Receiver Techniques and Drills - Mike Leach - Gregory Double Wing

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his back. Alabama did that to our receivers. Theylunged at us. Defensive players are wound tighter thanoffensive football players, particularly the defensivebacks. In tlie back of tlie defensive back's mind is, "If Ifoul this thing up, it is six points."The first thing defensive backs want is to get theirhands on the receiver. The receiver never wants thedefensive back's hands on him. As long as he can haveseparation he has time to react to what the receiveris goiqg to do. 'The receiver doesn't want him to haveany time to react. Whether it is in the course of a routeor the release, always knock thedefender's hands off.What we try to do is break the elbow with a rip. 'Thatalso causes the defender's shoulder to turn, whichallows us to get by and into a move. When we aredoing the rip move, as the hand comes tl-rough, tlie footmust come through also. When the receiver's foot getsthrough, he is open. If the receiver gets over the top ofthe defender, he has a two-way go. If the receiver hassuperior position, it doesn't matter if the defender isfaster, the receiver is going to win.At times the defender will be really strong. He isnot just a little stronger than the receiver, he issufficiently stronger. We do the same thing. We usethe foot fire. But when we go to knock his hands off,we have to go to the elids of his wrists. But if you haveto go to the ends of the wrist, instead of the elbow,we can't turn the shoulders as well. Always comedown on a defender's hands, not up. If you come downon the arms, it won't hurt you much, but it will hurt thedefender. I like the rip because it keeps the receiverlow. I don't like the swim move, unless the receiver istall. It exposes too much body. The swim I like to do iscalled the "short swim." Instead of coming over theshoulder, the receiver swims over the arms.I like big receivers over small receivers. A smallreceiver has to be great with liis feet and great atgetting skinny. He is a little target for the defender towork on. There is very little surface to hold him up. Theadvantage of a big receiver is his arms are generallylonger than the defensive back. If the receiver is big,lie can do anything he wants with the defensive back.He can't get his hands on me like I can him. I call turnhis shoulder just for the simple reason I have longerarms. A tall receiver is a bigger target and is hard tohold on the line of scrimmage. He has more leveragebecause of those arms. However, each receiver has touse what lie does best.Let's talk a little about running routes. There arevarious things that are going to happen before thereceiver gets to the point he isgoing to break his route.The route may break at 10 or 15 yards, but it doesn'tmatter. You know where the route breaks and thedefender doesn't. That is the receiver's ace in tlie hole.As the receiver goes upfield he needs to be on the sideof the defender that the route is going to break to. If Iam on the other side of the defender, I have to crosshis whole body. If the body position is right, thereceiver can lean on tlie defender, break .the route, andat the minimum be open for an instant.If the receiver beats the defender at the line andgets behind him, he should move in the direction wherehe last saw -the defender. The defender has panickedand is going to go to tlie last place he saw him. If thereceiver does that first he will be a step ahead of thedefender.When a receiver runs a route, I think it is veryimportant to have his numbers on his jersey over hisfeet. I mean when the receiver sl:icks or breaks a route.The best way to figure out if your players liave theirnumbers over their feet is to have a wet day outside. Iwatched a lot of film and found the same guy slippingdown all the time. Come to find out his weight wasn'tover his feet. I don't believe slipping is entirely anaccident. If you slow the projector down and watch aguy's slip, his numbers are back and his feet forward.There is no weight over his feet and he slips. If thereceiver can stay relatively low, at some point in hisroute he will have an encounter with the defender. Ifthe receiver can stay low, that helps to keep theweight over the feet. When tlie numbers on thereceiver's jersey come up and go back, the defensiveback reads that as a break. He closes on the receiverand pins his hip. We never show our numbers to thedefensive back.
When the receiver gets ready to make his breakwe want him to accelerate the hands. That give's thedefensive back the impression that the receiver isgoing faster then he is, instead of gearing down.I'm big on "stick routes." Occasionally, by alignmentwe are outside the defender. The receiver has .thedefensive back beat on the out by alignment. Thereceiver wants to get to the out as quick as he can. Ifhe does that the speed can't get there to cover. If thereceiver sticks a route it allows him to cut reallysharply. I think it distributes the weight of the receiverand allows him to come out of his cut really fast. If areceiver sticks his route, it makes the defensive backhesitate.Defensive backs are kind of paranoid people. Theydon't like to have their space invaded. There will be atime in a receiver's route where the defensive backtries to get his hands on the receiver. It will happenwhen the receiver breaks his cushion. The receiver hasto get the defensive back's hand off him. Knocking thehands down has to be a constant thing. 'The reason isdefensive backs kind of see with their hands. He can'tsee the receiver, but if his hands are or1 him, he knowswhere he is. If you knock his hands off, he gets anuncomfortable feeling.Another thing that is kind of in the experimentalstages is how to break the route once the receiverbeats the defensive back. The receiver goes ver-ticaland brakes the defensive back's cusl-lion. He has to turnto run with .the receiver. If the receiver wants to breakhis route to the outside, he leans on him and breaks.The lean tells the defensive back the receiver is goingoutside. There will be a time in the route where .thedefensive back will have his back to the receiver. It islike the trick you played on your buddies in school. Youreach around and pat him on the shoulder away fromyou. He looks that way. Instead of leaning into thedefensive back and breaking that way, touch him onthe other side. When the defensive back is nottouching the receiver and his back is turned is the mostvulnerable position. If the receiver touches thedefensive back on -the off shoulder and breaks theother way, you w ~ll be surprised what will happen.Most of the time the defensive back takes a couple ofsteps to the side that you touch.We stress coming back for the ball and catching itat the highest point. You are losing ground on the routebut you are gaining ground on the defender. Thereceiver is creating more separation between himselfand the defender.We have a couple of receivers right now who runwith their arms outstretched. They see the ball in theair and they run for 15 yards wi-th their arms stretchedout. All that is doing is telling the defender that theball is conling and probably is in the vicinity of thereceiver's hands. When they do that it breaks thereceiver's stride. He is not low any more in a full-outsprint. He is like a pizza delivery guy. We work oncatching .the ball without making a sound. That meansdevelop soft hands.We do two drills at post-practice. We split thereceiver in half and work with the jugs machine. Wework on hand placement, and reac1:ion catching. Thedrill I like is called the "last fivesteps of a route." Thatdrill IS exactly what it says. The quarterback takes hisdrop. The receiver is down the field about 10 yards.About half way through the quarterback's drop, thereceiver sticks his route, looks back to thequarterback, and catches the post. All he has run is 5steps and he has gotten a catching rep. He can run 40posts without expending any serious energy.I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. If wecan ever do anything for ~UIJ at the University ofKentl~cky give us a call. Thank you.
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Receiver Techniques and Drills - Mike Leach - Gregory Double Wing

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