Rico Nasty: Change-of-Pace/2pt Series

In the fine football coaching tradition of drawing up variations on the whiteboard, I give you the Rico Nasty Series. The name? Well, I like to use something the players will remember easily. It so happens, when I ‘Googled’ hip hop artists she popped up. That, and the fact I just think the name fits this ‘nasty’ set of plays. They’re good for two-point conversions or even a nice change-of-pace series to throw the defense that unsuspecting football ‘What the…’ feeling. You know, a head-scratcher which leads to burning a timeout.

Trips with a Shift on Top

As the above diagram shows, we’re lining up in a what seems to be a Trips Strong, with the running back on the strong side. Then we have the quarterback begin his cadence, with a ‘shift’ signal involved. The backside tackle shifts strong side.

When I originally drew it up, this was a single play of the ‘Y’ delaying and shooting to the back side for a quick two-point conversion away from the strength. It looked good as it flowed from the dry erase marker to the whiteboard…not so much in a game condition. Coaching Blunder 101! We didn’t practice it nearly enough. We didn’t emphasize the tight end to delay for a count and then release. Result: Pass knocked away. Conversion: No Good.

The excitement waned for trying the play again, but I wasn’t ready to trash the concept. So, here’s where it is as of today. A nice, change-up of an offensive series. It incorporates a favorite pass route of mine — the Double Slant. It incorporates the Y-Delay of the orginal Rico Nasty. It incorporates a quick-trap (I cannot say no to a trap play). It incorporates a strong side option.

Rico Nasty Trap

‘Old School’ quick-trap. I love the double team, and the influencing A-Gap penetration.

Rico Nasty Double Slant

Nothing says play-action like a mirror of the trap play. The quarterback is looking to see what the safety is doing. He has either slant route or the ‘Z.’

Rico Nasty Option

Quarterback is reading the EMOL with overload tackle reaching to the second level. RPO is even possible if the two tackles can ‘hold their water’ before going second level.

Rico Nasty Y-Delay

Aaah! The orginal play, except we’re inserting the play-fake to the running back.