Michigan's New Offense?

Brady Hoke is the new head man at Michigan, and with a new head coach Michigan also will be getting a new offensive coordinator. His name, Al Borges. As has been documented over at MgoBlog you can go and check out his history as an OC, it's a pretty large resume. Being from the state of Michigan, and with Michigan football in turmoil I want to take a look at what Borges has done at his most recent stop at SDSU. Due to the lack of high quality cut ups, I'll just be using diagrams to illustrate some of the concepts Borges utilizes. Upon reading about his "Gulf Coast Offense" it doesn't appear that he does anything really out of the box.

Looking at the highlights of the Poinsettia Bowl against Navy first.

First play is a play that all Michigan fans will love, power. It's third and two and SDSU lines up in a double tight end formation with a flanker split to the left. It's one of the oldest and most popular schemes in football and was completely absent from Michigan for the past three years. The left side of the line blocks down, the full back kicks out the defensive end, and the right guard pulls and leads through...I'm sure some UofM fans will shed a tear watching this and thinking about their boys doing this next year. I can't blame them. They would run power again later out of this same formation, but away from tha flanker for a short touchdown.




They would run power again for a TD later, this time out of a twins formation.




For a touchdown later in the game, on a third and one play SDSU would line up in a double tight formation, with a wing to the right and run a beautiful fake dive play-action pass to the tailback running a wheel out of the backfield.



Borges does open it up as well, here we'll see an example of the shallow-cross concept.



And now diagrams from the Utah game.

Out of a trips left formation on the goal line it appears this is a fade play that's designed to be thrown to the split end (mostly because the other three routes are run pretty lethargically .



Later on SDSU would run a stick route from an under center two back look, and actually throw backside to the slant for a touchdown.



Borges would call up a nice little play action, fake flanker screen later on for a touchdown. The Z releases as though he's running a quick screen, taking two steps up field then coming back and showing his hands. The quarterback has executed a play action fake, pumps to the Z, and eventually hits the Y who has sold himself running downfield to block on the screen and ran past the coverage. Borges has some creativity.



And unlike what many people believe, that Hoke is diametically opposed to any zone running game, I just don't see that as being true. Here SDSU aligns in double tight one back formation and runs inside zone for a touchdown. I think Hoke is less anti-zone, and more pro man and zone concepts in his offense. The two can coexist.



My initial reactions are the Borges is definitely a pro-style guy, lots of motions, formations, and in-depth passing game I'm going to assume. What will be interesting is to see if Borges can truly adapt to utilize one of the, if not the best weapon in college football with Denard Robinson.

More to come.

BCS Championship - Oregon's New Looks

Chip Kelly and Oregon unveiled a few new looks for the BCS Championship Game this past monday night. It definitely appears as though these new looks may be a glimpse into part of the base Oregon that Kelly and the Ducks will operate out of next season. With Kelly being one of the big innovators currently of the spread offense in college football (along with his counter part Guz Malzahn) it appears as though he is looking for more ways to use misdirection and the option while also involving the numerous athletes he has at his disposal.

No pictures yet, only diagrams.

The first look Oregon took to the field with was a two-back look with one being an H-back, very similar to some of Auburn's standard sets. Before the snap they motioned the slot into the backfield, who eventually becomes the dive back on the inside zone read. The H-back releases outside to block the force player, and the set tailback becomes the pitchman. In all reality this isn't something that's completely out of left field. Other teams have been motioning backs into the backfield and running zone read already.




They also showed the exact same play, they just moved the H-back to other side of the formation. This play appeared to be more of a double option than the first time they ran it, with the dive being simple a flash fake. I could be wrong or it could've been the comfort level of the QB and RB working the mesh.



Off of the same look as the first play, they ran a direct isolation play with the H-back leading through the interior of the line and the motion man taking the hand off.



Another look they showed was motioning James the tailback out of the backfield, creating an interior bunch with a flanker look. On the second play of the game they threw a spacing concept to the backside receiver out of this formation. Shortly after they would run a shovel option play using the #3 of the bunch as the pitch man. They ran shovel a few times that night.



Another prominent new look was a dual H-back look they used a few times. The first time they ran it they motioned the slot into the backfield and ran what could be considered an outside zone or jet sweep read. Thomas (QB) ended up keeping on this play, but wasn't really able to do much. The dual H-backs lead opposite of the play, apparently to seal backside if the QB were to keep it.



Off of this play they executed a few different pass plays. They ran two different naked plays away from the jet motion. The naked was set up nicely because of the dual h-back's flowing opposite on the original play.





Finally, Oregon scored a touchdown throwing a screen to the RB away from boot action.



In all honesty, I really don't think any of this stuff was revolutionary. Bits and pieces of what Kelly was doing Monday night have already been done by the likes of Urban Meyer, Dan Mullen, Rich Rodriguez, Tony Demeo and more. The thing that excites me as a lover of offense is the fact that I think Kelly was barely skimming the surface of possibilities. Kelly now has an entire offseason to tinker with these ideas and take his offense in an even more expansive direction, tailoring it to the fact that he will literally have a stable of runningbacks next year.

I definitely expect more dedication by Kelly to an actual option game (Thomas looked very hesitant pitching the ball). Along with that I would expect more formations and looks involving three backs in the backfield using motion to achieve this, but also out of set looks.

I think Kelly will also need to add some true counters in order for these kinds of looks to be as effective as they can be. Much like Malzahn at Auburn I think Kelly is reaching the point of combining the misdirection of the wing-t, with option, from both spread and condensed sets. Combine that with the break neck speed they (can) play with and the it now appears that Kelly is only starting to figure out what he can really do.

More than anything I'm just excited to see what comes.