Prepared by: penland365 Finalized: 09/07/2020
- Staff Overview
- Roster Overview
- Offense
- Personnel Packages
- Schematic Goals
- Run Game
- Pass Game
- QB
- High leverage players
- Projected Goals
- Recommendations *
- Offense
- Errata
- Games watched:
- Notes:
- Recommendations are typically not a part of a standard report, but are added as a discussion point.
- There is a bit of embelishing around certain points to provide context as well.
La Tech enters 2020 on a mixed front. 2019 by all accounts was a banner year. The Bulldogs went 10-3, finishing 2nd in conference and completing the season by absolutely whipping a woeful Miami team in the legendary Independence Bowl. Skip Holtz enters his 8th season at La Tech, and is fresh off of a significant salary increase within the last two weeks. Looking closer though, La Tech has suffered significant losses at the coordinator positions, a pretty common occurence at that level. Offensive coordinator Field left to head to Vandy, and is replaced by first year OC and resident baby face Joe Sloan. They suffered the same fate defensively, losing Bob Diaco to Purdue and replacing him with a outside hire in David Blackwell (that's why there is an ODU game in here). In addition, La Tech has had turnover at the DL spot (Anthony Camp is the new coach, Outside WR (John Allen is the new coach), and Inside WR (Trey Holtz, son of Skip, is the man here). Remarkably, there are only two coaches on staff that were present for the 2018 season, Skip and OL coach Robert McFarland. Again, such turnover is common at this level but it speaks to a significant brain drain over the last 18 months. Sloan was a part of the staff prior and has surely spent significant time game planning and prepping call sheets. It is however pretty likely that Baylor will the young man's very first time as a play caller for the majority of the game. Blackwell's reputation is unknown to the author, but his resume is relatively mixed. Lotta short stints bouncing around, but very rarely is he taking downward roles. His defensive setup is "structurally similar but philosophically different" than his predecessor, so in one regard Baylor's largest disadvantage, a lack of continuity, will be somewhat offset by this. Two positions stand out as extremely well coached - OL under McFarland, and DB under Jeff Burris. McFarland has faced Aranda before.
La Tech loses 23 people people from the 2019 roster. Notable losses include J'Mar Smith (QB), Amik Robertson (CB, drafted in the 4th round of by the Raiders), Malik Stanley (leading WR), both OGs, and Connor Taylor, their bell cow LB and leading tackler. The returning strength is clearly the Front 7. Outside of Taylor, they return the next 4 leading tacklers. LB in particulary is a source of depth. Secondarily, the WR corps is deep but without a leading X. Stanley is gone, but the next 4 top pass catchers are returning and none are seniors. It is a deep and relatively talented unit. Their overall RB depth is not impressive on tape, but their lead bell cow gets the most caries for a reason. Justin Henderson. The 5'10'' 218 lbs bowling ball will get a lot of carries in an attempt to control the flow of the game.
La Tech runs a standard spread offense. The author charted 157 plays; all 157 plays based out of 10 or 11, with 10 being run 58% of the time. Just as virtually every other spread team does in 2020, the base 11 package really consisted of two flavors:
- A SD package with a heavy blocking F used for inserts or to set the EDGE on IZ
- A PD package with a receiving F, used for inserts only or motioned out into Trips
As Henderson is far and away the best player on their offense, he rarely comes out of the game despite his limitations in pass pro. La Tech was extremely static in personnel groupings on the two games the Author watched.
The author was impressed by the unique flavor of the La Tech offense. The La Tech spread eschews the "formation death march" that so many Big XII teams rely on. In 2019 the Bulldogs instead relied on what can only be called a "series" approach that included 4 distinct phases of the offensive gameplan in both games:
- IZ
- OZ (abandoned very quickly against Miami's superior athleticism)
- Midline Option
- Pick the most succesful and run it for Q4 (against Miami they just ran Midline Option actions most of the 2nd half).
This series style of calls was most evident in the Midline Option portion of both games. Out of either 10 or 11, the offense would line up with Trips to the field and Stanley (their best WR and the clear X) to the boundary. The F would initiate motion to Twins, giving an inital 6 way go on the play:
- Option the B Gap for a standard Midline Options with a ghost action
- Jet sweep
- Faked Jet sweep then swing pass to F
- QB draw with insert
- PA to RB then wheel to RB(La Tech scored a TD against Miami this way)
- Standard play action against Single High to the Post
It is unknown to the Author is this series style is a Skip Holtz trait, or unique to the previous OC. Regardless, this series style approach was highly effective against opposing LBs in getting their eyes to move and have them lean towards the last play rather than trusting their keys.
La Tech follows the standard football goal of getting an EFD (earned first down) off of a possession change before opening up the playbook. Through 23 possessions La Tech was extremely conservative in an attempt to get that first EFD before opening up the playbook.
La Tech ran the ball on an astounding 64% of First Downs. The La Tech goal was to get to 2nd and 7, at which point the PA / Screen game was a roughly 50 / 50 split with the run game. On 3rd and 3 or less, La Tech ran the ball 91% of the time (small numbers here though, this should be taken with a grain of salt.).
La Tech ran fewer RPOs than the author expected going in to the games. These were universally run on first downs, typically either at the start of a possession or once they crossed the 40 yard line.
La Tech runs 3 primary run plays depending on the phase of the game with 3 constraint plays:
- IZ
- OZ
- Midline Option
- GT Counter
- QB Draw
- Duos
The constraint plays were solely to prevent the defense from loading up against that current phase of the game's primary rushing attack.
Henderson is a dangerous weapon in IZ and it is the authors expectation that this will for the basis of the rushing attack against Baylor. The La Tech OL was very coached from a technique perspective and the staff knew how to get the best out of them. Against Miami, they ran two OZ plays and on each it was evident they simply didn't have the athleticism to run that against Miami (multiple OL on the ground). So they abondoned it, very quickly, and stuck with where they were suprior, technique. OL showed a very good habit of getting their hips into the hole and very good hand placement.
This was a tale of two games. Against Miami, La Tech's OTs simply could not hold up against their man, and the Bulldogs ran all of two passing plays the entire game that required the QB to make more than one read. One resulted in a sack on 3rd down, the other with a near INT. Instead, against Miami, La Tech ran endless screens if Miami was in a 2-High structure,or slants if in a 1 High (Miami's 1 High package was a traditional Cover-3 with the FS being 20 yards deep). The author observed no double moves from WRs in either game, most likely due to the weak traditional pass pro. The willingness to coach around their limitations was extremely impressive to the Author.
Against Southern Miss, it was a different story. Trusting their OTs to hold up, La Tech utilized 3 primary concepts:
- Mesh against Southern Misses's MEG calls
- Field Flood concepts against 2-High Triangle coverages (put 3 men at different levels against 2, pick the most open of the 3). Southern Miss ran a traditional quarters look, which got carved up.
- Vertical on the Rail when the matchup presented itself to their best WR.
La Tech specifically did not simply drop Stanley, their X, into the Boundary. Rather, they moved him all over the Field to dictate matchups on early downs, and then attack the weakness. Against Southern Miss, this manifested in splitting him out to the Field, then torching the Golden Eagles when they over-rotated their Triangle to lean towards Stanley and leave another level of the Flood wide open.
Supposedly there is an indepth battle betwen last years backup and short term starter Aaron Allen (6'1'' 203 So, 2 starts, action in 6 games) and Luke Anthony (Grad Transfer from ACU). The author cannot judge between them as I am too lazy to find Luke Anthony tape, but I am hard pressed to believe he gets the start over Allen.
Allen processes very quickly for his age, but has very bad mechanices in his feet (he's the Black Bryce Petty). He has + athleticism and is dangerous as a runner in the open field, but does not have the natural scamble gene of someone like Brewer. Has shown no evidence of being able to make more than 2 reads, but La Tech never asked Smith to make more than 2 reads either. Cutting the field in half and asking him to throw while rotating to his right seems like a great way to introduce him. Unless DRAMATIC growth has occurred, he does not have the ability to beat us by cycling through zone holes between the numbers.
Given the expected issues at OT, Allens seems like the likely starter with Anthony to get mop up duty or throw the long ball if they fall behind.
Henderson Henderson Henderson. The RS-SR running back is the best player on the offense and most likely they entire team. Given the author's inability to accurately judge RBs, the following comparison should be taken with a grain of salt: a poor man's Le"veon Bell. He is not overly toolsy but has excellent feet in the hole. When Henderson is patient behind the line, he does an outstanding job of slowing his momentum, keeping his shoulders square, and simply waiting out the hole to develop. Once it forms, he has outstand acceleration and has mastered how to make himself skinny in the hold despite his size. Often times though, he cannot be patient enough and takes bad angles towards barely open holes, particularly in IZ. This results in lots of Tackles for Loss. Linebackers must account for him on every single play.
Russey (C 6'1'' 290) is their best and most important OL. He exhibits quick hips to flip the Nose out of the hole on IZ, his most important attribute. Has demostrated the ability to reach a shade, though he lacks the strength to truly dig out the NT on that block. If their OTs can match the athleticism of Baylor's depleted DE unit and run OZ, Russey will eat anyone not named Gabe Hall alive on OZ. On pass pro, he maintains a good punch and ties it to his hips when quick setting. Recommend we avoid him on pressure looks. Short arms prevent him from directing men where they want to go, but he finishes tough.
La Tech utilizes three schemes depending on whether Henderson is in the game:
- Backer Out
- 5 man Slide (the most common as they want Henderson deployed)
- Fan
If the OC is feeling aggresive, we're gonna get 5 man slides and Henderson will be out. If he's not, they'll pull him out of the game and run Fan.
The biggest question of the game is how comfortable La Tech feels with their OTs against whatever EDGE defender Roberts and Arand dream up. I expect the Bulldogs to test out both OTs in single responsibilites on the first two drives to see what they have. Given this is the OC's first game calling the playsheet in full, I would expect a combination of magick and conservatism - overly conservate on standard downs, overly aggressive with trick plays and high leverage situations.
If the Bulldogs feel comfortable in pass pro, I expect they will learn Flood based concepts as that is relatively easy to teach offensively and a good weapon against an unsure secondary. If they do not feel comfortable, we're going to see a high number of screens + verticals on the rail.
La Tech will lean heavily on Henderson to control tempo on early downs. Expect heavy, HEAVY doses of IZ on Standard Downs, combined with constaint plays to keep Baylor out of Tite (hello, GT counter). Given that this game has been on the books for awhile, I would expect a significant number of actions off of IZ (pop pass on PA, etc). We're going to see a lot of customized play calls as the OC has had nothing better to do for the last 6 months. If Henderson can be neutralized, La Tech does not have the horse power to stay in this game offensively over 4 quarters.
Unless Coach feels otherwise Monday morning, the Author believes strongly that this is not a game to bring pressure. Run blitzes against Henderson's style of running are dangerous, as one simple overrun could expose a 15 yard gain in IZ. In addition, La Tech's comfort with the screen game and the multitude of checks they have displayed in the past would expose our young secondary to making tough open field tackles with little help. Rnnning complex creepers should have diminishing returns against this well coached OL unit, and doesn't do anything more than put things on tape we don't wish.
As long as our JACK's can hold up on GT Counter, the Author strongly recommends we sit in Tite. The Primary Battle Goal should be to remove Henderson as a factor on Saturday and put the ball in the hands of their QB. On Veer, attack the Mesh and chase the QB.
On all RPO / Option plays, DE's should attack the RB or at the most play a Feather technique.
OTs should be the focus on pressure packages, particularly Allen. Allen was decent against Southern Miss and white hot flaming garbage against Miami. If Allen is anything like he was against Miami, that is the clear target on passing downs. If Baylor can get early pressure from the EDGE, La Tech has shown a history of turtling for several series.
In coverage, the author recommnds Single High to start the game and to test out our 2 high strucutre to see how they attack the RPO. We can base out of Mix or 2-Read while having our Star fit on all RPOs. If the new QB beats us with high pressure throws into the middle of the field on Post / Dig, he beats us.