Photo via cbssports.com

In 2016 the University of Pittsburgh’s offense under Matt Canada, now the interim head coach at Maryland, was ranked 3rd in S&P and 10th in scoring offense. When studying their 2016 offense, along with their shifts, and fly sweeps, one thing that stood out  as a staple of their offense, was the multiple ways they ran the shovel pass. The three concepts they ran that involved the shovel are their power read shovel, option shovel, and their sprint-out shovel.

Power Read Shovel: The main way that Pitt ran the shovel pass was with their power read shovel option. This is run very similarly to the power read concept many teams run except they replace a widening end with a shovel pass instead of running the quarterback.

In this example, the end squeezes for the shovel so the quarterback gives the ball to the back.

 

 

In this example, Pitt runs power read shovel with an arc block. The end widens so the quarterback shoveled the ball.

 

 

Because fly sweeps are also a big part of their offense, Pitt often dressed up the concept by running fly motion away from the play.

 

 

Shovel Option:

Another way Pitt ran the shovel pass was with their shovel option play. You could say this play is read like a triple option, however instead of a give, it’s a shovel. This play was popularized by Urban meyer’s Utah and Florida teams. Here is a diagram of the play from Utah’s 2004 playbook.

Here, the end widens with the quarterback so he throws the shovel pass.

 

 

Pitt often runs shovel option with jet motion away in order to slow down the linebacker’s flow. In this example, the end stays inside and alley defender stays with the pitchman so the quarterback keeps the ball.

 

 

Shovel- Sprint Out:

The third way the Panthers ran their shovel pass was off of sprint-out action. It is essentially the same idea as their shovel triple option, except instead of controlling the alley defender with a pitchman, they control him with a passing concept. If the end widens, he’ll shovel the ball. If the end pinches, the quarterback keeps the ball and rolls out and looks for the pass concept. If that’s covered, he should have a running lane between the end and the alley defender. The four pass concepts the Panthers used with their shovel pass were vert-out, snag, stick, and TB rub.

Here, the Panthers run shovel with a snag concept. The end widens with the quarterback so the quarterback throws the shovel.

 

 

Here, the Panthers run shovel with their HB rub play and the end pinches to defend the shovel so the quarterback keeps rolling and throws the flat.

 

 

Here, the Panthers run shovel with vert-out. The end pinches to defend the shovel so the quarterback keeps rolling to work the passing concept. The alley defender covers the out route which opens up a running lane for the quarterback to keep the ball.

 

 

Play Action: The Panthers also complemented their shovel power read shovel play with a play action off the same look. Here, they throw a post wheel concept off power read shovel action.

 

 

The shovel pass has become a staple of Canada’s offense in Pitt and at LSU. Kansas City has also borrowed some of these concepts. These teams have been very successful, especially in the red zone.  Expect to see it utilized more this season for the Terrapins.

Contact Noah Riley at noahbriley@lclark.edu or follow him on Twitter @Noahriley21 Check out more of his work at rileykolstefootball.com/