© April, 2008
Taking the Advantage Away From the Quads-Empty Spread Formation

by Dale L. Sprague
Defensive Coordinator, Springfield High School, IL
Spread Formation offenses have become as commonplace in high school, college and professional football in the twenty-first century as the basic fundamentals of blocking and tackling. Combine this increased popularity nationwide at every level with the almost countless additions of new formations, shifts, motions, and play series. They have been devised to make these multiple schemes even more multiple and have created game planning and adjustment headaches for defensive coaches. Recently we have noticed a trend by the Spread attack teams in adding the ‘Quads-Empty’ formation and play series. This gives the offense four quick receivers aligned to one side of the offensive set, thus giving the offense the advantages of:

A. Forcing the defense to commit defenders from the ‘Box’ to the outside.
B. Limiting defensive stunting and coverage calls.
C. Being able to run quick screens and ‘Bubble’ screens with an extra lead blo ...The full article can only be seen by subscribers.
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