TRICKING THE DEFENSE WITH BIG PLAYS

By Marc Sites, Assistant Coach, Liberty High School (CO)        “Watch out, this team is fancy,” said an opposing player to his teammates at one of our games recently.        We had just converted a fake punt on a fourth and two for about a five-yard gain. It wasn’t an unusual play by any standards, but that statement caused me to reflect on the number of trick (or creative) plays I have in my playbook. I realized that for a freshman football playbook, we run several trick plays. Unlike some coaches who also have trick plays in their playbook, I frequently run ours. They are not there to run once or twice in a season - we run a high percentage of ours every game. They are an important part of what we try to accomplish offensively.EXAMPLES OF TRICK PLAYS        There are countless trick plays and formations that an