Author: Taylor Kolste

By Taylor Kolste

Dating back to at least his early Oregon days, a Y-Cross concept known as “Saints” has been a staple of Chip Kelly’s offense. This was the #1 ran passing concept for both Oregon and the Eagles during Kelly’s tenure there. Here are the stats for “Saints” over Chip Kelly’s last 5 years in coaching: * Passer Rating is based on NFL calculation.

Oregon 2012: 45 for 58, 725 Passing Yards, 16 Touchdowns, 0 Interceptions, 158.3 Passer Rating

Eagles 2013-2015: 39 for 73, 801 Passing Yards, 5 Touchdowns, 2 Tnterceptions, 103.7 Passer Rating

49ers: 8 for 17, 177 Passing Yards, 1 Touchdown, 1 Interception, 84.7 Passer Rating

Here is a diagram of the “Saints” concept:

Continue reading Chip Kelly’s Y-Cross Concept

By Taylor Kolste

In 2014, Willie Fritz’s first year at Georgia Southern in addition to the Eagles’ first year at the FBS level, Georgia Southern was an offensive juggernaut running their way to a Sun Belt Conference championship. The Eagles had won 7 games at the FCS level the year prior before going 9-3 at the FBS level under Willie Fritz. Georgia Southern was first in the nation in rushing yards per game at 381.1, first in rushing yards per attempt at 7.1, first in rushing touchdowns at 55, and second in yards per play at 7.34. They accomplished this using a unique shotgun option run scheme featuring primarily inside zone and power-based schemes. While much of their blocking schemes differed from the veer schemes traditional flexbone offenses such as Navy or Georgia Tech have used, they still utilized the same option principles and series-based approach to play calling.

Note: This article will focus solely on their 2014 season.

Georgia Southern’s run game in 2014 utilized 5 blocking schemes: Inside Zone, Power/Counter, Speed Option, Load Option, and Draw/Lead Draw. Much of their run game revolved around their “bread and butter” play, the inside zone read. They could run the zone read as either a double or triple option play, and was the base play which helped set up the majority of the offense. They had multiple plays which were designed to look like a zone read option play, but were really just called gives to the running back. They were able to stretch the field horizontally with their option game, which helped create misdirection when running their constraint plays. This negated the need for them to use extensive RPOs since they could account for defenders with their option fakes.

Continue reading Willie Fritz’s Georgia Southern Run Game