Scripted drives - are they a thing?

Maybe. Who knows?

Yes

Absolutely. It isn’t set in stone where you’re going down the list running these 8 plays in this exact order, but there’s absolutely a subset of plays lined up to attack the opponent’s base defense. Then obviously there are adjustments that are made in response and then the script is no longer there. 
 

But the week of the game opposing coaches are breaking down film of our D. They absolutely come up with a handful of plays designed to exploit what they see right out of the gate. 

They are thing. The primary reasons are they noticed something on tape and script a drive to exploit it (the Dantonio) and coaches want to see how defenses defend certain formations. A coach will script 8-15 plays with different personnel groupings and formations just to see how the defense lines up and then they adjust from there.

Those ol' Mike Dintonyo msu teams always had a scripted drive ready. As far as the NIU drive...not sure.

I could see it more of a flow chart.

2nd down; if it's 1-5 yards then play X, 5-9yds then Y, for 10 plus play Z. I honestly have no clue though, but makes sense to me I guess. 

Yes. See MSU's first drive vs us in 2016, and our first drive vs OSU in 2019.

Think of it less as a literal script with exact plays, but more like 2-3 hyper-targeted concepts you pull from when making play selection to attack a specific weakness until the defense shows an adjustment.

If the play calling is generated by a AI software. 

Yes, they're definitely "things". The idea is to probe plays/areas of the field you think you can exploit, show them some plays to elicit their response, so you can then counter that response. Much more to it, but that's sort of the idea. 

100% is a thing. The extent to which a team abides by that exact plan is different coach to coach... Bill Walsh of the 49ers is the one who really made it famous and followed the 10 play script almost to a tee for each game, but he was an offensive savant that literally could tell exactly who was going to be open at what times based on how he studied defensive tendencies. And he was a master at setting up a defense to see one thing based on a earlier play and then run the exact counter to that play to set up the big chunk play. There are a lot of documentaries on the 1980s 49ers where you'll hear interviews with Montana or Jerry Rice or Dwight Clark where they'd talk about coming into a time out, Walsh would have the next play drawn up and who was going to be open and it was exactly as it was drawn out, like down to the hash marks of where the defensive player targeted was going to be. 

A lot of Walsh's disciples ended up becoming HC's and OC's off the old "West Coast Offense" coaching tree and they brought that mentality with them to the point it's now commonplace. 

They are a thing - teams break out some new looks they haven't put on film previously.

On the other side, defenses tend to play vanilla to start games, to see what the offense is going to come up with.  Then they adjust.

It's absolutely real. Most coaches look to script 15 plays but have admitted that it is hard to get past 5-6 cause something will go wrong. Bill Walsh once said he could script a whole game if things went right.

I think they are a thing and a team could practice them over and over again in practice so they get really good at them. 

Mais bien sur. Absolument! 

Oh, my bad. Thought I was over at Rosetta Stone. 

Just script a TD drive and don't worry about which plays work and which ones don't.

We script 10 plays every game. We make a best effort to stick to the script regardless of circumstance, but we do make adjustments at times. Most of the reasons are covered above, but it is a real thing. One other reason for the script is to see how defenses align or adjust to certain formations/motions/plays and to set stuff up for later in the game. 

Yes, coaches absolutely do script the first 10-25(!) plays on offense. It helps formulate the game plan, helps QBs and other players visualize situations the night before, and settle down and focus early in the game, and the plays, formations, and personnel groupings help the coaches in the box see more clearly how the opponent is playing them. There will often be checks, alerts, etc built in.

BTW the script is for NORMAL situations (1st&10, 2nd & medium, etc). They will deviate from the script in special circumstances (Red Zone, Backed Up, 3rd or 4th & Short, etc.) but even there, they are likely to go from the top of the list in that category, and as soon as they are back to normal down situations, revert to The Script.

Yes, definitely. Or, no, maybe not. Possibly?

Some coaches/teams have a short set list of 15 or so plays they expect to run at the start of the game so the players know what to expect.

I always thought true scripted came with tempo to minimize the defense's ability to adjust, think, or substitute.  Offensive penalties and plays with lost yardage may require changing the order of plays.  The QB has the option to call an audible when the initial alignment won't work.

Hayden Frye and Mark D'Anntonio opened games regularly with a scripted drive.

Yes they are a thing. They are based on tendencies of the other team and it dares them to adjust on the fly and they are designed to jump out quickly with a score. 
 

Long ago when I played in high school our team scripted drives for a few teams that had major tendencies and it was up to the defense to adjust…if they did, we would go back to running more of what we knew we could do outside the script, if they never did, we would keep with the script. I’m pretty sure Michigan came out 2nd half against Washington and scripted the 8 play all run drive, daring them to adjust. They apparently didn’t the whole rest of the half. 

From the comments, there are actual coaches here who know this first hand. 

So my 2 cents is that every week the opponent is different and there is only so much time to practice. The plays your teams practices more they more likely to execute better on Saturday. There maybe a play in your playbook for nearly every situation but unlike video Madden, the team is not likely to be able to execute well.

Question for the coaches here with real experience. As the season progresses, can more new plays be added? Does the script lengthen with the season? E.g. Game 1 - 15 basic plays - adding one more every week, so by Game 9, there are 24 plays?

They absolutely exist. You are going to call specific plays regardless of outcome on your 1st series. This can help you gauge what has the best chance of being successful.  If you go 3 and out you just move the script to the next series. Source, I coach high school football. 

Yes!