Pistol Spread Option Offense

The pistol offense is one of the latest crazes in football. Ever since Coach Chris Ault at the University of Nevada introduced it to the world, the variations have exploded across the high school and college ranks. Having been a spread option (Navy and Air Force-style) and spread offense coach, I decided to take a closer look at the pistol and have since adopted my own variation of it known as the Pistol Spread Option Offense. As a spread guy, I was married to option plays such as inside veer and zone read. The problem running it out of the shotgun was that most teams were able to key on our offense because of the alignment of the back. The back had to be next to the QB and it was a dead giveaway as to which direction the ball would go. With the pistol, we were able to line the back up directly behind the QB and still be able to run the base plays that we love without tipping our hand