During a recent clinic speech on running back routes from Steve Sarkisian, he made a comment that cleared the fog from my mind in terms of how important it is to get your running back involved in the passing game.
I will not get his quote exactly right, but his main idea was that the offensive player that gets lost by the defense in the passing game the most is the running back.
This got me thinking about high school football, and how we as coaches put our best player at running back, yet do not take advantage of opportunities to get him out in space to create explosive plays.
If I was tech-savvy enough to put the hand-slapping-face emoji into this article to explain what I thought about myself at that moment, I would.
So here’s what we did…
Within our offense, we started with check-downs and screens, but this article will discuss some of the newer ideas, how they are run, and reasons you may want to add them as part of your offensive scheme.
I will refer to each route in terms of what we call them, but you or other coaches may very well call them something different. This verbiage simply fits into our terminology better than others.
SWING ROUTE
We refer to this pass route as a Swing Route, but only when calling it to the field.
We want to make sure we differentiate between the running back routes going to the boundary and ones that go to the field, so when the kids are on the sidelines on Friday nights, there is no confusion within our discussion.
For us, Swing means to the field, and Flare, which will be discussed next, tells them to go to the boundary.
The big difference between the two, is that we release before the ball is snapped when running the Swing Route to the field (Figure 1).
In earlier years of swinging our running back, defensive ends would peel off and create difficult throws for our quarterbacks.
Another major piece that has influenced us to leave early, is that it forces the field-side inside linebacker to show us if they are in zone or man coverage in the pre-snap.
If he is in man, he must vacate his base alignment, as he is unable to get to our running back if he is coached to wait until the ball is snapped to begin chasing.
This route works well from a 3×1 look versus teams that play 2-High. It enables you to get the fourth receiver into the same side of a concept without giving it away with your pre-snap alignment.
FLARE ROUTE
Like I mentioned above, most people will find this to be the same as Swing, but again, I want clarify in all of our discussions that Flare means that we are running the route into the boundary.
We also do not leave early…we begin the route when the ball is snapped.
This route allows weakside defensive ends to peel off (we actually threw an interception on this route in 2019) because you do not have the room to leave early.
If the defensive end is peeling, just let your quarterback know that he is not going to be able to throw the Flare Route, and thank your lucky stars that you have to pass-protect one less defender.
In terms of teaching the route (Figure 2), the running back is asked to run directly sideways until he gets outside of the numbers, before getting upfield.
This will enable your quarterback to more easily throw the route, without being concerned with throwing the ball over the top of a defender.
This route ties in well with boundary shallows, or a concept trying to get the boundary ILB to vacate his area to run a route behind him.
SHOOT ROUTE
The Shoot Route is another of the running back routes that works well versus man coverage.
You will have to work on timing for the stem, as we have to change it each year.
It must be somewhere outside of the field offensive tackle, but the width depends on how quickly you want to get him the ball, and/or how wide you need him to get to help set up another receiver’s route (Figure 3).
You can also use the route with receivers setting picks on linebackers and safeties.
Due to the fact that the route is thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage, all bets are off in terms of offensive pass interference concerns.
It is an exciting route to run versus man-to-man teams, especially on the goal line, when defensive backs are chasing receivers running inside-breaking routes.
TEXAS/ANGLE ROUTE
Full disclosure, this is a concept that we have had difficulty implementing into our offense.
That being said, it is a great counter to the Shoot Route, as the stem can be taught identically.
If you plan on adding the Shoot Route as a part of your offense, I would suggest adding the Texas Route (Figure 4) to counter ILBs that are hard-chasers in man-coverage.
Teach your running back to look back for the ball over his outside shoulder like he does when running Shoot, then at the landmark of your choosing, have him plant his foot and run back inside, or directly upfield.
The latter ensures you will have fewer problems evading the weak side ILB.
SLIP ROUTE
The Slip Route always brings excitement to a coaches meeting or an individual period, because of the opportunities it creates, and the ability for us all to reminisce about the times we saw someone like Lincoln Riley use it for an explosive play.
This route works well vs. teams that play 2-High or teams that play man coverage with their inside linebackers.
If there is any way you can make it look like the running back is blocking or running another route within your scheme, it will catch the linebackers off-guard.
It has a high probability of creating a huge play since you are taking your best player and getting him the ball in space running vertically.
Due to the fact that this will most likely become a shot-play (your quarterback IS going to throw it when called), it works best to give the running back an option to break-off the route if the inside linebacker turns and runs with him (Figure 5).
Tie this running back route to a Double Smash or Double Go-Outs out of 2×2 to help get the safeties off of the hash and make the middle deep wide open grass.
RAIL ROUTE
This is one of the new running back routes for me, introduced to me by our quarterback coach Casey Fisher during the 2020 season when we attempted to improve upon our Mesh concept.
The Rail Route may look similar to the Swing when run to the field or Flare when run to the boundary, but there are great differences throughout both the stem, landmarks, and route that must be taught.
Regardless of whether the running back routes are run to the field or to the boundary, we try to make it easy by telling them to run through the toes of the receiver closest to the ball (Figure 6).
After hitting your landmark, begin to fade toward the sideline, being more concerned with width than depth.
This is a route that works well with concepts like Mesh, or anything that has wide receiver Shallow Routes within the concept.
BUBBLE SCREEN
The Bubble Screen is another way to get your running back the ball, especially within an Empty set with him lined up to the field.
If you are considering running a Bubble Screen with your running back, you are probably running it with your receivers as well, and therefore can teach it the same way to both position groups.
Also, unless you are a team that gets 2-High 100% of the time, I would suggest tying the Bubble Screen into a quarterback run as a pre-snap RPO, so teams cannot take it away with their alignment.
NOW SCREEN
We use the “Now Screen” as a pre-snap RPO attached to our Empty QB Run Concepts.
We count, and throw or keep, depending upon where our numbers advantage is located.
The running back takes one step forward, then expects the ball.
It is very similar to having a bubble concept attached as a pre-snap RPO.
Running the Now Route enables you to get a similar idea as the bubble added to your offense, without having to perfect the throwing and catching of the route.
Running the bubble needs to be a major part of your practice time if you are going to use it frequently because it takes so much time to practice.
But Now Screens take much less time and give you nearly the same value.
Place your running back where you want him, and throw him the ball if you have numbers.
USING YOUR RUNNING BACK ROUTES WITH EMPTY CONCEPTS
Another, and more fun way to use your running back in the passing game, is with Empty Concepts.
This is the best way to inspire creativity in the use of the running back, because you can put him where you want him within concepts you already know, and have him run the route you want him to run.
The running backs will definitely remember what to do because it is finally their opportunity to play receiver.
An item that must be considered when you line up in an Empty formation is that you now only have five in your pass protection.
Many defenses will keep six in the box to this type of formation, or even worse, have a six-man pressure as their Empty check.
Therefore, to do this effectively without getting sacked, one of your receivers must be considered a hot receiver.
A hot receiver in our offense is one that does not run part of the concept.
Instead, he runs a route that replaces a blitzing defender, or at minimum runs through the base alignment of the potential blitzing second-level defender as part of his route.
We will set our pass protection, and based upon how it is called or how the concept is called, one of our receivers becomes the designated hot receiver.
I have seen in other videos that many teams will run Empty concepts without hots.
I do not have the nerve to try that. I actually like my quarterbacks.
This idea, due to the pass protection and putting together hot rules, will seem difficult to add to your offense upon first thought.
That being said, I teach it to our receivers and running backs in about five minutes every summer, and it does not have to be discussed again.
The juniors and seniors always remember it from year to year, so they can also help the young guys after year one.
CONCLUSION
If you are considering adding running back routes into your offense for next season, I would urge you to begin placing them within concepts or determining how to tag these within concepts immediately.
If you try to add these during the season, or even during a weekend planning meeting, it will not work.
But if you begin working on the process now, you will be able to associate them with concepts that enhance the routes, or use the new routes to enhance another part of your scheme to get receivers open.
Start with just two or three of them, and then begin slowly adding from there.
Using running back routes in the passing game has created so many positives for us.
Not only does it get your best player the ball in space, but it also creates another exciting piece of football for him to learn.
Our running backs, especially if they are multi-year starters, will get bored with the idea of practicing the basics of the running back position on a daily basis.
Being involved in the passing game has created much more excitement for them.
Plus, if you have a highly talented running back that has a chance to play in college, this will be very beneficial for his future and it will show college coaches what he can do besides taking handoffs.
Learn more about the Steve Sarkisian Offense he ran at Alabama in this popular course here:
