As a younger coach, I always struggled with the question of how much offense to have in a game plan for an upcoming game. After years of studying others coaches methodologies on this topic, I have come up with some thoughts that have helped make our offensive game planning much easier and more effective.

Over a five year span, we have charted the number of offensive snaps that we get per game. In each of those seasons, we have averaged between 48 and 52 snaps per game. Depending on style of play, these numbers will vary from team to team somewhat. It is definitely worthwhile to chart your own numbers to see how many snaps your offense is getting.

Breaking This # Down Situationally
Without getting overly intricate, we use two field zones (normal and red) and down and distance (1st and 10, 2nd 7+, 2nd 6-, 3rd 7+, 3rd 4-6, 3rd 2-3, 3rd and 1) to break down our total number of plays into simple, workable categories. In charting the past 5 seasons, this has been our breakdown:

NORMAL FIELD (-5 to +20 yd line)
Down & Distance - (# of snaps )
1st 10 - (18)
2nd 7+ - (9)
2nd 6- - (5)
3rd 7+ - (4)
3rd 4-6 - (2)
3rd 2-3 - (1)
3rd 1 - (1)

RED ZONE (+20 to Goal line)
Down & Distance - (# of snaps )
1st 10 - (5)
2nd 7+ - (2)
2nd 6- - (2)
3rd 7+ - (1)
3rd 4-6 - (1)
3rd 2-3 - (1)
3rd 1 - (0)

Taking the number of snaps and breaking it down into workable categories allows our staff to organize our thoughts much more effectively and take the next step:

Developing Run/Pass Ratios
Based on our personnel and upcoming opponent, we take each of our categories and develop a run/pass ratio. In using our first 10 in the normal field as an example, we know that we are getting roughly 18 snaps in that situation. We may decide that we want to plan for 12 runs and 6 passes for this.

In planning our 12 runs, we use POINTS OF ATTACK as a guideline. Our POINTS OF ATTACK are as follows:

Middle: A gap area
Off Tackle: B/C gap area
Perimeter: D gap to sideline

In developing our plan for 6 passes, we use PASS TYPE as a guideline. Our PASS TYPES are as follows:

* 3-step drop
* 5-step drop
* Sprint out
* Play Action

As I mentioned with the run game, mixing these PASS TYPES with different formations and motions makes it very easy to plan your best, most effective passes.We follow these guidelines for each situational category until we develop our entire game plan.

Special Categories
To round out and complete our plan, we have special categories to consider. These are situations that may or may not happen in a game. If one or more of these situations occur, we feel the need to be ready for them and have practiced them with our players. Our special categories include:

BACKED UP: This is when we have the ball inside our own 5 yd line. We usually plan two runs and a pass which tend to be safer in nature for this situation.

2 MINUTE: Usually occurs at the end of a half or game where we need to score and the clock is a major factor. We usually plan three passes specifically for this situation as well as some of our favorite base runs and passes that we can run without a huddle.

GOAL LINE: This is part of our red zone attack when the ball gets inside our opponent’s four-yd. line. We like to have two or three power runs and one or two passes for this situation.

Offensive game planning is not an exact science but having these guidelines as our structure has really helped us organize our thoughts to give our offensive unit the best chance for success.

Ron Capurso is the Head Coach at Willow Glen High School in San Jose, CA. He can be reached at roncapur@aol.com