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99% of football coaches run dive right as their first play of the game. I am in the other 1%. Running dive right as your first play is coaching malpractice. If you have a nose, put him in that gap for the first play of the game when you are on defense.

This play is both easy to run, if not properly defended, and also easily defended if you make the effort, which you must. This play alone beat us once in my first year as a coach. But we played that same team a second time that season and easily shut the play totally down.

The defense is to plug the receivers at the line and let them release only outside. Also, having a middle linebacker generally screws up the play because the receiver wants to catch it in the vicinity of the MLB.

Counters generally involve initial backfield movement to one side, followed by a cut or inside-reverse handoff to a back going back to the other side. The ball carrier runs between a double-team block on the inside of the hole and a trap block on the outside of the hole. Linebackers are not blocked because they fly out in response to initial flow. Common mistake is to use an inadequate athlete to do the trap block. It requires a top athlete.

I saw a reverse-pivot, offset-I play work surprisingly well—about 3 to 6 yards per play. The QB opens toward the fullback, fakes to him as he dives through the A gap on his side, then continues around to the tailback diving on the other side A gap and gives him the ball. QB should boot out afterward, sometimes with the ball for a run or pass if the defense does not honor his fake.

This play would work against me once or twice a year because it seemed the defensive ends had to get burned by it at least once to believe me. But we generally wanted opponents to run it because they usually lost about seven yards on the play. I do not run this play, probably because I know how to defend it. I really should watch my opponents to see if their trailman behaves properly when we sweep. If not, we should run the reverse.

Receivers must be disciplined to run parallel to the line of scrimmage before they catch the ball. They have a powerful urge to go deeper, which changes the play completely and greatly reduces its success.

If you insist, I prefer the hook, curl, slant, or crossing route for the drop-back pass. Most kids do not have the arm to drop back and throw a deep pass. The receiver will have to come back to get it unless he did a delayed release.

Malcolm Robinson sent me an email about success he has had with the outside veer option.

It must be practiced against air only because it relies on the element of surprise and your scout team will get too good at reading it.

Even at the high-school level, play-action passes seemed to be just passes with the play action being largely a waste of time. One exception was a Miramonte High School varsity play where the quarterback faked a dive left then spun around and threw an immediate slant pass to the right tight end. I thought it was a little dangerous because the quarterback was not able to get a good look at the defense before he threw, but it was never intercepted, and even if it had been, it would be in front of our entire team and probably would not have been returned.

Another exception was the waggle pass. There is a diagram of one on page 6 of Tubby Raymond’s Delaware Wing T book. In that waggle pass, the fullback fakes a dive right, the other backs fake a sweep left with a handoff from the quarterback who then rolls out to the right. Both guards pull the same direction as the quarterback to protect him. Timing the fullback and pulling guards is tricky. The fullback goes out in the flat and the right tight end runs a corner route. they are frequently very open. Click here to read an email from a coach who explains how he achieved much success with the waggle pass.

One problem with play action and other fakes at the youth level is that the defenders are so inexperienced and poorly coached that they do not react the way they are supposed to to the fake.