Urban Meyer and the Ohio State Offense Part II

For Part I see here.

Spending many of his formative years at Notre Dame with Lou Holtz and Bob Davie, Urban Meyer had limited exposure to a conceptual pass offense. Meyer, therefore, had to go out and learn much of what became his base pass offense. Meyer drew heavily from Joe Tiller's Drew Brees Purdue heydays, as well as from Scott Lineham. As Chris Brown states

Meyer learned his passing offense primarily from what Purdue and Louisville were doing in their spread heydays. (Though it is important to note that both Purdue and Louisville at the time were traditional "one-back" spread offenses -- derivative of Dennis Erickson's one-back offense -- so although he focused on their passing games their running games were consistent with the inside zone and counter game Meyer was installing with advice from Rich Rodriguez and the Northwestern folks.) Meyer developed a system based from spread formations, with focuses on quick passes, lots of quick shallows, pivots, and other quick moves. (The biggest evolution in the Meyer/Mullen offense at Florida has been the attempt to improve their play-action game, which has always been tough for shotgun-spread teams to convincingly do.)

As a background note, any modern pass game needs a 'coverage beater' for every pass defense it may see. From there, a passing game's route stems should work together so that a defense cannot pattern read. An offense wants enough concepts so that it can beat every coverage, yet keep it simple enough so that you are not overwhelming your players. Meyer has attempted to accomplish these goals through five primary drop back concepts: Specifically, Meyer's offenses have traditionally featured: four verticals; smash; 'Houston'; Follow-pivot; and option routes. This is in addition to featuring an ample quick game, often focusing on y-stick and spacing. For purposes of this article, however, I will focus on the drop back concepts (for fuller discussion I highly recommend the links).

H-Option

Meyer's Florida offenses were perhaps most associated with inside option routes. Meyer's heavy use of option routes comes straight from the original one-back coaches. The base play is simple. As Chris Brown states, "the outside receivers were to run straight and try to get open deep [or deep comebacks]. The inside receivers were to burst upfield to eight to twelve yards depending on the call. Against man-to-man, they cut inside or outside depending on the defender’s leverage; against zone they found a void between defenders and settled in it."

Option routes are most effective against man coverage, allowing slot receivers to beat inside man defenders. The play is also easily adaptable to a wide variety of personnel; it can be run with 21 personnel to an empty backfield.

Smash

Smash, where the inside receiver runs a deep corner and the outside receiver runs a hitch (or quick out), is again one of the best and most widely used route concepts in college football. It is a cover-2 beater by giving the offense a 2 vs. 1 on the squat corner, while ideally holding the deep half safety with a divide route.

The quarterback reads 1) corner to 2) hitch. Simply put, if the cornerback sinks to take away the corner, throw the hitch. Smash also works against man coverage or cover-2 man, by allowing the slot receiver to beat the slot defender to the corner. Meyer's offenses will generally run smash as a mirrored route (smash combo to each side). (For a fantastic full discussion of smash, see here).

Four Verticals (All-Go)

Four verticals is another foundational route that is found throughout college and the NFL. Chris Brown, citing Dan Gonzalez, has a thorough breakdown here, but at its core four-verticals is a way to get a 2 v. 1 deep horizontal stretch against a deep safety.

Notably, one seam runner is given a 'bender route.' If the middle of the field is open, he will break to the middle, while continuing down the seam against a one-high look. Below, you will see Dane Sanzenbacher as the 'seam reader' working to the middle of the field.

Meyer will also use a 'switch' principle and have two receivers cross and switch their routes, which he refers to as "al-go cross."

Houston

'Houston' is essentially a trips play featuring a curl-flat-divide route combo.

The play is designed to attack cover 4 (aka quarters) coverage. The play is generally designed to attack the strong-side. Against cover 4, the bender route should hold the deep safety, setting up a 2 v. 1 in the strong-side flat. The QB will check the divide route first, however, in case it is available. The play can also be run off fly play action motion to hold the Sam linebacker.

Follow-Pivot

Follow-pivot is a play seeking to create a vertical hi-lo stretch of a middle of the field deep safety, similar to the 'NCAA pass' (post-dig), though the play's route distribution also attacks quarters' coverage.

The play is based off the follow route, which is in turn based upon the 'drive' route I have previously discussed. By running follow-pivot off of follow, it limits defensive pattern-reading.

As this great post on Coach Hoover's site discusses, however, the play is actually set up by running the stick and option routes mentioned above. The inside linebackers will be concerned they are facing an option route by the initial action, attracting the inside linebackers and allow the follow route to come open behind. Here is Coach Hoover's site further discussing the play (courtesy of Smart Football):

Conceptually, the play creates a High-Low on the Free Safety, as well as [a] Middle-Triangle [read] off the two weak-side Linebackers (or weak-side and middle LBs). I always put the Post to the boundary, and have the Follow route coming from the field. I do this because teams will almost always rotate their coverage to the field (which would disrupt my Triangle) or because we see a lot of Quarters with the Strong Safety inside my #2 receiver to the field (which makes it difficult for that receiver to run the Post). I must create a situation where I can isolate the Free Safety for my High-Low read, and my Post and Follow routes can win.

The two receivers closest to the ball will run Pivot routes if displaced or Check-down/Breakout routes from the backfield. Their purpose is to attract the two LBs closest to the Post, or replace those LBs if they disappear in coverage or become pass rushers. Those two LBs are also the players that we are trying to occupy get the Follow route open. A coaching point that we teach to the Pivot & Check-down routes is to have them sit and replace the LB they are aiming for if he rushes the QB or drops into coverage. They will only work outside if they are covered, as this will open up a huge throwing lane over the middle for the Follow route. Finally, the outside receiver to the field runs a Curl, and is there should the QB have to scramble that way.

The play also works well off play-action from trips. Ideally, the zone play fake will freeze the linebacker, allowing the follow route to get behind them.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, though, the primary purpose of Urban Meyer's spread is to use the quarterback as a run threat in the shotgun change the arithmetic for the defense in the run game. As Chris Brown eloquently makes clear, in football you have 11 players on each side. The defense will always have one unblocked defender--the ball carrier's counterpart. With a pro-style quarterback who is handing off, the defense now has two unblocked defenders, including one closer to the run play who can chase it down from the backside unless held in place for some reason. As OSU fans know, this has been a constant problem for Ohio State offenses. An offense can negate this second unblocked defender, however, by making the quarterback a constant threat to run on option and reads, holding that defender in place. While pro teams try to do it from bootleg, the zone read's genesis was simply to hold this defender in place with not just a fake but an actual read whereby, if the defense cheats, the quarterback can punish the defense.

This is all well and good in theory, but requires certain players to make work. The first is that this only works if the quarterback is a run threat. As Brown says, the quarterback need not be your best runner, but he cannot be a statute. Otherwise--as Meyer experienced with Chris Leak--the defense will not respect the quarterback threat, and you gain none of the shotgun's advantages, only its weaknesses. Teams such as Florida and Texas have found themselves unable to function in recent years as they try to fit a drop back passer into this role. Braxton Miller is obviously more than adequate as a run threat and, indeed, represents Ohio State's primary game breaker. He should thrive in this scheme.

As time went on at Florida, Meyer's offense was at times limited by the other extreme--being entirely reliant upon Tim Tebow as your primary runner without any other inside run threat. Meyer was able to overcome this in the 2008 championship season by using Percy Harvin as an all-everything back, motioning him into the backfield to run counter trey and veer. Once Harvin left, however, Florida had no choice but to revert to Tebow as single-wing tailback. This is a problem that Meyer has repeatedly vowed to rectify, and Ohio State has the personnel to do it. Miller cannot fill the Tebow role, so OSU must establish the inside run game with the tailbacks, while using Braxton as the traditional run threat to hold that unblocked defender.

Finally, Meyer's offenses struggled in his final years with pass protection. Part of this can simply be explained (as diagrammed above) by the fact that Meyer likes running many of his pass concepts from empty sets. This threatens the defense with five vertical threats, but the defense can easily bring more defenders than you can block. In that case, you better be ready to either a) throw hot (which takes practice and coordination); or b) bring backs in for pass protection. Again, part of this can be rectified by having an running back as an inside run threat. Florida often went empty because it spread the defense out and still left their best runner (Tebow) in a position to get vertical. If OSU can establish the run, they can better use play action (even though harder from shotgun), and make a defense less apt to blitz.

Urban Meyer's 'genius' has not been in his innovation, but his willingness to adapt and get the ball to his playmakers. Meyer has made clear he understands the above limitations from his Florida days and has repeatedly vowed to rectify it. Meyer again reiterated his desire to both threaten the perimeter (as his offenses have done so well), as well as pound the football inside, both from the shotgun and under center. If Meyer can accomplish this in conjunction with the run threat Braxton Miller poses, his offense has the potential to quickly fire on all cylinders.