S4 - QB Run Game and Play Action Fundamentals

Coaching Football. Building Men.

This is my shout out to the National Football Academies.  I really think what Darin Slack (the Founder and President) and the NFA are doing is great.  Their mission is "Coaching Football. Building Men." They believe that if the only thing you learn from them was how to be a better football player, then they didn't do their job.  Besides teaching our youth what is means to be a respectable adult, their knowledge and teachings of the fundamentals of football is hands down the best.  The main reason I believe this is because they just don't teach you the "What's" of the mechanics but the "Why's".  If you haven't had a chance to visit with the NFA at a camp, clinic, or whatever, I highly advise you to do so.

I would like to talk about the S4 and how the NFA teaches the Quarterback's mechanics in the run game and play action.  The 4 S's stand for Set, Show, Snap, Sell.

Counting System

"If you can count to 3, you can play offensive line."

The counting system is very important when it comes to running any type of zone play (run or pass).  When running a zone play, the counting system tells the offensive line who they are suppose to block and the covered/uncovered system tells them how they are suppose to block.  The counting system ensures that every defender is accounted for in the blocking scheme.  When adding the counting system to a zone system, it really only puts a burden on the Center to recognize and call out #0.  It is very important for the center to be a smart leader because he is setting the blocking schemes on majority of the plays.  The rest of the blockers (offensive line and tight-ends) only have to count out from #0.

What would you like to know more about?

With everything that is going on in my life, I am excite to say that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I have been very busy of the past couple of months and can't wait to get back to digging into the pro-style running. Traffic has pick up since on this blog since Brophy Tweeted about the site.  Thanks for the love!  I hope that in the near future I can resume providing everyone with information they are in search for and the blog can continue to gain popularity.

Post a comment below on some stuff (specif or vague) you would like me to dig into or talk about.  Some items I would like to cover in the near future are the counting system for OZ and IZ, gap scheme rules, and fundamentals in the run game

In the meantime, watch these videos from a few year back of the University of Minnesota running there IZ and OZ (Pin and Pull).