Untitled - Fast and Furious Football

80 FOOTMLL COACHING STRATEGTES
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Fast.Break, 2.Minute Offense
PHILLIP FULMER
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Whenever you speak of2,minute offense, football
coaches natumtly feel a sense of anxiety or urgency,
because many games arc won and lost with
this aspect of the game. There are other times
that you may go into the "hurly-up" offense, but
th€y'rc not the same as th€ possessionwhere you
must score to win with the clock winding down.
It's under this kind of prcssure that both the
coaching Etaffand the players develop a sense of
confidence, if they have rch€arsed the siruaror
many times in practice. To prepare for it, you need
a clear set ofguidelines that have be€n planned
out far in advance, not on the sid€line as the final
seconds tick away.
Differcnt Versions of the
2-llinute Offense
One of the fimt and most useful id€as we came
up with was to have three differcnt tempos for
oul 2-minute offense. The various situatiors we
faced during the course ol a season d€mandeil
dilYerent reactions from our offensive personnel
and coaches. We gave the various situations
narnes so that there would be no problems with
One of those t€mpos we cal]led out hurry hustle
offense. This is u6ed primaril) whpn rhere is
plenty oftime to score given our field posjtion and/
or the number oftime,outs, or i n a situation where
we're down by more than one score and time is
g€ttiirg short.
In this offense, we continue to huddle after
every play, but we move as quickty as possible to
lhe huddle and rhen back ro rhp tine of s(rimmage
alter the play is called. We utilize the same
basic principles as we would in a despention situation,
such as getting out of bounds whenever
possible and the quarte$ack laying the ball towards
the boundary ifthe throw down the field
isnl available.
Tbe second tempo is n an.'ed situation huddte.
This is used mainly before the hafwhenwehave
poor field position. We stalt with a safe call such
as a abaw or screen, and if we make a good gain,
we go into our 2-minute offense. Ifthe screel or
draw is unsuccessful, then we can elect to let the
clock r-un and go to the locker room with the scorc
as it stands.
The third tenpo we na]|rrcd sirriply 2.minute.
This i. lhe pafl of rhe game where a score is
needed and little time remains. It may be a touchdown
or a field goal that you need or want, and it
may be before the haifor at the end olthe game,
but a score is needed.
When we get into this tempo offense, it ts very
often "do-or-die" time, and that's the rcason w€
spend so much time and effort studying and placticinethis
aspect ofthe same.It's something that
you hope you never have to 1lse, but when you oo,
you'd better b€ able to execute.
Two.Minute Situations
Nothing breeds poise and confrdence in a team or
a stafflike quality practice time.I'd like to share
the various situationE we try to cover during our
playcr meetings. practiceq. or scrimmagFs. I personally
run the drill by creating various situatiom,
marking the ball as ready lor play, dictating
the down and distance, etc. We put our offense
in the following situations:
. Penalty on the offense or defense
. Before halfand must have TD
. End ofgame and must have a TD
. Various number oftime-outs
. Injury to oflense or defense
. QB sack
. Long gain that does not get out ofbounds
. Last play ofsame Big B€n Play
. Last play ofgame ftom plus 2s-yard tine to
the plus 4-yard line
. Intentionally gounding the ball to stop the
clock
. Playins to set up a FG, eetting the batt to
the middle ofthe field
. D€speration FG with no way to stop the clock