Analysis of the Enemy: Marshall Game Preview, Part II

Offensive Scheme:

In early interviews, the new offensive staff described their offense as "multiple," thus leaving me with little clue to their personnel and formational philosophies. Luckily, I was able to download some video of new offensive coordinator Bill Legg's previous coaching location, Florida International.  First, let's take a look at some statistics from his stay at FIU.

While only coaching at FIU for two seasons, Leggett did improve the scoring offense by 10 points per game by his second year. A two season sample size does not exactly reveal trends, but it does tell us that Legg is willing to go with what works. In his first season at FIU, Legg ran the ball 6% more than he passed, but he adjusted in the second season to provide a more balanced run/pass distribution. Interestingly, FIU's offense was actually much more efficient when they were heavily imbalanced in favor of the run, lending more evidence to doubt the real value of having the "50-50" run/pass split that many prognosticators consistently harp on.

Favorite Formations

Based on the video, Legg's offense was not as multiple as I had expected it would be. They primarily operate from the shotgun, use multiple wide receivers on most plays, and incorporate screens into the offense regularly. In fact, against man coverage screens and crossing routes were their primary mode of moving the football. 

Their running game utilizes a combination zone/man blocking scheme. They have the standard zone staples of inside, outside, and stretch, but they also do something called "Dart." In Dart, the offensive line zone blocks in one direction and either a tackle or other heavy personnel pulls across the zone blocking. Legg uses an H-Back to pull across the zone blocking offensive line and  turns it into a misdirection play.  It did not work well against Alabama, but nothing really did for FIU in this game.

Defensive Scheme:

New defensive coordinator Chris Rippon's last time serving as a defensive coordinator was for the Syracuse Orange, from 1999-2003. He served as a special teams coach for Rutgers for the 2008 season, taking 2009 off.  I looked at some video of his 2001 SU defense, and it's pretty clear what he likes to do.

Rippon's inclination is a 4-3 defense with multiple variations in defensive line technique (location.) In the video I viewed, he primarily ran Cover 3 and Cover 1 in the secondary. Against formations that include multiple backs/bigs, Rippon would often rotate down the strong safety into the box and use him as contain on run threats.

What I expect to see:

I really believe that Bill Legg was a great hire for Doc Holliday. The offense that he runs fits the personnel on Marshall's roster much better than the previous coaching staff's multiple, heavy personnel offense did. Marshall will have an easier time recruiting quick but small athletes that can run than it would recruiting talented "jumbo" athletes. Every school in the nation is after the rare Jermaine Gresham or Aaron Hernandez, but not all schools will take the 5''6 roadrunner.

That said, Marshall's scheme is nothing shocking, new, or extraordinary. If the pictures, video, and descriptions sound familiar, it should. This offense is Purdue, circa 2005. Unsurprisingly, Bill Legg coached under Joe Tiller at Purdue for five seasons.

Defensively, couple Chris Rippon's history with Marshall's talented defensive line, and you can expect to see a multiple 43 defense that primarily plays 1-safety deep coverage  on most plays.

Trivia:

• Doc Holliday shares a name with the notorious Old West outlaw, John "Doc" Holliday.
• Holliday served as recruiting coordinator and secondary coach on the 2006 Florida Gators team that defeated the Buckeyes in the national title game.
• Holliday's predecessor, Mark Snyder, served as defensive coordinator at Ohio State before being hired at Marshall in 2004.
• Marshall has seven players on their roster fro­­­m Ohio, none of whom­­ had Ohio State offers.­­
• Senior LB Mario Harvey is nicknamed "Thumper."
• 2010 is the 40^th anniversary of the 1970 Marshall football plane crash that killed 75 people.
• Marshall has not had a positive turnover margin in four seasons.
• Ohio State's last match up against Marshall resulted in a narrow 24-21 victory for Ohio State, after Mike Nugent kicked the game-winner with 2 seconds left in the 4^th quarter.
• Jim Tressel has a long history with the Thundering Herd. He won his first national championship at YSU against them in 1991, and faced them in championship games the following two seasons, losing in 1992 but winning again in 1993.