Film Room: Miami Hurricanes Spring Scrimmage #2

Actual, real, full play footage from a solid angle? Thank you YouTube. The Hurricanes hosted their first open scrimmage, the second scrimmage of the spring, at Traz Powell Stadium in Miami, FL. Matt Washington wrote the piece, “Miami Needs to Broadcast Their Spring Game Moving Forward,” and I totally agree. Your program isn’t big time without a televised spring game. It’s just part of legitimizing your product as a national product, not a local attraction.

Cam Underwood and Gaby Urrutia both covered the spring game from a first-person perspective and sadly I couldn’t be there (however, I did get to see the UNC offense in person).

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Mesh

Mesh from a trips look can see a nice variety from the two split receivers on the top of the screen. However, the base of the play will be ran by the solo receiver at the bottom of the screen and the tight end inline (Mallory). The X wide receiver will run his crossing route at 3-yards while the TE will run his at 4-yards. They should be so close they can slap hands (this rep has more space between them).

The drive route from the slot combined with the post will force the safety to that side to choose between them. Basically this is a mix of mesh and shallow cross from Dan Enos. Shallow-cross is usually a combination of a crosser from one side and a drive-post from the other. This combination leaves the linebackers always guessing wrong.

As you can see in the GIF above, Mallory settles in space. Instead of having routes that would run the receivers directly in to defenders, the point of Air Raid (I discuss the Air Raid with Mark Rogers here) concepts is to settle in space. A much different feeling in the passing concepts from even a year ago. If you notice, the back is also open in the flat which is a nice addition from a year ago, too.

As you can see on mesh later in the day, the linebackers choose wrong and while one plays the swing route, another plays one crosser as another comes free. This time it looked like the slot ran a 15 yard sit down route (not a drive route) which pulled a safety off with him as did the outside fade. There’s a ton of room for the crosser to run free for big yardage.

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Flood Concept

The Miami CB is playing a shuffle technique and gets picked on here by Dan Enos. The speed out by the outside receiver is a really successful part of Phil Longo’s offense (UNC, formerly Ole Miss). It’s a “gift” route where if you see inside and off leverage from a shuffle CB, the QB knows that’s where he’s going. Here, the QB doesn’t go to the gift but it is obviously open per the screenshot below.

The corner route is going to pull the safety and CB off. The CB needs to know the safety is over the top and play the underneath route but he is baited on the corner route. The QB takes the slower developing throw to the crosser and luckily there’s enough pass protection to get the throw off.

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Summary

In limited film I like what I see. There were many formations, shifts, and motions but the concepts were similar. I like what I saw from N’Kosi Perry and Jarren Williams. They look like 1a and 1b out there. One benefit of Air Raid concepts is that with receivers running to space you’ll see better adjustments in scramble drill moments like the one below. It makes the receivers more aware of the situation and more reactive in the middle of a play.

The offensive line didn’t do a poor job of protecting in the film I saw. On the scramble above, the tackle could’ve committed his hips earlier and washed the defensive end out by riding him up and behind the QB but everyone is learning a new system and techniques. If Coach Enos can settle on an offensive line rotation they’ll get used to communicating with each other and used to the techniques of the position- it will get better.

The combination of Will Mallory and Brevin Jordan are going to be hell to defend for ACC opponents. I can’t wait for the two tight ends to be out there with Jeff Thomas’ speed and Deejay Dallas being a versatile weapon. It will all come down to protection and that’s part coaching, part talent, and part scheme to teach those QB’s to throw to their rush routes (OTB’s and swings from the RB’s).