Picture this….you are looking at great videos on YouTube and other channels showing amazing RPO football plays within the college game. 

You then begin looking at how to add them into your system. 

But there is a major problem that keeps you from adding them or trusting them once the games begin. 

Ha, got ya! 

Actually, I’m speaking about myself.

The problem I am talking about has made me not install RPO football plays that I felt at one point are sure additions to our offense. 

Obviously, you have run into this same problem when trying to add creativity into your offense. (Who doesn’t have a bloated playbook of great ideas?)

Let me state the problem clearly.

Run Pass Options are not able to be moved from offense to offense league to league, and especially, level to level. 

This is because every team, league, and level, run different offensive schemes, play against different defenses, and have different types of players. 

Everything is different from team to team, and there is no area between levels in which the differences are larger than between high school football and college football. 

And unfortunately, the college level gives us the easiest access to all of the coolest videos.

Watching more Alabama and Oklahoma football is not going to bring clarity concerning how to add RPOs into your offense.  

It has to do with looking at the blocking schemes within your current run game.

Before we get into the details, a phrase we need to discuss when determining how to add RPOs into your system is something you have heard numerous times on pre-game shows, YouTube videos, and Coach Tube courses. 

That phrase is putting a defender in conflict

What this means, is that you are taking a single defender that has both run and pass responsibilities, and making him wrong when he decides what he is going to do after the ball is snapped. 

Second and third-level defenders have reads that tell them to play run, or get into their pass drop. 

Putting a linebacker or safety in conflict with an RPO shows them a run look, then punishes them with a throw into the pass coverage zone for which they are responsible. 

If the defender concerns himself with the pass, you can give the ball to a 5-on-5 or 6-on-6 box.

Another thing that needs to be brought up before we begin, is the difference between pre-snap and post-snap RPOs. 

You will need to discuss adding both in your system, so you have answers for the different personnel groupings within your offense. 

A post-snap RPO is when your quarterback reads a defender after the ball is snapped to determine if he will give the ball to the running back or throw a route. 

A pre-snap RPO is when your quarterback determines before the ball is even snapped, based upon pre-snap alignment, that he is going to give the ball to the running back or throw the ball.  

We will begin with what most people see, and that is post-snap RPOs.

CREATING POST-SNAP RPO FOOTBALL PLAYS WITHIN YOUR CURRENT OFFENSE

To begin the process of building RPOs into your system, you must begin at step-one of your run game. 

Your run game needs to be broken down into what you are going to be able to run against different fronts (unless you are a zone-only team), and then you can begin.

As you have each play drawn up in front of you, or hopefully within a HUDL install so that your coaches and players can see it 365 days a year, you will be able to see where the defense has you at a disadvantage. 

This is where the problem lies with trying to add RPOs into your system that you see on TV or online. 

In high school, teams do not always line up in two-high to an 11 personnel attached set, as they expect their D-Lineman to overpower your O-Lineman. 

In high school, teams are going to try to get one more player in the box than you have and bait you to try to throw the ball over the top. 

They know just as well as you do that your quarterback is not Mac Jones, and therefore they are going to allow him the opportunity to beat you, as opposed to allowing you to run the ball straight ahead. 

Running the ball wins the majority of high school football games, and every defensive coordinator knows it.

Due to the fact that the defense is going to figure out a way to have an extra man in the box, you now have the solution to building an RPO into your offense on each particular play. 

As you can see by the example below (Figure 1), there is always going to be one person unblocked.  That is the defender around which your RPO will be built.

Figure 1: Determining the unblocked player in your run game

Once your unblocked defender is determined, you can now decide how you are going to add the pass portion to the RPO.

CREATING THE POST-SNAP RUN PASS OPTION OFF OF THE UNBLOCKED DEFENDER

One frustrating thing about RPO football play creation, is there are not a lot of route options. 

But the good news is the same because once you figure out the route that is going to work for your offense, you can use that within the majority of your run plays.

The routes that are used are usually only differentiated between the location of the receiver running the route (outside receiver vs. inside receiver).  

When using an inside receiver, a Slant Route or a Glance Route are what is being used by teams around the country to put an inside linebacker in conflict.  But, some other post-snap RPOs ideas are as follows:

Figure 2: Hitch RPO
Figure 3: Slant RPO
Figure 4: Frontside Glance RPO off of Power
Figure 5: Bang Post RPO off of Counter
Figure 6: Backside Glance RPO
Figure 7: Bubble RPO off of the Sam LB

Once again, the only thing you need to be concerned about when beginning this process, is WHICH DEFENDER IS UNBLOCKED? 

That will tell you all you need to know to put the proper defender in conflict.

HOW THE DEFENSE WILL COUNTER YOUR RPO FOOTBALL PLAYS

Something that you will begin seeing when you add RPOs is an emergence of man coverage, and you must prepare for this. 

This is the only way for a defense to be certain that they can allow their linebackers to play run-first without having to worry about defending the pass portion of the RPO (Figure 8). 

When they do this, they will take their backside corner and all other possible inside defensive backs and put them in press-man coverage. 

This is in an attempt to not allow your receivers to get inside of them.

A good strategy to respond to this is to figure out rub routes, out-breaking routes, or some sort of man-beater that can counter that inside leverage of their most inside pass defender. 

A whip route is a great idea, as it looks like you are running a slant for your RPO, but are breaking outside. 

If you show any type of play-action on this or have the tailback cross the quarterback’s face, the inside defender will stay inside, and maybe even take his eyes off of the receiver.

CREATING PRE-SNAP RPO FOOTBALL PLAYS WITHIN YOUR CURRENT OFFENSE

One thing you do not see a lot of videos discussing, but you see very frequently on TV without knowing it, is the pre-snap RPO. 

Most bubbles or wide screens thrown to the field in the college game are not called pass plays, but come off of run-action. 

As a 7th or 8th defender that is responsible for one of the receivers becomes aggressive in the run-game, the quarterback will see movement in the pre-snap, and throw or give based upon the behavior of that defender. 

He has one defender to keep an eye on.  It’s that easy!

Another idea you can use is to align in formations that you believe can get you a numbers advantage, and use wider thrown RPOs to get the advantage. 

But there’s no need to call those plays and take a chance they will align differently than you expect. 

Simply attach those routes to run plays, which will give you the ability to force them to pick their poison. 

A few ideas you may be able to try are as follows:

Figure 8: X Screen off of Will LB leverage
Figure 9: Hitch RPO vs. off-coverage
Figure 10: Pre-Snap Bubble RPO off of 7th Defender

CONCLUSION

To reiterate the main point of this article, the best ways to add RPO football plays within your offense are to add them to what you already do. 

Your run game is most likely sound, but there is usually going to be an unblocked defender that will create issues from play to play. 

Take advantage of this! 

Put that defender in conflict, and make him less aggressive. 

This not only makes you more dangerous, but it also keeps your receivers engaged. 

You will no longer be in a situation where receivers jog off of the ball on run plays, because if they get open, they may actually catch a pass.

Another thought is that if you are playing an aggressive linebacker that you do not believe you can block, try to get him off of his game by playing with his mind. 

If he does what his coach tells him to do, he will begin to see balls whizzing by his head off of run reads. 

This can cause him to lose confidence and begin making mistakes, or even playing with less aggression.

All of the drawings above are created for 10 & 11 personnel offenses, but I believe the information within this article gives you enough information to enable you to create RPOs within any offense. 

Want to add RPO’s to your Quarterback game?

Check out this article here

If you are running something else, please put any questions and your email address in the comments section, and I will get in touch with you to try to help.