Previous Parts to the Series

• Play Identification
• Offensive Themes
• More Themes
• Pass Protection
• Run Blocking
• Inside Run Plays
• Outside Run Plays
• Perimeter Runs
• Quick Game
• QB Movement
• Longer-Developing Routes

DISCLAIMER: These articles are based entirely on what Virginia Tech has either discussed publicly or shown in games.

Today, packaged plays and RPOs* are on the menu. Even though the Fu-fense isn’t an “RPO Offense” the way some teams are (and the way some fans probably pictured the offense to be when Fuente was hired), RPOs are an important component.

(*I’ve heard the Hokies call their pre-snap packaged plays “pre-snap RPOs,” so they might not follow this convention. I’ve defined them as packaged vs. RPO so much over the years that I’m just going to stick with it.)

For a packaged play, the read is pre-snap. The QB focuses on an area of the field or the alignment of the defense and determines if it allows one play or the other. The simplest example of the former is a route that’s been tagged to a run, like the “gift” route we talked about ages ago. Instead of Virginia Tech running “Outside Zone,” they run “Outside Zone – Out,” and if the alignment is correct, the QB takes the snap and immediately throws the ball. And maybe the simplest example of an alignment-based packaged play is the QB counting the number of defenders in the box and determining he should hand the ball off on a run.

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