DICK OLIN

THE BUBBLE SCREEN PASSING PACKAGE

ROBERT E. LEE HIGH SCHOOL, TEXAS

It is great to be here to talk about losing to a school one year in the

our program. A lot of people have Semi-Finals of the small schools
questions about Texas High School that had 4,700 students. There is a
football. I will be glad to share discrepancy in this system. But
some of those things with you while Texas is a great place to coach.
I am here this weekend.
Let me tell you how I got to Texas
I went to Texas in 1983. I was from as a coach. I was at Clinton High
Iowa. I played quarterback at the School in Iowa. It is an industrial
University of Northern Iowa. I knew town and was drying up. I went to a
John Burks the Clinic Director of Texas High School Coaching School in
the Denver and Las Vegas Clinics 1983. It is the largest association
when I coached in Iowa. Then I went of high school coaches in the
to Texas and found out that was country. I went to the Coaching
where the game of football was School and that is where I got my
invented. There are two points you job. Let me tell you about the
need to write down right away. First Coaching School so if any of you are
is this. The game of football was interested in coming to Texas to
not invented in the state of Texas. coach.
The second thing is this. If you
ever come to the state of Texas you When you go to the Coaching School
must always say it is nice to be in you will see that there are 400 or
the state where the game of football more vendors that have displays.
was invented. They have all kinds of clinics going
on at the time. In the lobby they
Let me tell you a little about our have a job room set up. You go into
school. The city of Baytown is on the room and put your resume on a
the eastern part of Houston, Texas. big board on the wall. On the other
We are a town of about 70,000 side of the wall are the open jobs
people. We only have two high and the qualifications and other
schools. We have 2,300 students in information about the job.
grades 9 through 12. We compete in a
school district that has schools in In the clinic sessions they will
it as large as 4,000 students. In call the names of the schools that
Texas they decided to have two are interested in interviewing
classifications for the State coaches that are looking for jobs.
Championships. They decided to take You go down to a room and the school
the largest school in each district personnel have interviews with those
and place it in Division I. The rest coaches interested in jobs.
of the teams in your district were
placed into Division II. The fallacy The reason I am telling you about
of this system is the fact that you this is because the number of
have a lot of large schools quality people applying for coaching
competing against schools that are jobs has diminished. We need for
not nearly as large. We ended up more coaches to come to Texas to
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coach high school football. There (Ha- ha) If anyone is interested you
are teacher shortages all over the can contact me at Robert E. Lee High
state. Texas pays very well for School in Baytown. We always have a
teaching and coaching. lot of openings in our area. We have
over 75 schools in the Houston area.
The President of our association We have a great football coaches
told me to make sure I told everyone association. I am the vice president
that when you apply for a job in of the organization at the present
Texas there are only two questions time and will be the president in
they ask you in the interview. You May.
do not need to fill out a resume or
send in any references. They just We have a lot of advantages coaching
ask you two questions. The first in our school. I deal with our
question is this. “Have you ever had athletes all year round, every
sex with a farm animal?” If the single day. In our sixth period of
person answers NO they hire you on athletics we have all freshmen. In
the spot and do not ask the second our seventh period of athletics we
question. If the person being have all varsity players. They do
interviewed answers YES they ask the not go to any other sports first.
second question. The second question They come to us first. They go to
asked is this. “When you had sex all other sports after school. The
with the farm animal did anyone see only sport we release our players to
you?” If the answer is NO you are is basketball if they are a varsity
hired on the spot. We do need starter. After the season they must
additional coaches in our area of return to football. My title is
Texas. listed as Head Football Coach and
Campus Coordinator in charge of
In Texas there is no state income Athletics. I get paid $80,400.00 for
tax. That is a good thing. If you that position. I do not teach any
were coaching in Baytown, Texas this classes.
is what you would be making. If you
had zero years of experience and Because I came from Iowa everyone
Bachelors Degree this is what you calls me Yankee. Just because I went
would get. Our base is $35,739. As a south they think I am a Yankee.
coach you get 10 days extra pay Hell, I did not fight in the Civil
which means you would get $2009 War. I had to raise the culture
added on the base pay. They divide level when I went to Texas. I do not
the base pay by 187 days and that is say “Yaw” and I do not say “sick-
what you get for starting coaching em.” I still think I talk like I am
before school starts. The coaching from Iowa. But, we have a great
stipend is $4,800. That means a situation at Robert E. Lee. As
coach with zero experience would Campus Coordinator I get to hire and
make $42,450.20. If you have a fire coaches. We do not have to
Masters Degree you would make fight the battle to get players. I
$44,807.80. do have one of my coaches with me
today. He is the Special Teams
In my situation I do not have to Coordinator, Troy Rogers.
teach a single class. I have an
office and we have a 16,000 square I want to talk about our offense. I
foot field house. It is used by am going to cover the Bubble Screen
football only. If the principal and the Uncovered Philosophy. Our
wants me he has to call me. They offense is a One-Back Set. Our
will not walk across the street. I objective is to never, never run the
have caller ID so I don’t have to football. That is the truth. It is
answer them if I do not want to. plain and simple. I have reached an
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age where there are two things that Here is a very important coaching
are extremely important in life to point. You must practice Uncovered
me. One is regularity and the other for it to be effective. We will take
is “Pass Skelton Offense.” Those are it anytime it appears in practice.
the two things I worry about. We When we go in our Pass Skelton
like to throw the ball as much as we Drill, if the defense does not line
possibly can. up correctly, we will throw the ball
to the uncovered man regardless of
I want to talk about the “Uncovered” what has been called in the huddle.
situation first. We are in a bubble The reason we do this is simple. If
2 by 2, a bubble 3 by 1, or you do not practice it all of the
tendencies all of the time. We can time, soon it will not be a part of
go from the shotgun or at times can your offense. That is the reason we
go under the center. insist on throwing to the uncovered
man in practice, so we will be able
This is how we approach the to do it in a game.
“Uncovered” situations. The most
important aspect of the offense is Go back and look at some of your
the first thing we teach. That is films. See how many times you spilt
the uncovered philosophy. What that a receiver out and the defense did
means is this. If you are uncovered not line up on him. If you will look
we are going to throw you the ball inside you will see the defense has
right now. If we are in a wide slot at least seven defenders in the box.
and no one is on the slot man It does not make any sense to me not
outside, we are going to throw him to throw the ball to the uncovered
the ball immediately. The uncovered man.
man takes precedent over any huddle
call. We will get him the football. The next coaching point is this. If
If we are in the shotgun we call a receiver is uncovered and he does
“Hike” and throw him the ball. If we not get the ball thrown to him, he
are under center we call “Hike” and should re-accelerate and get back
throw him the ball. He will get the into the route called. At times the
football. Again, anytime a receiver quarterback may not see that a
is uncovered we get them the receiver is uncovered. Or a defender
football. If the defensive man is 10 may come down to cover the receiver
yards from the receiver he is going late, so he must get into his route
to get the ball. That is the first and get deep.
thing that we teach. Uncovered takes
precedent over any huddle call. It Now, having said all of this, I need
does not matter what we have called. to tell you the reasons we have been
able to do all of these things on
Silent communication between the offense. It has been because of the
quarterback and the receivers is quarterbacks we have had over the
important to us. The quarterback last several years. We had a
must acknowledge the uncovered man. quarterback by the name of Jermaine
If you have coached receivers you Alfred. He started for Baylor and is
know how receivers feel. They are now playing for the Dallas
always uncovered and they are always Desperadoes. We had a quarterback
open. They are never covered. They named Clint Stoerner. He started
can be covered by three defenders three years at Arkansas and was with
and they will still say, “No one is the Cowboys. We had Ell Roberson,
on me.” The quarterback has to III. He played for us and now he is
determine if the receiver is playing at Kansas State. Hopefully
uncovered or not. Ell Roberson is going to be a
Heisman Award Candidate next year.
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The last quarterback we had is my So what we do now is shuffle-
step-son, Drew Tate. He has shuffle-go. We had to do that
committed to the University of Iowa. because our receivers were getting
That was an interesting experience lit up. Most wide receivers like to
for me. That was the first time I catch the ball but they do not like
had ever coached my son. It was also getting hit. The Uncovered Now is
the first time I ever slept with one shuffle-shuffle-go.
of my player’s mother. (Ha-Ha) That
was an interesting four years The next phase is the fact we were
coaching my son. He passed for more uncovered by formation. As I said
yards than anyone in high school in most of the time we are 2 by 2. If
the state of Texas. In four years he we have a corner that is walked up
threw the ball 1,576 times and tight on the outside receiver and
completed 970 passes, for a total of the inside defender is 10 yards off
12,183 yards. That is a lot of the slot man we will throw the ball
yardage and that is a lot of time to to the inside man. This is a Bronco
accumulate those totals. But passing Set for us.
is what we do with the football. We
did not do it just because he was my
son. This is what we believe in.

Let me move on with this. This is

how we use to do things on the
uncovered situations. If someone was
uncovered we would run straight off
the ball and run the offense called.
We would take off and the defense
would start their back-peddle. We
would catch the ball and keep
running. That is our Uncovered Old.

If the situation is just the

opposite with the strong safety
moved up inside and the outside man
deep on the outside receiver it is a
Mustang Set to us. We are going to
throw the ball to the open man.

UNCOVERED – OLD
STRAIGHT OFF BALL, RUN TO DEFENSE

Secondary players have started

“sitting” for a count to see what
the offense will do before they
start into their back-peddle.

Here is want we tell the covered

receiver. If the defender is
UNCOVERED – NEW - SHUFFLE-SHUFFLE-GO
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eyeballing the receiver he is
playing man to man coverage. In that
situation we want to run him off the
ball as hard and as fast as we can.
If the corner is looking into the
backfield he is playing zone
coverage. We want to get on him
immediately. We want to get to his
outside and grab him by the jersey
and hold him. The defense gets their
hands inside and grabs the receivers
and it is not called holding. It is
called locking on. So we want to use
the same technique.

Our receivers can be uncovered by One thing I do need to mention. We

defensive depth. Anytime a defender play by NCAA Rules. We teach our
is more than 10 yards off the wide outs to stalk a “standing
receiver we are going to get him the defender” and to cut a “charging
football right now. defender.” I know the high school
rules do not allow most teams in the
country to cut block.

How many of you use motion in your

offense? If we send a man in motion
and the defense does not adjust to
the motion we will throw the ball to
the motion man. The motion man goes
across the formation. When he gets
outside the end the motion man
shuffles-shuffles and turns back and
looks for the ball. We throw him the
ball between the two receivers.

Receivers can become uncovered by

the defensive man running a stunt or
blitz. We work with the quarterbacks
on any stack situation we see in a
game. If the up man starts to sneak
up before the ball is snapped they
are going to blitz.

We realize this and we look for it.

If the up man on the stack outside
comes, we throw the hot route behind
him. The receiver does a shuffle-
shuffle-catch and then takes off. We
always look for those situations. We Next I want to cover our practice
are going to take advantage of the organization and how we teach our
defense and get the uncovered Bubble Screen Passes. How many of
receiver the ball. you go to “Seven on Seven” Games?
Are the rules the same from area to
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area? In 1996 our state association We do have Pee Wee Football and that
allowed us to have seven on seven is not a good thing. Some of the
tournaments. The coaches can not get young kids learn at an early age
involved but we can do a lot of the that it hurts when you run into
other things associated with the someone. We want to incorporate the
players. Our state association has Seven on Severn game with our young
made the seven on seven rules kids instead of playing tackle
uniform across the state. If you football. There will always be fat
would be interested in those rules I guys and there will always be a need
will send them to you if you call for offensive linemen. They will get
me. My number is (281)420-4644. I a chance to run and catch the
will be glad to send you one of our football as well at a young age.
packets that we use with our seven
on seven leagues. It has become big This is how we work our practice
in our state. We have leagues going organization. We work on Screens for
every Tuesday and Thursday and we 10 to 15 minutes everyday. We work
have tournaments on Saturdays all on our Weekly Screens, Bubble
over the state. In July we have our Screens, Screens with Motion, and
State Championship Seven on Seven our Hot Routes. We tell the players
Tournament. We were fortunate in we are always going to run screen
that we won the 1991 Championship. plays.
Players are throwing the football in
the summer now in Texas. We work another 10 minutes on
uncovered. We will script this part
What is happening in the state of of the practice. If you do not
Texas is the fact we have added a practice it when you get in the
lot more sports in the high schools. games it will not be any good. The
When I first went to Texas we only defensive cards show the coverage
had football, basketball, baseball, and the uncovered. The play is
and track. We did not have other called in the huddle. The
sports. Now they have added soccer, quarterback comes to the line and
swimming, wrestling and all of the looks for the uncovered. If no one
other sports. What I am saying to is uncovered we run the play. The
you is the fact that we have to receivers must recognize when they
compete for players, now that we are uncovered and catch the ball
have all of the additional sports in when it comes to them.
the schools. If you go out and look
in your neighborhood you will see Next we run the Barrel Drill. We use
young kids playing. They will be blue barrels that have come from
playing soccer, baseball, and refineries. They are about six feet
basketball. You will never see an tall. We are located in a refinery
elementary aged kid running the mid- town so we can get the plastic
line offense or running the barrels. We set up the barrels as
wishbone. They do not play with the the defenders. We can set up any
football. defense we want with the barrels. We
can get a lot of reps in against the
So with the Seven on Seven Leagues, barrels.
it has helped us sell our programs.
Our kids enjoy it and have taken to We line up five quarterbacks across
it with a lot of enthusiasm. If you the field as if they were setting up
drive through some of the towns in on a pass play. We call the play out
Texas today you will find players and five receivers all run the
throwing the football and catching particular route for their position.
the football. Every receiver is going to get a
ball thrown to him on the drill. We
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are working on the receivers back. We want them to take a
catching the ball and we are working crossover step with the inside foot
on them running their routes. All of and run as hard as they can to the
the quarterbacks get to throw a pass sideline. That is a J-Step. Some
on the drill each time. We move the receivers have a hard time running
quarterbacks over on each play. We this route. They have a hard time
throw the ball on progression. taking that crossover step and
running. Some kids will step with
We number the receivers as the the inside foot and then open up and
number one receiver, the number two then run. We do not want them to
receiver, and all the way to the open up at all. We want them on a
number five progression on the play. full sprint. We want to throw to the
We run each route five times so each outside shoulder. Do we get it all
quarterback gets to run the play to of the time? No! But we try to get
each receiver position. We have five it to the outside shoulder.
receivers going all of the time and
we have five quarterbacks throwing We do not want a “bubbling” back to
the ball each time. It is a great worry about gaining depth. We want
warm-up drill. It does not have to to run wide and get outside of the
be run at full speed. The defenders. We want to gain 5 yards
quarterbacks may get knocked around on the play. We want to catch the
with each other. That is ok because ball and get to the sideline. How
they get knocked around in the game. many of you would take a 5 yard gain
We are simulating everything. on each play? We get 5 yards about
99 percent of the time when we run
Here is our Bubble Screen Pass. It it.
is a great play and it is an easy
play to run. The uncovered is called Here are our Bubble Rules. First is
as part of our screen package. We our Bubble 2 X 2 rule. On the bubble
can call the bubble screen to both side we block number 1. Man-Run,
sides in the huddle. The quarterback Loose-Option (Corner/Safety), Press
can call the bubble screen on the Turn Out. We use the terminology for
line. If the quarterback sees the our eligible receivers.
bubble screen is open he can call it
on the line. Everyone passes the
signal on to the other players. Our
signal is very simple. We just have
the offensive players touch their
leg with their hand. The outside
receivers must see the signal. You
must practice the signal in
practice. We just call “Pass it on.”
We do other things as well to signal
plays. The defense will not always
know that we are throwing the bubble
screen pass.

Players that can catch the bubble

screen pass are the inside
receivers, backs, and motion man.
They are used on the bubble play. The left end is X, the slot on that
side is the A Back, the One Back is
We run the J-Step or Step-and-go. our B Back, the split end on the
This is the J-Step. We teach our right is the Y receiver, and the
receivers to keep the outside leg Slot is our Z receiver. The Z

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receiver is the fastest man. The X is uncovered. We are going to block
receiver is our quickest man. The A the two near defenders. We are not
Back and our Y receivers are our going to worry about that deep man.
best receivers. Why do we tag them We want to out flank the man and run
this way? The defender covering the the play non-stop to the outside. We
Z receiver is wearing a neck roll. hope the deep defender is caught up
Are you going to tell me that a in the wash. It is a down hill play.
defender wearing a neck roll is If the defender takes a bad angle,
going to cover our fastest receiver? we can get around him.

On the backside this is our rule. We

run the slant with the wide
receiver. The A Back runs the
bubble. If something happens to the
bubble we still can throw the slant
on that side.

The offensive line will cut the 5

technique defender. Everyone else
runs their regular play on track.
The tackle must get to the 5
technique. The quarterback wants to
make sure we secure the a-Gaps. We
tell the receivers to never stop on
the play and never cut back on the
play. We do not care if they go out
of bounds, we want them outside.

Normally our split for our receivers

has been the bottom of the numbers
on the field. On the 2 X 2 the
middle receivers will split the
difference between the wide If we come out with three wide
receivers and the tackle. We have receivers and the defense give us
added a few things to help us on the man coverage, we can still run the
play. If we call vice we want the bubble. We use motion to get the
slot to come inside and cut the extra blocker to the three man side.
split down. Now we can run the He comes in motion and blocks the
Bubble to a fast receiver and see if nearest defender inside. We run the
he can get around the corner for the bubble to the slot man and he tries
score. If we call Mustang the to get outside.
outside man comes down inside and
blocks the defender inside.

Next is the 3 X 1 Bubble Screen.

Here are the rules. First, we block
the number one man from the outside.
Next, we block the most dangerous
defender. It could be the linebacker
or the safety. If we face 3 on 3 Man
Coverage we are going to bring one
more receiver by using motion.

If the man is not covered we run the

screen to him. Here the inside man
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The motion man can come across the The next Bubble Supplement we run is
formation or he can come from the called Army. We tell the tailback to
tailback position. The quarterback out flank the tackler. We have a 5
can look at the defense and turn to techniques tackle on defense. We
the tailback or A Back and call “3 want our tailback to line up
on 3 – Bring One.” We bring motion splitting our tackle. We tell the
to the three receiver side and still tailback to get depth and get
run the Bubble Screen Pass. outside. The quarterback takes the
snap and turns and throws the ball
The best part of the Bubble plays to the tailback. You can put the
are the plays we run off the bubble. tailback in the I-Set or line him up
We call them Bubble Supplement as a fullback. He turns and gets
Plays. The first play we look at is depth and looks for the ball. We are
called Drop. We run this play out of not pulling anyone. We tell the
empty. The tailback motions across linemen they can block downfield on
the formation. We use this after we the play because the ball is passed
have run the Bubble Screen several behind the line of scrimmage and
times in a game. We call Motion blocking downfield is legal on the
Cross Bubble. Here are the rules on play.
the Drop play.

Another thing we can do is to call

“Crack” on the play. Now the two
outside receivers block down and the
inside man goes outside to block the
outside defender. We are trying to
create leverage on the play.
The wide receiver on the backside
runs a vertical route at 22 yards
deep. The inside slot man on the
three man side runs a drag route
anywhere from 12 to 22 yards deep.
He is going to go out of bonds at 22
yards deep. He is behind the drop
linebackers and in front of the deep
safety. The second man from the
outside is going to run a skinny
post at the outside upright on the
goal post. We do not want him to
come across the ball. We want him at
the near upright on the goal post.
The outside receiver runs a vertical
route to the outside.
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This is our middle screen play. We
call B Go – Y Bubble. This is how we
teach our middle screen. Once you
teach the concept you can have any
receiver run the middle screen. We
drop both tackles and have them lock
on the defenders and push the 5
techniques past the flow. They are
going to stay with the defensive man
once they make contact with them.

The onside guard comes outside and

looks for the linebacker. The center
comes outside and goes down the hash
mark. The right guard pulls down the
line and peels back and picks up any
garbage. The right tackle is going
to come inside and set a wall and
block the first man that comes to
him. We do not want him to chase
defenders. The back goes in motion
away from the play to the three
We tell the guards all they have to receiver side.
do is to run straight up the field
at five yards. We get the five yards We run the bubble to the motion side
depth and then we turn our butts one time. The next time we bring the
inside and look for the defenders man in motion and fake the bubble
from the outside. We make the and run the Jail Break to the split
defenders come to us. We do not go end.
outside after the defenders. We tell
the center to go straight down the I am going to show you a film on our
field and to block anyone in the Bubble Screen plays. If you have any
middle of the field. We are trying questions I will be glad to answer
to create a tunnel for the receiver them.
that catches the middle screen pass.
The receivers know when they catch I will close with one funny story. A
the ball they must get inside that blind rabbit meets a blind snake.
tunnel. They run into each other. The blind
rabbit ask the snake “What am I. I
We run a Jail Break Screen like a would like for you to see if you can
lot of other people run. The wide tell me what I am? The snake said,
receiver is going to run the hitch “You have a cold nose, you have big
route on the backside. He takes two ears, and you have a fluffy tail.
steps downfield and then comes back You must be a rabbit. The rabbit
and catches the ball. He wants to said, “Man that is great that is
get underneath the tackle on his what I always wanted to be.”
side of the ball. The tackle is
coming outside and blocks the number The blind snake asked the blind
one man from the outside. rabbit to see if he could feel of
him and tell him what he was. The

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rabbit said, “You have a forked
tongue, you have a smooth belly but
no guts, you have no spine, and you
have no testicles. Hell, you are a
School Administrator!”

I am very fortunate to have the job

I have. I love football and I love
working with kids. I do not teach
school, I just coach football. What
more can you ask for.

Remember if you want to get a job in

Texas you only have to be able to
answer two questions. If I can help
I will be around. Thank you.

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