The Subtle Mistake OCs Make When Building Their Offense

It’s not about the plays you’re calling it’s about how you’re building.

In the age of information, every coach’s feed is filled with the latest cool play.

A new tag. A slick RPO. A trick play that worked on Sunday.

It’s easy to get sucked in. And without realizing it, you end up building a scattered playbook full of scattered ideas.

Few coaches are building true systems.

I know because I was one of them.

I became an offensive coordinator right in the heart of the spread offense boom. Chip Kell, Gus Malzahn, and Urban Meyer were torching defenses and the dominating clinics.

So I copied them. I studied every clip I could, recorded every game, took pages of notes.

The problem is I had no foundation. No structure. Just a pile of plays that didn’t fit together.

Eventually, after plenty of failure, I learned the power of system thinking.

That’s what I want to share with you today:
How to build an offense, not a playlist. A true system.

What Is a System?

The word system gets thrown around a lot, so let’s define what we’re really talking about.

A system is:

A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or interconnecting network.

In football terms, that means an offense where every piece has a purpose, where plays aren’t just installed in isolation, but as part of a bigger structure.

A systematic offense connects the dots. Each play, formation, tag, and adjustment builds off the last and points to the next, all depending on how the defense responds.

It’s an interconnected network:

• Run fits trigger screens.

• Safety rotations trigger play-action.

• Over-pursuit opens cutbacks and counters.

Everything ties together: the run game, pass game, screens, formations, even trick plays.

The best systems are:

• Simple for players (so they can play fast)

• Flexible for coaches (so you can adapt to personnel)

• Difficult for defenses (because every move they make triggers a built-in answer)

Start With a Flexible Foundation

So where do you start?

The honest (and frustrating) answer: It depends.

That’s the beauty of football, and one of the reasons I love it. There are hundreds of right answers.

Flexbone, Wing-T, Single Wing, Air Raid, Run and Shoot, West Coast... they all work because they’re carefully crafted, intentional, and adaptable.

The best offense for your team is the one you can teach with clarity, coach the fundamentals, and adapt to your players every year.

For us, that’s Wide Zone.

We’ve run it from 21 personnel with a pro-style QB in the pistol.
We’ve also run it from 11 personnel with an offset back and a mobile quarterback reading the backside end.

Same play. Different tools. Same system.

Your base play becomes your reference point. Every addition, every adjustment, flows from how defenses try to stop that one play.

That’s how a system is born.

Build with If/Then Logic

Now it’s time to put your defensive coordinator hat on.

This is why I believe every offensive coach should spend time coaching the other side of the ball.

I’ve been an OC, and now a head coach, for over 14 years, but I’ve always coached a position on defense.

Even now, as a head coach, I don’t dictate our defensive scheme, but I stay in tune with our DC’s weekly game plan and thought process. That perspective sharpens our system.

Here’s the point:
You have to anticipate how a defense will respond, and build your system with answers.

Defenses have a finite number of ways to stop you:

• Load the box with safeties

• Drop eight

• Play 1-High

• Bring pressure

• Move the defensive line

• Match up in man

These are just some examples, but you get the picture.

Each of those is an if. Your job is to supply the then.

• If they can’t stop your base play — keep running it.

• If the apex defender cheats the box — throw the screen.

• If they cheat and play tight man — run the screen-and-go.

• If the safety is flying downhill — hit them with play-action.

This is the essence of a system:
You’re not guessing. You’re reacting with purpose.
Every move the defense makes gives you a clear next step.

Sequence Your Offense

Similar to If/Then logic, great playcalling has an ebb and flow.
You’re not just reacting, you’re setting traps.

Some defenses will align guys to stop your best plays.
Others might stop you with sound technique and structure.
That’s where sequencing becomes critical.

Maybe you line up in a new formation, just to study how they align.
You’re gathering info: What’s the coverage? Who adjusts?
Later, you come back to the same look… but with the perfect call.

Maybe you run jet sweep action twice and hand it to the back.
On the third rep, you finally give the jet.
Now defenders hesitate. Now you’ve won.

The goal is simple:
Get the defense thinking.
Because when they think, they slow down, and when they slow down, you win.

Plays are expensive. Formations and motions are cheap.

This is how you build complexity without putting more on your players, especially your offensive line.

The structure stays the same.
The presentation evolves, and the defense is left chasing ghosts.

System = Mastery of Fundamentals

This is where most offenses fall apart.

Most coordinators understand the value of having answers, but they don’t know how to add them efficiently.

They install too many overlapping concepts that solve the same problem.
You don’t need four answers to attack Cover 3.
You don’t need four more for man.

That’s the mistake I see over and over again.

My goal as an OC is simple:
Build a system that answers everything, using as few plays as possible.

If you’re always working on plays, you’re never mastering technique.

I want our players focused on the little details:

• First step

• Proper release

• Read key

• Blocking angle

• Timing and depth

The details that win games don’t happen by chance, they come from repetition.

But you can’t drill those details when you’re racing through 25 different concepts every week.
You end up practicing everything... and mastering nothing.

Cut the playbook. Master the reps.
That’s how a system grows roots.

Audit Your Offense

So here’s my challenge to you:

Sit down, pull out your playbook, and take a hard, honest look at your system.

Ask yourself:

• Do your plays build logically off one core concept?
  Or are they a mix of things you’ve seen work elsewhere?

• Can your coaching staff clearly explain the why behind each play you run?
  If it’s just “we’ve always done it” or “it worked last year,” that’s not good enough.

• Do you have built-in answers or just a bunch of add-ons?
  Are your tags, screens, and play-actions solving real problems? Or just adding clutter?

• If you had to cut 30% of your playbook today… would your offense get better or worse?

That last question changed how I build everything.

A great system isn’t about how many plays you have, it’s about how well everything connects.
And how clearly your players can execute it under pressure.

So go ahead. Audit your offense.

You might be surprised by what you find.

Start from Zero

Even though I have a strong grasp of our system, I force myself to start from scratch every offseason.

Each summer, I wipe the slate clean.
Not because I’m changing who we are, but because I want to make sure I’m building the best possible version of our offense for this team.

I consider:

• Our current personnel

• What worked well last season

• What our opponents will look like

• What we can teach and master in our time frame

Then I pick one play, our core, and rebuild everything around it.
Formations, tags, play-action, answers... all layered one piece at a time.

This process keeps me honest.
It keeps me from defaulting to comfort.
And it forces me to only add what’s necessary, not what looks good on paper.

It’s not just about having a system.
It’s about making sure your system fits this team.

Stop Scrolling. Start Building.

You don’t need more plays.

You need a better structure.

A system that’s simple for your players, flexible for your personnel, and built to last.

So take a hard look at your offense.

So stop chasing the latest trend you saw on TV.

Build your system.
One that fits your players.
One you can teach with clarity.
One that scales year after year.

Stop scrolling for your offense.
Start building something your kids can master.