Analysis of the Enemy: Indiana's Pistol Offense

As it was with Illinois last week, I will preface this section by saying that the Pistol is not really an offense, but rather a formation. However, Indiana operates out of the Pistol formation so frequently that it has become an indispensable part of their football identity.

Chris Ault of the Nevada Wolfpack created the formation in 2005 when he was looking for a way to combine his preference of a vertical running game with his love of passing the football. Doug Farrar of Football Outsiders recently took a look at the Nevada version of the offense, and it's well worth a read if you are looking for more information on it.

But what is perhaps more interesting to the Ohio State fan is how this week's opponent, the Indiana Hoosiers, have taken the Pistol formation and given it their own little twist. To my knowledge, Indiana is the only Division One football program that runs a passing-based offense out of the formation; schools like Nevada and UCLA went to the Pistol to improve their running game, and others like Alabama and LSU have used it as a change-up to their base packages, but the Hoosiers are the only program to combine their spread passing attack with the unique formation.

The Indiana run game is very simple in itself. They use a base zone blocking scheme to create cutback lines for their running back, and occasionally mix in a man blocking play such as power or counter. Because the success of their offense is predicated on the short-to-intermediate passing game, they use their run game as a quick way to counter defenses who are dropping multiple men in coverage. Below is a clip of a staple run play, the inside zone.

Hit the jump for a look at the Indiana passing game.

Formationally, Indiana uses many different combinations of a small set of personnel groupings. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada's favorite package is clearly 11 personnel, which consists of 3 wide receivers, 1 back, and 1 tight end. Through bunching, stacking, and alternating splits (distance from ball), Canada is able to run recurring pass concepts from multiple different formations. He essentially makes the offense appear more sophisticated and varied than it really is, and is able to manipulate defenses to his offense's advantage. Below is an example of the stack formation he uses often.

At the bottom of your screen, you can can see two Indiana receivers aligned closely in a stack set. This was a third and medium situation, and Michigan brought a zone blitz with Cover 3 in the secondary. The clip of the play is below, so watch how the receiver's run their routes.

Tandon Doss (#2) breaks his route off the inside hip of the receiver releasing vertically down the field. By running this play from a stacked formation, Canada is ensuring that the receiver attacking the short middle of the field- the portion they need to get for the first down- has a clean release off the line of scrimmage. The actual route combination is interesting, as well. Doss (#2) and the H-Back (#11) both run a "snag" route, which some of you may remember from Ohio State's offense in the Rose Bowl.

The snag combination works here for two reasons: 1.) Michigan's zone blitz leaves them vulnerable exactly where Indiana is attacking, and 2.) Ben Chappell sees this and gets the ball to the right spot quickly.

While this is only a snapshot of the Indiana offense, I hope you can take something away from this, and be aware of how Indiana offensive coordinator Matt Canada will call the game this Saturday. You will see a ton of passes this weekend, but realize that many of them will be variations of the same concept, just with a little window dressing on them.