How to Follow the Football Play by Watching the Defensive Safety

Video Transcript

"Coach Rudy, Big Ten Alumni. Super, super important--a lot of you young quarterbacks need to learn something called the pre-snap look. What that is, is when I walk up to the line of scrimmage, I find out where the free safety is. Really, really, really super important. If I have a pass play that the free safety, for some reason has been watching a lot of film, understands my tendencies, and what we do as an offensive unit, and is cheating over, if I have a post pattern from the split inside, then I know that I cannot throw that post, because the free safety will be there to have a major collision or intercept the ball. I'm watching the corners to make sure that they're not squatting, because the tailback is going out into the flat. So I freeze the free safety, he's there, I can't throw the post, I look to the flat--he's, the corner's out there, I know I have the tight end coming across, or the backside flanker on a skinny post. I now can make a decision. So, in summary, getting a pre-snap look, or learning how to understand the defense based on where the safety is aligned on a pass play, is really super important. I break the huddle, I walk up to the line of scrimmage, I see the free safety is cheated over some. In my head I'm going through the progression of the pass play. Number one, post no good. Number two, I might be able to go to the back, out of a flat, but if the corner's squatting, that's a pick six, it's going the other way, no good. I know I've got the tight end coming across, I'm throwing across my body. Never throw across your body over the middle. I learned that as a little kid. So I got the skinny post. I call the cadence, I'm back, I freeze the safety, I look, I see the corner squatting, I throw the skinny post, we score six, we're going in. Learn how to read the safeties."