The Zone Read in the Pistol Offense

“This concept is rapidly growing around the country. Most high schools that are good at running this are doing it out of an off-set. We are doing it out of the Pistol alignment because we think it gives him a better downhill angle to attack the line of scrimmage and not so much sideways.” Coach Steve Rampy of Blue Valley High School in Stillwell (KS) won a state championship last year using the Pistol offense. But even though they didn’t win a state title this year, he is convinced now more than ever that making the transition from the single back/I offense under center to the Pistol was the right move. Blue Valley went to the shotgun three years ago and went exclusively to the Pistol two years ago. “This season we lost 21 seniors and had a very young team,” Rampy said. “We had a sophomore and a junior quarterback learning all the things that go with playing that position.