HighSeas
Sophomore
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2013
- Messages
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I quickly watched the SMU offense in a road game against TCU that they won 41-38. This is the link - and here are my main takeaways.
Scheme staples
A transfer QB and WR or two would go a long way to giving me confidence that the offense can be a strong unit next season. Otherwise it will probably take a year before TVD, Worsham, Redding, etc. can execute consistently enough to take advantage of these impressive schemes.
Scheme staples
- Obviously spread formations with WRs usually well outside hashes to the field side and inside the numbers to the boundary. In-line TE most of the time
- Only motion I saw was motioning the back out or arc motion with the slot WR
- Tempo is a key component and they play at a breakneck pace when they can
- Inside zone is pretty much the only run play. Sometimes it's zone read and sometimes it's RPO bubble. Their OL got good push quite often
- With the RPO bubble they hand off when the defense isn't set due to the pace. It's an easy read for free yards
- Variety of pass concepts. A lot of swing routes, outside fades/back shoulder spot routes, and then specific coverage beater concepts like post-dig or levels
- Not many static route designs. Their WRs ran good routes and they had a lot of free releases. Instead of straight go routes the WRs would give inside/outside shakes and fakes to gain leverage. Instead of simple in or out breaks they ran whip routes, delayed nod routes, follow routes, etc. Think lots of deception with multiple breaks
- 1st drive they ran a reverse flip back to QB for a chunk gain throw on the outside. That was the only obvious trick play but there were many clever designs afterward
- Motion to empty QB power draw in the red zone. I like the design and blocking scheme to get a numbers advantage in a difficult spot
- Trips to boundary (with stack WRs and inline TE) in-breaking levels. Presents a quick read/throw and a challenge for the defense to honor the wide field and the overloaded boundary side
- Tight splits 4-wide mesh with RB swing in the red zone. The crossers are just eye candy and a natural rub to hit the swing pass. They ran this again on 3rd down in the red zone later with a different formation (11 instead of 10 personnel) and got a TD off of it. Design design design!
- X iso boundary shake fade from inside the numbers. Nothing special here and a lot of teams run it but when you want to attack a matchup this is how you do it. Create space and let your WR get creative with his release. They ran this at least 3 times. I don't know if Miami has a WR who can execute this though...hopefully Redding eventually
- 3rd & 3 check with sideline to audible to play action quick hitch to slot WR. This is in bold because TCU had no defender aligned on the slot and Lashlee recognized it and instantly took advantage. AUDIBLES!?!?! FREE YARDS AND 1st DOWN!
- Maybe my favorite design of the whole game...motion to trips in red zone with 1 in route from #2 while #3 (motion guy) and #1 WRs run angle/follow routes behind #2. The design was for the motion guy and he was WIDE OPEN despite a poor route! This is an excellent man and zone beater concept. Generating wide open throws in the red zone is impressive
- Another excellent red zone design that didn't succeed - trips to boundary (2 WRs and inline TE again) fake bubble with the TE faking like he's running out to block and then cutting upfield for the sneaky nod route. TCU had good coverage for this and it wasn't good execution by SMU but Brevin Jordan would EAT on this play
A transfer QB and WR or two would go a long way to giving me confidence that the offense can be a strong unit next season. Otherwise it will probably take a year before TVD, Worsham, Redding, etc. can execute consistently enough to take advantage of these impressive schemes.
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