An area that I have studied extensively is the terminology that creates an offensive system. As a coach, I have worked in many different systems, but I also study playbooks and coaching manuals. I have seen many different structures for offensive terminology – ranging from loosely organized terminology that looks like it was pulled from many different systems to the highly detailed and cohesive terminology designed with coaching and learning in mind.

In his book, “Organizing an Offensive System – The Blue Print,” Dan Gonzalez spends a chapter explaining the importance of terminology. “One of the most prominent areas where the coach’s commitment to the player can be exemplified in the structure of language,” Gonzalez writes.

His perspective on language and structure being part of the coach’s responsibility is poignant. Too many times we overburden our players with a learning structure, rules and assignments that are difficult to learn.

When I consult with a staff, I ask questions about their terminology. Staffs that have really thought it through and show accountability for their players’ learning can provide clear and concise answers about why something is termed the way it is. On the other hand, there are many coaches who reply, “That’s what we have always called it,” or, “I just learned it that way.” The best coaches can take a concept that they want to adopt into their systems and have it fit seamlessly into the structure with how they name it.

With that being said, there is no universal football language. Determining what works best in your structure is a matter of thinking it through from the beginning to the end and being sure that the language does not create gray areas. For example, if you utilize numbers to call your runs, it’s not wise to utilize numbers to call passes, unless how the numbers are placed in a sequence communicate something.

Some versions of the wing-T system did this: 600 was the formation, 2 was the back carrying the ball and 8 was the hole which he ran to. The blocking scheme was given a tag such as “buck sweep.” So 628 Buck Sweep concisely communicates formation, ball-carrier, point of attack and blocking scheme. In a version of the west coast offense 628 is the-post-dig-drag concept. Utilizing a number tree for the passing game with numbering for the run game can become very confusing for a player.

Coaches typically theme their terminology. For example, one coach utilizes NFL mascots for his passing game. Seahawks means something to his team. All receivers understand their role in the route. When done this way, coaches term this strategy “conceptual teaching.”

This is an area that is a big part of my coaching philosophy. Everything within our structure fits into a concept. Finding “same as” components and varying a concept with tags allows us to build on a foundation and add more to the concept. Within the system that we call the Pro Style Pistol Offense, we have fit our passing game into five teaching/learning structures, allowing us to do what many teams conceptualize as 10 or even 12 separate passing concepts.

Our concepts fit into the following structures:

• Landmarks-based four verticals
• Spacing
• 3 level stretches
• 2 level stretches
• Shallow or under

These are further broken down into two- or three-player combination names and individual route names that allow us to pair halves of concepts or tag an individual route into a concept. Other than our naked concept, our play action is called utilizing the structures or components of the structures named above. Once our players learn a concept, they learn how it is adjusted in pairing two concepts in halves or with tags.

While it may seem simplified, we can call just about any route concept that someone can draw up because we analyzed the features of the routes and combinations and fit them into a learning structure.

Within the structure are learning cues. Instead of thinking about what we learned a concept as, we thought about our players and how they might best learn that concept starting with a football knowledge base much less than that of a coach. We develop our teaching and learning cues just as a teacher would in a classroom. We want our players understand the relationship between ideas and have an easy way of remembering them.

For example, our two-level structure is termed Drive or Cruise. Within this concept – which Peyton Manning calls levels – we have dig, drag and cut routes. In Drive, the drag is the first rout to go underneath the original stem of the dig route. In Cruise, the cut route goes under the dig. We use the “D” in “Drive” and “Drag” and the “C” in “Cruise” and “Cut” to help our players understand the order for the 1, 2, and 3 receivers.

The slides from our playbook explaining the terminology and giving our players learning clues are shown below.

This is just one concept in our offense. The entire structure is set up with how they player will learn it as the first consideration.

Utilizing a sound structure affords the offense a multiple attack. Gonzalez outlines the purpose and need for this in how a coach must be accountable for creating a terminology structure.

There are several considerations when considering language. No matter what the ultimate choice becomes, all teaching must be conceptual. In other words, learning does not take place in a vacuum. There must be a tie-in between one player’s assignment and the rest of the offensive unit. In mapping the structure for this communication, the following points were deemed mission critical:

• Unlimited personnel and alignment possibilities
• Minimal learning burden for running back and tight end/H-back position groups
• A simple protection structure that can add or subtract blockers and support adjustments to problematic rush schemes.
• A high percentage passing game that allows for the attack of the vertical seams in zone defenses and the areas of separation afforded vs. man coverage
• Pass patterns that are well-defined for the QB
• Routes that are able to adjust to multiple coverage categories
• The ability to change the outlet structure for the passer
• The ability to look at a singular pass pattern in different ways from the eyes of the QB and coach
• A running game structure with a common link to the passing game that aids the method for signaling the play to the team
• The use of both zone and gap blocking schemes as a core for the offensive line
• The ability to either spread out or block up the defense
• The ability to take advantage of a running QB, provided that he is a passing threat
• Rules in run and pass games that eliminate gray areas
• The ability to play at a high tempo
• Maximized practice repetitions for all the above

That is a lot to put together and structure, but the best offenses are able to do that and are put together in a way that they can be seen as a system and not just a collection of plays. That is the accountability of the coach in making the system player based and user friendly.

Keith Grabowski has been a football coach for 26 years, currently serving as an offensive assistant and technology coordinator at Oberlin College in Ohio. He previously was a head coach at the high school level for eight years and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Baldwin Wallace University. Grabowski serves as an advisor for several sports technology companies. He is a columnist for American Football Monthly and writes his own blog at thecoachesedge.com/blog. He's the author of "101+ Pro Style Pistol Offense Plays" and five other books available on thecoachedge.comand operates Coaches Edge Technologies. Follow him on Twitter @CoachKGrabowski.