dive

dive, the run

The simplest run in football. A back, usually the fullback, takes a quick handoff and attacks an interior gap directly. There is no misdirection, no read, and almost no delay between snap and contact.

Its value is timing rather than design. It hits before a defense can flow, which makes it a short-yardage answer and, more importantly, the thing every other play in a series is pretending to be.

See it in a play

• Trapinside run, backside guard pulls to trap the first man past the holeWing-T

dive, the dive phase of an option

In an option offense the dive is not a play, it is a phase. The quarterback puts the ball in the dive back's belly at the mesh point and reads a defender to decide whether to leave it there or pull it, and the same snap continues into a keep or a pitch if he pulls.

So "dive" in a Wing-T room and "dive" in a triple option room name different things: one is a call and the other is the first option of three. A coach moving between those rooms hears the same word for a handoff and for a read.