The Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich/Scott Frost Pin-Pull Sweep

By Taylor Kolste

In 2011, when Chip Kelly was the head coach, Mark Helfrich the offensive coordinator, and Scott Frost the WR coach, Oregon first debuted their pin and pull sweep play. This play, known as “Outside Zone” in their system (they called what most people would consider Outside Zone “Mid Zone”), quickly became one of the best plays in their offense. In 2011, Oregon averaged 9.8 yards per play as they ran this play 36 times for 353 yards and 2 touchdowns. The next season in 2012, they ran their pin-pull play 42 times for 382 yards and 5 touchdowns, good for a 9.1 yard per play average. This play remained a staple of the Oregon offense as Kelly left and Helfrich and Frost became the head coach and coordinator. Chip Kelly brought this play with him to the NFL and Scott Frost brought it to UCF with all 3 of these coaches running it with success. In the 2015 season, Chip Kelly’s last with the Eagles, Philadelphia had a down year running the ball averaging only 3.9 yards per carry but still managed to average 5.7 yards per carry on this play.

This play is always ran to a 3-man surface. The frontside of the line (PSG through Tight End) would utilize pin and pull blocking rules meaning that if a defender is inside of you, you pin, if not, you pull. The center would always pull versus a 4-man front, and would only not pull if there was a nose tackle lined up directly over him. The backside of the line would zone block as if they were on the backside of any regular outside zone play. This is a somewhat oversimplification of the scheme so we’ll look through a few different examples of how the play is blocked before looking at different variations/window-dressings of the blocking scheme.

Continue reading The Chip Kelly/Mark Helfrich/Scott Frost Pin-Pull Sweep

WR Play: The Art of Route Running

By Taylor Kolste

Clemson Head Football Coach, Dabo Swinney, once said that wide receiver was the worst coached position in all of football. This is because of how technical the position can be, yet how little coached some receivers are. Although route running isn’t the only component of WR Play, I believe it is the aspect that is most technical and should be coached the most. There is an art to route running, great receivers are intentional with their technique throughout the entirety of the route. This article will aim at creating a system for route running that will create a common language between coaches and players and help walk coaches and receivers through route running versus different defensive techniques. There are plenty of different terms out there for the techniques discussed in this article, but the important thing is that they are defined by the coach so that the players and coaches are operating under the same language.

We will breakdown route running into 4 phases:

  1. Stance
  2. Release/Start
  3. Stem
  4. Breakpoint

First of all, the receiver must understand the coverage and defender they are attacking. The receiver must always have a plan of attack that will be determined by the route and the defender that they are attacking. We will start by defining 5 different types of defenders:

  • Press
    • Quick-Jam
  • Soft-Press
  • Squat Defender
  • Off Defender
  • Bail Defender

Continue reading WR Play: The Art of Route Running

Bill Snyder’s Kansas State QB Run Game

By Taylor Kolste

The success that Bill Snyder has achieved at Kansas State is unparalleled in comparison to the work done by any other coach in the school’s history. In Coach Snyder’s 26 years as the head coach, Kansas State has accumulated a .656 Win Percentage and 19 bowl appearances compared to a .331 Win Percentage and 2 bowl appearances in the 80 seasons in which Bill Snyder was not the head coach. Although there are many other things that have contributed to their success, scheme is something they have excelled at that has contributed to some degree to their success.

Ever since Collin Klein became the starting quarterback for Kansas State in 2011, the QB run has been a staple of the Wildcat offense. Over the past 7 seasons, KSU’s quarterbacks have averaged 1012 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns per season.

Continue reading Bill Snyder’s Kansas State QB Run Game

Patriot’s Juke Series

By Noah Riley

Three elements to a well designed pass play are space, match-ups and leverage. The Patriots Juke series contains all three of these elements. It is designed to create space for a quick slot receiver to work off the leverage of a slower linebacker. It has become a staple of the Patriots offense, and has yielded great results. In the season I cut up (2014), when the Patriots ran the Juke series, they went 34/42 (81%) for 304 yards (7.2 yard average). 

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Slot receiver Julian Edelman has plenty of space to work against a middle linebacker (#51)

Continue reading Patriot’s Juke Series

Chip Kelly’s Y-Cross Concept

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:

Saints

Continue reading Chip Kelly’s Y-Cross Concept

Baylor’s Vertical Passing Game

By Noah Riley

From Robert Griffin III to Nick Florence and Bryce Petty, it seems as though every QB to go through Art Briles’ system has produced outrageous video game-like numbers, particularly through the vertical passing game. For 4 years (2011-2014) Baylor didn’t drop outside the top 5 in passing yards. Yes, a large part of that success is due to the sheer-talent they had on the perimeter in players such as Kendall Wright and Corey Coleman, but they also utilized an extremely unique scheme to isolate and expose those match-ups in order to create possibly the most explosive passing game in the history of college football.

The average QBR of Briles QB’s is 165.5, which would be the fifth highest passer rating of 2017 QB’s.

Avg QBR of Briles QB’s is 165.5, would be the fifth best QBR of 2017 QB’s.Tulsa and Missouri are currently teams that have employed ex Baylor assistants and use the Baylor style passing game. Both Drew Lock (Missouri), and Dane Evans (Tulsa) went from having mediocre numbers in traditional offenses to outstanding numbers in the Briles system.

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Continue reading Baylor’s Vertical Passing Game

Willie Fritz’s Georgia Southern Run Game

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.

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Continue reading Willie Fritz’s Georgia Southern Run Game