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. 

USC Offense vs Morgan Scalley Utah Defense-Pac 12 Championship Game Part 1

Utah played USC twice in 2022. One was a 43-42 shootout in which Utah won. The other game was a 42-24 victory over USC in the Pac 12 championship. Both games were interesting but the way Utah defeated USC was impressive. I thought it was mostly because of the adjustments Coach Scalley made on the defensive end. Let's look at 2nd game  and you will see the adjustments in closer detail.

In the first game they played, Scalley ran some various coverage concepts and fronts. Surprisingly he stayed away from the odd front and primarily went 4-2 and bear. They played zero snaps of the odd look that was very successful game 2.

Also, in game 2, they brought continuous pressure. This hurt USC run game as well as their great play action game. The game plan of bringing pressure and playing more zone defense was very effective. Game 1 rushing , USC was 27-175 yards  with their tailback getting a big chunk at 15 for 92. The rest came from Williams and Addison on a few jets.

 In game 2, USC was 27 for 56 yards with their half back accounting for 15 carries for 35 yards. The ineffective run game definitely was a major factor as they also got away from their play action game. The constant 5 man pressures gave Williams fits all game.  

The other part that was key was the 2nd half adjustments made by Coach Scalley. They decided to go primarily zone in coverage and it was highly effective. They ran 21 snaps only ran 2 snaps of man concepts and 19 of zone when in odd. They held USC to 7 points in the 2nd half.

Fronts used by Utah in game 1 

Total snaps 65 

Bear 7 snaps   11%          

4-2.  58 snaps 89%.           1i mug looks from the 4-2(zero double mug looks game 2) 

odd. zero snaps!!

IN GAME 2 

Utah  played primarily 3 fronts without subbing and shown below:

Out of the 68 plays on defense they ran the following fronts in game 2

4-2. base      31 snaps.        46%

bear front      8 snaps         11%

odd front      29 snaps.       43%.       

Notes

Of those od fronts  they brought 5 or more 60% of the time! 18/29 was the amount of times they brought 5 players or more.  That is a very high percentage of blitzes.

When they went bear they brought 5 or more 8/8 times which is 100% from the bear front. 

Lets take a look at the fronts implemented.

4-2 front

4-2 was the other front they played a ton of. 21 and 20 are the inside linebackers and #8 is the strong safety. 

#8 is the strong safety.

Odd Front

This was the biggest change that Scalley made in the pac 12 championship game. 

What they did is they lined #91 in that spot for a number of snaps, but always brought him in pressure. It was brilliant and highly effective in their 4, 5 and 6 man pressures throughout the game. They brought him every time and didn't use him in coverage for 1 snap. 

Bear Front

The 2nd odd front was the Bear front. They would kick the DE down away from the strength call and walk the OLB up to the line of scrimmage.

Here are some interesting stats excluding (goal line 10 and in)

Coverage Breakdown by Odd and Bear 

Odd        30 snaps

               Rush                                Coverage          Snaps

               5 man rush.                       cover 2            11 snaps 

              5 man rush.                      cover 3              3. snaps

              6 man rush                        cover 0              4 snaps

             4 man rush.                    cover 4                 3 snaps (late game over)

             4 man rush.                       cover 0               4 snaps

             4 man rush                         cover 2               5 snaps 

Bear    8 snaps

            5 man rush                      cover 3                  4 snaps 

            6 man rush                       cover 0                 4 snaps

This is some of the alignments fronts and coverages they played in the Pac 12 Championship. Part 2 will look more closely at some of the schemes that were utilized. His game plan was very effective as well as some of the adjustments he made in the second half. 

We will look more closely at that in part 2!

Fronts and Pass defense Concepts From Coach Guidry and the Marshall Defense

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 The Marshall Defense was exceptional in 2022 as the unit was led by Lance Guidry. He led an aggressive unit that was outstanding in several categories. Several things I notices about the defense is they are very good against the run. They really try to take advantage of those plus 1 situations. They play a lot of man concepts including man free rat where they get 7 eyes on the rb while playing man free on the perimeter. They held Notre Dame to slightly over 100 yards and one big run was a reverse. They also do a great job of taking your best pass threat out of the game. This was evident vs JMU. 

They are also well coached and are a great tackling team. They don't miss many tackles and are very sound in their gap responsibilities. When they stunt and move they are sound and players are in the right gap and run fit very well.

Lastly, they are outstanding in several categories. My favorite being 3rd down defense as there haven't been many teams better than him in college football the past five years. Love his sub packages where you will see some different personnel groupings on 3rd down. His units play fast and are very aggressive. 

As you can see below, they were top 5 in several categories including 3rd down, defensive efficiency and interceptions. They were dominant at times and did some great things on the defensive side of the ball. 

Let's look at some aspects of the defense.

Base front:

They play traditional 4-2 but one thing I noticed is they play a ton of 4-2 split fronts with 2 3 techniques. I saw this vs JMU and some what vs Notre Dame. It was interesting to see how they played it in the JMU game. Tons of movement and games are associated with the front.  We will discuss further below some o their man free coverages which gives them an advantage in the run game. 

A few schemes:

They are very aggressive in their run defense. I love some of his run schemes and stunts and how well they are coached at executing a variety of stunts. 

Below is an example of their split front where they run 2 games on both sides and send the will linebacker to the A gap weak. They get the DE into the a gap with the DT b gap. The sam blitzes off the edge. The mike is scraping c gap where the ball gets bounced.

They do a great job in the defense vs JMU and the Linebacker scrapes outside. They are disciplined and every player knows their job really well. 

Will blitzes the a gap below.

You can see the Tex stunt on both sides as the LDE is coming b gap and the right de is stunting to the a gap. The well coached defense has every gap covered inside with the LB waiting in the C gap.

The Ball gets bounced where the lb is unblocked due to the blitzing lb and SS off the edge. 

Excellent defense for a minimal gain. 

2 clips of the stunt below

Another front they will use is their bear front. They have a comprehensive bear package and coverages they like with it.

Bear Package

You will see them run their bear package and it has been successful for them. They like to go bear and send 3 and drop 8 into coverage. Often that will be man on the outside and rb playing zone and combo underneath. 

Here's a nice job by Marshall as they send only 3 and drop the olb into coverage. They are rat defenders and the left defensive end gets the interception. A nice job with man free on the outside and 3 LB's helping underneath in coverage.

Both OLB drop into coverage, mike has the rb but he blocks so he looks for work underneath. The bear look keeps the rb in protection and they are able to get several defenders underneath forcing more low percentage throws on the perimeter. 

Good job playing on the perimeter by the Marshall Defense. No place really to throw on any inbreaking routes. All the dbs have outside leverage knowing where their help is. 

Here's another example of bear man free rat where it is a 3 man rush vs Notre Dame on 4th and 4.

Pass Coverages 

In addition to several base coverages they play a ton of man free rat.

Man free Rat

Man free rat is a 7 man run defense vs 11 personnel. It is very effective because you play man free on the outside and have the 3 linebackers combo the h back and the rb. This is a very effective run defense and if you can matchup, good vs the rpo game.

Another concept you will notice is they are very good in run support from their secondary. 

They will also use their cb as heavy run support often bringing them off the edge in pressure. This was evident in the JM game 

The 2nd example they bring a cb fire to the 3x1 bunch side. Excellent call as the offense tries to run toss vs them.

Great job defensively by Marshall at giving various pressure looks but keeping the defensive scheme relatively simple so his players can play fast. 

In the Notre Dame game, they bring the cb and the sam on 1st down and play straight man coverage. They get good pressures and are aggressive.

You can see the aggressive scheme and one of the reasons they are very good against the run. 

Game planning

This year they won some very tough games and beat some really good football teams, including top ranked Notre Dame. One thing Guidry will do on those 3rd downs is take away what you do best.

Notre Dame has 2 outstanding wr in Lorenzo Styles and TE Maher. They doubled and bracketed both when they could.

You see Maher lined up as #3 and they have the LB helping underneath on him and Styles essentially doubled on the 1 wr side. 

You can see the bracket coverage on both players as the LB drops under Meyer to help inside and Styles has the CB and Safety playing him in bracket coverage.

Here's the clip that goes with it. 

Also, in the JMU game they did a good job holding outstanding wr all American Kris Thornton to 4 catches for 47 yards. This was impressive and they did it by doubling him and bracketing him at times. 

These are just some of the concepts you will see from Coach Guidry and the Marshall defense. Expect to see some of these at Miami next year.

3rd down Analysis: (coming soon)