What’s it like being a quarterback in the SEC and breaking the huddle?

I get asked that question pretty often, so I’ll try to explain it here by looking at a play in a South Carolina game against Alabama.

After a fourth-and-2 conversion to get us a fresh set of downs, we had the ball first-and-10 on Alabama’s 26-yard line with 44 seconds left in the first quarter. We were up 7-3 at this point after Bama made a chip-shot field goal.

This really is a typical Coach Spurrier play call. After converting the fourth down, he wants to take a shot. As a quarterback, you have to love it. I still do to this day.

So after getting the first down and getting the signal from the sidelines, I came to the huddle and give this play: “Left over, zip-14 pass-X-8. Left over, zip-14 pass-X-8. On one, on one. Ready, break.”

We break the huddle and I’m walking toward the line of scrimmage. After calling the play and repeating it a second time (that was standard protocol for us), I’d repeat it again inside my head and try to see the play develop. After that, I look at the defensive front. This is what I saw:


headup

Here we have a bear front. A bear front is when the center has a defensive lineman head up and only three down linemen. That front has a high percentage of being some sort of blitz, and in this case, it seems like a three-zone blitz. After recognizing that, I immediately look to see how many safeties are back deep and where they are located.

Here, during presnap, I notice that there are two safeties in a “deep set”:

Safeties

After looking at that, I immediately come down to the linebackers and see where they are and what gaps they are responsible for. You can tell that something looks fishy because of the Mark Barron’s position and because of the alignment of the linebackers. As a quarterback you have to notice these little details. I knew that even if they did blitz, my pass protection call was perfect and I would be protected. When you watch the play from the presnap and slow it down, you can see the shift in the secondary.

If you see here, Marcus Lattimore missed his blocking assignment:

MissedBlock

Thankfully, Pat DiMarco tripped up both his man and Lattimore’s, so I avoided getting whacked.

As a result, I hit Alshon Jeffery for a 26-yard touchdown to give us a 14-3 lead. I hit Jeffery again on the next drive to give us a 21-3 lead, and we knocked off the No. 1 team in the country.

But it wouldn’t have happened without this play.

Please keep in mind, this is all happening on a very short play clock so everything is sped up drastically. You really have to think quick and always, ALWAYS, keep your eyes on the defense. One thing that was really helpful for me was when coach G.A Mangus came to South Carolina and taught us about the over/under fronts and what defenses were typically associated with each. Before him, we didn’t really get a whole lot of teaching about defensive fronts, blitzes and things like that.

Ninety percent of the time, the defense is disguised and changes right before the snap. Obviously some team’s strategies are different. That’s why it is so critical have a game plan and know their tendencies are. It’s also very crucial to keep those eyes up and pay attention to the little shifts.

So that’s what it is like breaking the huddle and going through an entire play. Plays rarely work out the way they were intended to, but when they do, it is a thing of beauty!