The Rocket Toss Series with Championship Coach Blair Hubbard
Coach Blair Hubbard is an innovate coach.
He has run the rocket toss series for years and it is an integral part of his offense.
The Rocket toss is a play they run that is part of his toss/trap series. Th toss compliments their trap play off it. When you study his offense, you will notice that they are false-pulling our rocket-side guard away from rocket and running a trap scheme away from the rocket. In addition, when they actually run the Gut, they will still pull our Rocket Motion side Tackle out like he would on Rocket. So these 2 plays work hand in hand.
From a defensive point of view, they are showing an influence pull (guard) AWAY from Rocket and an influence pull (tackle) AWAY from Gut. What this does is it puts tremendous conflict on those rocket-side stack backers and edge defenders. They DO NOT know what to read and it can cause issues!! The LB have to wait to see where the ball is actually going and with the speed at which rocket hits the perimeter, if they wait, they are late! You will see over and over the stack LBs taking a read step and that gives the PST time to get out in front of him. Â
Coach Hubbard has been running this series since 2009 and has developed and changed it over time. He used to just pull the rocket-side guard out in space to lead rocket but in 2017 he did a study on the effectiveness of our guards and it was less than 50%. From 2009, when he first developed this offense, he always pulled him out in space but would do a false pull as a change-up maybe 1-3 times a game and it was always effective. So after the 2017 study, he made the permanent change and made it the base way of running his rocket sweep. Since then, in 4 seasons, he has had 3 undefeated regular seasons, made the playoffs each year, played for the state championship twice, winning it this past season. It's been tremendous play for him! And when you add in his off-tackle power schemes, multiple counters, PA passing, and screens and enough option to force defenses to play assignment football its very difficult to defend. When you throw that in at a no-huddle pace with multiple formations and shifts...it is a lot for a defense to prepare for on a week to week basis. Â
Now let’s look at the series.
Rocket Toss
Trap off it- Both QB and RB Trap
It all starts with the rocket toss. This is the bread and butter.
Formations
You can run the play from different sets which is an integral part of it.
Unbalanced pro strong(x over)
Slots
3x1 strong with RB motion(can do it out of empty)
Formation into the boundary
Bunch formation
Motions:
They will run it with primarily 2 motions and either can be utilized:
wingback coming in motion if you want the wing to carry it.
RB motioning from one side to the other in the gun if you want the half back or super back to carry it.
Scheme:
The rocket toss is similar to a fly sweep as you want to get the ball on the perimeter. They will often lead the De unblocked and run a trap scheme opposite. The trap and rocket toss go hand in hand.
The RB will receive the ball in off motion behind the qb in a full sprint. It is tossed to him with 3 lead blockers.
You will see the RB get the ball from his wing position at times but also when lined up in the offset gun position. Below it is from the wing position.
They don’t block the 2 men on the Line of Scrimmage, the tackle and the end when they run toss. (The DT will be blocked with the center on trap action)
The left guard center Right guard and Rt Tackle are blocking the trap play which is off it.
A nicely executed play and well run.
2. FB Trap- This is the play off it. Remember the playside LT, h or wing and tailback are carrying out the toss action all the time. This doesn’t change when you call trap.
The trap blocks are as follows(traditional trap except for the LT and H)
LG traps the DT, the RT and RG get to the 2nd level LB. The TE turns out and the RB makes a good run inside the guard block.
Here’s the film with the trap play
3. QB Trap
The 3rd play off the series is the QB trap. Coach Hubbard has added this piece to the play. Great out of empty or single back and using a back as you get the defense spread. Below the RB goes in short motion from his rt halfback set. He carries the defense and stretches them horizontally. It opens up the trap inside.
LT and wing back carry things on the perimeter as they sell the toss.
Nice trap with the left guard.
Again, the Left tackle and the wing and RB carry out the rocket toss action.
The film of the QB trap. They run it out of single back 3x1 with the h strong.
I hope you enjoyed the rocket toss trap series run by Coach Hubbard. He is an excellent football coach.
His twitter is @coachhubb2 should you have any questions.