Introduction
“Formations are cheap, plays are expensive.” It’s a phrase that many coaches have used and generally accept as sound philosophy. However, while cheap, formations still come at a cost. With each new formation there is a new tag, word, or signal that players must memorize in order to align correctly. Though you may practice and rep each new formation over and over again in practice, all it takes is one player to mess up and that critical first down or touchdown is negated by an illegal formation. Hence, our numbering system is a way of aligning correctly, creating mismatches, and featuring certain players.
Origins
A few years ago our staff was looking for ways to ensure that we were putting our best players in the best positions possible to make the biggest impact. We wanted a way to place our best player(s) anywhere on the field that would help to create mismatches. At the same time, we wanted to make sure that we protected ourselves by eliminating alignment issues. We floated ideas that provided tags to formations that we already had or came up with new names for formations entirely. As we progressed through this process we felt that our ideas were too wordy, cumbersome, and hard to remember. Finally, after researching and trialing different ideas, there was a breakthrough and an idea for providing labels for different areas of the field began to take root.
Overview of the System
At its core, the numbering system is a way of aligning players in any formation that a coordinator can think of. It is also versatile enough that a coach can change the labels and numbering to fit their offense as needed. The way that we deploy the numbering system is as so:
- We use the numbers 1-9 to indicate the different areas of the field. We lay out the numbers from left to right, just like you read a book.
- The 1 and 9 positions are outside/perimeter receivers.
- The 2 and 8 positions are slot receivers.
- The 3 and 7 are the most versatile positions that could indicate any of the following:
- A trips slot receiver (3 or 7),
- A tight-end (t3 or t7),
- A wing (w3 or w7),
- Or a sniffer (i3 or i7).
- The 4, 5, and 6 positions are the backfield alignments.
Every play a player is assigned a number that indicates where they are to line up on the field. Depending on your system, you may choose to assign every player a number every play or only your best 1 or 2 players. It’s a flexible system!
Uses
In our offense we use wristbands for every player. Below I will give an example of how we use the numbering system with wristbands and provide an example for how it could still be used without a wristband.
Wristband
If your team uses wristbands that are specific to each position like ours is, then you can specify for every player where they are to line up. The following table incorporates a collection of formations and how we would indicate the alignment of each player. The first couple are pretty generic, while the last two showcase a glimpse of the creativity that could be used.
| X | Y | Z | J | R | |
| Pis. Ace Rt | ^1 | 8 | ^9 | 2 | 5 |
| Gun Trips Lt | ^9 | ^3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Pis. Trey Rt X Tight | ^3 | w7 | ^9 | 8 | 5 |
| Gun Split Lt J Tight | ^9 | ^t3 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
Pis. Ace Rt
Gun Trips Lt
Pis. Trey Rt X Tight
Gun Split Lt J Tight
No Wristband
If your team does not use wristbands or only uses a generic wristband, you could incorporate the numbering system to specify where you want your “dude” to line up. Let’s say that you have a stud receiver (X) that normally lines up as an outside receiver, but want to line him up as the #2 receivers in a “trips left” formation. All you would have to do is incorporate a “2” into your call. So, a “2 trips left” may look like this:
Here is another example for a 2×2 set, but you want to tighten the split of your stud receiver (X). You might call out “3 ace left”:
The formational possibilities without a wristband may be a little more limited, but at the same time, an offense could greatly increase its variety with a simple number.
Unique Alignments
The table and diagrams below showcase some of the more unique possibilities that could be used with the numbering system:
| X | Y | Z | J | R | |
| Empty Rt | ^1 | 7 | ^8 | 2 | 9 |
| Gun Unbalanced t | ^9 | w3 | ^8 | w7 | 6 |
| Pis. Bunch Lt* | ^9 | ^2b | 2a | 2c | 5 |
| Gun. Stack Rt** | ^2 | w7 | ^8 | 88 | 4 |
| Pro I Rt | ^1 | ^t7 | 9 | 5 | 55 |
**Double numbers like “88” or “55” indicate to the player that there is another player lined up in that spot in front of them.
Empty Rt
Gun Unbalanced Rt
Pis. Bunch Lt
Gun Stack Rt
Pro I Rt
Conclusion
As you can see the formational possibilities are endless. In our system as long as the players know the 9 positions on the field, we can align in any formation. While our players may know the names of some of the formations, really the only people the formational names matter to are the coaches.
