Football coaches finding creative ways to call plays By Lance Lysowski November 11, 2015 Defensive signals are sent in from the Penn State sidelines during a game against Indiana last month. Fans at football games are often fixated on the line of scrimmage as the offense and defense quickly get set for the next play. But there s an entirely different game being played before every snap that has the attention of the players and coaches.
And its success can depend on the hidden meaning of images from colored numbers, movie star head shots, Batman logos, fruit, an oversized beaver and even a Kardashian. In an era of spread offenses that put an emphasis on running more offensive plays to tire defenses, there s little time to wait for a play call in the huddle. Instead, teams are relying on signals from the sideline. There are a variety of hand signals from a head coach or offensive coordinator, sets of signals delivered by players that might simply be a decoy and the most common trend in college football since 2012: holding up placards that display four pictures. How do you confuse an opponent as to what play, cadence or formation they should expect? What about signs that feature a variety of images, such as Britney Spears, Shrek, Bill Murray s character from Caddyshack and Darth Vader? The pictures can represent a formation, snap count and category of play, but are the boards always meaningful? That s what South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi wants opponents to ask themselves. The Lions head coach began using signals in 2012 and the boards in 2013 after attending coaching clinics at college campuses, but you won t always see them on his sideline during games. After South Fayette s victory over Hickory in the 2013 PIAA semifinals, Hornets head coach Bill Brest admitted to stealing the Lions signals. When the two teams played again last fall, Rossi, who often uses hand signals from the sideline, changed his strategy. Calling plays is a constant game of cat and mouse that is only getting more complex. There are times we ve gone and used the boards and it may have meant something, Rossi said. But there are times we use the boards and they meant nothing. There were a few times we even just used them 50 percent of the time. Using boards as a decoy is not the only way coaches try to confuse opponents. Washington & Jefferson head coach Mike Sirianni uses a popular approach to help his fast-paced, no-huddle attack, which routinely runs close to 100 offensive plays in a game using a system that allows the offense to get into a formation within
A play is signaled from the Utah State sideline during a game against Washington earlier this season. seconds. Sirianni or offensive coordinator Steve Spence make a call over headsets
There are times we ve gone and used the boards and it may have meant something but there are times we use the boards and they meant nothing.! - Joe Rossi, South Fayette head coach to three backup quarterbacks on the sideline. Wake Forest coaches use signs to signal in a play during a game against Clemson last season. Once a technique used to replace hand signals for offenses, in the past few years, defenses have started using them, too.
Two of them motion signals that are fake and one is deemed live. The quarterback, receivers and running back receive the signal from the live caller, which changes every game, to get the play. The linemen know their blocking assignment based on one or two words called out by the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. It s a strategy Sirianni has used to create one of the most prolific offenses in NCAA Division III. Before each season, he even allows players to create signals for certain plays anything to make the system run smoother. It took a person with knowledge of the signals to finally crack the code. According to Sirianni, a former player who is now a member of Westminster s football program, knew the live signal caller when the two teams met earlier this season and in turn, the Titans knew every one of W&J s plays before each snap. The Presidents were held to 14 points through three quarters and threw two interceptions before being forced to huddle. It s partly our fault for not being smart enough to know a former player is going to give up our goods, Sirianni said. You have to be careful with stuff like that and learn from it. You can call it unethical, but it s our fault. I don t know how he knew who our live person was or if someone told him who the live person was; (or) if he has a friend on the team. You need to be smart about it. You d never think a team would do anything like that to gain an advantage. Playing fast is a philosophy that started in college football and trickled down to the high school game. In the past, coaches had their quarterback run to the sideline after every play to get the call, but a faster system gives a team the ability to call more plays, which means more opportunities to score and gain yards. In the 1940s, former NFL head coach Paul Brown rotated offensive linemen into the game to deliver calls to the quarterback. Now, coaches are finding a variety of methods to accomplish the task as quickly and efficiently as possible, while knowing all eyes could be on their sideline. McGuffey head coach Ed Dalton has tinkered with his system and finally settled on signaling in the formation so the receiver or defensive back closest to the sideline gets the verbalized play call. His staff uses signals that are three series of numbers
Oregon coaches use sheets to block the view of signal callers on the team bench during a game against Arizona State this season. that can include the formation, the cadence and even the play. Like Rossi and Sirianni, some of Dalton s signals can be live or dead. It s all designed to keep an opponent guessing. In a game last season, Dalton realized an opponent was onto every one of the Highlanders calls. It wasn t a surprise, but it forced his coaching staff to change the entire system. One of our coaches in the booth tries to get on our opponent s defensive signals right away, Dalton said. Surprisingly enough, two to three series in the game and you ll be right on their signals. If we get away with it, we ll know pre-snap, their slant, their blitz and stuff like that. That s helped us in the second half of games a lot. As the game has evolved at every level, even high school coaches are discovering new ways to better utilize their players athleticism. While controversy swirls in the NFL about the lengths teams will go to gain a competitive advantage, the signals
real or fake and how they are used, will continue to change. We signal everything and never huddle. Things evolve, Ringgold head coach Nick Milchovich said. The VCR was great until the DVD player came out. Now, Netflix and whatever is killing the DVD player. It used to be three yards and a cloud of dust with a huddle and now it s about speed, picking up the pace and getting to the line. It s the evolution of the game. Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano contributed to this story.