Coach ,

It seems the football world has polarized itself into being uptempo no-huddle or slow tempo huddle.

Uptempo teams know the advantages of moving fast. As a coordinator the biggest advantage I saw was that it stressed a defense’s communications and every down presents three opportunities to be wrong:

1. Recognize formation
2. Communicate adjustment
3. Actually make the adjustment

The slower a team goes, the easier the process is for the defense and the lesser chance of a mistake.

However, those uptempo stressor opportunities exist for huddle teams as well. In some ways I think that it provides more benefits

IF IT IS DONE A CERTAIN WAY…

Huddle teams usually value time of possession over anything else and choose to control the clock.

What if you could stress the defense’s communication and alignment process and still control the clock?

It can be done, and I first started thinking about this when I saw Gus Malzahn’s Auburn team working from a “sugar huddle.”

That turned into research and implementation of a huddle procedure designed to force a defense into all the stress of the no-huddle team operations while sitting back and watching the clock run down.

I explain the procedure in this short video on what we named “chaos” (click on image for free video): 

On top of the benefits mentioned, I believe that utilizing this procedure is effective for no-huddle teams who change personnel from time to time.  

Why run your personnel out onto the field and prompt the referee to stand over the ball and allow the defense to substitute, and look at your formation and get the call they want in?

As you progress through the season, finding those little advantages provided by procedures can make the difference.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski

P.S.

Procedures are something I like to study. It’s an area that is underutilized in an offensive attack. Over the years we implemented over 20 procedural tools and I share them in my clinic “Targeted Attack - Using Tempo as a Weapon.”