question this

I've rethought our endzone offense recently. No, I'm not going to detail it on here yet - I'll wait until my teams have a chance to try it out in games first - but there's something that's bugging me.

I think about the game a decent amount. Between playing and coaching, I do a fair amount of thinking about strategy and things like that. So why has it taken me this long to actually question the standard endzone offense?

Endzone as we know it is bunk. Everyone knows what's coming - we have the cut(s) from the back, then it's dump/swing and hit the break from the back of the stack, and repeat. If you're decent at defense at all, the force side cuts are completely covered, and the endzone has to rely upon the dump/swing to open up options break.

I remember how excited I'd get when my team would actually run endzone as dictated. Not because we scored, but because it was so rare that our endzone offense would go as planned. Is that the way endzone should be? No! This is where we want to be 100% - where the offense is clicking and everyone knows exactly what their role is, and perform it. This should have been a sign that endzone needs to be reconfigured.

The thing is, I don't remember a time when I've learned anything else. Everyone, somehow, has settled upon the same sort of idea for the default endzone offense. That, I think, has made it seem untouchable. If the best teams in the nation play it this way, who am I to say we should do something different?

But that's the problem. I'm not doing my players justice if I don't question these things. As their coach, I need to be thinking about how to capitalize on their special qualities, and maximize their potential for scoring. And I think that we all need a reminder that there's always room for improvement - even in the most basic elements of the game.