Dana Holgorsen West Virginia/ Houston Counter RPO Game

 Dana Holgorsen Counter Run Game With RPO Principles.

Dan Holgorsen was the head coach at West Virginia in 2018. Below are some variations of his counter run game with RPO principles.  Later in this article, I look at some of his counter options including running same side counter.  It's a great play against odd fronts out of 3x1 who like to play the 4i to the side of the back. You get an easy down block from the Tackle on the 4i and usually there is no edge defender vs these odd front defenses you see. 

West Virginia runs it's RPO game with counter blocking and has a few variations. The bottom line is if they get a light box they will run the football. If the qb likes the options in the passing game they will throw the screen or route progression.

Let's look at the options they ran vs. Kansas in 2018. Here we will look at the counter blocking 1st. They ran it 2 times for 65 yards vs Kansas.

The 1st time they run it they get a 4-3 but a 4-1 box. They run it and get good down blocks. A nice 46 yard gain and excellent execution.

The 2nd time they run it the get an odd bear type look with a 3 tech to the left side and a 4i to the right side. Nice blocking again for a good 19 yard gain. This time a 6 man box.

Below is the film that goes with the top 2 plays.

RPO Options. On both runs above they had the following rpo options. 

1) At times they will run a wr screen option from a stack set  to the side of the back.

run #2 Below again he has the screen option to the side of the rb. He feels he has an advantage in the run game and gives the football

Here is a 3rd route with the quick out by the  h back and the #1 and #2 wr blocking. 

Nice design and 25 yard gain but it's called back on a holding penalty.

After the penalty they run it again for 8 yards.

You can see both plays below:

11 personnel.

The other way they block it is with the h back pulling it's a change up but they still have the RPO option on the outside. The guard kicks out and the Tackle leads up. Here's 1 they ran vs Kansas.

In 2019 He brought his offense to Houston when he became the head coach. He ran some interesting variations with the H back. Here is some cut ups vs UCF.

In the 1st clip it's just straight counter. tite front below! disregard the 4-2 mistake!

In the 2nd clip they motion the h back out and have the screen option. If the DE widens give the ball on the counter. They read the give and it's a 12 yard gain. The other nice part of this play is they run counter to the same side of the back. The back does a nice job with his footwork and reads the play nicely. Good play with no edge defender vs odd fronts. Usually get a 4i and no edge defender. Good scheme.

Here are 2 clips that go with the pictures above.

The Same play variation they run vs Texas who plays a 3 man front often. It is an excellent play against teams that run 3-3 stack. 

Here are some additional clips of the counter play they ran throughout the year. 

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Screen off the Counter 

They fake counter left , pulling the rt guard and run the h screen back to the right. Great design by Holgorsen and staff.

They get the Center and RT out on the screen on the excellent screen design. 

Holgorsen does an excellent job with his counter game. He adds an rpo component, uses the same side counter and it is an integral part of his run game. I hope you enjoyed this article