Unleashing the Power of Tempo Offense to Create Explosives
May 08, 2023 2:01 pm
Coach ,
Tempo Offense is really all that Rhett Lashlee knows. He has been playing with a tempo offense since his junior high playing days in Arkansas.
One-Speed Football: The Secret to a Winning Tempo Offense
In today's fast-paced game of football, teaching players to play at one speed is essential. From a teaching perspective, Rheet Lashlee believes in having only one tempo, which is taught from day one.
This approach ensures that the players are able to play at a really fast speed. The flow of the game, such as an incompletion, a tackle for loss, or even when defensive players fake injuries, naturally slow the game down. By teaching the players to always be ready for the call, they can play at one speed and adapt to the natural changes in tempo during a game.
Coach Lashlee explains the philosophy in this video:
Choice Routes and Foundation Plays: Creating Explosive Plays on the Field
The Choice route concept can be used to create explosive plays on the field. By taking their base concept and finding ways to play faster with it, they can help their players become more explosive and dynamic.
Coach Lashlee applies this to the choice route concept which we will highlight here, but the idea of taking a play and optimizing it for tempo can apply to various foundation plays like cross, verticals, inside zone, stretch, and counter.
A key for him in calling an offense is that he wants his quarterback to be in a high percentage of good plays. He explains that an illustrates “Choice” in this video:
Formula for Explosive: Tempo + Base Play + Unusual Formation
In addition to the “one tempo” approach and optimizing plays for tempo, combining a few components creates a formula for an explosive play.
In this example, the combination of extremely fast tempo (you will see the chains aren’t even set), formation into the boundary which forces the defense to put numbers in one place and expose another, and the stretch play which is a staple in their offense work together synergistically to create an explosive run:
Making Your Offense More Explosive:
Coach Lashlee has a sound approach that you can apply.
#1) Start by teaching your players to play at one speed and adapt to the natural tempo changes during a game.
#2) Optimize your concepts for Tempo to stay in good calls.
#3) Mix components to take a chunk out of the defense.
The best part of this approach is you do not need to overhaul your playbook to get mor production from your offense. You simply need to think through your approach.
Always be growing!
Coach Grabowski
P.S. Here are some great resources on explosive plays:
Dino Babers - Explosive Play and Drive Breakdowns
Josh Herring - Unlocking An Explosive Passing Game With Seam Read Variations
Tim Lester, Western Michigan - Explosive RPO & QB Reads