Hello all, my name is Anthony White and I’m here to share with you all what work we did this year for the Flexbone offense. Going into our current development cycle for NCAA Football 10 our top playbook priority was making sure our version of the Flexbone offense is a more accurate representation of its real life counterpart. We didn’t necessarily want to just take what’s already in place on the Gen 2 versions of NCAA Football. Our goal was to take it above and beyond anything that had been done previously with the Flexbone offense on any platform.
Last summer we were able to acquire the actual coach’s game film of the Navy Flexbone offense. Having access to this valuable resource really gave us an advantage when it was time to identify what new formations that we needed to create, what plays did we need for those formations, and most importantly what new player animations we needed to mo-cap in order to get those plays working properly in our game. The results of our efforts produced eight new formations and over 200 new plays.
Here’s a look at the new formations that we created based on our film study.
Flexbone Twins Over
Flexbone Slit Wing Z
Flexbone Spit Wing X
Flexbone Close
Flexbone Slot Right
Flexbone Trips Right
Flexbone Trio Right
Flexbone Tackle Over
Running Game:
The running attack from this unique offensive system is what it’s most known for, and it’s not all about the triple option. There are numerous things that can be done with the running game out of the Flexbone. Some of the new plays that we were able create this year thanks to the new animations include Wingback Toss both weak and strong with a play action pass to compliment it, Midline QB Iso which is a double option scheme where the quarterback can either handoff to the fullback or duck inside the playside B gap following the lead blocks of the two wingbacks, FB and Wingback Load Option plays which also include play action compliments, and the Wingback Jet Sweep.
Those are just a few of the new plays we were able to add for the Flexbone offense, but the most unique one of all we added in my opinion is the Trap Option. The Trap Option calls for the quarterback to open up to one side of the formation where he then fakes it to the fullback before he pivots and rotates counter clockwise and runs the option in the opposite direction with the backside wingback being his pitch man. It gets its name Trap Option due to the fact that the backside guard pulls and “trap blocks” the play side defensive end.
This play to the defense starts out looking like our normal Triple Option play to the defense, but it attacks the opposite side of the field instead. Before we could get this play up and running in game we needed to capture new player animations featuring the quarterback and fullback. What generally happens is we identify on film what we want and we in turn communicate that to our mo-cap talent so that they can go out and execute what we’re looking for. It’s very similar to coaching where you introduce a new scheme to your players and during its installation you walk through each of the finer points of the scheme with each player so that he knows exactly what he needs to do within the play.
Here’s the mo-cap video of the quarterback and fullback carrying out the first phase of the Flexbone Trap option play.
Here’s that same animation in NCAA Football 2010.
Passing Game:
Much attention was also paid to the passing game portion of the Flexbone offense. When you open up the playbook you’ll notice that most of the running plays have some sort of play action compliment that starts out looking like that run play. Many of these new plays are a both your more traditional play action passes along with the option passes. One of the new pass plays are PA Switch in which the outside receiver runs a post route and the wingback to the side runs a wheel route up the sidelines. This is a common scheme in the Flexbone offense.
We also wanted to bring some new fresh ideas to the drop back passing portion of the Flexbone offense. As many of you know this style of offense has the reputation of being a bad offense to run when you’re trailing in the game and need to throw the ball. Some of the new passing plays we added actually take a page from the Run & Shoot offense. Two run & shoot pass concepts we added are “60 Go” and “60 Choice”. In these two plays the left wingback goes in motion to the right slot which forms a trips alignment. On 60 Go the outside receiver on the now trips side runs a streak route, the motion wingback runs an option route where he can take it to the post or he can go straight up field, and the right wingback runs to the flat. The goal is to read the curl/flat defender. If he jumps the flat route, the quarterback should be able to make a quick throw to the option route, if said defender jumps the option route, then the quarterback makes a quick throw to the flat.
We also included Four Verticals and WR Middle Screen out of Flexbone Trips Right, Left, and Trio Right. The goal of any offense is to be balanced and that holds true with this style of offense. If you’re playing with one of the Flexbone offense playbooks and your opponent is loading up to stop the run, you’ll have a multitude of viable passing plays at your disposal to keep your opponent honest.
Playbooks:
The team playbooks that feature the Flexbone offense prominently are Army, Georgia Tech, and Navy. Air Force also has multiple Flexbone formations in their playbook along with other more traditional formations. Here’s a look at the formations and sets that make up our Flexbone playbooks.
Even the Goal Line formation for Army, Georgia Tech, and Navy Is a Flexbone formation.
It was fun seeing the Flexbone offense through the design phase from concept to its implementation into the game. There's a perception right or wrong that we can just draw up a play and it magically appears in game working the same as it does in real life. There's a lot of planning that goes on amongst the design staff, software engineers, animators, and mo-cap talent to make it all work. It’s our hope that you guys will enjoy what we now have to offer with the Flexbone offense in NCAA Football 10.
Anthony White, Assistant Designer, EA SPORTS