Film Room: More from ‘Canes spring scrimmage #2

It’s spring break forever and I stumbled upon more film from scrimmage #2. So here we are. Thank you YouTube. There are good things and bad things from every scrimmage (I’ve watched UNC, Ohio State, and Alabama this spring) and Miami’s will be no different. However, there were some positives and areas for polish that we can look at from the film provided.

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Defensive alignment vs. 2 TE’s

This is exactly why the two tight end sets are going to be a huge weapon once Brevin Jordan is healthy. There’s an inline and winged TE to the bottom of the screen and two split receivers to the top. That’s a hell of an alignment and coverage issue for most defensive coordinators. Here, Blake Baker is schooled by Dan Enos. Baker’s defense has a really deep safety that’s off the shot and completely useless.

They’re staying in a 4-3 which makes sense with two TE’s there’s extra gaps. However, to the top of the screen, that’s one press cornerback against two receivers. They run the perfect combination, a favorite of mine, slant-arrow (rub concept). All Jarren Williams has to read is the cornerback- if he stays with the slant, throw the arrow, and vice versa.

Williams forces the slant even with the arrow route standing by itself. When I saw Phil Longo (UNC, offensive coordinator) speak he talked about Tom Brady making around $1,000 per completion. Each completion should be worth $1,000 in the mind of a QB. Take the easy completion, don’t thread the needle through two defenders.

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Offensive line play

It looks like this right tackle is in man pass protection. The first issue is his physical tools. He’s much taller in his stance than the other linemen, he’s leaning forward which is already a loss and his butt is too high to be in an athletic stance.

Besides what looks like 51 on the other side who is standing completely erect (yup, I said it) our man here at RT isn’t exactly a hip hinger. Even here he’s up tall, leaning forward, off balance, and his outside foot isn’t in the crotch of the defensive end. A bullrush would put him on his butt, and outside-in move (which the DE uses) would trip him.

If you want to see every “don’t” in offensive line play, take a look at the shot below. Leaning off-balance, lunging at the defensive end, outside foot isn’t in the defensive end’s crotch, it’s piss poor offensive line play. If you want to see good offensive line play, check out the guys at Offensive Line Performance. Or in the GIF below the screenshot.

As an offensive tackle who is man blocking you want to widen the pocket within reason. That’s why the OT will keep his outside knee in the middle of the defensive end, if the DE goes inside the OL can recover. If the DE stays outside the OT can continue to widen the DE out.

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The dreaded 4th and 1-2 yards for Miami

The quarterback’s first job is to count the box. This is a seven man box (4 DL, 3 LB) against 6 for the offense (5 OL, 1 TE). If the QB isn’t allowed to read the defensive end, this has to be a throwing opportunity. Against this look, if you’re going to run, the offense needs to flip the running back and run inside zone read or dart as the linebacker on the right of the offense (left of the defense) is inside in his alignment.

Since the defensive end is gap-hinged to that side, this wasn’t a read and Miami is outnumbered. With the free safety at 15-yards, the linebackers in the box (especially that far in the box against a slot) and the safety over the slot at 10-yards- it’s a great time to throw the slant-arrow from earlier in the scrimmage.

Instead the defense gets the stop and the win.

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Summary

All in all it’s a scrimmage and the first public scrimmage of the spring. Without Corey Gaynor the offensive line was going to struggle because the center sets the tone of the offense. There were great things in the scrimmage- like Cam’Ron Harris, the defense coming up with a big stop on 4th and short, Michael Pinckney running all over the field, and Deejay Dallas having an all-around amazing afternoon.