This Martin Luther King Day, January 16, I will be speaking at Championship Football Clinics 18^th Annual Offensive Line Clinic along with John Peterson, University of Pittsburgh, Justin Frye, Boston College, Allen Mogridge, Florida International, AJ Blazek, Rutgers University & Rich Hargitt, Eastside HS, S.C.

The clinic begins at 8am and is located at the Knights of Columbus, 79 Pascack Rd Washington Twp NJ. 2 miles from Bergen Catholic, High School

My topic is Teaching and Drilling the Screen and Draw Game.  Our Draws are 3 different plays but only 1 Scheme.  We run a QB Lead Draw, a QB Draw in Empty with a Pulling Tackle and a RB Lead Draw.  All three Draws are blocked the same with only one exception…the person assigned to block the Sam (1^st playside LB).   The Tackles block #2 on the LOS (DE), Guards block #1 on LOS (DT or NG) and the Center blocks Mike (Middle or Backside LB).  Center will combo with either Guard if their #1 is in his path to Mike.  On our QB Lead Draw, the running back isolates the Sam.  We have our H-Back block the Sam on our RB Draw.  We pull the backside Tackle to block the Sam on our QB draw in Empty and align the TE next to him to cut of his #2.

Draw is a running play so all of the offensive linemen can run block the scheme; but to create larger holes and encourage defensive linemen to displace themselves, we want our linemen to Jump Set any defensive linemen in an outside alignment (examples: Tackle vs a 5 tech or Guard vs a 3 tech).  On our Jump Set, we teach the offensive lineman to take a Base Run Step with his inside foot; and show a pass set with his upper body.  The “High Hat” of the pass set gives the DL a false read of pass and gets him in to a pass rush and away from the point of attack.  The Base Run Step with the inside foot defends the play in case of the DL being on an inside rush or slant.

We drill three scenarios in our Jump Sets.  When the DL gets upfield in a pass rush, we Club & Ride.  Our visual target is the near Pec.  We hold the set position until the rusher gets hip-to-hip then we turn towards him to club & ride him upfield.  The strike points are outside hand to near shoulder and inside hand to spine.  We are looking to club the middle of the back just below the shoulder pads.  On the ride, we want to be underneath the rusher so that he cannot retrace his steps when he recognizes Draw.    The next scenario is a DL who does not rush, but rather sits and reads.  After our Jump Set and the recognition that he is not rushing, we get in to an Angle Drive Block with a visual target of the near Pec and Strike points of near shoulder with the inside hand and sternum with the outside hand.  The last scenario we drill is the DL on an inside rush or slant move.  We must recognize the threat to our inside immediately and get in to a Vertical Drive Block to stop any inside penetration with a visual target of the sternum and strike points on both pecs.

Our Slip Screens are 3-man, 2-count screens to the RB or TE and are run off of plays in our offense with NOW throws.  This allows us to run all of our screens as Screen Pass Options (SPOs).  Just like an RPO, we will identify a defender and read him as to whether we throw the Now throw of the pass play or turn to throw the screen.  This also sells the screen when we do throw it because the receivers are running routes and the QB has his eyes on a route opposite the screen.

On our Stick Slip, we read the Sam to throw the Stick route to the TE or Slip Screen to the RB.  On our Boot Screen, will read the Sam to throw our TE Pin Flat or RB Slip.  On our Sprint Y Slip, we throw a slide route to our Slot Receiver or a Slip to the TE.

On all of our Screens we block the protection of the play for a 2-count so there is no new teaching.  After the 2-count, three linemen will depart to the edge of the box on the screen side.  The first one looks Out, the second looks Up and the third looks In.  On our Stick Slip and Sprint Y Slip, the two Guards and Center pull out on the Screen.  Since we pull a Guard in our Boot protection, on our Boot Slip, we pull the Screen side Tackle, Center and Playside Guard out on the Screen.  The other two linemen stay in their protection.

The technique we teach and drill on Screens for the offensive linemen is to Run (Out, Up, or In), Buzz (feet before contact) then block.  On the block the visual target is the sternum and the strike points are the pecs.  We buzz our feet to get the offensive lineman under control before making contact.