Formation shifts

[hybridworks]

I dont quite understand the formation shifts that were going on last night. I saw on multiple occasions the Boise hb's/fb's moving in tandem with signal from the qb... We got flagged for the tight ends.

just looking for clarification...

[sooner518]

I was wondering the same thing myself. What exactly constitutes an illegal shift?

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Yeah, didn't get that either...And the guy seemed set before the snap, maybe either one or neither were set in their mind...or they cheated for BSU like everyone cheats against OU...;)

[Petro-Sooner]

Good question. What consitutes a shift and/or going into motion.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

a shift is defined as more than 1 player moving to a new position. a shift ends when every player on the offense is set at the same time for 1 second. at that point, you can either snap the ball, start a new shift, or send 1 player in motion. if the shift doesn't end before the snap of the ball, then its an illegal shift.

on ours gresham and jjf shifted, but gresham never came to a stop thus the illegal shift.

[OSUAggie]

when multiple players are in motion, or "shifting," each player has to become set for 1 second before more motion can begin or the play can be started.

edit: also, what jkm said.

[soonernation]

Definition: A foul by the offense where a player fails to reset for at least one second after two players shift position at the same time.


http://football.about.com/cs/football101/g/gl_illegalshift.htm


edit: look above.

[sooner518]

so as long as all the players start the shift at the same time, you can shift as many as you want?

gotcha thanks for the explanation

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Then by rule, Zabransky on the OT TD (I think) was illegallly shifting? He never stopped...

[Petro-Sooner]

But if you go into motion you dont have to stop for that second right? ONly one person can go into motion and not stop but mulitple players can shift but have to stop for the sec.

[OSUAggie]

But if you go into motion you dont have to stop for that second right? ONly one person can go into motion and not stop but mulitple players can shift but have to stop for the sec.

Right. You guys do watch football, right?

[SleestakSooner]

A single player shifting is basically "going in motion" unless he is moving toward the line of scrimmage at the time the ball goes into play. The reset issue only really arises when more than one player shifts at the same time.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Naw...we just think what the rules should be and then beyotch when they don't allow the rules to be what we think they should be...;)

[OSUAggie]

Heh. I guess that works, too.

[TheUnnamedSooner]

so as long as all the players start the shift at the same time, you can shift as many as you want?

gotcha thanks for the explanation

no, if more than one guy is shifting, everyone has to stop before the ball is snapped.

[getrdone]

zabransky was moving toward the line at the snap, that is a false start. motion all you want, just cant' move toward the line from a receiver alignment

[OSUAggie]

zabransky was moving toward the line at the snap, that is a false start. motion all you want, just cant' move toward the line from a receiver alignment

I thought I saw that too... That kinda gets called about 1/2 the time throughout a game, anyway... About as often as a LT lined up off the line to try and get out to block a quick rush end. Unless it's creating an advantage, it'll go uncalled most of the time.

[SoonerMom2]

zabransky was moving toward the line at the snap, that is a false start. motion all you want, just cant' move toward the line from a receiver alignment

Good point and something missed by a lot of posters on here. But then why did the refs ignore 12 men when BSU broke the huddle and one ran off the field?

[OU-HSV]

Seems to me like we were flagged for illegal shifts more than enough this season. At practice I would think the coaches would have corrected this by the last game of the season. Apparently I'm wrong about correcting it.

[aurorasooner]

shift and a combination of shift + motion is the wave of the future for offensive football to obtain a mismatch and confuse the defense. we used some simple motion last night with AD in motion from the wide receiver position to confuse the boise state defense and it worked. the problem is that we didn't use it enough and instead lined up in that ridiculous 1 back deep I back set and tried to constantly run into a swarming brick wall. it was painful to watch if you're a sooner fan, and imo showed arrogance and a lack of imagination by our offensive co-ordinator or the coach who decided we could just overpower a bcs opponent with old time big 10 football. for older sooner fans it was as painful as watching steve owens constantly running into the line for 3 yard gains or a kelvin sampson offense running the 3 man weave at the top of the key. imho, heupel, who had great success reading defenses, and changing the call at the LOS to create mismatches (instead of using a pre-call shift/motion) and had some success this year with signaling this audible offense in to paul thompson, who they felt either due to lack of experience, or just "some QBs don't have this ability", --they had to use this type of pre-snap game plan to be successful. also, imo, the boise state staff picked up either on heupel's/wilson's audible tendencies or picked up the signals (perhaps thru hawkins help since we played colorado earlier in the year, or brent pease's connection with baylor). the bottom line, you just can't bring "more of the same" offense to the bcs table unless your absolutely sure your offensive line can overpower the defense.

[Rogue]

shift and a combination of shift + motion is the wave of the future for offensive football to obtain a mismatch and confuse the defense.

It's also the wave of the past and present. The third thing motion does is that it often exposes a disguised defensive coverage scheme. A savvy QB can use motion to read the coverage before the snap. Josh Heupel was great at this.