The Board Drill Podcast

James Madison finished 12-2 last season, made the College Football Playoff, and ranked ninth nationally in scoring. Running back Wayne Knight led the team in receptions.

That is not a stat sheet typo. It is a design decision.

The Dukes did not build a separate offense to get their back involved in the passing game. They took concepts they already ran and changed how Knight was incorporated. Post Wheel with the wheel coming from the boundary. Y Cross with a rail route instead of the traditional flat. Es**rt screen, and then a jailbreak screen off the same action once the defense started flowing to it. A quads squeeze concept that puts one outside linebacker in a two route conflict. The classic angle route against man coverage.

Some of it was scheming Knight open. A lot of it was simply forcing the defense to cover him with the wrong player. And on more than a few snaps, Knight never touched the ball at all. Two defenders reacting to him on a bubble was enough to open the post behind it.

The takeaway for coaches: you do not need 20 new plays to get your running back into the passing game. Start with what you already run and ask a different question. What happens if our running back is the matchup we are trying to create?

If you have a back who can run routes, catch the football, and make someone miss in space, that question changes how a defense has to structure its coverage.

The running back does not have to be the checkdown. He can be the plan.

Full film breakdown here:

The Running Back as a Receiver: How James Madison Created Mismatches How James Madison used Post Wheel, Y Cross, and screens to turn RB Wayne Knight into a mismatch weapon in the passing game. Film breakdown for coaches.

Tarleton State led the NCAA in scoring last season. 42 points a game, 457 yards a game, 6.6 yards every snap, 77 offensive touchdowns, 12-2.

The surprising part? The offense isn't flashy at all.

Coach Adam MaCauley of Simple Football Systems went to the film and found the play the whole thing is built on. He's calling it G-Wrap: a gap scheme run with the backside guard pulling, down blocks and double teams up front, and a back who reads the puller instead of hitting a predetermined hole.

Guard kicks out the edge, it hits inside.
Guard logs him, the back bounces.

That one read turns a power play into something that behaves more like zone, and it lets the back make linebackers wrong in their fits without adding a bunch of install time for the line.

Then Tarleton tags the RPO game off it. Glance to the backside slant when the linebackers trigger on the pull. Quick screens. And a pre-snap fade to the isolated X out of trips, which is not the route most of us think of when we hear RPO.

Pro-I teams build off ISO. Wing-T teams build off Buck Sweep. Tarleton State builds off G-Wrap.

Full breakdown with the clips here:

Tarleton State G-Wrap: The Run and the RPOs Built Off It Tarleton State G-Wrap breakdown: gap scheme run rules, the running back's puller read, and the glance and fade RPOs tagged off it.

The Hall of Fame Game gave us our first NFL look at Carson Beck and Haynes King. Two rookie quarterbacks, two staffs deciding how much offense to hand a first-time starter.

The concept lists were nearly identical. Stick, boot, high-low dig, slants. Four calls, all defined reads, all designed to get the ball out on time. Both teams also kept dropback formations balanced two by two so the presnap picture stayed simple.

Where they split was the run game. Arizona ran it twice in a six-play drive and kept Beck on schedule. Carolina ran it once, then threw it nine straight times before the drive ended in the end zone.

If you are opening the season with a first-time starter, that is the decision sitting in front of you. Keep the picture balanced, keep the reads defined, let him play fast, then expand once he has completions behind him.

You do not need a bigger call sheet on the opening drive. You need a smaller one that works.

Full breakdown with the clips:

What Two Rookie Quarterback Debuts Teach Us About Opening Drive Call Sheets Hall of Fame Game film study: how Arizona and Carolina called plays for rookie QBs Carson Beck and Haynes King. Stick, boot, high-low dig, and balanced 2x2 sets.

Everybody has already written off the Cardinals in 2026. First time head coach, likely a rookie quarterback by midseason, and an offensive line with questions. Three or four wins is the projection. We are not here to argue that.

What we are here for is the tape. And last Thursday night in the Hall of Fame Game, Arizona's new offensive identity showed up loud. If you have watched the Rams the last three years, you already know what it looks like.

Seventeen outside zone runs. Around 10 boots at 70 percent completion, most of them out of condensed sets. Dagger three times, all three completed. Curl/flat twice for completions, the same concept you see on a Friday night at your local high school. Mike LaFleur is installing what he watched get built in Los Angeles, and the pieces marry together the way they are supposed to.

We also pulled a clip that shows exactly where the Rams and the Cardinals still separate, and it is not the scheme. It is the quarterback pulling the trigger on the tight window instead of taking the check down.

Full breakdown here:

The Cardinals New Identity on Offense Cardinals film breakdown: how Mike LaFleur is installing the Rams offense in Arizona with outside zone, boot, dagger, and curl/flat.

Guard Trap never stopped being a good football play. Coaches just stopped calling it.

When most of us moved to the spread, Trap got left behind. We questioned whether the timing would hold up from the gun, kept Buck Sweep because it adapted easy, and let the rest become a relic.

James Madison put it back on film in 2025.

Coach Dixon breaks down the whole package: trap rules against an over front, why the puller has to get flat into the line of scrimmage instead of gaining depth, helmet placement on the upfield shoulder, the QB Trap variation, and an empty formation goalline answer against a five man box.

If you are looking for a physical downhill complement to your zone and gap runs, this one is about as easy an install as you will find.

The Return of Guard Trap: How James Madison Revived a Wing T Classic James Madison brought Guard Trap back to modern football. Shotgun trap rules, blocking angles, QB Trap, and empty goal line variations.

New on The Board Drill: Part 1 of our visit to Bishop Kenny football.

Head coach Tim Krause sits down to break down how the Crusaders rebuilt their offseason around technology. He gets into their weight room which he believes is one of the best in the state and on par with FCS-level programs, and how the staff uses Titan GPS through Hudl to manage load for the kids who play both ways.

The idea is simple: track what a two-way player carries in a game, compare it to the stress of practice, and find the sweet spot that keeps them fresh, fast, and ready on game day. But the tech is in service of something older. Back-to-back region finals, and a standard the seniors are setting for what Bishop Kenny football is supposed to look like.

Part 1 of 2. Part 2 goes inside the weight room with strength coach Greg Case.

Watch here:

Why Bishop Kenny Rebuilt Its Offseason Around Technology In Part 1 of our visit to Jacksonville, head coach Tim Krause sits down with The Board Drill to explain how the Crusaders rebuilt their offseason around a simple idea: be more targeted, and approach the work in a more scientific way.

YY Counter is not a new idea. It is old ideas packaged together. Zone one direction, two slicers coming back the other way, and all of a sudden the split zone fit your defense practiced all week does not add up.

We broke it down at two levels. Montana State gets there out of heavy personnel with an extra offensive lineman and two tight ends. Missouri gets there with a tight end aligned as a fullback and motion. The dressing looks nothing alike. The math is identical.

Also included a clip of San Diego actually fitting it correctly, because the answer for defensive coaches is not exotic. It is getting enough hats to the point of attack and playing with discipline.

Full breakdown here: https://www.boarddrill.com/p/breaking-down-yy-counter-at-montana

No fluff. Just football.

Breaking Down YY Counter at Montana State and Missouri YY Counter breakdown: how Montana State and Missouri use zone with two slice blocks to win numbers at the point of attack.

Curl-Flat is not a new concept. Coaches have been running it for years. But Montana State does one small thing differently, and it changes the whole picture.

Instead of sending the slot to the flat, they let the running back handle that job. That one swap frees up your quickest kid to settle right over the football instead of running sideways to the boundary.

Coach Adam MaCauley breaks it down in this one:

Why the spacing works when all five eligible receivers finish their routes
Why the quarterback gets the ball out in under two seconds
Why this concept gets better when defenses bring pressure
What to tell your players when you install it

This is the kind of concept you can install easily, teach in a few practices, and call with confidence. Youth, JV, varsity, or college.

Read the full breakdown here: https://www.boarddrill.com/p/curl-flat-made-simple-a-championship

Curl-Flat Made Simple: A Championship Wrinkle Worth Borrowing Montana State's Curl-Flat concept puts the back in the flat and frees the slot over the middle. A simple pass concept any level can install and teach.

Everyone reads the overhang. Georgetown reads the boundary safety.

Coach Jarrell Flores, offensive coordinator at Georgetown High School in Texas, joins the Board Drill Podcast to break down the RPO system at the core of one of the most consistent offenses in the state. It averages 18 yards per throw and holds up against one, two, and three high safety structures.

In this one, Coach Flo gets into the pre-snap and post-snap read, the five step rule his inside receivers live by, how the concept marries their wide zone run game, and the formation and motion variations that keep defenses from ever settling in.

If you run glance RPOs, this might change which defender you're reading.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeAIBLF8mug

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Field Glance, Boundary Read: Georgetown's RPO System Georgetown OC Jarrell Flores Breaks Down the Boundary and Field Gla...

Boot is one of those concepts every staff has. The question is how many ways you can dress it up before a defense starts sitting on it.

Missouri had a good answer in 2025.

They ran the same core boot action out of multiple personnel groupings — 11, 12, heavy — and made each one look like a different play. Same read for the quarterback. Completely different picture for the linebackers.

That's the part worth stealing. It's not a new concept. It's the same concept your kids already rep, packaged so that the defense has to declare before they know what's coming. Deep tight end room helps, but the principle scales down. If you've got two tight ends and an H-back, you can build this.

I broke down the film — the personnel groupings, the formations they built it from, how the backside is blocked, and where the reads go.

Good install for spring ball.

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Missouri's Boot Game and the Art of the Backside Conflict Film study of Missouri's 2025 boot game: how the Tigers used tight ends, motion, and slice blocks to build the over route void.