Manipulating 1 and 2 High Defensive RPO Reactions

College football in 2019 saw a huge tilt in the epic eternal battle of Offense vs. Defense, and Defenses are now scrambling to catch up.  My last post, Defending Pistol Spread RPO from 2 High, detailed the steps that Defenses can take to help vs. Offenses running RPOs (Run-Pass Options).  I showed the problem of Defenses slinging their fits pre-snap based on the side of the Back and showed how Defenses can sling their fits post-snap by reading the eyes of the QB to take away the player the Offense wants to throw to and add a player into the box to the other side vs. the Run.  In the diagram below, the Will is playing the Pass to the side the QB is looking and the Strong Safety ($) is adding to the box away from the side the QB is looking.

Play-Action H-Sneak Throwback

A nice Red-Zone play to have in your back pocket for a big game is the Play-Action H-Sneak Throwback.  The play starts out with a Play-Action fake and is designed to look like Waggle Smash to the frontside.  The X WR or the TE to the backside will run a Pin route and try to take both the Corner and the near Safety with him.  The Back will fake getting the hand-off and then slip through the line past the LB who will have him in man coverage in the Red Zone.  He will run a Wheel route and he is the first read for the QB.  

1995-1996 Florida Offense - Steve Spurrier

The Florida offense under Head Coach Steve Spurrier was undoubtedly one of the most exciting offenses in recent history, putting up lots of points and throwing the ball around as few teams had done up to that point in time.  Coach Spurrier's Fun and Gun attack helped to end the run-first era and to usher in the Spread offense era of multiple WRs and the ability to throw the football to win.  The remarkable thing about Spurrier and his offenses was how easy they made it look to score points and how wide open his receivers always seemed to be.

Bullets

The Bullets concept is the final primary passing concepts of the Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen Florida Spread Offense (the others being H Option, Follow, Follow Pivot, Houston).  Chris Brown of Smart Football / Grantland wrote a post on this same concept here that I would recommend reading as this article is quite brief.  Bullets is a Play-action Pass concept that was Florida's "home run" play during the Tim Tebow era.

Houston

My friend has contributed another article:

It is a pleasure to be back on the world famous Coach Hoover blog. Today, I’m going to share another concept I learned from the Urban Meyer/Dan Mullen offense. I am not 100% sure of where it came from, but I was once told a story about this awesome play that they called “Houston.” Rumor has it that it was taken from the Minnesota Vikings with the primary purpose of beating Quarters. Ok, well that’s pretty much it for my story. I have made a few adjustments to the original concept, and overall it has been good for me. I view it as a multi-purpose zone coverage beater. It is OK against man, but not my favorite call. In this article, I will explain the Houston concept as a drop-back pass, show you how it can be effective against different coverages, and then show a few different play-action variations.

Below is the basic play out of a 3 x 1 formation.

4-3 vs. the Oregon Spread - DB Play / Coverage Fundamentals

Introduction

Chris Vasseur will write this piece at a later date, but I wanted to add a couple of diagrams to go with the video.  The FS destroying the QB on the Gun Triple Option is a beautiful thing, as you will see when you watch the cut-ups.  However, it is a bit susceptible to Play-Action as you will also see.