Darrel "Mouse" Davis

THE BEST OFFENSE: THE RUN AND SHOOT

Portland State University

It is a pleasure to be here. When Jerry Glanville and had been in the game for 25 years or more and then
I were coaching in Hawaii the last few years, we retired. They asked each coach these questions,
practiced at 7:00 A.M. Now that we are at Portland, "Did you retire too early, too late, or did you retire
Jerry still wants to practice at 7:00 A.M. I tried to right on time?"
explain to him there is a difference. In Hawaii, it is
Two of the coaches thought they retired on time.
warm in the morning. In Portland, it is cold. Really, it
Three of them thought they retired too late. The
is working out great for us.
other 20 thought they should not have retired at all.
This is how Jerry Glanville got back into I am just bringing this point up because all of you
coaching. Jerry was asked to go to Iraq by President are going to be facing this dilemma. Do not retire too
Bush. He went to Iraq, and he ran into a lot of great early. You have too much to offer to retire. It takes
young kids serving in the military. They were 18- and you 15 years to learn how to coach. It may take
19-year-old kids, and they were super kids. He forgot some of you longer than 15 years to learn how to
he had been in TV where he made all of the big coach. When you get 25 years in the game, keep
money. He said he wanted to come back and coach coaching. Stay in coaching!
all of those young kids that were serving in Iraq. He
decided to get back in the game. If you do stay in coaching, be sure you take care
of your wife and family. This is very important. I
He was offered a job at a small college. June would not be coaching now, but I lost my wife to
Jones in Hawaii called Jerry and told him if he wanted cancer. You must take care of two things. Take care
to get back into coaching, he should come to Hawaii of all of your kids, and take care of your family. If you
and coach. He was offered the job as the defensive take care of the family and keep coaching, and you
coordinator. Jerry asked June if he would have to go have clearance from the wife, then do that. Do not
to the Island to be the defensive coordinator. June retire too early. You can only play so much golf.
told him, "That is the way it works," and Jerry went Football is absolutely the best game ever invented,
to Hawaii as the defensive coordinator. He did a great and you are in the game. Enjoy the game!
job at Hawaii. Jerry got back into coaching because
he went to visit the troops in Iraq. He met those nice Last night, Pete Carroll was talking about
kids, and he wanted to coach them. philosophy. Today, Coach Hawkins talked about
philosophy. You have a philosophy of the game.
After we got beat the first few games at Enjoy the game. Our number-one point in our
Hawaii, I suggested to Jerry that he should start philosophy is that we are going to execute what we
coaching for real. We did have a lot of fun at Hawaii, do. That is the most important thing. Everything we
and we did win a few games. do offensively, we execute. If we execute, we win.
I have been coaching for a smooth 53 years. Is If we do not execute, we do not win. Everything we
that frightening? Here is the deal. Mike Bellotti and I do in our offense, we base on executing.
were talking about this the other night. You guys In today's world, we have a million video games.
need to know this. Some organization ran a study on I attended a clinic in California recently and a coach
coaching. They questioned several coaches who
was giving a lecture. He had a video game for the If we happened to have a player like Reggie Bush,
quarterbacks. We do not need a video game to I would toss the ball to him and let him do his thing. If
teach the quarterbacks. Get them on the field and we had a quarterback like Matt Leinart, we would
have them throw the ball. That is what you are let him throw the ball over the top of the defense.
going to end up doing. I think this is more important.
We played USC when I was at Hawaii. That was a
The important thing in football is to get on the field
bad experience. It was the first game for Jerry as the
and execute. If we cannot execute, we do not win.
defensive coordinator. It was the first game he had
This fall, after the third game of the year, Jerry coached in 10 years. He came up to me and said, "I
came in the office and said, "Do you know we are think I have USC shut out." I said, "Jerry, you are
number one in the country in passing?" I replied, nuts." I told him all 11 of their starters will play in the
"You have to be kidding me. We cannot execute NFL, and that has been proven. They are all in the NFL.
squat-diddle-pooh, and we are leading the nation? Jerry thought he was going to shut them out. Ha!
There must be some bad teams in our division." I
I asked Jerry this question: how many players
assured Jerry we were going to get better. It is all
do we have that will play in the NFL? He told me we
about execution.
had two players that would play in the NFL. My
Our offense is the best offense that you could comment was, "They had better play real well
ever run. I am going to try to sell you that it is the today." After the game, Jerry told me I was right.
best. It is the best offense. If I were not running this "Oh, really?"
offense, I would run the same offense that the
You must believe that you can win, and you must
University of Oregon runs. At one time, I almost
have a way you can win. The nice thing about
switched our offense to the wishbone offense. The
coaching in high school is that you have similar
wishbone is a great offense. Why is the wishbone a
opportunities for playing against the same •
great offense? With the wishbone, you can get by
competition in your league. In Oregon, they have
with an extra man against the defense. It works out
adjusted the divisions for high schools by size, and I
that way.
think that is great. Now, everyone has a shot to win
It is the same way with our offense. We are a state championship. You can lose a couple of
always reading off what you do on defense. We get games and still get back in the playoffs.
the chalk last. If you get the chalk last, you have a
There are some huge discrepancies in college
chance to win. Every defense you run has some
football. When you get to the NFL, it levels out
weakness. That is all we are going to do to the
more. It does not seem like it is level, because the
defense. We are going to take the weakness the
same teams keep winning all of the time. I think it is
defense gives us.
the organization in most cases.
Here is a key point about offense: you cannot be What is the best level to coach? What is the
a master of all of the different offenses. You can be best football level to be a coach? Come on now!
a master of one offense. I tried to be a master of our That is right, where you are now. Take your job, and
offense, and I tried to marry our run-and-shoot make it the most important job there is. You can be
offense to the wishbone offense. After about a big-time where you are coaching. That is where you
week or two, we were bad. You cannot do it all. You are, and you should be big-time. You have your
can do what you decide to do well. If you have the players, and you are big-time to them. You make that
biggest, fastest, and strongest team, like USC, you the most important job. Make that the job that
can do anything you want to do on offense. We excites you. That is what it is all about.
would line up and knock you off the line, and we
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would run over you. That is not too bad of an offense. I have coached at every level possible. When I
was introduced to speak, the bio read, "He coached

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at several places." I cannot remember them all. If I There are some things very important in
were coaching high school football and won a state throwing the football. Why do quarterbacks throw
championship, that would be the most important bad balls? The first reason they throw bad passes is
thing I could do. That is still a big deal. Why? Because because God made the forearm to turn. He forgot,
it is the top of what you are doing at that time. the quarterback does not need the arm to turn
when he throws the football.
I did not get up here to preach. I listened to Pete
Carroll last night, and he covered several good Our quarterbacks do turn the arm, but they do
points. But, I have some things I can say as well. I am not turn the ball. Some coaches teach the
not a head coach anymore, but I can give you some quarterback to turn the arm outside, and then bring it
good coaching points. back inside. We do not want our quarterbacks to turn
the ball outside. We want them to keep the ball flat.
Look at all of the head coaches who speak at
That is the first reason the ball comes out like a quail.
clinics. They never tell you anything about their offense
or defense. Nevertheless, they have some important I used to think I could teach everyone to throw
things to say, and we all can learn from them. the football. Through trial and error, I found out you
cannot teach them all to throw the ball. If you have
You have the best job in America. I say, bar none,
a good athlete and he cannot throw the ball, play
you have the best job. If you do not think you have a
him in another position. Some natural athletes can't
good position where you are coaching, do a good job
throw the football.
there, and then go to the next job. That is always
possible to do. In throwing the football, we do not throw the
ball with the arm. We throw it with the belly button.
It still is the best job. Why? It is the best job
If I can reach the ball, I want the arm to be the
because you have great kids, and great coaches. If
deliverer. I want the quarterback to snap that belly
you do not have great coaches, fire them. That is
button on the pass. Fast belly buttons make great
what I would do if I were the head coach. When I was
quarterbacks. Fast belly buttons make good
the head coach in high school, I always figured out a
hitters. They are very useful items.
way to fire the coach who was no good. I wanted
good coaches around our good kids. I think this is so The next reason quarterbacks throw bad passes
important as far as coaches are concerned. is that they lock the front foot. The taller the
quarterback, the more likely he is to lock his front
We are going to talk about football now. First, I
foot. If the quarterback locks his front foot, he may
want to tell you how to throw the football. Ready?
overstride, or he may compensate and pull the ball
Grab it. That did not take long. Grab it and throw it.
down lower. Most quarterbacks throw the ball over
How do you grip the football? The quarterback needs
the top and then lock the front foot. That is ok. So,
to model himself after a successful quarterback in
do not be too eager to tell a kid he is locking his front
this respect. The best quarterback I ever coached
foot and that is why his ball is sailing on him.
was Jeff George. He threw the ball with the index
finger up near the top of the ball. Terry Bradshaw If the quarterback is tall, he can settle a little
threw the ball that way. However, you have to have more under his feet. When he does deliver the
big hands to throw the ball that way. This seems to football, he is not reaching out if he has his feet
make the ball go in a perfect spiral. under him. If they spread their legs out, it tends to
lock the front leg on them.
The truth is that the quarterback ends up with
the index finger and the middle finger on the Because the quarterback position is one of my
throwing hand on the ball. That is what gets the pet peeves, I want to cover a few more items that
point of the ball to come up. If you have big hands, will help you with your quarterback. Keep the elbow
you can put the index finger on the tip of the ball. up high, use the belly button, and work on the eyes.

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Every quarterback should be able to control the ball Four deep does mess up some of our reads at
with his eyes. He should be able to move the safety times. But I would like to face that defense all of the
with his eyes. Quarterbacks must have good eyes. time. You have to change and adjust the offense as
High school coaches should teach their you go along on what is actually happening in the
quarterbacks to use their eyes. game. Tampa 2 coverage has been in existence
We want the quarterback to concentrate on f o r e v e n H o w e v e r ' j t i s b e c o m i n 9 m o r e P°Pular todaY-
where the ball goes. He does not have to look up to If you are playing in a high school league and you
see if it is a pretty pass. We can tell him that. It is only see cover 3 and man cover 2, that is what you
just like shooting a foul shot in basketball. When should work on. You can keep the other defenses,
you shoot a foul shot, you do not look at the ball, but I would concentrate on what you are going to
The concentration is on the rim or the basket. When see in your league. Practice what you have to beat in
we throw the football, all of the concentration your league.
should be on the receiver. When you are teaching T h e feet o f t h e q u a r t e r b a c k a r e d j f f e r e n t w h e n
the quarterback, this is an important point Every h e d gs f e d tQ t h m w j Qn ^ m w e ,
kid wants to see the ball, and he should be looking at t h j n k nfJ s h o u | d t e g c h h j s terback t0
t"hp rpppivpr
throw on the move. They are going to be flushed out
The high school coach can develop quarterbacks of the pocket, so they are going to be throwing on
with great habits. When we start warming up, this is the move in that respect. It is just as easy to throw
what I tell the quarterbacks. I want them to pick a on the move as it is to throw setting up. When he
spot on the person they are throwing to. They pick sets up, he is throwing over the front leg. When he
out his left shoulder, his right shoulder, or his head, and throws on the move, if he is right-handed, he
they keep their eyes on that target the entire time. throws off the right foot, and he is going to throw / i
As the quarterback gets better at using his o n t o h l s l e f t f o o t
eyes, he wants to be able to move the strong We tell the quarterback when he throws on the
safety, so he can throw the ball behind him. He can move, he has four eyes. He has one eye in his lead
do that if he has control of his eyes. Getting the knee, and another eye in his left shoulder, and he has
quarterback to work his eyes will help him become a the two eyes in his head that he uses all of the time,
better quarterback. We want all four of the eyes going where we are
th
In our offense, we are going to execute on the / 7 J n 9 - W u hf ; n w e * W ™e c o m e f t h J
field. Everything we do points toward that play, shoulder to the knee and let the feet come forward.
reading the coverage. And we say at the snap of the If we are throwing to the left, we do it the same
ball, "We have the chalk last." That is why our way. When we go left, we throw on the fourth step,
offense is a coach's offense. If you run our offense, Now, everything is the same. If we go to the right,
you will not run anything else because it is a coach's we take an odd number of steps, but going to the
offense. That is the same thing with the wishbone left, we take an even number of steps. This may not
in that you get the chalk last. be important in your scheme, but it is in our scheme.
The defense can play their technique perfectly, G o i n 9 l e f < • t h e f o u r s t e P s s h o u l d b e t h e s a m e -
and we still have the chalk last. Every defense has a Here is the first play we put in our offense
weakness. We are trying to take advantage of the because it is an all-coverage play. We do not care if
weakness in the defense we face. When we play a we are on the left hash, middle of the field, or right
team, we say they are playing perfect coverage. We hash mark, we can run this play (Diagram #1). On all
are going to take advantage of that perfect of our other plays, we must have a field marker or a (
coverage. We do that by always having an answer landmark. What is the most important field marker?
on how we attack your defense. What is it? It is the high school hash mark. That is

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the most important field marker there is in football. three-letter word call to the right, and a four-letter
We always use the high school hash mark. Why? word call to the left. It does not matter what you
The high school hash marks divide the field into use as long as you can communicate with everyone.
equal parts. It is a perfect one-third of the field. It
This is an important play to us because we can
does not matter what level I coach on, we always
run it from all areas of the field. We only read
use the high school hash mark.
coverages. There are no field markers involved.
When we run motion across the formation, we
want to know on every play what adjustments the
defense makes (Diagram #3). The man in motion is a
wing. As he runs motion across the formation, we
want him to identify what is happening on the
defense. Some teams will run the safety across
with the motion man.

Diagram #1.60 Rip-Z Go SS

J ^ Jj^^WMAWWWW^W^^^^W^^WMMWWVVVVWW-

When the defense plays cover 4, we do not

necessarily have a field marker. It is the head of the O OkB^ O
W W O
W W A
defenders who are playing the four on the top of the O
^--WAMWVWVWWWWsW^^
defense. It is the same against cover 2 (Diagram #2).
We go from the field marker at half of the field, to
the baseline or the half-field safety.
O
Diagram #3. Motion—Safety Movement

If we are reading the outside man, the wing on

the play drives at the defender's outside shoulder.
He continues to widen as the defender either
knocks him off, or inverts to the flat route.
Whatever he does on defense, he is wrong. If he
comes to the line and jams, the ball goes to the flat.
If he inverts, the ball goes to the flat at the other
level. If we are under center, we throw the ball on
the third step. He goes 1, 2, 3, and the ball is out of
his hands. He is reading the strong safety.

Diagram #2.60 Rip-Z Go Vs. Cover 2 I have only been running this offense for 35 plus
years. Why did I not run it more? In my first few
We number our plays, but we have changed a years, I did not run this offense. Why? Because I did
few things since I spoke the last time. Now, we call not know about the offense. I did not know it was
the plays to the right 60. This is important for the the best offense in football. Now, I know and we run
offensive linemen in their blocking responsibilities. the offense. This is the best offense in football.
We call the formation and action and then we "tag"
June Jones took the job in Hawaii a few years ago.
the routes. For example, we may call, rip, 60, Z, go.
They had not won a game in squat-diddle-pooh. This
We are going to run rip motion. We could call, trips
past year, they were in the Sugar Bowl. They have
right, 60, Z, go. Our motion calls start with the letter
done extremely well with the offense over the years.
rip to the right, and load is motion to the left. It is a
Coach Jones turned the Hawaii program around.

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 The first time I put out videos on this offense, filthy mouth as you go up the ladder. I would never
several high school coaches bought the tapes. curse in front of high school players. I was very
Several of them purchased the video and told me strong about this point. Then, when I got to college
they turned their programs around. Coaches write coaching, I was a lot looser. I was talking to men, so
me telling me they have turned their programs I got a little rough at times. In the pros, the players
around using this offense. I love it, and I hope they are as filthy as you are. It is part of the
did turn their programs around. communication process, I guess. It does not need to
be that way, but it just works out that way. It does
Here is my deal to football. I want to help any
not make me love the players any less.
football coach at any level. Some football coaches
think they have secrets. Nonsense! How many This is what we do. We work against these
coverages do we have? How many offenses do we coverages: three-deep zone, man free, inside man,
see? Coaches need to help each other. outside man, two-deep zone, two-deep man, or
three-deep man. All of the man under falls into the
When we run motion across the formation, it
same categories. Once you get to the top reads and
freezes the defense in man-free coverage. This is
the man reads, you must beat the man first. Those
where we teach the quarterback to read coverages.
are the four-deep zones, and the four-across split.
There are different types of coverages on man
For every route we run, we have blitz breaks
coverages. Who is responsible to know the
because we have to be able to see those. You do
different man coverages? It is the coach's
read the coverages. This is why this is such a great
responsibility to teach the quarterback to read the
offense, because you have an answer for
different coverages.
everything that happens on the football field.
What is the difference between inside-man
If we are running a wishbone offense, and the/'"
coverage and outside-man coverage? There is a big
difference. When the coverages change, we run a defensive end closes down, do we have an answer
different pass route. You must know all of these for that move? Yes. I like the triple option and I think
Oregon does a great job with it. However, it is more
things.
difficult to have a passing game when you are
If you want to talk about anything specific, and running the triple option. It is easier to have a good
you are interested, let me know. I will guarantee running game with the offense we use. For example,
you, if you run this offense, you will be asking the shuffle pass is a run play in our offense.
yourself why you did not run this offense several
years ago. It is a great way to move the football. I know you are football coaches, and what you
are waiting for is the Nike drawing for the $1,000.1
The difference in coaching at the high school, know you think you are going to win, so let us have
college, and pro levels is the fact that you get a the drawing. Thank you.

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