The Multiple Offense

Rating:
Summary: Naaaaaaaaa Not This one.....save your change.
Review: Boring trivial rehash that can't be found elsewhere. Coach Cox's claims to be one of the winningest football coaches in Florida. Well he certainly isn't one of the best authors. He could learn a lot from legendary Texas HS Coach Gordon Wood who published a complete coaching manual that had everthing from high school football anecdotes to trap blocking. Best of all Wood had his book published professionally and not down at the local kinko's!

Rating:
Summary: I respect Coach Cox, but not his playbook...
Review: I know of three high schools that have used the multiple offense directly from this book, and combined, the record of these three schools is 17-133 over the last five years. Each of the three head coaches has been fired for this dismal record.

The problems with this offense lie in three areas:

1) The system offers no mechanical advantages at the point of attack. Simply, this means that the blocking at the hole relies entirely upon a one on one effort by the offensive line. In situations where the defensive man is stronger, this blocking breaks down.

2) The system relies heavily upon multiple formations and motion (hence the name) to confuse the defense. This is not a good idea. You can NOT control the confusion level of the other team, because you don't know what their coach is teaching them. You can only control the confusion level of your OWN team. This system rates a 20 out of ten for confusion. (I've coached three different levels, from youth to high school, won my own share of trophies, and I could BARELY understand this system. How could I expect to teach it to a freshman with no football experience?)

3) This system relies far too heavily upon the passing game. Passing absolutely requires an inordinately high amount of talent as well as a huge amount of practice time to master the fundamentals. Passing also is most effective when set up by the running game. Unfortunately, the running game in this system is not as effective due to the lack of technical advantages in the offense. (See point number one.)

Coach Cox's credentials are unmatched, but his playbook is disorganized and unrealistic for the average high school coach. Nowhere in the book is a playsheet given that describes how the plays fit together and how one play will set up the misdirection of another. The plays are also diagrammed exclusively against a rarely seen 50-Series defense, and not the much more common 4-4 or even 6-2. Since the 50 is an odd defense and the 4-4 and 6-2 are even, the entire blocking system must be changed if you were to install this offense.

This is not an easy offense to install and use successfully. While I respect Coach Cox enormously for his success, I personally cannot see how he achieved it with this system. I recommend instead "The Toss" By Jerry Vallotton, also available here on Amazon.com.