IN 29 YEARS OF coaching — even with a decent amount of success including a state championship — my teams were never able to master a snap count or cadence other than a 1-count.

Every practice we’d work it into our blocking drills, sled work, board work and scrimmages, yet my offense would still jump offside 45 percent of the time. We must have spent at least an hour a week just working on snap count and cadence. It became very frustrating.

Told The Secret
Then about 12 years ago, I was talking to an old coach in the area and was telling him of my snap-count frustrations. He said that his team strictly used a 1-count and if opponents started anticipating and jumping the count, he’d switch to a no-call in the huddle and try to draw them offside.

His theory was that no player could jump offside if there was no place to go (no play called). If the opposition didn’t jump, he’d simply instruct his quarterback to call time out.

I thought this was an interesting concept and started using it the following fall. The results were miraculous! The first season we tried the system, we had no offside penalties and were successful drawing the defense offside with the no-call trick 17-of-20 times. Not only that, but we didn’t waste any valuable practice time working on 2-, 3- or 4-counts.

Spiced It Up
We added a few things to this concept, which really improved on an already good idea.
-  On no-calls if the opponent didn’t jump, we didn’t call time out. Instead, after the fourth “Hut” call, we’d have the QB audible to a play and then snap on the first sound after the play was called. We’d be able to audible to about 20 different plays.

In 12 years of using the no-call system, if our opponents didn’t jump offside, — we never jumped after calling the audible.

-  After some time, our opponents started to realize that we’d go on the first sound after calling the audible on a no-call attempt. So we decided to go on a 4-count after an audible (easy for our players to remember because 4 is so far away from 1) and it’s worked every time. 

Now, our snap-counts system consist only of:
1.  Going on a 1-count.
2.  No-call and try to draw the defense offside. If the defense doesn’t jump, call time-out.
3.  No-call for a 4-count, audible and go after the first sound after the audible.

Don’t Tell
So now we have a great snap-count system, spend almost no practice time on it (other than the audible system) and have a great percentage of continued success.

I almost hate to share this because we feel it’s been a huge edge for our team over the years. Oh well, I’m close to retirement.