Sitting here snowed in today and I ran across a video of Utah’s Shovel Option on the Spread Offense blog. This is a great play, though I think you run a risk of putting the ball on the ground, more so than a traditional Triple Option. But the play has become a favorite in spread offenses around the country and one that our own team ran, so we saw enough of it in practice.

To defend any option team, whether out of a spread offense or otherwise, your team needs to have option rules. The best way to defend the Shovel Option is to not panic, play your rules, and be disciplined. First of all, here is how the play would look in blocking a base 4-2-5 Defense playing Cover 3:

Base Option Responsibilities vs. Shovel Option

For our base option rules, the two backers and the Nose and Tackle are playing the dive. In a traditional Read Option play, the dive would be coming across the QB’s face and the pitch man looping behind him. For this play though, the read we are getting is more a speed option look on the play-side. Our backers would read the near back, who becomes the pitch man on the play-side. They have to recognize the difference though – a speed option out of 1-back, but more likely a shovel option out of 2-back. They check the backside back and pick up the shovel.

The Defensive End sits and squeezes the air out, replacing the feet of the down-blocking Tackle. He plays the QB. Normally, we don’t attack the QB, which will cloud his read and force him to think. In attacking the QB, you make his decision automatic.

The overhang safety will be responsible for the pitch. Any time you’ve got a flat player, he’s your pitch man, unless you have some other sort of games on. Again, we want him to be patient and not attack the pitch man, to cloud the read.

Note that you will have to defeat a block or two – particularly the dive players. But if you don’t have to defeat blocks to stop someone, they aren’t that good anyway.

The problem that UNC had in the video was that guys got confused on their responsibilities. The backer looks like he’s playing the shovel but he is hesitant. He doesn’t attack the point. The Defensive End loses his leverage on the QB because he gets a little too far up field and takes a peek inside. When he loses leverage on the QB, the Safety decides to try to do too much, and attacks the QB inside of staying with the Pitch Man. Now there’s no one on the pitch, and he’s walking into the end zone. I’m sure UNC was aware of all of this, by the way – and I am making some assumptions based on how they were playing it.

Playing Games

To confuse the Quarterback further, we will switch up our option assignments. Against the traditional Read Option, the Defensive End would crash down the line to take on the dive back, while the backer loops over top to handle the QB. This also puts a better athlete on their athletic QB.

Here it is no different – the DE will crash down the line and attack the shovel back. He should cause a mess at the point with the pulling Guard. That’s fine, and by coming down the line he should have given the QB a pretty clear keep read. Now the backer loops over top and attacks the QB, while the Safety maintains his responsibility of the pitch man.

The last variation will be to crash the DE and the Safety, looping the backer all the way over to the pitch man. This requires your backer to have some speed and get there in a hurry. With the DE attacking hard, the QB gets an immediate keep read. Next he goes to the pitch key, who is attacking him now. He gets two quick reads and the ball is pitched right away.

The backer can get there though. He simply reads the near back and loosens his alignment. When the back flares, he’s got him – just as he would in a man coverage situation. We actually defended the Speed Option weak this way versus 1-back sets, leaving the DE on the QB while the Safety was rolled back in a 2-high look.

The Shovel Option is a great play, but can easily be defended if your guys are disciplined in their option responsibilities and understand how they translate to almost anything.