In college and pro football I often see the center pointing straight ahead prior to the snap.
Why do he do dat?
Setting blocking assignments.
Please explain.
I thought the blocking assignments would be determined by the play the QB calls.
They can’t know how they’re going to block until they see the defensive alignment.
In a way, the center is the quarterback of the offensive line. Defensive linemen line up in different places, run stunts and twists and exotic zone blitzes, and while a lot of that is covered in basic coaching 101, there’s some stuff that gets called out by the quarterback and/or center when they switch up plays or call out the defensive play based on their tendencies and formation.
What the others said, it’s primarily because you just can’t know exactly who is doing what because you don’t know what the defense is doing until you line up. So, let’s consider a few scenarios.
First, a fairly standard drop pass. Maybe they’ve got four men on the line, who blocks who? Does it look like the linebackers are going to rush or drop into coverage? If it looks like the middle linebacker is going to rush, you might have the guards take on the defensive tackles and leave the center free to take him. Maybe they’re overloading on one side, and the guard makes more sense to slide off and assist. A lot of times the sacks happen because there just isn’t clear communication over who has what responsibilities in light of where the help is, where the targets are, or where the quarterback might be based upon the defense. For instance, if a lineman knows there’s a rush coming from one side, he might expect his quarterback to roll out to the other and be able to adjust his blocking accordingly.
For a run play, it depends on the type of scheme. If it’s a most NFL and college team don’t necessarily run into designated holes and adjust their blocking schemes in a way that best takes advantage of how the defense is aligned. For instance, imagine they want to run off-guard to one side, but there’s a defensive tackle lined up in that hole. Maybe the tackle and guard do a double team or cross block to kick him inside. Maybe they think it’ll be easier to block him outside and have the RB read it and run inside. It will also depend on how the linebackers are lined up, if the safety is in the box, if they have any misdirection or lead blocking to assist, etc.
And, of course, all of this can quickly change if there’s a play change at the line or the defense shows something. You may even see the linemen calling out things for other players to be aware of, like who may be blitzing or dropping into coverage, where they may need backfield help, and all of that. And, of course, sometimes they just say stuff to try to mess with the defense, like making calls as if it’s a running play when it’s a passing play to maybe give them a moment’s hesitation on coverage.
So, yeah, there’s a lot of pre-snap adjustments on the part of the linemen, and that’s what he’s doing.
While the above is generally accurate information, the answer to your question is more precise than that. They’re setting the center of the defense (which is about all you can do by pointing, obviously). The blocking assignments are already established; what can’t be accounted for is how the defense lines up. The center and the quarterback establish for everyone else who they’re going to consider the “mike” (i.e. the middle linebacker) for the purposes of the play by pointing and calling him out.
OK. That answer makes more sense. It seems to me the other stuff would be more effectively communicated orally rather than by pointing.
Just to add to what others have said- when I played college football (tight end), many plays required a specific blocking assignment, obviously. So the center would call the “middle” blocking assignment (and this doesn’t change regardless of blitz, stunt, or defensive shifts). For our blocking assignments, we would be assigned a number for each play or play"style" (not aloud but in the playbook). So imagine the defense is running a 4-3 (MLB = 0, DTs=100, DEs=200, OLBs = 300), most often the C would block 0, Gs block 100, Ts block 200, TE would generally be assigned 250 which would mean bump the 200 and then peal off to the 300. A run around the right with a pulling G would mean T blocks 100, TE blocks 200, G gets 300. FBs and RBs can also get assigned numbers by this system easily. However, our 0 was declared as the MLB only 50% of the time, 25% to either DT. This could be because the FB would pick up a blocker and this would be the way to tell him who. It could also be a power sweep or even cause the T to pull for a block down the line instead of a G. So declaring the “Mike” or 0 gives almost no information to the defense but it does give a way to audible the blocking assignments.
Now it does get more complicated with stunting or blitzes, with a TE on a 250 on a pass play with no route assigned, for instance. I would stay on the DE longer and the T would have to watch inside to shift down to the DT so that the G/C could pick up the blitz up the middle. But a lot of this becomes second nature when you’ve been playing together for a long time and why offensive lines can be very powerful when they work together well but most importantly for a long time. And the Center tends to be the brightest offensive lineman due to his need to captain/lead/direct that squad.