Youth Football Audible System – Hurry Up Offense

“Burger King, Big Jets, Princess”

I installed an audible system for our youth football playoff game this season and it worked great. We were a 4th and 5th grade youth football team and our backfield was very experienced along with several of our offensive lineman.   Our opponent had a monster defensive tackle that was very active in the regular season game against us.  I thought they would continue to move him around even more in the playoff game which they did, so I installed this simple audible system to try to run away from him.  We installed this audible system in two practices. I was very surprised the team pulled it off.  Funny nicknames help them remember the audibles.

When we went into this audible system we used a no huddle hurry up style offense.  We didn’t really hurry but just watched how the defense lined up before calling our offensive play from the sideline.  We started out in a Beast formation and always lined up strong overloaded line to our bench side.  I took this run to your bench side from Coach Reed.  Our other formations we ran from this system were a traditional Power I and a Double Power Offset I formation which works nicely with the Beast formation.  We also ran a Jumbo Sweep formation or Wildcat.

The audible system was based on nicknames for the offensive lineman and running backs.  Each player had two nicknames.  So my offensive line looked like this; Chatter, Bull, Big, Giant, Bubbles, Horse, T-Rex or Panther, Redskins, Dolphins, Jets, Packers, Colts,  Jags.  The backs were named, Hollywood, Princess, Sooner, and Panda or Patriots, Broncos, Ravens and Cowboys.  I would call a formation Burger King / Jack in the Box or Pie / Cake which was the Power Offset I or the Power I and then the two lineman nicknames and the running back name.  Since we ran most of these plays all season they were smart enough to fill in the details.  The lineman would Butt to Butt Split block at the hole with the 2 full backs leading through the hole.

A play call from the sideline would sound like:

Jack in the Box, Big Bull, Bronco

The above play was Offset Power I Double Lead 25 Dive BB Block at the 5 hole.

For a few key plays we had special names.  We named our wedge play Honey Badger, Wild Weasel, Fluffy Bunny and Furry Kitty Cat, so we had multiple calls to make it harder to figure out.  Our wide sweep plays were Cheecky Monkey and BroomHilda.  If we wanted to pass, the main receiver route was Unicorn and Stincky Fish for a backside TE pop pass.  We had Tebow which was a wedge jump pass to a flaring WB.  We also had a long pass play called Dragon Fire Ford which was a flag with a flare underneath. If we wanted to run out of the Beast formation when were lined up before I called another formation, I yelled Wizard, which was a Beast Off-tackle play.

We did score a TD in less than 2 minutes running this system in a true hurry up mode at the end of the first half during the play off game.  Quite effective.  When I wanted to slow the game down in the second half I just took my time calling the play from the sidelines.  So you can hurry or stall if needed.  We did run this system against a more balanced defense and still worked.  I can imagine installing a more complete system in the Fall to encompass our whole offense.

I would make sure you have a very smart experienced team before trying to install this system.  But hey, they may surprise you like my team surprised me.

Play for Fun and Winning is Funner,
Coach Parker
Keller, TX / Fort Worth, Texas

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