Spring Game Sampler, First Course: The Power O

Hugely informative. A must read for any Longhorn fan who wants to understand how we’re forming our identity and what new management means in action.
 
I noticed the same stubbornness with this play and it’s pretty clear that it will be a fundamental building block for our offense, as much in the passing game as in the running game. There’s a lot you can do in the passing game to punish overplay – particularly if you’re making your DEs crash or bringing your LBs on run blitzes. You also encourage false steps from safeties who react to pulling guards and down blocking action like a labrador to a pump faked tennis ball.
 
With any of these power running plays where there’s a blockdown, a playside seal, and a kickout and/or kickup block, the size of your hole is determined by the blockdown, the integrity of the hole is determined by the seal, and the pulling guard and lead blocker determine whether it goes for 4 or 40.
 
Malcolm Brown was designed in a lab to run this play, IMO.

That was fantastic. Longhorn Scott, you have given me hope. Thank you.

Great article, but in your last diagram, I’m having a hard time seeing why a DE would line up in 4 tech with a TE and and H back on his side of the field. Particularly with the sam 8 yards of the line. I could see the DE going to the C gap after the snap and giving the sam contain. But I don’t think I’d line up that way.

You’re an asshole because this post has single-handedly caused me to look forward to football season again. The only good part about a shitty season is that you have more time for other shit in the offseason because you’re not geeked all summer for football to start.

I have chosen to leave the past in the past and only look forward, so I will only say that I look forward to all the smart motherfuckers in Longhorn netdom having coherent offensive strategy to dissect.

Great reading, especially for a Friday PM. It was like Bocaccio’s Decameron without as much allegory.

I freaking love this blog. Harsin is the antithesis of GD. Keep it coming LHS!

As I reflect on the other lead OC candidate from the offseason – Chryst – I was never as jazzed about Wisconsin’s approach vs. BSU. But I’ve seen far less tape on Chryst. Would be interesting for further discussion by those who know more.

roach -
 
Yeah, they wouldn’t line up like that IMO, but LH Scott may be a bit handicapped by the dot spacing graphics and/or he’s trying to demonstrate what motion can catch a defense in.
 
topo -
 
Chryst is actually a very flexible guy. He made his bones with a 3 WR 1 RB spread set and then adjusted his schemes to fit Wiscy’s personnel. Chryst doesn’t have a Wiscy offensive approach per se. He has an approach fitted to his personnel and weather requirements.

Scipio,

I just re-watched the clip and I think our D may actually have lined up like LS’s diagram. They might have missed an adjustment somewhere. That doesn’t look like sound football to me. It also might be why the O gained an easy 5 from the 10.

roach -
 
Yep. I would always want my front aligned to strength, irrespective of the LBs.

Illustrates the value of having a lot of motion and shifting going on, I suppose. If you’ll recall, one of GD’s infamous quotes about his lack of motion is something along the lines of “it might reveal the D’s coverage and confuse the QB about the play call.” Good times.

Great post, very informative. And the springing of hope…. heck I just like the idea of us knowing what the intent of the offense might be versus our past random number generator.

Roach,

It’s definitely unsound. The end just didn’t adjust his alignment to the motion at all. As Scipio points out, you are going to get one of those every now and then just by virtue of throwing so much at the defense.

I guess the bright side of this coming season is that Harsin won’t abandon the power running game 3 games into the season. He’ll earn his salary if he can scheme around your Tackles.

Great read, LHS. Thanks so much, looking forward to summer workouts.

Hook’em CLB

Kilgore,

I think the roles of the extra blockers in this offense will help a lot in that regard and I think our two tackles will be pretty salty toward the end of the season. Injuries on the offensive line would be a buzzkill though.

Longhorn Scott::

“As Scipio points out, you are going to get one of those every now and then just by virtue of throwing so much at the defense.”

So you’re saying that’s a good thing? I’m going to have to recalibrate my football appreciation meter. Greg Davis’ aversion to motion, coupled with the clear understanding that he knows way more about football than me, as evidenced by his former job as a Division 1 NCAA football coach, led me to believe that motion and surprise were not optimal characteristics to seek in an offensive football scheme.

I felt movement in my nether-regions when that play was run.

That is all.

I hope your motion revealed coverage.

the motion, coupled with the MB’s cheat steps, could result in a devestating play action to a tight end (assuming we have one that can run and catch).

LHS:

Great read. While I can’t fathom — or make my eyes move fast enough on the video — all the blocking assignments and techniques involved, I can graps the big picture potential of the Power O.

Your explanation of Harsin “choosing the fiercest offensive talent” as the basis for the attack answers a key question I had. How much good is it to be strong at center-guard if we’re devastatingly weak at tackle? Answer: Trey Hopkins (who I thought would be a tackle) can better use his athleticism as a pulling guard, and our tackles won’t be asked to channel Justin Blaylock when their skills run more toward Britt Mitchell. If we get good enough at this base play, the tackles can gain confidence and — when called on to pass block, won’t have so much force thrown at them from defensive ends who at least have to respect the possibility of a rushing play.

That’s the primary thing that ticked me off about Greg Davis — he was wasting the talent of half his offensive personnel (the five linemen) by limiting what they could do, while putting them under constant pass rush pressure.

LHS, A&M didn’t have a left Tackle 2 years ago and that led to alot of plays that broke down with the QB running for his life. From what I have seen and read from your Spring game you don’t have a Left or Right tackle so that’s going to be problematic on passing downs. You’ll have to run QB rollouts or try to grind things out with the inside running game and short pasess. This requires patience and a lot of 16 play drives. Scipio said in another thread that you have 74 TE’s on scholarship, so a few of them are going to have to step up and chip block and catch some boot leg passes.

And this is why I love Harsin.

He’s taking the talent he has and designing the offense around it to promote their strengths instead of wasting talent to set up explosive plays. He always had varied talent at Boise and never top recruits, so he didn’t have the luxury of waiting around until some freak made something happen.

This is a great breakdown LS of how you find a play that will give your talent level the best shot at success, then building variations off that play to adjust to defensive tendencies and eventually exploit one on one mismatches. This is completely different from what we are used to seeing.

Once the QB becomes comfortable in this system, it appears he is able to do things other QB’s can’t. It just looks that way.

Adding motion to execute adjustments and confusion takes precision and practice. Getting footwork right takes precision and practice. Making real time reads for blocking and alignments takes precision and practice. Notice my words here….I didn’t say talent.

GD’s offenses relied on hard to find talent while he used great receivers to block, didn’t help smaller fast tailbacks, and continually put the quarterback in situations where he’d have to run. If you were a full back on the Texas bench, that meant you were a padded cheer leader.

It’s not likely to come together fully this year, but this post clearly shows that good times are ahead. Fantastic read LonghornScott, you are talk therapy for us neurotic fans with abandonment issues.

What’s also funny is that Greg Davis started using this play more last year, would only call it with Cody Johnson in the game, and seemed to regard it as a trick play to be utilized in specific instances with specific matchups.
Also, they couldn’t teach Huey to pull so it only worked if we ran it to the left side with Mason Walters pulling.
Just further explanation of why we sucked last year.

“I hope your motion revealed coverage.”

i hope that if he had very much motion that his coverage was not comprehensive.

Nickel Rover,

I thought about devoting a few paragraphs to how the play looked for us last year and why it never really got going but I didn’t want to spoil the mood and the reality is that shit is in the past and it doesn’t affect us any more other than to serve as a counterpoint. And frankly, delving into the Greg Davis past is just depressing. It’s amazing how different it is to watch what Harsin does and be able to pick up on his logic and intent… because it makes sense.

excellent read.

as great as it is to know that our offense is evolving into a multifaceted beast, it is also great to know that our defense is going to be practicing increasingly against an offense that will bitch-slap it if it doesn’t pay attention.

Coming to this site was an exercise in disappointment when day after day the post about the NFL lockout was all that one would see. Now a flurry of great threads.

This is a great, informative and easily digested article, LHS. My compliments. It also illustrates the criticism of GD not having a coherent strategic approach to play calling where tactics are chosen with purpose and foresight. I look forward to further observations from you.

Similar to the fullback in the GD offense, I can only wave my pompoms; unsimilarly, I must lament that my padding is not removable.

Sailor/Scipio,

I have a suggestion for the site. This Power-O piece by Longhorn Scott is just an amazing read; as many have noted, immensely informative. I’d love to see more of this type of thing, and I’m pleased to see that Scott plans to write up more.

My suggestion is this: create a separate BC link for the X-and-O posts. BC already has a link for football posts, and that’s great, but I’d really like to have you guys collect this sort of instructional post in a separate, dedicated link. That way, two years from now when there’s (hopefully) a large data base of these things, we readers can go back and access a particular article without having to search through a ton of other stuff. It also helps when we’re trying to piece together different posts that are related. We can see two or more related posts that may be separated in time by months.

Fact is, these articles are such a valuable resource for understanding and enjoying the game, I’d like to have them in one place for easy reference.

One thing that would be helpful for us dumb guys. In the remaining breakdowns, would it be possible to list the players number along with name in the breakdown. That way I know who to watch when you have the live plays. That would be really helpful. Thanks and great job on the breakdowns from me as well.

Not only was MB designed in a lab for this play, but this play was designed in a lab for MB.

Thanks for the clinic LHS. Since everybody but Que ran the blast “oh” I hope you at least faced the other counter-checks offered once the defenses squirm with lying alignments. Lewisville was one of the first to trap with the pulling guard, block out with the formation tackle and undercut with the TE inside for a completely different scheme with the same backfield action.

Your last video example (DE as a 4 technique) is a simple case of the offense stemming the building blocks (TE—-HBack) and the defense not re-aligning to the new formation strength. Most every defense we will face will adjust to the stemming—-DC’s aren’t going to be outflanked by two blockers long without heads rolling—-the punishing adjustment is Harsin will then sing back with the counter OT with the new formation tackle and stemmed H-Back pulling back across the grain gaining leverage with playside down blocks against the now over-shifted DL.

Damn the game was fun before 7 on 7 and all forms of holding were to be ignored so offense could sell tickets while defenses still win championships. Thanks again for taking us back through the staple play for most ground games and reminding us of why we wore all of our issued pads.

TexasFootball,

If this post drew you out then its a greater success than I could have hoped for. I hope you’ll occasionally drop in as the series progresses and offer any thoughts you have. You’re right about the misalignment on the last play and it was corrected on the very next snap (the second clip).

I actually never made it past the Freshman team at Marcus which is a shame because I would have ended up on some pretty good teams. I was a quitter in those days. I do remember Lewisville having a pretty slick ground game back then, I think they picked up the state title my junior year. Pretty cool to look back at how coach Que was on the front end of the trend back then.

We will definitely be talking counter in the next post and I have a few other ideas about where we might go but I’d be interested in any wrinkles you anticipate (obviously). The gap game is making a comback… and I’m convinced that the misdirection game is going to really ramp up in the next 5 years or so. The Air Raid is about an insane level of specialization with all the decision making funneled down from the OC to the QB… but Harsin is about to build an offense of football players who understand spacing and leverage instinctively and learn how to adjust and take advantage on the fly. Should be fun if he can pull it off.

Really good to see your handle.

“Gripping and riveting…wildly informative, action-packed…lucid and entertaining” No, these are not reviews from the “Gilligan’s Island” DVD boxed set, but my very own takes on this outstanding, in-depth analysis, thanks Longhorn Scott, keep up the great work, I look forward to more…

“He’ll earn his salary if he can scheme around your Tackles.”

I saw numerous things in the spring game designed to take advantage of our known weakness at tackle. Pretty encouraging really.

What TKO said. A dedicated link to “X and O” posts like this one would really help we technical neophytes.

Thanks, LHS, for the time and care that obviously went into this. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Like everybody else said: this is a great, informative, hope-inducing post. I have a question: can anybody recommend more resources along similar lines (internet, books, etc.) that would help the casual fan to gain more understanding of what’s going on in terms of alignment, blocking schemes, motions, etc. (along with defense adjustments thereto). That is, what can the average Joe do to learn more about this stuff?

Definitely appreciate all of the positive comments and discussion from everyone.

Mat,

there are definitely a lot of great football blogs out there that you can use to educate yourself with but it’s tough to find anything comprehensive that will help someone build up from fundamental ideas… you can get a piece here and a piece there for sure. A few of my favorite football blogs:

http://smartfootball.com/
http://brophyfootball.blogspot.com/
http://blitzology.blogspot.com/

One issue is that when you look at college football the sheer diversity of tactics can be overwhelming at first. I think just like learning a language, once you really learn one offense or defense in great depth, others are much easier to pick up on (this is particularly true on defense). Also, you have to willing to review tape. I find it very difficult to process an entire play live and understanding what to look for helps mitigate that. Ultimately though, I don’t see it well until I review it. That’s why I’m hoping to build up as much understanding of our new offense and defense in this offseason as I can, so that over the course of the next few seasons I have the opportunity to appreciate how we develop it and adjust it. I think we may have struck on a great thing when you look at the mind meld of Harsin, Applewhite, and Wyatt and I can’t wait to see what they can do with a 3-4 years and a lot of talent (I’m hoping we can keep them together that long). I also think that Manny Diaz is a very sharp cat and I think the ability to play ideas off one another is really going to help both the players and coaches develop quickly (here’s hoping). I think we are getting the first glimpses of a pretty great time in Texas Football and that’s at least part of my motivation for wanting to write about it.

Love the post. I can’t get enough of the Xs and Os stuff. This is why I was pulling for Harsin as OC about the time of the OU game. Once the players get their minds wrapped around this O, I think we will all be a lot happier. I am looking forward to better days.

smartfootball.com orrrr rpongnett

Playing my usual role of devil’s advocate…

First, I think this is a big reason OU went to the 50 front as their base package toward the end of last year. It was extremely effective in limiting teams like OSU who tried to attack gaps and create mismatches. Because there was one hat on the line for every OL, motion was less effective in creating misalignment as the assignments didn’t change. The fifth man on the line jammed up the blocking scheme without having to come out of the base package. (NT is 0-tech, DTs are over the tackles, DEs are usually on the outside of the outermost blocker) How does the scheme change to adjust for the new angles that having 5 on the line provide?

Second, Texas can’t throw the ball with any consistent success right now. Does that mean teams creep the SS into the box, or would you expect them to make UT prove they can run with success first? Personally, I put 8 in the box against any of these looks until UT proves they can make me pay for it.

How often did OSU use a lead blocker combined with a pulling guard for Hunter ?

5 DL stretched out along the line doesn’t seem to prevent getting outnumbered at the point of attack.

And if over anticipation is needed to neutralize it, it presents a gamble against a misdirection happening. Provided that repeated challenge starts to irritate the defense, openings for receivers will follow.

As with everything, a 50 front will give some things and take away others. Stoops certainly seems to try to take away the run before anything else. But, you also lose some flexibility with coverages. I suppose the real question is who do you want on the field? 5 slowish lineman or 5 fast DB’s who can cover and tackle in space? Recently, the trend seems to be more of a nickle look to combat the spread.

I’m guessing Stoops reasoning was based more on OU’s personnel than any concern about OSU, but I’m sure Nate can speak more to that than I can.

That being said, motion does not just affect the front, it also effects the coverage. If you motion 2 eligible receivers to your side of the field the DB’s have to adjust regardless of what the front does.

Nate,

I haven’t seen what Oklahoma was doing but my guess would be that the strong side defensive end is playing a spill technique there almost exclusively if they are trying to take the Power away (if not I’ll have to go take a look at what they did). If so, my immediate thought is that you apply perimeter pressure versus that look. Even with the Strong Safety cheated up in the box, the cornerback is the only player keeping you from paydirt. I would think sweeps (esp. jet/rocket) are the most obvious responses. You could also go to a twins look and pressure with a quick screen. Essentially, the defense has given up some of their outside pursuit, so that’s what I would attack.

I guess the other possibility would be if they were rotating strongside in that defense (either the strongside corner/strong safety rotates to be the contain and the free safety goes center field). It’s basically a monster defense at that point and then my thought is that you need to attack the weakside, either with the counter or with the bootleg pass (maybe even off of Jet action).

Thanks for the discussion, btw. I’m gonna see if I can carve out some time this week to check out what you are referring to… is OU v OSU the one to watch?

“Second, Texas can’t throw the ball with any consistent success right now. Does that mean teams creep the SS into the box, or would you expect them to make UT prove they can run with success first?”

For much of the past three years, teams could sit back in two-deep safeties and limit “explosives” and stop GDGD’s offense in its tracks. We’d see some decent yardage numbers, but sparadic TD drives. Having teams account for a running game would be a welcomed development.

LonghornScott: OU-OSU is definitely the best game to watch for use of the 50 front against a creative running scheme.

triplehorn:

It’s not just the number, it’s where they line up. Take Harsin’s approach (attack gaps and scheme weaknesses), and apply it to the defense. Being on defense, you don’t have to win, you just can’t lose. A tie means Using a cheap recreation, because I’m a cheap asshole, see: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5223/5607539172_08cac65ba6_m.jpg

Am I really outnumbered at the point of attack? Scott rightly points out that if the playside guard can’t wall off the NT from getting into the backfield, the play is DOA. It’s only another half step or so the guard will have to come to get to his assignment, but by the time he gets there, the NT will be standing where the center was with leverage and momentum. The SLB is now a DT playing a 4 tech. Your H-back isn’t driving him 5 yards off the ball. In fact, he’s not driving him anywhere at all. Now, I assume you try to have your playside T kick the DT out, but that’s a much lower percentage play than your tackle flattening a LB. With UT’s tackles, it’s a VERY low percentage play. Regardless, you now have what you didn’t want: a traffic jam in the hole. Does the play become a running play between the guards? That’s what I would do. The defense is giving me pretty much everything between the guards for 4-5 yards a pop if the LB’s don’t come up.

Great discussion.

I went back to watch the game with better appreciation of what was happening. One thing that I also observed is that Tray Allen acquitted himself quite well at LT. He basically went up against Reggie Wilson for the entire first half. He missed an assignment on a reverse but one on on he did well.

This goes back to a theory I have – that a good portion of our line problems were not personal in nature. Now if we can only find a QB. As Nate points out team will easily scheme to take the run away if we cannot throw the damn ball…..

One of the most infuriating parts of the end of 2010 was listening to some internet fans blame Mack/Muschamp for “frorcing” onto Davis an offensive scheme that went away from our short passing spread, instead focusing on running the ball inside.

Which would you rather build your offense around:

A: (i) our interior linemen, which includes an all-conference caliber player in Walters and two solid players in Hopkins and Snow; and (ii) our mediocre but serviceable RBs.

or

B: (i) the worst starting QB in the Big 12; (ii) the worst pair of starting tackles in the Big 12; and (iii) our inconsistent WRs who provide nothing blocking wise.

These idiots actually blamed our offensive ineptitude on forcing Davis to go with A over B.

Yeah, we weren’t going to set the world on fire running the ball last year, but we would have cut our TOs in half and scored many more points per redzone possession. The pinnacle of our offense in short passing mode last season was the KSU fiasco – 250 yards on 32/59 attempts (4 yards/attempt!!!), and 5 picks.

The largest asset this team his in 2011 (like 2010) is our group of interior linemen, and possibly our RBs if Brown pans out as the next Cedric Benson. The value we get out of this by helping our defense through shortening games and limiting TOs should be huge in itself.

“As Nate points out team will easily scheme to take the run away if we cannot throw the damn ball…..”

This will be true no matter what offense we try and run.

Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

That said, let’s hope Harsin is a rock hound….

I have to disagree with the description of the plays with the off-set back as being a Power-O. They’re running inside the PST which leads me to think that this is Harsin’s version of an Iso-G. I’ve coached for a while and I’m still no expert but my understanding of Power or Power-O — O meaning “off-side” Guard wraps — is that it is an off-tackle play that attacks the edge.

John,

The distinction between Power and Iso is not which gap is attacked, although Power most commonly is run in the B to C gap. The difference is really in the playside assignments. In an ISO everyone inside the attacking point is blocking in and everyone outside is blocking out with the lead blocker attacking the isolated linebacker. Whereas in Power the playside linemen are all blocking down with the back setting the edge. I assume your gripe is with my first diagram where I show the tight end setting the edge rather than the h-back? Arguably the tight end is actually blocking down in the clip so I may just be guessing wrong on the assignment there. I would suspect that we change which version we run from opponent to opponent and alignment to alignment depending on how well feel about that matchup with the end man on the line. In this case the distinction between the two is pretty small, however it would make more difference when you consider the difference between weakside kick and weakside iso.

LH Scott —

First, I’m not griping. And thanks for replpying. I understand that your diagram is a variation on a theme. I was watching the video and it appeared to me that lead blocker and RB attacked between the PSG and PST.

I guess I’m old school in my thinking. In my sense of Power-O to the strongside, the offense is attacking the “D” gap or over the Y who is comboing down with the PST. The contain defender is then kicked out (or logged) by an RB and the BSG wraps.

I’m sure there are variations on how to block the edge, but the area attacked is outside the PST, not under him. Any lead play under him is, I submit, still an Iso.

Gotcha, John. It’s not about where the tackle started aligned but where he is when the play hits the line… and you’re right that the running back’s crease should always fall outside of the tackle’s position at that point (which it does despite some interference from Chet Moss above)… the question is just where should that aiming point be? Where is the tackle gonna end up?

The PST is always blocking down on Power and if the down blocks are executed playside there should be a vacancy from the B to C gap, so the Guard is definitely wrapping outside of the tackle but the question is whether he’s wrapping outside the tight end, inside the tight end, or kicking/logging a penetrating defender and that depends on the guard’s read as he pulls. It all comes down to how to handle that EMOL and in watching Boise State they handle the EMOL in a variety of ways depending on the matchup and to keep the End on his toes. Sometimes they will block him down with the TE in a 7 tech, sometimes they will make him widen to a 9 with the h-back alignment and then base block him, sometimes they will turn him loose and kick him out with the fullback. Basically, Boise State adjusts alignment with their tight ends/h-backs/full backs to attack the play differently and then they rely on the h-back/guard/tailback to read the play correctly.

As a side note a lot of teams have start running A Gap Power particularly from the spread to avoid the difficulty that the EMOL presents and get influence on the linebacker to help the down blocks. The running back’s aiming point is the A Gap and the oline is going to try to get a lot of vertical movement on their down blocks, then the running back may drift into B or C as he hits the hole. The running back is still most likely hitting the crease outside the tackle, it’s just that the tackle is going to end up around the A gap on the play.

All this makes me think that perhaps another post is in order with more information on Power adjustments and reads. BTW, you may already be aware of everything I said above and then some, I just wanted folks who come around later and read this to understand. I’m glad for the exchange.