Josh Heupel’s offense is a cheat code! Here’s why it’s so effective!

[@PowerSpreadXO]

Excellent discussion - not surprised only a few thousand views. Just not enough BS here for popularity. There was another discussion on this same subject over at southeastern16. I wrote this in the comments: Blayne is hitting on something - the RTO - Run Triple Option - Give,Keep,Pass. Overall - all this PS stuff is evolving into the Option Ideal. It provides options Pre-Snap & Post-Snap in both P and S (run and pass if that's easier to understand). DeBoer does it brilliantlly, but comes more from a pro spread background. Same with Leipold (his OC now at PSU). DeBoer's a master at giving simple executable options to his qb and other players on all the plays. Jake is correct in saying Fundamentals a key for the Defenses - but you have to combine that w/ Assignment Oriented Football. This is why Saban's Match Coverages have overtaken the came. They aren't pre-set designs before the snap. They are option defense - assignment based on what the offense does. So we are coming to a future game where both sides - O and D - will have options pre and post snap on every play. Who wins? The one with the most consistent Aggressive Flexible Variety. Starting with aggression - it's a concept - a mindset. That's why most teams can't use Briles stuff - they can't wrap their small minds around such an aggressive idea on Offense. Variety is next. Can't just be Assignment Oriented Technique + Fundamentals. Must have the tools in the bag (scheme) then use them on game day (gameplan+playcalls). Lastly - Flexibility. Must be able to morph to your talent + opponent. Briles PS offense does that as well. Manny Matsakis has a nice interview with Art - they worked together - Manny mentions PS (Im the friend he mentions) - Briles sort of is like - "well,yeah". Stating the obvious. It is so simple - but has eluded so many for so long and will continue. The brilliance of Walter Camp's grid iron idea is that it seems like a perfect mirror for mankind's evolvement in the mind. How long it takes to stretch the mind has played out - literally - on the grid iron over 150 yrs. Wild. And still today - CFB wk 1 2024 - I heard one of the talking heads on TV say that all the concepts ever invented and that can ever be invented are being used today. There's nothing more. That, my friend, is the epitome of a little mind. And that's why it takes so long for powerful schemes to catch on. It's all PS (space) or Pro (time) now - some combo thereof - Pro hearkens back to Sid Gillman - PS back to Rusty Russell who coached with Dutch Meyer who coached with Francis Schmidt, Gillman's mentor. So it was bound to happen. PS Pro - the Option Ideal. And now it's just how far coaches can stretch their minds and see the new concepts and combos. Thank god for the minds like DeBoer - Briles - Manny - and some daring from Andy Reid and the Shanahans to wake the NFL up to the future of the game.

[@JackChristianson-ul3js]

Field of seams- They spend 39 minutes talking sizzle and 40 seconds talking steak. The run game is the foundation. The formations are a function of how do we create explosive plays in the run game. So the receivers split way wide and take the CB's out of run support. You get large receivers who are a mismatch for CB's and can dominate them like a basketball post up, where big guy will score or get double teamed. Which means safties can't play run and help outside the hashes at the same time. Throw in deep speed in the slot who can't be pressed. Increaseur oline splits a litte but still able to double team- and constantly play action. Then of course throw in tempo. The pass game works because of the run game and the basis of the offense is the run, not the pass.

[@coop1osrs]

Taking the corners out of the run game? Comical to act like you understand football then say something that dumb, the idea is that their splits and formations force a defense to play with a formation that has 5 or 6 dbs, instead of 3 or 4 linebackers, and then when they run the ball successfully it makes it hard to stop.

[@TN86]

it's triple option football

[@PowerSpreadXO]

Bud is right - it reduces the need for top tier talent + you recruit best attitude/talent that fits culture, THEN mesh the pieces. PS football is flexible at it's core (see comment below). Of course, this means DK's comment that these QBs deserve credit is also right. PS=st squared - or space/time/team. The time is the flexible piece that pulls together the talent. Scheme is the spatial piece. Team is always all ways the end result. Obviously no players - no game. We don't use coaches playing in the backyard when we are little - but we still scheme and try to execute (time-technique). What I didn't say in the comment below - is the progressions of Pro style from Gillman and PS from Rusty Russell / Dutch Meyer. A lot of people know the progression from Gillman - they just leave him out of it and start erroneously with Walsh. As for PS it goes RR/DM > Shaughnessy/Faurot (Shaughnessy is the genius link to both Pro and PS and genius of the game) > Tiger Ellison > R&S Triumvirate (Neumeir/Red/Mouse) > Flexbone/AirRaid guys > RRod/Matsakis > PS Triumvirate (UMeyer/Malzahn/Briles). There's reasons for the order I place them based on Team Time Space. P>S. So Briles was experimenting back to the AR guys. He played for the originator of the Veer Option. By the time he got to TTech w/ Leach,Manny and the others he was already doing his own thing with Space/Time(option) in both run and pass. This has been happening for over 2 decades. I think this no longer qualifies as a gimmick or fad. It's already integrated into the game and will continue to be done. You are seeing elements of AR mixed with WCO all over the league now. PS has been going on in NFL for over a decade. You guys are correct to say that Briles style of PS is extreme and was most ahead of it's time. First with space then time - he pushes the boundaries. Malzahn to some degree as well, but he tends to stick to the P side of PS. He just brought in the idea of fooling with time both in games and practice organization. Urban's is the complete P side - more about Team (athletes in space) than any grand ideas of time or space. So as always, anything about Talent + Power (TEAM) is easier to take in by most coaches media and fans. I'm glad Heupel is doing what he's doing. Makes sense. Could see when he played for Leach he was really getting concepts that most coaches couldn't and still cant to this day. You can't buy in to what you don't believe. You can't believe what you can't understand. The game will continue to explode evolution wise this decade and the next and more minds will begin to understand these concepts and form more concepts off these ones and maybe one day we won't have to hear talking heads say that everything that is possible has already been done in the game. It's just play calling now. Unfortunately that gives merits to those outside this game saying how stupid those are that run the game and talk about the game.

[@xandercrews4729]

Good stuff, love the chalk talk

[@antwoinne15]

You still ha e to be able to throw the ball. Hooker was one of the best QB's in the country. The offense may have help, but skill is still needed.

[@shanebrown1780]

Vol fan and football nerd here. Great breakdown Bud. Really good. UT ran 53% of the time. The tight end is a crucial part of the offense. In so many ways. And the subtle movement of wide receivers when lined up in stacks too creates a lot for them as well. I noticed too this year as opposed to last year they evolved in slowing down when they need too. It’s really fun to watch. I do wish they would throw to the backs more though but that just me.

[@BudElliottCFB]

Thanks Shane. Make sure to share it if you can.

[@cassandra4167]

They cheated with cheat codes! Explain why Cooper Mays never had a match up????? Btw how is Hendon Hookers injury????

[@scotttuttle3513]

The claim that you don't have to be a good "processor" is pure BS. PURE. The guys that succeed at QB in Heupel's system DO read progressions but more than that they MUST be great at pre-snap reads. If it looked like Hooker was only making one read... most of the time it was because he had already read the coverage and knew where his best opportunity was going to be.

[@TheJasonJackson84]

100% correct I would say. Georgia did a really good job of confusing him pre snap in the 3rd qtr. The one knock I do have of the offense or maybe it was just Hooker himself, was the absence of a drop. As a Georgia fan myself, he made himself a much easier target with that one step drop. And I just wondered why he didn't really drop back 3 to 5 steps after the 1st half pressure from the d‐line of the Dawgs. I would say that even helped South Carolina get closer to him in that 2nd half. If a team isn't afraid to bring 5 or 6 after the Tennessee quarterback they'll have that qb spinning before the end of the game.

[@scotttuttle3513]

@@TheJasonJackson84 I think a lot of that is scheme. They play action on most plays and incorporate the QB run so they don't like giving ground. No drop also simplifies things for the OTs. UGA just out-talented UT. The scheme couldn't overcome it. That should become more competitive as UT closes the talent gap. It is important to remember that UT was still playing with a short roster made up mostly of Pruitt's holdovers last fall. Heupel's recruiting looks better so far and is recruited more to his scheme. He hasn't gotten what the analysts thought were "elite" portal guys... but they've all produced. UT's D couldn't stop USCe. UT had run out of players. I don't believe there was a healthy CB available that night. J Banks was out. Still, the O produced 38 points and over 500 yds of O. If you produce those numbers... your D has to hold up its end.

[@TheJasonJackson84]

@@scotttuttle3513 in some agreement. I'm not getting onto the Vols defense. Just in regards to their offense, the weak point is the short or totally absent dropback. To be successful at times you have to ditch certain aspects of the game plan or scheme, especially something as simple as a dropback. We saw CJ Stroud use his legs against Northwestern and Georgia, which was not what Ohio State plans to do with their quarterbacks but it saved the day for them in Evanston and nearly won the game in Atlanta. Georgia really picked up on something because late in the 3rd and through the early 4th it was the defensive scheme that ate Tennessee up the most, more than just being a talent gap. Hooker wasn't picking up on blitzes coming or where they were coming from. And the coverage that Georgia used that Alabama didn't, made a big difference too. Because I don't think Tennessee's win was due to Alabama being equally or less talented. As you stated they outschemed Alabama. Georgia defensively schemed better than Tennessee to help that talent. That's just playing with fire to me if it's part of a hardline scheme. Saban will likely pick up on it and be blitz heavy in this year's game. But yeah they should be able to maintain their level of success from last year.

[@scotttuttle3513]

@@TheJasonJackson84 Others tried. It wasn't a secret. Like the guy in the video said, UGA just had the talent to whip UT's OL which made Hooker's reads "wrong" when they should have been right. He rightly read "run" but UGA's 5 or 6 were enough to limit them. That left him with no choice but to throw into a secondary that was covering over the top. As for ditching elements, Hooker's legs breaking the pocket often made a huge difference. In just one year, they improved the ability to control tempo rather than just always running fast. But if you take the "crap" Heupel inherited and score over 30 in 9 of 13 games in year one then 12 of 13 in year two... and are building up the talent level... you should probably be careful about how much you change. UGA was a uniquely talented team. Elite talent across the board on D. That's not true of UT on either side of the ball yet. The future is going to be fun if Heupel keeps getting the kinds of players he's getting and Smart sustains what he's getting on D.

[@shanesimmons8808]

This year Tennesse offense did slow it down, because of our QB was not able to process the offense like Hendon Hooker did, plus we lost a lot of offense production. stop saying you don't have to be as Talented...one Tennesse is a run First offense.

[@michaelstein6311]

posting this to an Alabama message board in defense of my guy Demarco Hellams

[@scotttuttle3513]

Also, downplaying the talent is silly. This O puts guys in a great position to succeed. The level of success still comes down to the talent and development of the player. And the question you didn't seem to ask is how good this can get once Heupel DOES get elite talent across the board.

[@porterosbournejr.5083]

Kirby Smart reading the title of this video >>> 😂😂😂

[@chasejackson7248]

Because they are fast and get the defense off guard, while only having 12 plays to execute. And if everyone ran it it wouldn't work because everyone would be able to stop it.

[@GDaVo.]

How do I stop it

[@dead_kennedy9905]

Absolutely not an Xs and Os guy but my take on UT is that if they don’t have the talent on offense they’ll score but be prone to stalling out and create poor situations for def when they have the talent on offense they can allow def enough time to rest and give above average performance I don’t think we will see an elite defensive performance from heupel