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Clinic Talk: UM Coach Mark Richt’s Offensive Concepts

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Most important topic he discussed was the high to low vs low to high re: Kaaya.

He mentioned that Kaaya should be looking at the short pattern (bubble) before trying to thread the needle to the post route.

While I understand why he's saying that, I guarantee that Kaaya's not going to do that. He's been consistently going high to low and checking down to the flats late in his progressions. As in, 3rd check, which is extremely impressive for a college QB. He's been able to do it because he processes very quickly. It's been one of the more impressive things I got to briefly see. Beyond that, he hits guys in the flats on the run, so we're talking chunk gains.

Out of the basic route combos shown in the video, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised to see far more and better combination routes. Won't say more beyond that until it's on film for other teams.
 
LuCane said:
Most important topic he discussed was the high to low vs low to high re: Kaaya.

He mentioned that Kaaya should be looking at the short pattern (bubble) before trying to thread the needle to the post route.

While I understand why he's saying that, I guarantee that Kaaya's not going to do that. He's been consistently going high to low and checking down to the flats late in his progressions. As in, 3rd check, which is extremely impressive for a college QB. He's been able to do it because he processes very quickly. It's been one of the more impressive things I got to briefly see. Beyond that, he hits guys in the flats on the run, so we're talking chunk gains.

Out of the basic route combos shown in the video, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised to see far more and better combination routes. Won't say more beyond that until it's on film for other teams.
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Absolutely agree, and I think it definitely speaks to Kaaya's vision. It's funny how dude was preaching that Kaaya missed the wide-open bubble but he really didn't - the Mike bailed out to cover the flat leaving Hernon open on that short cross. In fact, on that play the boundary corner at the top ALSO crashes down on the bubble - if Kaaya had held it another half-second he'd have had Lewis over the top for an easy catch as well.
 
LuCane said:
Most important topic he discussed was the high to low vs low to high re: Kaaya.

He mentioned that Kaaya should be looking at the short pattern (bubble) before trying to thread the needle to the post route.

While I understand why he's saying that, I guarantee that Kaaya's not going to do that. He's been consistently going high to low and checking down to the flats late in his progressions. As in, 3rd check, which is extremely impressive for a college QB. He's been able to do it because he processes very quickly. It's been one of the more impressive things I got to briefly see. Beyond that, he hits guys in the flats on the run, so we're talking chunk gains.

Out of the basic route combos shown in the video, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised to see far more and better combination routes. Won't say more beyond that until it's on film for other teams.
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I agree the athletic TE's we have are well suited to this passing scheme.

Go Canes
 
In all seriousness, what I love about the Shallow Cross concept is that it can be used the same way out of multiple looks - no matter what, the QB can play the same reads every time. In the video I posted above, you can see 3-wide, 4-wide, motion, etc. over MULTIPLE years (David Greene-Aaron Murray I think) and the overall route concept remains consistent - #1 Shallow Cross, #2 Deep Curl, #3 Flat/Bubble. This is a HUGE deal in making life easy on an already accurate QB, and has the added benefit of getting the ball out quickly and assisting what may be an inconsistent offensive line.

Furthermore, keeping the reads consistent across multiple formations means you can use your personnel in a number of ways to fit the playcall. For example, on one play maybe Njoku runs the shallow cross while Coley runs the deep curl and Walton runs the flat out of the backfield. Another time it might be Berrios on the cross, Coley on the flat/bubble, and maybe Harris or even Njoku on the curl.

THEN you can run variations off of that route tree - CB starts biting on the curl? Hitch-and-go or Post. LBs running with the cross? Run a draw option or middle screen...

This is why I'm excited about the potential of this offense - clean, QB-friendly, logical.
 
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ghost2 said:
In all seriousness, what I love about the Shallow Cross concept is that it can be used the same way out of multiple looks - no matter what, the QB can play the same reads every time. In the video I posted above, you can see 3-wide, 4-wide, motion, etc. over MULTIPLE years (David Greene-Aaron Murray I think) and the overall route concept remains consistent - #1 Shallow Cross, #2 Deep Curl, #3 Flat/Bubble. This is a HUGE deal in making life easy on an already accurate QB, and has the added benefit of getting the ball out quickly and assisting what may be an inconsistent offensive line.

Furthermore, keeping the reads consistent across multiple formations means you can use your personnel in a number of ways to fit the playcall. For example, on one play maybe Njoku runs the shallow cross while Coley runs the deep curl and Walton runs the flat out of the backfield. Another time it might be Berrios on the cross, Coley on the flat/bubble, and maybe Harris or even Njoku on the curl.

THEN you can run variations off of that route tree - CB starts biting on the curl? Hitch-and-go or Post. LBs running with the cross? Run a draw option or middle screen...

This is why I'm excited about the potential of this offense - clean, QB-friendly, logical.
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Early on his career, Kaaya's biggest issues have been with (a) zone and (b) climbing and moving around in the pocket in the face of pressure.

He began to really improve on (b) this past season and I think is ready for a jump, though I haven't seen enough of him against live competition to make that any more than a guess. As for (a), I think part of his next leap will be as much due to scheme and Richt's experience as anything else. Last season, I didn't understand some of what we were trying to do when opponents went to zone. We'd either just run the same routes, there was very little high/low action, routes would cluster, or we'd just run 4 verticals. It wasn't coherent, so I can't blame that on the QB.

We shall see. Most exciting Hurricane season since 2005, I think.
 
Not to keep talking to myself (sorry I love nerding out on this stuff), but the second half of the above video (from about 18:00 on) details Richt's other big passing concept, the Y-Corner. This is more of a rhythm/timing concept and is usually done out of a 5-step drop or from the gun. In this concept, the read is: #1 Slant/flat, #2 Corner (Flag), #3 Post. Again, regardless of formation/personnel, there's a flat read, a corner read, and a post read.

The video also details sort of a "flood"/levels concept at about 20:26 and a combination corner/slant route at 22:09 as extensions of the Y-Corner concept but again, the reads for the QB remain the same - Slant/Flat, Corner, Post.

There's more but I'm not completely done watching yet...
 
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LuCane said:
ghost2 said:
In all seriousness, what I love about the Shallow Cross concept is that it can be used the same way out of multiple looks - no matter what, the QB can play the same reads every time. In the video I posted above, you can see 3-wide, 4-wide, motion, etc. over MULTIPLE years (David Greene-Aaron Murray I think) and the overall route concept remains consistent - #1 Shallow Cross, #2 Deep Curl, #3 Flat/Bubble. This is a HUGE deal in making life easy on an already accurate QB, and has the added benefit of getting the ball out quickly and assisting what may be an inconsistent offensive line.

Furthermore, keeping the reads consistent across multiple formations means you can use your personnel in a number of ways to fit the playcall. For example, on one play maybe Njoku runs the shallow cross while Coley runs the deep curl and Walton runs the flat out of the backfield. Another time it might be Berrios on the cross, Coley on the flat/bubble, and maybe Harris or even Njoku on the curl.

THEN you can run variations off of that route tree - CB starts biting on the curl? Hitch-and-go or Post. LBs running with the cross? Run a draw option or middle screen...

This is why I'm excited about the potential of this offense - clean, QB-friendly, logical.
Click to expand...

Early on his career, Kaaya's biggest issues have been with (a) zone and (b) climbing and moving around in the pocket in the face of pressure.

He began to really improve on (b) this past season and I think is ready for a jump, though I haven't seen enough of him against live competition to make that any more than a guess. As for (a), I think part of his next leap will be as much due to scheme and Richt's experience as anything else. Last season, I didn't understand some of what we were trying to do when opponents went to zone. We'd either just run the same routes, there was very little high/low action, routes would cluster, or we'd just run 4 verticals. It wasn't coherent, so I can't blame that on the QB.

We shall see. Most exciting Hurricane season since 2005, I think.
Click to expand...

Agree. It seemed vs. zone there was an awful lot of "chuck and duck" - we either gained 50 yards or -2 yards. The shallow cross and especially Y-Corner stuff is tailor made to bust zones.

For example - there were many instances in the video I watched of these concepts vs. pressure. Richt touches on them ("hot reads") in the first video I posted as well. Specifically, the shallow cross (3-step and gone) or Arrow/Slant (5-step and gone) are the FIRST reads, so it's much easier and faster than trying to scan the field and checking down (by then you're most likely on your back...)

This also might be what the SOTU guy was trying to get across with his low-high progression of reads. It's not really low-high, it's Cross/Arrow, then deep read (after a single short hitch as Richt points out), then flat or post.
 
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Also, against pressure Kaaya can simply adjust his reads based on what he sees pre-snap. If the CB is creeping for a blitz he can make the flat read #1 . If it looks like a middle blitz, the slant becomes the hot read. Easy changes that don't require an audible or a "check with me."

Another side-effect of this concept that has plagued UM defenses for years: the crossing concept also allows for even a pedestrian QB to pick up chunks of open yards with his feet if those LBs start biting...
 
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[MENTION=293]ghost2[/MENTION] and [MENTION=3]LuCane[/MENTION] in here spittin fyah!!!

I've harped on this subject in previous threads.

These concepts are the very reason I get upset at people vilifying our players or using stats to support their argument as to why a specific player sucks.

Anyone who knows ANYTHING about offense knows that a good/great coordinator has a gameplan for a gameplan and they know exactly how to attack a specific defense.

People wonder why Kaaya is getting sacked by a 2 man line, why we have so many penalties up front, why we have bad 3rd down percentages and why kaaya can never run a game winning drive.

It is amazing what Kaaya has done with Coleys offense.

We are in for a real special treat with the shallow cross system.

It's virtually unstoppable with Florida athletes.
 
Another nice article from earlier in the summer about Richt's offensive schemes and philosophies:

Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt Brings the Triangle to South Beach - Inside The Pylon


This article talks about the idea of "Triangle" reads for the QB - if you think about the shallow cross reads that I posted about earlier (#1 shallow cross, #2 deep curl/choice, #3 flat/arrow) it creates a visual triangle for the QB's eyes. That way he doesn't necessarily have to read low/high or high/low or scan the entire field before making a decision. If the coverage rolls to take away the triangle, there's also usually a backside read (outs or verts) to compensate.
 
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Something else to talk about that's been touched on a bit is the idea of RPOs (Run-Pass Options) in Richt's offense. The above article as well as some of the videos make mention of it and I think RPOs could be KILLER with Kaaya and how quickly he processes information, as [MENTION=3]LuCane[/MENTION] pointed out.

Basically, in an RPO, the RB and OL will perform as if it's a run, regardless of the QB's read. Additionally, there will be at least one hot read on the outside with a WR - a slant, for example. If the defense stacks the box or looks to be crashing down on the run, the QB can hit the hot WR (hopefully uncovered at that point.) This is especially effective given Richt's penchant for establishing the run early and often. This is also where I feel Stacy Coley will make his money - easy catches on quick routes with room to run.
 
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