Creating Mismatches
August 04, 2008 12:24 PM | General
August 4, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is still a no-huddle, spread offensive team. That won’t change under Bill Stewart. Yet you are about to see come into play some of the personalities of the different offensive coaches that Stewart has brought in.
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| Offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen is planning to utilize versatile players like Will Johnson in his offense this year.
Brian Persinger photo |
Offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen came from a Wake Forest program that effectively utilized the controlled passing game. Offensive line coach Dave Johnson worked with the tight ends at Georgia in one the nation’s most explosive offenses, while Lonnie Galloway and Chris Beatty both have roots in a pass-oriented spread offense.
Associate Head Coach Doc Holliday also has a background in the spread, having spent three years on Urban Meyer’s staff at Florida. Holliday is now in charge of West Virginia’s tight ends and fullbacks, and his group of players is sure to give the Mountaineer offense a different look when they are in the game. Fans could see a little bit more two tight-end formations than they are accustomed to seeing West Virginia play in the past. The objective is simple: create mismatches.
“It helps you so much as far as the defenses now having a hard time of focusing in and honing in on your personnel groupings,” Holliday explained of the different player groupings being planned. “If we have two tight ends that can play at the same time they don’t know if we’re going to be in two tights or two wides, or they don’t know if we’re going to be in a pro set with a tight end and two backs in the backfield.
“We can also line up with one back with a tight end and three wides - especially with a Will Johnson who gives us a lot of flexibility. We can put him in space and we can also make a running back out of him,” Holliday said. “He can also play the tight end position.”
The trick, says Holliday, is finding another Will Johnson to play with Will Johnson.
“If we can come up with two Will Johnson type players or somebody else steps up who we feel can get it done it’s going to create more flexibility for us and create a lot more issues for the defense,” Holliday said.
Two young players that Holliday believes might be capable of doing that are Tyler Urban and Ryan Clarke. Urban was a second-team Class 4A all-state choice at Norwin High School in North Huntingdon, Pa., who rushed for 510 yards and scored seven touchdowns as a senior. Clarke was a late pickup from DeMatha High School where he ran for 456 yards and scored six touchdowns. Both have the ability to play both fullback and tight end.
“Tyler Urban has done a few things,” Holliday said. “He’s an athletic, long guy who is just a young kid but I think he’s got great potential. He’s an extremely hard worker and an intelligent young guy so we’re going to try and throw him into the mix a little bit. He made a few plays (Sunday). Ryan Clarke is out there. He’s also a freshman at the B position. He’s got to lose some weight but if he gets himself into shape he’s got a chance.
“We have more bodies at that position but until we can put the pads on when it counts and see them step up and make plays we will feel a lot better,” Holliday added. “We also have Max (Anderson) and Sammy (Morrone) back.”
Coming up with unique formations and having hybrid players like Will Johnson can create major problems for the defense. Johnson could line up at fullback or tight end, or he could easily step out into the slot like Vernon Davis was able to do so successfully at Maryland. When Johnson does that it becomes a question of who covers him? Johnson is faster than most linebackers and more physical than most DBs.
“I think defensively in probably the last eight or 10 years we started matching offenses as far as personnel groupings are concerned in terms of who we run out onto the field,” Holliday said. “If you’ve got an extra receiver in the game then you bring in an extra DB, etcetera. Normally in the old days if you had two wides, a tight end and two backs, which was the old 21 personnel, then you would have a base defense which was four DBs, three linebackers and four down guys.
“Well now what is happening is we have a lot more flexibility with our formations,” Holliday continued. “Instead now we run our 21 personnel into the game and then all of the sudden Will is flexed out and we have different formations which create match up problems for them.”
Using hybrid players like Will Johnson is really a great concept and another way the coaches can keep defenses honest. In turn, that could take some additional pressure off of the running game.
Briefly:
“They look good in shorts. If they play in shorts I think we’ll be all right,” he said. “For the second day we didn’t have any substitution issues. I thought they played with a better tempo and I think they are getting a better understanding of what we want to do offensively. We had very few MAs. I think we put the ball on the ground once and threw one interception for the entire day which was positive.”
So what do you get out of the first few days of practice?
“No. 1 the first three or four days prior to pads you try to get everything installed,” Holliday said. “You try to get your stuff in and once you put your pads on they have the entire offense installed, they understand what you’re trying to do and like I say, coming out of spring ball I thought there were a few things they didn’t totally understand but for even the young kids for the first two days out there I thought they ran around pretty well.”
“Until you get into an actual game will we know how it will affect you because we don’t huddle,” Holliday said. “When we are in Indy, which is a hurry-up tempo, I think it can help us. The thing is I think defenses are still going to try and match up with you if we run an extra tight end into the game.”
Even with the clock running, officials are going to stand over the football and allow defenses time to substitute to match offensive personnel groupings.
“If we’re in one tight end, a tailback and three wides, and then all of the sudden we run a wide receiver out of the game in what is called our Yo-Yo personnel and Tyler Urban is running into the game, we can’t run in there as fast as we can and get set and snap the ball,” Holliday said. “We have to give the defense time to substitute. That hasn’t changed. They are going to stand over the ball and give them time. It’s no different than when there was the 25 second clock.”
Holliday remembers when that wasn’t the case.
“In the old days when the Clemsons and those people started to spring people out on the field and they wouldn’t give defenses time to substitute and they changed that rule to where the official stands over the ball and hold it,” he said. “They are still going to do that. They are going to give the defense time to substitute.”
