) front consist of two red sides.
How is The System Used?
The "Red - White System" can be used in multiple ways. It can help in designing your offense's run game, game planning how to attack your opponent’s defense, establishing audibles at the line of scrimmage, and designing a system of "Check (√) With Me's" in your run game. The system is founded on these two things. First, some runs are better ran against a white side and some runs are better against the red side. Second, it is very hard to be able to become GREAT at running each of your run plays against a red and white side of a front because there isn't enough time to get enough reps against both.
As mentioned before, some run plays are more successful against certain side of a defense front. For example, a FB Trap is better ran to a 3 tech (red side) than it is to a 1, 2, 4 or 5 tech (white side). The reason is that a FB Trap is designed to be a quick hitting play just outside the guard. If you are trapping something other than a 3 tech, the attack point changes or the play will be drawn out. The same thing can be said about Inside Zone (IZ). The running back's land mark is usually somewhere between the guard and tackle. It doesn't make since to run IZ at a 3 tech because the 3 tech majority of the time will give your running back a cut back read and that defeats the purpose of downhill zone running play if your back is making cuts in the backfield. However, this doesn't mean IZ can't be ran or can't be successful being ran to the red side of a defense, it just means that because of the play design the play should probably be ran to the white side of a defensive front. The rules and concepts of a run play should hold up when applied to both a red side and white side of a defensive front.
To truly become GREAT at running a certain play, your team needs to get as many good reps as possible of actually what is going to occur in the game. Let's use IZ (a white side run play) for this example. Say you are planning on running IZ about 15 times in a game and you allot 30 reps during the week of practice. You plan on running IZ both to the tight and split side evenly against an over front. This means you get 15 reps against the red side and 15 reps against the white of the over front. However, you can't forget to run them both to the right and left. This cuts down the reps even more. Each side of the line is only getting about 7 to 8 reps against the red and white side at the point of attack. You have just made your offensive line a jack of all trades and a master of none. Using the "Red - White System" the amount of reps double by just running the play to the white/split side, giving you all 30 reps to the white side. Now cut it down by going right and left and the offensive line is getting 15 valuable reps compared to the 7 or 8.
Setting Up Your Running Game
In addition to gaining valuable reps, the system can help to make sure you have a balanced running attack in your offense. First, break down the run plays in an offense. Let’s take for instances a pro-style running game consisting of inside zone, outside zone, power, counter, and toss. The second thing to do is to break the run plays up into plays that attack a white side and plays that attack a red side. Inside zone and counter would be the white side plays, outside zone and power would be the red side play, and toss would be ran to both sides since it is a perimeter play. When the "Red-White System" is applied to a pro-style running game, the number of runs is balanced to both sides. If an offense has too many runs to one side or the other, the design of the offense's running game needs to be reexamined in order to balance the running attack.
Game Planning
With a well thought out and balanced running attack, you can now start to apply the system to your film study and how to attack a defense. The easiest way to do this is by game planning. For example, say you are playing a defense that runs a base 34 odd defense and shifts into a 34 under defense on short yardage situations. The odd front presents you two white sides and the under front presents you with a red side to the split side and a white side to the tight side. When making your call sheet and practice scripts, use majority of your white side run plays to attack the defense against their base 34 odd front, making sure to run both to the split and tight side. In addition, use your red plays to the split side and your white plays to the tight side in short yardage situations to attack the 34 under front. Now you have a easy system for game planning that won't take as much time and energy to put together.
Audibles and "√ with Me's"
To take it a step further than just game planning, the system can be used to check in and out of plays at the line of scrimmage to make sure the offense is getting into the best play possible. Using the system to check in and out of plays takes a coach to trust the quarterback to make smart decisions. "√ Opposite" might be the easiest of the audibles/freedoms to give your quarterback. For example, say you except an over front and call IZ to the split/white side. However, the defense calls a under front with a red side to the split side. At the line of scrimmage, the quarterback should see the B gap is closed on the split side and "√'s Opposite" and now you are running the play to the white side of the defense. "√ with Me's" can be a good call against multiple defense. In this situation, the quarter is going to come to the line of scrimmage and pick the best side of the defense. If the offense is running IZ, the QB is going to look for the white side and audible to that side. Another example of using the system and audibles is to use "Zone √'s". Say you have an All-Conference right guard and All-State right tackle, it forth and short, and you want to run behind them. Instead of calling an exact run play that might get checked to the other side, you can call "Zone √ Right". Now the QB is going to come up to the line check the right side of the defense. If the defense aligns a red side he will check to outside zone and if the defense aligns a white side he will check to inside zone.
Conclusion
The "Red - White System" can be a valuable tool to an offense. Many things can be done with it to assure that the best play is being ran. Below, is a link to a document to further describes the "Red - White System". The document will give you more examples. Also, it covers how to identify the red and white side of an defensive front that presents itself as a dual white sided defense (odd front) through the use of secondary indicators. Some advice: This is great to know but keep is stupid simple (KISS) for the players and leave it at "Is the B gap open or closed?"
Red - White System
If there is anything that you would like me to discuss further let me know. I am open for topics to cover as well. Hope you enjoyed the information on the "Red - White System".
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