We begin the third season of “Film Study” with Vols head coach Butch Jones drawing on the whiteboard.
I sat down with Jones just outside his office in Neyland Stadium during Tennessee’s annual media and allowed him to select the play to diagram.
He chose ”short double post.” A versatile play that has served Jones and his staff well over the years.
“It can be run out of any offensive formation that you would like it to,” Jones explains. “It’s a universal pass play, good versus anything.”
The pass play contains different elements that make it effective against numerous coverages. More on that in a minute.
Jones draws a formation on the board. Four wide receivers, one running back.
Three receivers in a bunch formation on the right. A single wideout on the left.
“The number two guy has what we call the ‘thru route,’” Jones says.
‘The number two guy’ refers to the second receiver in from the sideline. In this case, the one at the top of the bunch or the “point guy.”
“And in the thru route he’s going to run through the inside shoulder of the near safety.” Jones continues.
“Number one is going to have what we call a wide departure post, he’s going to work up 8-10 and he’s going to take a high angle, quarterback will break him flat if he has to,” Jones says.
“Number three is what we called the flat player, the flat effector. When he gets to the numbers, he’ll turn up to the sideline on a wheel route.”
The backside receiver, on the left, runs a deep route, adjusting as necessary to beat the coverage. If the quarterback notices a one-on-one matchup on this side and likes it, he can take a shot.
“Then the whole key to this play no matter what we’re doing is in your pass protection we want to leak the (running) back out late in what we call a burst route,” Jones says. “So he has an A to B gap escape and he has to understand the rhythm of the play.”
The route from the running back is key to making this play effective against all coverages.
Against single-high safety coverage - Cover 1 or Cover 3 - the number one receiver, running the second post, should be able to win his one-on-one matchup.
Against Cover 2, the number two receiver, running the ‘thru route,’ should be open over the middle.
If the defense is playing Tampa 2 or redzone Cover 2 with the middle linebacker dropping deep to take away the post, then the running back should be wide open in the voided area just beyond the line of scrimmage.
The quarterback’s progression looks like this:
First read is the thru route over the middle. Jones wants the QB to give “active eyes” to this receiver- stare him down.
Second read is the outside post.
Third read is the flat/wheel route.
Fourth read is the running back leaking out of the backfield late.
Jones says his teams have hit each of those routes for touchdowns.
Tennessee tight end Ethan Wolf scored a touchdown using the double post concept against Bowling Green last season. That time the play was run out of a different formation - a 2x2 set.