Coach ,

How do you approach third down?

Do you have the things you go to constantly that maybe develop tendencies that can be picked on, or is it what former Denver Broncos defensive backs coach Ola Adams calls organized chaos?  For him, it’s organized. For the offense it’s chaos.

Ola Adams believes that this involves your presentation and the plan behind it with a deep understanding of the “why” and knowing what outliers are which you should not spend time on. The presentation will change with motion and shifts. Those things must look the same and have the communication behind them that allows for that consistency that does not allow the defense to identify man or zone easily.

Coach Adams shares that philosophy in this video:

Video: 3rd Down Defense

The development of the packages you will use are created after answering the question that Coach Adams posed above.

Three-man twists are a favorite of Coach Adams. Here’s an example of what one of those packages looks like. He explains it on diagrams and then on game film addressing coverage in his explanation as well.

Video: Up Dynamite Badge

The premise of all of this comes down to his play-calling philosophy which he calls “roulette.” The idea is to “put the bullet in the chamber and shoot.” If you put a bullet in the revolver, you don’t know when it will go off. In a football sense, he makes everything look the same but has multiple different calls. In that way, the offense never really knows what is coming at them.

Coach Adams did an outstanding job in his presentation at the 3rd Annual Lauren’s First and Goal Clinic.

If you are looking to present a third-down package that is difficult for the offense but organized for you, this clinic talk certainly serves as a template.

Always be growing!

Coach Grabowski