Metrics from the Lobos

very high praise

there are literally dozens of things you can do once you establish running to boundary… especially with quick hitting plays. Harsin doesn’t seem to have any issues adding on the exclamation points to his base concepts, so not to worry there.

on Espinosa, it’s pretty damn hard to get your footwork going to split the defender when the guy is lined up right under you and you’ve got to get a clean pistol snap off. There’s just not a scenario when he should be trying to make all that happen at this stage, he’s gotta have help.

the difference between what Chris Brown is talking about and what we’re doing is that Chris is mainly talking about plays that involve a post-snap read… which if done correctly theoretically always make the offense correct (just like the option). What we do is package ideas together that offer complementing pressures and then read alignment from the defense or tendency from film to decide what to run. I actually like what we do a little bit better because I think once you introduce reads too often into the offense, you can overload and slow your execution down a little. We still put the defense is a situation where they are forced to vary their response and get into guessing games which accomplishes a lot of the same goals and allows you to execute full speed.

that’s the first symptom of the disease.

1) Ash has looked pretty good in this regard. As I’ve said many times, Harsin is known for being a meticulous bastard… particularly when it comes to selling the defense. I imagine it’s an area he focuses on.

2) Seems to me like Cobbs in more comfortable closing inside out than outside in (which is pretty standard). I expect improvement but it is important that he develops as a force player. As an aside, Adrian Philips was pretty damn amazing against the run in the New Mexico game.

Literally anything from Okafor on that play would have been better than what he actually did.

that the QB is Edmond’s responsibility on that play with Hicks having responsibility for the cutback on the dive. Cobbs most likely had pitch responsibility. That play probably resulted in several guys getting dressed down during the film session.

pretty liberally. technically that’s probably the coaching point there within our defense.

where you could see Ash change the play at the line. We have almost zero ability to evaluate that because we don’t know the original call :] The play where Ash almost threw a pick on the zone blitz was a check.

MB probably should have bounced that wide the other way towards Hawkins, though that would have been a tough play to make.

and that’s why he’s unblocked.

To understand this we need to reorg a few thoughts first. When you look at a play like Daje’s TD, don’t think of it as a play in isolation or even one play in a series from that particular formation. Instead, think of it as a combination of concepts in a particular alignment. So really there are a number a levels to consider here.

Theoretical Goals
Attack the boundary with a concept that creates a leverage advantage through speed (in this case a speed sweep but it could also be a quick screen). Constrain this with a concept that will punish the defense for overcommiting to stop it (Inside Zone will find the short handed front if the defense is aggressively attacking the quick outside concept). Use alignment to limit responses and make the defense defend the whole field (wide alignment from the #1 receiver to the field). Finally, use motion to force the defense to communicate and adjust responsibilities to create favorable matchups for you offense concepts and encourage missed assignments from the defense.

Actual Concepts
Speed sweep with Inside Zone away. Note that this could have easily been power away or pin n pull away. The difference is that both the sweep and the inside zone have the potential to hit big in the boundary alley. With the defense running cover 3 a lot with their boundary safety initially pedaling toward the field to take his middle 1/3rd, there’s the potential for a big play. They happened to also be blitzing from the field which left them without a pot to piss in here.

Mechanics
This new little flip to the sweeper is just a solution for how to effectively get the ball to the sweeper from a pistol alignment. It’s not really a new play for us, just a new execution. I have read where a lot of high school coaches have been trying to come up with an elegant solution to this without slowing their sweep down too much or disruping the timing of their zone play. Seems that we worked on that and got it down.

Conclusion
The only significant different between this and the under center stuff is that from the pistol the zone read and power read are more readily available and Ash will be able to keep his eyes downfield more on play action. The read stuff is what really intrigues me because it would allow Texas to still create numbers advantages ever against a loaded box when combined with the speed sweeps.