Josh Heupel football run game-Gap Schemes Counter, Wrap, Dart and Lead

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Josh Heupel has run some high powered offenses over the years. They put up big numbers in 2019 with 41 points per game and 2020 with 42.2 points per game. In 2022 his Tennessee offense was exciting to watch.putting up 44.5 points per game. 

The Tennessee offense is premised on a few concepts:

1. Play fast-They play at the fastest speed possible with their high powered offense.

2. Spread you out-They spread teams out more than any team I've seen with their formations, many outside the numbers. This opens up some numbers under neath. This can lead to light boxes because teams are so worried about stopping the passing game.

3. Utilization of stack alignments- These stack alignments are often utilized to cause confusion, run screens but also open up running lanes by gaining numbers. 

3. Vertical Passing Game- They really take some deep shots in the vertical passing game. They will take shots and led the country in pass plays of 30 + yards.

4. Take advantage of what the defense gives you. If  a soft box, run. If they try to get another hat in the box throw the football. 

These are some of the key components.

RUN GAME

Let's look at some UCF film and how he attacked some odd fronts in the run game. You will see some wrap, counter, dart, with some zone schemes as part of the package. They also use the qb in the run game with those schemes. 

Odd fronts

Wrap schemes

Vs Tulsa they would get an odd broken 3-2 look with 3 safeties. The defense set the front to the twins side and played a 4i away from the back.

Vs the odd front 

PST down block on 4i

PSG down on the Nose

Center pull and fold for near lb

BSG pull and block back side lb

H lead and block the alley defender

Odd front #2 3-3 with 3 safeties 4 man box. Heupel spreads them out to the sideline.Flexes TE to the field 2x2

Wildcat version of qb counter 

They run the counter and do an excellent job with the rb leading for the qb on the counter. Nice job of lead counter.  Again, look how they have 2 players outside the numbers and the light box it creates.

Blocking Rules:

PST block the 4i de

PSG block the Nose

 center pull  

backside guard

backside tackle- block the defensive end

You can see the center and backside guard pulling. Tackle does a good job on the DE

VS Tite Front 

Tackle Trap-They run tackle wrap but also can switch it to G wrap depending on whether their s a 3 technique or 2i on the backside.

They go 3x1 and run tackle trap.

PST and PSG double the 4i to LB

Center-solo on the nose

BSG blocks the 4i 

BST pull and kick out the force OLB

Tite #2 

G Wrap

G wrap vs the 3-2 front

PST-Block the 4i

PSG- Combo to LB 

Center-Solo on nose

BST-Block the DE

QB-read the overhang

Nice job and easy play vs Missouri

4-2 front

Often you will see the dart play vs the 4-2  front as well as counter.

Here's how they attack offensively  vs 4-2 front.

They change the scheme vs a 4-2 front. They also run jet motion which vacates the middle of the field. They are a shoestring tackle away from a td.

 

They run their counter scheme.

PST-BS LB

PST- Shade or 2i

Center-block back

BSG-Pull and Kickout

T- Block the de

H back-lead on the play side LB

Here is tackle dart with a read component. They run the dart with a 3 technique to the side of the pulling tackle.

The plays are simple but notice the 3 technique to the side of the rt. The rt is the puller.

RG-blocks the 3 tech

C-combo 2i to off lb

LG- 2i

LT- solid on DE

Another play they will often run is lead at the 2i. They usually bring the h back across to the other side when they run it.

They can block it up vs a 4-2 or a 3-2 defense. Easy play to run vs either defense.

vs 4-2, here is the scheme.

vs-3-2 most teams will put a LB to the side of the h back like below. Some will play the tite front with 2 4i's and others will play 2 5 techniques. 

Clips vs 3-2 odd front

Hope you enjoyed the analysis of Josh Heupel and his offense. 

What Makes Lincoln Riley's Offense So Good? Part 1 counter run game

 What makes Lincoln Riley's offense so good?

Lincoln Riley is one of the best minds in college football. He has had great success and put up an unbelievable amount of points in his run as the head coach at Oklahoma. In 2018 they almost averaged 50 points a game, which is unheard of in college football.

One thing you can't discount is the quarterback play.

When you have Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts it's a good start. With those 3, the worst year they had was 7th in college scoring. 

Over the last 7 years they were:

2015   43.5 points per game    #4 in college football              QB-Baker Mayfield

2016   43.9 points per game   #2 in college football               QB-Baker Mayfield

2017   45.1 points per game   #3 in college football               QB-Baker Mayfield

2018  48 points per game       #1 in college football                QB-Kyler Murray

2019 40 points per game       #7 in college football                QB-Jalen Hurts

2020 42.5 points per game    #6 in college football                QB-Spencer Rattler

2021 36 points per game       #12 in college football              QB- Spencer Rattler

That's 42 points per game over a 7 year window. That is quite impressive.

Riley arrived in 2015, Baker Mayfield became eligible and the Sooner offense found its gear. They were dominant from 2015-2017.  That Kyler Murray season of 2018 is beyond description and one of the best in the history of college football. That has to rank among the best offenses in college football history. He did an outstanding job and as you know, is now the head coach at USC.

Well, lets look at some of the pieces that makes his offense so efficient. Let's start with the run game. 

Run Game 

Let's start with the Counter game and variations. They run counter with the RB and the QB and both are effective.  

The G-T Counter  and QB Counter game

This was another staple of the offense especially when they got some odd man fronts. They can run it out of 10 personnel, 20 and 21. They would often run it out of 2o or 21 to give them a lead blocker to the play side on the alley defender. Here are a few ways they ran it.

2018

Offense in 10 personnel, they get a light box and run it to the weak side. Thy do a nice job and Murray breaks it for 40 as they run the QB counter. 

2018 vs Oklahoma State

In the next example they run it out of 20 personnel, again attacking a 3 man def line. 

They run it out of 20 personnel.

Being in 20 personnel allows them to block the overhang defender.

12/21 P

Oklahoma st

1st and 10

Defense 3-3 stack look

Similar concept out of 21 personnel. The overhang defender aligns in a 3-3 stack so the CB becomes the overhang. They motion the WR across and run the Counter back at the tight end as the alley defender is really the CB.

Two things that make this play, the front side does a great job controlling the line of scrimmage. The Guard kicks out and the T does a nice job cleaning up.

run the wr in motion.

Rb leads on the CB. Takes care of the support player.

Guard kicks out the DE.

The CB becomes the run support

Nice kickoff by the guard.

They also have the ability to run it out of pistol opposite the lead back which can cause some confusion defensively. In the next picture it looks like OK State is going to bring pressure to the FB side and they just run counter the other way.

Here's a nice 60 yard run in the Oklahoma State game.

1st and 10 

own 25
They recognize the 3-2 front and decide to run it weak. Great call by Riley.  They get a 2 for 1 on the outside with the find block, the guard logs the looping LB and they are off to the races.

Here are a few bonus clips of the Counter scheme.

Out of 11 pistol,

The Sooners run counter with a read component on the stand up DE as they get an over front.

They run the counter to the shade away from the tight end. Nice design and execution.

12 personnel 

Into  the boundary. base to the field.

The OLB who they want to kick out with the guard bails, so the Guard wraps and takes the LB, RB just makes a great play. could have bent that back inside.

nice job executing as UCLA drops the OLB

Good double teams

Nice job tackle cleaning up and rb turns the corner

2018 with Kyler Murray you saw him attack the odd tite front to the side of the back with QB Lead Counter. Nice design.

Center Guard and Tackle block the 3 down lineman. 

Guard wraps for 1st bad color

Tackle cleans up 

RB leads in the alley

Nice Design

Oklahoma runs qb lead counter with an rpo attachment. They get a 3-2 3 safety look from Iowa State with Iowa State sending the cb. The rb ends up leading and getting to the 3rd level and springs the qb for a touchdown block. Again Oklahoma runs there bread and butter counter vs an odd front. 

They double with the rt and center and left guard block back.

The Left guard takes the cb and lt takes the front side LB

The RT gets off for the weak side LB. 

The tackle #52 does  a nice job on the backside linebacker and creates a hole. The qb follows the RB

The RB blocks the cb and makes the touchdown back.

USC VS Utah 2022

To the 2i

Lincoln runs the counter at the 2i, but Makes this adjustment. He blocks solid on the defensive end and leads the guard and tackle up on the LB. They block it this way and ran it 3x vs Utah this year. They also did this because Utah was spilling things earlier in the game.

Here's the film that goes with it.

Here's another example but they catch Utah in a game. They are stunting to that side and the OT quickly recognizes it and gets to the DT. Still getting the G and tackle on the LB's

These are just some of the concepts and adjustments in the counter game.