Coach ,

The RPO game continues to evolve in the constant battle between offense and defense to get the chalk last. 

Today we cover advancements in the RPO game from four college coaches. If you are a defensive coach, you will want to pay attention to this one to see what is on the horizon for offensive attacks.

Starting with one of the best at the RPO, Joe Moorhead, Offensive Coordinator at Oregon, may have been doing RPO’s longer than anyone. It goes back to his days at Akron and has continued to evolve throughout his career.

Coach Moorhead believes that there are key elements necessary for an RPO to be successful and he covers them in this video:

Moorhead points out that we overcomplicate things as coaches. He subscribes to the philosophy that simpler is better. There is no play that answers everything. He wants to maintain their aggressive mentality while minimizing risk on the field.

One simple RPO concept he likes is their gap scheme-Mike isolation RPO. It allows them to utilize QB draw, a swing and free access to aggressively attack the defense with a numbers or leverage advantage somewhere in the defense. He shows it here:

Moorhead delivered one of the most detailed RPO clinics of this off-season. He covered 39 different plays on game film here.

Army’s Matt Drinkall may be living in the triple-option world now, but he continues to study and teach the RPO. While he was the head coach at Kansas Wesleyan, he used the RPO often. He also begins his clinic with a definition:

Drinkall’s approach begins with understanding where the flexible position is in any formation. This allows you to do different things with that player including engaging him in the RPO. From there, they are put together based on the blocking family with either 5-man runs or 6-man runs. Understanding the family gives you different RPO’s at your disposal.

Drinkall’s approach is very detailed, but delineates exactly what you can do to attack the defense with formations and plays. Here is an example with a downfield (3rd level) RPO off of counter with the backside safety read:

Brent Dearmon has moved on to Middle Tennessee State. He’s been a go to resource for coaches at every level on how to effectively run RPO. It’s something he began learning during his time with Gus Malzahn at Auburn.

When building RPO’s Dearmon starts with a set of questions to help him understand how they will set up the run and pass options of their play.

Those four questions allow for sound construction of plays that will have answers and be sound in the way that they attack which will minimize risk.

He explains how they use this process of questions and answers by illustrating it with the Buck Sweep. It helps them fix what hurts the play.

Our final coach who sheds some light on the RPO game is Kevin Loney, RB coach at Bowdoin College. The world of RPO can become very complex, but ultimately we all face limitations, and for many of us, we have limitations and the need for simplicity which Coach Loney explains here.  

Here’s a way in which Loney keeps it simple with their inside zone RPO concept.

Coach Loney details several ways in which they run RPO off of their inside zone. It keeps it simple and repeatable for the guys up front, allowing them to get good at it.  At the same time, they have variations which attack the defense in a number of different ways, keeping the offense in good plays.

All four of these videos are available in the “Latest in RPO Concepts” Bundle. The detail these coaches have put into their clinic talks will definitely allow you the ability to stay ahead of the defensive coordinators who are intensively learning about how to stop the RPO game.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski