Doug Patterson, St. Cloud State (Minn.)  co-offensive coordinator, has cooked up a combination play that has proven to be extremely difficult to defend.

Patterson has weaved in a bubble screen concept into his inside zone play with great success.

In a recent episode of the USA Football Coach and Coordinator podcast, Patterson gave a breakdown of the play, which he calls “Repo.”

“It’s a play we’re going to run over 100 times a year,” Patterson told host Keith Grabowski.

Patterson is comfortable running the play irrespective of down and distance, and it starts with having everyone blocked—focusing on the defender just outside the box.

To do that, Patterson’s quarterback decides post-snap whether to run or throw the bubble screen based on whether that defender commits to the run or the pass.

“If he’s a pass defender, then we go back to ‘find the defensive end,’ and run the zone read play. If he’s in the box, he plays the run on his first couple steps, you flip the ball out and run the bubble,” Patterson said. “That’s been my best play since I got here. It helps us control the box.”

The Repo play appears in Patterson’s game plan from two or three different formations each week, and they practice the play from each formation four-to-five times in each practice during team sessions.

“We might run Repo 10-12 times per practice,” he said.

Patterson is so confident in the play that the only time he’ll consider calling an audible out of it is when the defense is showing zero pressure.

“One high, it’s a good play (versus) 1-high, cover 1, because we do it out of tight end Trips a lot," said Patterson. "If you play 1-high cover 1, you’re playing cover 1 to three receivers, it’s hard to overpopulate the box when we’re running zone read."

“You’d have to have another safety to get us outnumbered. That’s why we have the quarterback in the shotgun all the time, because you have to figure out how to defend him as a runner as well.”

When the defense shows the zone and overplays the bubble, with one and two pressing upfield, Patterson looks to throw a slant bubble.

“For the most part, it’s always been a call-it-and-run-it play,” Patterson said.

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