Dave Clawson and Warren Ruggiero's Wake Forest Offense (Origins and Film Study; 2021)

[@shanestroyke264]

as a former wake player this is a great video!!! Coach R is the man!!!!

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Glad it looks good to someone who played in the system! That's awesome.

[@xero402]

I am a Clemson guy, but, I have a ton of respect for Wake Forest and coach Clawson. They are always prepared and consistently punch above their weight. You never see them beat themselves.

[@nickflahive8903]

That is except for when they turned it over 8 times against louisville

[@xero402]

@@nickflahive8903 they never do that against us

[@lukaswilson1437]

The amount of research that went into this is incredible. I love it. Would you ever do videos explaining basic concepts using your in depth, historical method?

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Are you talking like a Scheme 101 thing, or more of a history of a particular concept? I have a Scheme 101 course that's basically written, but I'm still working on exactly what I want to do with it, how I want to distribute it, if I want to try and sell it vs. just uploading it to the channel, etc. As for a history video that's focused on a certain concept, I'd love to do that kind of thing, but it's harder since there's no resource that can tell you who was running what, and when. So, finding examples of something like Mesh before the Air Raid, or even tracking its spread after the Air Raid, would require a lot of luck and/or a TON of film study. I definitely want to do some breakdowns of influential offenses/defenses from the past, though, with a goal of showing how their schematic world was different from what we see today, and key concepts would definitely figure into that. In a perfect world, though, I'd build up a big enough audience to land some interviews with some of these guys, and then I could ask about specific concepts/plays, where they were coming from, what the thought process was, and all that. There are lots of superficial articles on coaching backgrounds, and there are a lot of resources aimed at coaches ("Here's how we run Cover-3"), but there isn't too much that combines a more technical schematic discussion with the historical angle, specifically, and I'd love to be the one to do it!

[@brandoncenteno1834]

top tier

[@Michaela243]

Bar none this is the best football related video I've ever watched! I'm a WF graduate's dad and I knew the system worked but now I understand the complexities and why it works. Thank you! Mike

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Glad you liked it! Lots of really interesting stuff going on at Wake!

[@florida1289]

Very impressed with Wake Forest. Very happy for their fans. A lot of us watched their QB Hartman on QB1 or at least I did so I've followed him thus Wake Forest closely. Fun team too.

[@brycehedgecock1299]

Im a wake fan and this is one of the best videos ive seen. The research for the early days of Clawson and Warren are great. You also in a round about way show how much of a defensive genius Brent Venables is when you break down the clip around the 8 minute mark

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Thanks! That means a lot. It's rare to see a team doing something truly unique, but Clawson and Ruggiero are pushing the limits of the RPO attack, especially when it comes to their blocking schemes. They solve a lot of problems that other downfield RPO attacks struggle with, and I think that a school of future offensive coaches that want to go down this path will develop and be forever indebted to them.

[@mariocuniglio909]

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! LOVE THE DETAIL PROVIDED IN THIS VIDEO!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[@jamesbohne6790]

Another option I see is for the RB to run some sort of Pass block/option route on the slow mesh RPOs. If a blitzer is there too quick for the RB to pickup after the mesh then it could be a quick 3-4 yard completion as well as it could help if the QB messed up and should’ve handed the ball off giving him another passing option.

[@cannonbros8487]

The Slow Mesh 🔥🔥🔥

[@broncobilly4029]

Thanks, my nephew is playing at WF this season, and I wanted to figure out they're doing on O. This helps.

[@nesta6480]

Another awesome vid, thanks for your work

[@jacobkelbert3423]

Could you ever go over Willy Korn and the Coastal Carolina offense? One of my favorite offenses to just sit down and watch on a Saturday afternoon.

[@MrNiceWax]

Yes please

[@fatehopkins7969]

Willy Korn!!! As a lifelong Clemson fan as well as an alum I remember how excited people were that he was coming to Clemson. It didn’t really pan out, but I also don’t think he was given a great opportunity tho. I’m glad he’s finding success coaching. He’s definitely a South Carolina high school football legend.

[@russellaustin4960]

It’s called the triple option. Been going on about 100 years. They just run it from the shotgun…..

[@fatehopkins7969]

@@russellaustin4960 It’s deeper than that. It’s not the freaking wishbone. They run it out of 3 and 4 wide receiver sets. X receivers crack block linebackers after the boundary receiver has motioned into the backfield to become basically an A back. This is all run out of formations that would usually signify a passing play. They show an option look and throw the ball. Or they don’t. The stress that Willy Korns offense puts on defenses is high. This isn’t Paul and Gawja Tech homie, Coastal can throw the ball, and they do a lot. Don’t be so passive aggressive, it’s mad feminine energy.

[@russellaustin4960]

@@fatehopkins7969 it’s triple option football. Don’t make it more complicated than it truly is. It’s the same thing, just window dressing. I’m not being passive aggressive at all. Nor do I have any feminine energy, whatever that is, lol. I’m about as masculine as you;l find my friend. Have a great one.

[@nardoharold7017]

Lifetime ravens fan here. I’ve been saying we need this for Lamar Jackson and the ravens offense. This is the next step. Edit: but what do I know I’m just a fan.

[@Theplaymaker1271]

You can't run this in the league it'd get flagged for illegal blocking down field literally every play

[@coachbeam3600]

Great video! Could you go over the Wing-T/Power-T offense and it’s strengths and weaknesses? We see it all the time in West Michigan and I’ve never seen it in my life until I moved here a few years ago!

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

I want to do some historical offenses/defenses, and a video on the Delaware Wing-T would be awesome and very do-able. The T formation stuff is harder to get film on at the college level, but if I can pull it off something on Clark Shaughnessy or Frank Leahy would be absolute gold, so I'll see what I can find! It's best if I can tie these videos to specific colleges, because that's what drives almost all of my search traffic.

[@GLfocus2]

Excellent research and storytelling. Thank you.

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[@dwpagliari]

Only 5m in, so forgive me if you mention it later but Ruggiero's background interesting. Tubby Raymond protege KC Keeler was one of the big early spread guys at Rowan and Delaware (Joe Flacco). Rugg graduated 5 yrs after Keeler, but a cool sidenote. More interesting is that he replaced Rich Rod as HC at Glenville St. Of course, this is where RRod started the Read Option (staple of Power Spread Football). Most interesting is all of the R&S at Hofstra - but truly it started as an early version of PS Football by Manny Matsakis. Triple Option out of R&S 4 WR sets - Triple Shoot. Later Rob Spence was OC there - another great OMind. Thank you for the tidbit on Mumme's daughter at Elon and his connection to the Air Raid. I had always wondered how these concepts leaked into his Spread Passing Scheme. I knew it had to be something more than just film study of the other AR schools or even a visit. Great Info! oh and Hank Small - big Gillman - Coryell guy and then Walsh. He was always studying so I'm sure somewhere along the way he started studying the BYU offense based off the Gillman>Walsh stuff. BTW, I played LB at Bucknell - but the film you have is little after I graduated. :)

[@dwpagliari]

Cool look at the RPO. I'm sure you must have DeBoer studies in your archives. He's a master at the subtleties of the RPO. Just simple things. Like an RPO Draw - or Fake RPO. Both of these make the OLine and skill players not have to deal with Options after the snap - thus zero hesitation. Their options are pre snap or even pre-call based on the sequence and situation in the game. With DeBoer, he plays around a lot with his Line Blocks so it's really not easy to tell if he's really running an RPO or if there is no option after the snap.

[@gregoryjester5167]

Super helpful. I wonder how this could work with a run oriented qb. Spread all the recievers out wide in an empty set and run similar concepts.

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

That's getting into that LSU/Jayden Daniels territory! Bringing a more dangerous QB-keep option into the Slow Mesh would only cause more problems for the defense by forcing them to declare before the decisions made. Then, if you have a QB that can take it to the house when it's open, you can really hold guys in place and create seams in the defense.

[@chrisgolden1162]

Just stumbled upon your channel….WOW I’m in heaven…amazing stuff man

[@RookieMistakeYT]

I have to wonder if the routes are choice routes for the WR’s and they’re taught to read the same thing as the QB. This makes things very, very interesting. Thanks for this video and all the work that went into it. Awesome content as always coach!

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

In the Clawson clinic that I mention, he doesn't mention any choice routes on these RPO's. Their conflict on these plays is all coming from the balance between run vs. coverage numbers, and simplifying things for both their passing game and their run game by ensuring that neither is ever working into bad numbers. It's not really like the run and shoot, where the passing game is asked to solve most problems.

[@joshuaworthy6670]

I coach high school football and would love to run this kind of offense

[@brandoncenteno1834]

Incredible research. I wonder what they teach their offensive lineman. If you got guys firing downfield off the LOS, you'd be running into a lot of ineligible calls downfield with that walk mesh. You can even see in one of the clips a couple of uncovered OL are slow to advance downfield, I assume partially because of this risk.

[@radonaccount4454]

Really would like to see a dive into Mike Leach’ offense

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

That's definitely gonna happen. I'm moving into a pod of Big 10 teams soon, but then I want to go back to the SEC, and Mississippi State will 100% be in that group.

[@radonaccount4454]

@@TheCoordinatorProject sound good 👍

[@Debo1995]

Great stuff. Would you be interested in doing a Mike Leach Air Raid style?

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Absolutely! I'm moving into a pod of Big 10 teams soon, but after that I'll go back to the SEC, and. a Leach video will definitely be a part of that.

[@bigwats1250]

I wonder how they going to use wake forest slow mesh action in the new ncaaa college football game

[@johnmassie348]

A big part of the story that’s missing is this offense was installed after wake forest found out it’s play by play guy had been leaking playbooks to opponents they found a copy of their playbook in the trash @ Louisville

[@CHUCKSANDPOLOS]

Will you ever do a video of Ryan Days offence?

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

100%. As for the timing, I try to do my film study in pods so that I get the most out of each breakdown (e.g. I looked at both the Clemson D and Syracuse D vs. Pitt O and Wake O, so that I can get four videos from just four game breakdowns), so breaking down Pitt O vs. Syracuse D and making those two videos will be next, but I'm heading to B1G country next to try and hit the best units/some big programs there, and maybe sneak a ND video in as well, so Day will be one of the first few videos in that pod.

[@CHUCKSANDPOLOS]

@@TheCoordinatorProject Thanks for replying. Do you have any other social medias/platforms that I can follow you on

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

I have a Twitter account @tcpfootball. It's a good place to keep up with my uploads if you don't check KZbin subscriptions very often!

[@omrimizrachi3869]

Awesome video! I got one question tho: in a regular-timed RPO the pass is abled since the O-Line did not have the time to get downfield, therefore it's a legal play. However, on a slow mesh, you can see that the O-Line got up about 3-4 yards before the ball was released downfield (15:19). How is that legally possible? thank you, love your work! Coach Omri, Israel

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

That's a problem for most RPO teams at some point, but you're right that the Slow Mesh does seem to increase the risk at first. I think #55's got a foot beyond 3 yards on that play, as you say, so they could've technically called it, but it's rarely called when it's that close. Kind of like holding or PI, you could call it on a lot of plays, but refs usually aren't too nit-picky about it. Wake Forest also accounts for this by adjusting their OL technique. Because of the concern about penetration, they are really 1st-level oriented, so the OL isn't looking to fire up and get up to the LB's as quickly as other teams would in a Zone scheme like this; WF's OL lets the LB's come to them, which helps limit ineligible receiver downfield calls.

[@jameshoops10]

hey friend we gotta get you some all 22 film to breakdown the games

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Yes, please!

[@RZA36]

4:05 . Receiver gets his shit kicked in.

[@TheCoordinatorProject]

Haha, yeah, his QB's not helping him out too much with that throw.

[@elamar7773]

Lets see if they do that this coming season when they are not one of the oldest teams out there

[@xero402]

They will always be an older team, they redshirt everyone

[@slidefirst694]

I'm old enough to remember Wisconsin intercepting Wake four times.

[@MegaBenjamin]

This is the worst thing ever created, coming from a FSU fan lmfao🥲