2 Minute Off - Neiheisel

8/14/2019 2 Minute Off - Neiheisel

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THE TWO-MINUTE OFFENSE

U N I V E R S I T Y O F C O L O RA D O

M y ec tu re t oday i s on t he Two-Minu te Offense . Whe nyou t a lk abou t Two-M inu te Offense , you a re t a lk inga b o u t s o m e t h i n g t h a t s o m e b o d y s c r e w s u p e v er yweek . I t doesn ' t m a t t e r whe the r you a re t a lk ing h ighschoo l , col lege, or p ro. Our job as c oaches is to m akes u re w e a r e n o t t h e o ne s s c r e w in g i t u p. I k n o w t h a tpeop le s i t and wa tc h games in t he l a s t t w o minu te sand can 't be lieve some of the th ings th a t a re done . Butyou and I kn ow whe n i t ge t s t ha t t ime in a game andthe gam e i s on the l ine , th a t s ide l ine i s no t as ca lm asi t m ight have been . The press boxcommunication ge t sk ind of ga rb led bec ause people a re los ing the i r cool .Tha t i s wh y you have t o be fu l l y p r epa red t o f i nd a wa yt o w in t he gam e. A-l: l eas t i f you screw i t up you 'l l havea r ea son fo r w h y you sc r ewed i t up .

I 'm n o t g o i n g o v e r s p e c i f i c p l a y s b e c a u s e o f t h ed i f f e r e n t t y p e s o f o f f e n s e s t h e r e a re . I 'm g o in g t ocon cen t ra te on a check l i s t so tha t you wi l l lhave a l l ther igh t equ ipmen t t ha t i t t akes t o be succes s fu l in th i ss i t ua t i on . The s econd pa r t o f my t a lk w i l l be on ho w

t o c o a c h t h e q u a rt e rb a c k s o h e k n o w s w h a t y ou a relooking for in thos e c r i t ica l mom ents .

I s t a r t ed coach ing a t UCLA as a g r adua t e a s s i s t an t . Ih a d t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o c o a c h Troy A ik m a n . A f t e r Ib e c a m e a f u l l - t im e a s s i s t a n t w e f i n a ll y m a d e i t t o t h eRose Bo wl . We p layed Wiscons in in 1993, the yearbe fore I l e f t t o go t o Co lo rado. W e d idn 't p l ay ve ry w e l land had a l o t o f t u rnove rs . Bu t a t t he end o f t h e gamew e w e r e o n l y d o w n 21-16 an d h a d a c ha n c e t o w i n i tw i t h a t o u c h d o w n . T h er e w e r e a b o u t 4 0 s e c o nd s l e f ta nd w e w e r e g o in g r i g h t d o w n t h e f ie l d. We h a d it t othe 40 -ya rd l i ne go ing i n w i th a t h i rd dow n and e igh t .We h i tJ. J. Stokes w i t h a pa s s and he t u rned i t i n to abig gainer toth e 18-yard l ine. There w er e 10 secondsl e f t on t he c lock . We had a f ir s t d ow n bu t notinie-outs .W e s igna l ed t he qua r t e rback t o t h ro w i t i n t heg roundand run the c lock p lay. He looked a t us , took th e snap,a n d g o t s a c k ed . T h e re w a s n o w a y t o g e t a l l ou rp l aye r s back and snap t he ba ll . Wiscons in knew w e

sc rewed up and t ha t w as t h e l onges t t en s econds o fm y l if e. We c o u l d h av e g o t t e n t w o c h an c es a t t h e e n dzone and probably could have w on t he gam e becauseo f t h e momen tum. Wa tch ing t hose t en s econds comeof f t he c lock , I made up my m ind a t t h a t po in t t ha t anyqua rt e rback I coached wou ld k no w ho w t o hand le t ha ts i tua t ion .

T h e f ir s t t h in g y o u w a n t t o d o in t h e l a s t t w o m i n u te sis CHANGE YOUR OFFENSE. If you are a wis hb on e te amyou have t o come up w i t h some th ing a l i t t l e d i f f e r en tthan you norma l ly do. Choose an offense th a t bes t f i t syour scheme. W it h your personnel , MA KE SURE YOUHAVE YOLlR BEST PLAYERS IN THE GAM E. W hamazes me some t imes i s wa t ch ing t eams t ha t haveth ree o r fou r good wide r ece ive r s , bu t have tw o o fthem s i t t i ng on t he bench a t t h is t ime , w h i l e a b ig t i gh tend i s s t i l l in the game.

W h e ~ i s t a r t t al k in g a b o u t t h r e e a nd fo u r w i d erece ive rs t he nex t im por t an t t h ing i s PROTECTION

N o w y ou h a v e t o p r o t e c t w i t h s i x g u y s i n s te a d o fseven . Wha teve r o ff ense you choose you need t heabi l i ty to pro tec t aga ins t seven guys . Th at keeps youf r o m h a v in g t o t l i r o w h o t p a t t e r n s a n d s i g h ta d j u s t m e n t s t o p r e s s ur e . W h e n t h e d e f e n s i v ec o o r d in a t o r s g e t a l i t t l e t h r e a t e n e d , th e y s t a r treaching for theirg ldns , which w e c a l l a b l i tz . I f yourqua r t e rbackd oes~ i ' t ave t he equ ipmen t t o hand le t heb l it z , you a r e n o t sound . I t h ink you have t o a lway sblock seven w i t h your scheme. That doesn ' t mean youa re go ing t o keep s even i n t o b lock , i t s imp ly m eansyou have t he ab i l it y t o b lock s even i f you need t o .

In the T wo-M inute per iod you need t o go t o your ROLEPEOPLE. Don't be so depend ent on one guy th a t wh enhe is ou t of the gam e you can ' t keep i t go ing . This i sno t so necessary for - the Tw o-M inute dr ive , bu t in thefour- or e ight -minute drive i t is ex t rem ely im por ta n tM ayb e you 're behind by t w o ouchdo wns and you havet o go t o t he hu r ry -up ea r l ie r. M ayb e you don ' t have


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backups at every position, but at least you have given In the Two-Minu te off ense you have t o have b ot hsome thought about the su bst itu tio n pat te rn . There CONTROL AND CHUCK PASSES. You need one of eachis nothing more defl atin g to a team in the Two-Minute of these passes and probably t w o in the CONTROL

Drill than t o have a tired player. pass for every formation you decide t o use.

The ne xt th ing you have to do is choose PLAYS ANDFORMATIONS. The key here is n ot t o have to o many.A t UCLA our t ot al package was available in the TwoMinutes. The positive was h e could call anything hewanted. The negative was i t was t oo much for thequarterback t o have at t ha t time of th e game. Therewas to o much thinking involved. I hink you should limitthe amount of plays you need. Iscouted a I-~igh chooltea m whos e Two-Minute Drill was one play and oneformation. They kept running the same play over andover again. That is a little simplistic, but there is alesson t o learn. Wha t you can handle is wha t you canexecute. If you can execute wh at you are doing youhave a much better chance of being successful.Whe ther i t be plays or formations, make sure you don'thave too many things to tr y t o be good at.

The ne xt thin g is whe n t o CHUCK OR TOCONTROL THEBALL. Let me give you anexarr~ple f th is before I talkabout it. If it is la te in the game and you have 70 yardsto go wi th 1 minute and 10 seconds t o go, wha t is your

thinking ? For sirr~ple rithmet ic, so you can ge t an ideaabout h ow t o call plays, tha t rninute and10 seconds is70 seconds. We have t o go 70 yards in 70 seconds. Acontrol play by definiti on is a play th at you are goingt o hit 80 percent o f t he time, which is designed t o go10 yards. You may throw it for five yards, but by thetime the run is completed you have betwe en 8-lo yards.The control pl ay is the quarterback looking to ge t thecompletion. He is looking for t he big play but w il l takethe comple tion th at is given him. If I have t o go 70 yardsin 70 seconds, I have time t o ta ke seven straig htpossession passes and be in the end zone using thecontroll ed game.

I am not in a desperate situation. I don't have t o th rowthe opposite of the CONTROL pass, which is theCHUCK pass. A chuck by definiti on is a pass I'm goingt o t r y t o h i t f or 20 yards or more. If I change thenumbers from 70 seconds t o 40 seconds, I can't affo rdt o take the yardage 10 yards at a time. I have to shootfor bigger things.

Make sure the plays you plan on using in .this portio nof the game are PLAYS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH.Make sure the pla ys are adaptable t o any coverage.Just as your team has a Two-Minute Offense, thedefense has a Two-Minute Defense. Mo st Two-MinuteDefenses have one base variety, wh eth er it is a cover-2 or cover-3 stru cture. Defensive coaches don't like toplay a Prevent Defense. They think Prevent Defensesprevent them from winning. But they structure theirTwo-Minute Defense wit h t ha t in mind. They have builtinto the structure of the defense not t o give up thebig play and keep everything in front of them. Afterthe o ffense completes a couple of .the cont rol passes,the coordinator goes for his guns and comes wi th t heblit z. Your plays have t o be adaptable t o Cover 2 and3, and your protectio r~ as t o hold up t o he blitzes tha twill come if you are successful in completing somettlrows. Whe n th e blitzes come, your receivers havet o know i t and be able t o beat the man coverage.

As you are putting together your inventory for this

offense, you are going t o need SPECIALTY PLAYS. Thefirst type of play you need is one for the RED ZONE.You want your quarterback t o know wha t t o call whenhe gets into the RED ZONE. RED ZONE offense iscritical. You need plays from every form atio n you aregoing to use to atta ck the end zone.

Next you have t o have a l is t o f CLOCK-STOPPER PLAYS.We need a signal for grounding the ball. Everyonecomes back to the same formation and on the firstsound the ball is grounded. You need t w o pl ays whichwi ll ge t you chunks of yardage but at t he same timeallo w you t o get the ball O I J ~ f bounds. A t th e highschool and college level w e have an advantagebecause the clock stops on made first downs. But i tonly stops temporarily.We w ant pattern s designed soth at we are looking at receivers in levels. In everysituation we have the opportunity to get the ball outof bounds.


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Everyone has t o have a HAlL MA RY PLAY. Two yearsago C olorado had a HAlL MAR Y PLAY against Michigan.Tha t p l ay was show n a l l over t he coun t ry. The funny.thing abou t t ha t game w as us t be fo re ha l f we had thesame p lay. I t wa s ju s t abou t t o the same pa r t o f - thef i e ld . Two o f t he th ree wid e r ece ive rs go t knockeddo wn on tha t p l ay ju s t be fo re ha l f t ime . A t h a l f t imew e made an adjus tment on the wide rece iver's p a t t er nt o g e t t h e m a w a y f r o m t h e c h uc k a t t h e l in e o fs c ri m m ag e . L i t t le d i d w e k n o w w e w o u l d h a ve t o u s eth a t p l ay aga in . Bu t t h is t ime i t worked and a l l t hep raye r s were answered .

The LAS T PLAY is a tough call for the quarterback. Thisis somet t- ling a l o t o f peo ple don ' t take t ime t o do . I fyou have no t ime-o uts and t ime for only one p lay, thequar terback has to c a l l the p lay, wh at is he going tocal l? A t Colorado w e have three LAST PLAYS. We haveone for inside . the 20. W e have one for the 3 5-20 . Wehave one for ou ts ide the 35 -yard l ine . A lo t of peopledon 't t ake the t ime t o p rac t i ce it . W ha t you ge t is t hequa r t e rback th ro win g the ba l l undernea .th and thereceiver ge t t ing tack led as t ime is running out .

A play w hich i s over looked a l l the t ime is a MANEUVERPLAY. This ty pe of p lay i s used to center the ba l l for a

f i e ld g o a l a t t e m p t . R ig h t a f t e r t h e g a m e w e p l ay e daga ins t Mich igan w e w en t t o Texas. I t was a 31-31footba l l game and we were dr iv ing for the w inning f ie ldgoa l. We had the ba l l on the r igh t hash mark wi th ar i g h t - f o o t e d k i ck e r. We h a d n o t p r a c t ic e d a p l a y t omove the ba l l t o t he cen te r o f t he f i e ld . We ended uprunning a p lay and los t - three yards . We were for tuna tebecause w e made th e k ick. Three years ear l ie r whe n Iwa s a t UCLA w e had the exact same play agains t USC.W e didn 't have a center ing p lay. The p lay w e ran los tabout four yards and the k ick h i t the crossbar and thegame ended in a t ie . I t t akes abou t t w o minu tes to p u tth i s t ype o f p l ay in and you w i l l have i t fo r t he r e s t o fthe season. You kn ow h o w kickers are. If they don' t l iketo k ick of f of one hash or the o ther, make sure you canaccommoda te them.

The ne xt thing is COMMUNICATION. Tha t is extrem elyimpo r t an t . Tha t b r ings to mind the s to ry abou t - thecoach whose f i r s t - t eam qua r t e rback go t h u r t . He tookthe second qua r t e rback and to ld h im they we re wa y

ahead and he d idn ' t wa n t t o t ake any chances . Hwa nte d h im to run three quar terback sneaks and put h e b a l l . H e w e n t i n t o t h e g a m e a n d r a n th e f i rquar terback sneak. He broke a tack le and gained 3yards on the play. On the second sneak, he gained 2yards . He came to the l ine of scrimmage, ra n anothqua r t e rback sneak , b roke a t ack le and w en t t o thf ive-yard l ine . On the next p lay the k id punted the bThe coach go t t h e k id o f f and a sked h im wha - th e w a sthinking. The quarterb ack said, "I f igure d w e ha d dumb est coach in America."

There a re a coup le o f d i f fe ren t w ays t o ca l l t he p l aYou can le t your qu arterb ack d o i t , or you can signain. If your quarterb ack is cal l ing th e plays, you havsharp kid. There is less pressure on the q uarte rback ca l l t he p l ays in the Two-M inu te Offense than the ron al l the crazy pe ople on the sideline. If you have experienced quar terback w h o can ca l l the p lays , this t he w ay to go . Unfo r tuna te ly, t hose types g raduaaf t er four years and you 're le f t w i t h the inexperiencquarterback.

I f you go o s ignals you ' ll g e t ascrew-up just w h e n y oudon ' t need i t . Somet imes i t ge ts cumbersome in tht h o u g h t p r o c e s s . S o m e t i m e s y o u s e n d a p l a y i

because i t i s eas ier tha n th e s ignal . Wh at I like i scornbinat ion o f bo th . W e s ignal in the form at ion . a re going t o he lp him wi t h the format ion and tha t ' sO n ce t h e f o r m a t i o n c o m e s i n t o t h e g a m e t hqua r t e rback kno ws he has th ree choices f rom thafo rma t ion . He has t w o CONTROL PASSES and oCHUCK PASS. Based on the si tuation, the qua rterbaknow s wh a t t o ca l l. I f he has 70 ya rds and 70 secont o d o i t in, he can go t o his COI\ITROL passing gamTha t means he has t w o p lays t o choose f rom. He fee l ing the game because he i s p laying and he kno wwh ich pass he wi l l use . I f the s i tua t ion c a l l s for tCHUCK PLAY he has on ly one choice . It doesn't requa l l t h e h a n d s i g n a ls a n d r e d u c e s t h e c h a n c e omistakes.

T h e n e x t p a r t i s c r i t i c a l . You h a v e t o p r a c t i c e t ho ffense . For m os t h igh schoo l t eams a common w ato p rac t ice the Two-Minu te Dr i l l i s a f t e r p rac t i ceTl iursday before the game on Friday. I t is hard t o f it ime to prac t ice th is pa r t of your game plan . I have


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suggest ion. During two-a-days when you areconditioning your team, this is a good time t o practicethe Two-Minu te Drill. If you are going to signal plays

in, this is a good time for you to practice also. If thequarterback is going t o cal l the plays, this gives himvaluable experience. We don't let them huddle. One ofour coaches will act as the referee, and they are toassume th at every play stops wi th the clock running.We can practice gett in g out of bounds. This is aconditioning period also. Everyone has to run and catchup wi th the b all and do things like i t was a real gamesituation. You get a lot of work done on your Two-Min ute Drill and get in that conditioning you need.

Mo st defenses in a Two-Minut e situation have a basedefense. It is generally going to be a 2- r 3-deepstructure. Whe n you practice th e Two-Minute DrlII, puta pass skeleton o ut there. You don't need the rush, butyou do need t o see coverages. This gives you a chancet o see if the play you have picked goes against thedefenses you think they will play. Against a 2-deepw i t h 5 under, you wa nt a high -low principle in yourpatterns. The patterns want to isolate one defenderand have a receiver under h im and over him. That keepshim from covering b oth p atterns. These patte rns workthe fie ld vertically. Against the 3-deep you want to

str etc h lat era lly because they are going to have onlyfour underneath defenders.

The la st thing you have to do in practicing the Two-Minu te Drill is t o make sure your pr otection holds upagainst the blitzes you are going to get. That has t otake place in a team period wi th defense. This lets youcheck your plan out befo re you get in to agame and findout you are on the wro ng track. It is bett er to find outin practice instead of in the game, wh en i t is to o late.

I told you not t o stop the drill t o coach. It has t o be acontinuing drill to give the right mind-set of what issupposed t o be going on. But there is a certai n amountof dec is ion making tha t has to be done on thequarterback's par t. The perfect I:ime for tha t t o happenis during the two-a-day workouts. That is when youhave a lo t of individual meetings wi th the quarterbackscoach and the quarterbacks. I have a board wi th thefield divided up on it. I want every situation known t oman to come into these meetings. I give him situation

af te r si-tuation on the board and have him give me theplay he is going to run. We wan t t o get a t least 30drives on the board in an hour's time. I make no tes t o

myself about things I wan t t o put the quarterbackthrough.

There are three situations you have to deal w ith .Number one is whe n you need a tou chdo wn. Numbertw o, and it could ust as easily be 1A, because you needt w o touchdowns. The third situati on is when you needa field goal. The l east talked about need for -the Two-Minute drill is at the end of the first half.

In coaching the quarterback, the f irst thing thequarterback has to be ready t o do is lead his tea m t o atouchdown at the end of the game. All w e have to te llour team is t o play as fast as possible, get out ofbounds whenever possible, and ge t in to the end zone.On the quarterback's checklist, th e fi rs t thing he want sto know is where he has to take the team. The nextthing he wants t o know is ho w many time-outs he has.The only reason for a time-ou t is t o get more plays.We don't use the time- out t o make decisions or thinkabout wh at we are going t o do. All those decisionsshould already be made before now. We al l fa ll in tothose pitfall s and use the tim e-outs for those reasons.

On a touchdo wn drive the quarterback is going to usehis first time-out a t or around one minute and 30seconds. For the sake of the lectu re, let's say th e drivestar ted a t 1:42 to go and 70 yards. On the first playwe ge t a first down. We don't call time-out. We try t obeat the movement of the chains while the clock isstopped. We might lose 2 or 3 seconds, b ut w e wi llgain a play. The clock sta rts a t 1:34 and w e h it anothercon trol pass, which is good for 8 yards. With 1:27 w etake our first time-out.A lo t of people don't believethat is the t ime to cal l t ime-out . But i f w e do w eprobably save one and possibly t w o plays dependingon how far your receivers have to come back to theline of scrimmage. You have an oppor tuni ty t o use at ime-out r ight there and you don' t know i f tha topportunity is going to come again. The w or st sin is todie at the end of agam e wit h time-ou ts in your pocket.If he uses a time-out at 1:37, I'm not going t o ge t toonitpicky ab out the 1:30. That t ime keeps it simple andno t hard to keep track of. If you have only t w o time-


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outs , take one of the m around the minute mark . I f youhave only one t ime-o ut , takeit around the 30-secon d

mark.

W e don 't w or ry abou t s co r ing too f a s t . I f you s t a r twor ry ing abou t t ha t , you ge t t o o conse rva tive . I f youdon ' t score , you 'l l ha te yourse l f . The idea is t o score .I f you do, you pu t the s i tua t io n back on your defense .Wh en you need a touchdown, t akeit any t ime you cang e t i t . The f ie ld goal is another m at te r. You wan t t ot ake a l l t he t ime o ff t he c lock be fo re you k ick the f i e ldgoal .

The re a re tw o ph ilosoph ies abou t w ha t t o do i f t hequa r t e rback ge t s s acked . F ir s t we w an t t o coach theheck ou t o f t h e qua r t e rback so he doesn 't t ake thes ac k. We w a n t h i m t o t h r o w t h e b a l l a w a y i f h e ca n.But somet imesit doesn' t happen. If you ge t sacked andyou hav ea t ime-ou t l e f t , c a l l i t . I have reasons fo r t ha t .A f t e r a sack , your offe nse i s demoral ized . The sackbreaks the r hy thm o f your dr ive . The t ime-ou t givesyour l inemen t ime t o ca tch the i r b rea th and le ts yourtea m relax. You wi ll have much more success on yournex t p l ay i f you ca l l t he t ime-ou t t hen .

The ne xt th ing is the RED ZONE. The quarterback needsto kn ow t ha t t he RED ZONE i s d i f f e ren t f rom a p l ays e l e c ti o n s t a n d p o i n t . H e a l so n e e d s t o k n o w t h eme n ta l i t y o f t he de fens ive coord ina to r. Th is i s t hep lace tha t de fenses a re mos t l ike ly t o ump in to mancoverage to t r y t o make a b ig p lay. Wh en the game isin the ba lance, a coordinator wa nts t o make somethinghappen. Ho w many o f you sa w the Michigan-Virgin iagame on nat ional TV in the f i r s t gam e of the season?Michigan moved r ight dow n the f ie ld to the 12-yard ine .Wi t h15seconds t o go . They had four p lays f ro m there .On th a t four th do wn , wh at d o you ca l l? Virg in ia s tayedzone and go t bea t . The qua r t e rback needs t o knowth at in the RED ZONE there is a goo d possibil i ty for ab l i t z . D o w n i n t h eRE DZ ON E w e d e f i n i t e l y n e e d aseven-man protec t ion .

T h e L A S T P LAY n e e d s t o b e s c h o o l e d i n t o t h equa r te rback . He needs to kno w exac t ly wh a t h i s l a s tp lay i s going to be in each sec t ion of th e f ie ld . Makesure he unders tands the d iv isions of t he f ie ld .

He has to have a good unde r st and ing o f when t o usethe CLOCK PLAY. Ki l ling the c lock takes abo ut f ive

seconds. Throwing the ba l l i n to the end zone t akesabo ut f ive seconds per play.

I coached Troy Aikman a t UCLA. W e w ere number onein the co untry and7-0.We w e n t t o Wa s h i ng t on S t a t eto p lay. Dennis Er ickson was s t i l l t he coach there . Heh a d a g r e a t q u a r te r b a c k. W e w e r e a h e ad 2 7 - 6 a n dlooked li ke w e we re go ing to s t eamro l l t hese guys .They caugh t fi re . The game came dow n to the end w i ththem leading34-30. T h ey h a d t o p u n t t h e b a l l t o u s .This is wh yI go back to the inven to ry to make sureIhave the r ight personnel in the game. Our Tw o-M inuteOffense w as a t h ree -wide r ece ive r, two-back o ffense .This meant one of our bes t p layers , the t ig ht end, wa sno t in the game . Bu t w e k new w e needed a b ig chunkof yardage , so we w eregoing t o a four ver t ica l pa t te rn .

We to ld the qua r t e rback a s soon a s w e comple t ed thef ou r v e r t i c a l p a s s, t o r u n t h e c l o c k p l a y. W e w o u l dt r ade the ya rdage fo r t h e p l ay. W e go tit a l l workedou t and Troy knew exac t ly wh a t he was go ing to do .They pun ted the ba l l and ou r pun t r e tu rne r a lm os tbrokeit fo r a t ouchdown. Ins tead o f ge t t i ng the b a l l

on our 20 , we g o tit on the ir 4 0 -ya rd li ne . W e we n t inwi th ou r th ree w ideou t s and one t i gh t end . W e h i t t het igh t end r igh t dow n the seam t o the s ix -ya rd li ne .There were30 seconds l e f t . Troy go t u p the re andthrew the c lock p lay jus t l ikeI o l d h i m t o d o . I t w o u l dbe a good s to ry fo r t h i s c l in i c, bu t un fo r tuna te ly w emissed the nex t t h ree p l ays and go t bea t . W e w en tfro m number one t o number seven. Terry Donahue saidh e h a t e d t h r o w i n g th e b a l l a n d w a n t e d t o g o b a ck t orunning i t , and I d ied a miserable death , The point i swh a t can go wrong wi l l go wro ng i f you don' t have theth ings you need do wn in those a reas o f t he f i e ld .

A n o r m a l p l a y t a k e s a b o u t 1 0 s e c o n d s t o r u n . I tp robab ly t akes a l i t t l e l onge r than tha t , bu t t h a t g ivesyou a good number to wo rk w i t h in the CONTROL ORCHUCK SCHEME. If I said a no rma l play too k 14 secondsto run ,it g e t s t o o h a rd t o g e t t h e n u m b er s t o g e t h e r.

Le t me show you a d r ive f rom l a s t s eason. W e p layedK a ns a s S t a t e i n t h e l a s t g a m e o f t h e s e a s on . W e


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defensive coordinator. The quarterback needs t o knowth at so he can anticipate the pressure coming. Thisdoesn't mean th e quar terback is calling RED ZONE

PLAYS, bu t he has t o have RED ZONE thinking in termsof w ha t t o expect from the defense.

The quarterb ack has t o understand when a drivechanges from a field goal drive t o a touchdown. Asthe clock dwindles away, we run out of time for thefiel d goal and we have to go for th e touchdown. Ourthinking has t o change to LAST PLAY typ e of thinking.The quarterback has to kn ow he is not trying t o getthe ball t o th e 25 any more, he is going for t hetouchdown. If we can't kick the field goal, wh at is thelast play going t o be fr om t he 30-yard line? You havet o have a smooth t rans i t io n in your th inking toelimina te panic. It takes 25 seconds to run a play, getyour tea m of f, ge t the field goal tea m on, and executethe kick. It takes 15 seconds if you have gott en a fir stdo wn wi-th your last play before the kick.

This is where the MANEUVERING PLAY comes intoplay. Once w e ge t t o where w e wan t t o be in a fieldgoal drive, we wan t t o slo w down and use the clock.This wi ll also bleed the defense of their time-outs. Wedon't wa nt t hem t o have time t o come back and beat

IJS.

In the San Francisco-Dallas game three years ago inCandlestick Park, there wa s a good lesson to learn.With the score 24-14 in favor of the 49ers, theCowboys tr ied t o st art a drive deep in their ownterritor y. They th re w three incompletions and had topunt the ball. The 49ers got t he ball wi th 36 secondst o go on about the 5 0 and hit Rice for a touchdown wi tht w o seconds t o go in the half. That wa s .thegame, andthey we nt on to wi n th e Super Bowl. How many timeshave you seen coaches send their quarterback out torun out the clock before the h alf? The fans will a lwaysBOO. They wan t t he offense t o stay aggressive. I hinkthere i s a way t o do both . We are going to s ta yaggressive and take some chances. But once we missone, we are going back to bleeding the clock andstaying conservative. We wan t t o be aggressive butbe smart a t the same time.

'The last th ing before I leave you is to s how you ho w Ido this. I need some volunteers. I need some formerquarterbacks who will admit it. I need three people.

Al l right , we have Don, Phil, and Ricky. I need one moreguy. Here he is. You are going t o be th e f ourt h-st ringquarte rback. It is your job t o scr ew everything up. Youare going to be the cr owd noise. Don is going to be thequarte rback, Phil keeps the clock, and Ricky keeps upwi th the time-outs. Let's say w e have tw o time-outs.This is something you can do in th e evening when youhave a quar terback meet ing . I t ge ts fun andcompetitive. For this example we have only twoformations. We have a le ft and right formation. I wantyou to always put the formation to th e f ield. OurCONTROL PASS is going t o be 1and 2. Our CHUCK PASSis going to be 3 and 4. We are going t o st art on the 20-yard line on the right hash mark wi th 1:05 to go.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Coach Neuheisel has a board on thefloor. The board is marked like a football field. He keepst rack of the ba l l wi th a p in . He has the four thquarterback make al l kinds of noise. The f irstquar terback has t o make the ca l l s . The th i rdquarterback is calling the time- out loud, as long as the

quarterback is not speaking. If the quarterback iscalling his play, he keeps the time to himself. CoachNeuheisel has control of the situation. He tells thequarterback the results of each play and when theclock is stopped for a first down. He gave a greatdemonstration about do wn and distance and clockmanagement. Everyone really liked wh at they saw. Thefir st quarterba ck cal ls t he plays, - the secondquarterback keeps the clock, the third quarterbackkeeps t rack of the t ime-outs , and the four thquarterback .tries to cause confusion. Coach Neuheiselleads the quarterback dow n the field and ends up in aLAST PLAY situat ion for th e quarterback.

Next he turns on the film projector and shows th e la stplay of tli e Colorado-Michigan game in 1994 in the BIGHOUSE, which Colorado wo n on a HAIL MARY PASS onthe last play of the game. That concluded his lecture.

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2 Minute Off - Neiheisel