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Rice Football: The Evolution of the 2019 Offense

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The Rice football offense changed over the course of the 2019 season, but to what degree? Carter Spires breaks down what changed and what remained the same.

We’re entering that time of the year where we’d be most starved for football content even in a normal year—which 2020 is most assuredly not. So with that in mind, here’s the first installment of a new project I’m working on, documenting the evolution of Rice’s offense in 2019 and beyond.

In this piece, we’ll be looking at how Rice’s offense changed in 2019 after Offensive Coordinator Jerry Mack took a greater role in the offense following Mike Bloomgren’s declaration of “Something will change” after the Southern Miss game. Future installments will include a data-driven look at the QB candidates for 2020 and a Film Room on TCU transfer Mike Collins’ time as the starter in Fort Worth in 2018.

Using the Wake Forest game as a “before” sample and the MTSU game as the “after,” I charted every offensive play from those games. I looked for things like personnel, formation, pre-snap motion, and whether the quarterback was in the shotgun or under center. By taking a quantitative look at these aspects of offensive design, I hope to give a clearer picture of what Mack’s influence on the offense was and perhaps what this portends for Rice’s offense in 2020 and beyond.

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It’s simple enough to say that Mack will push Rice’s offense in a more “modern” or “spread” direction, compared to the under-center, heavy-personnel, run-focused offenses Bloomgren ran at Stanford, but charting these elements gives us a more detailed look at what exactly that means.

The included sample from the Wake Forest game comprises 63 plays. That’s every Rice offensive play up to the point where Wake took a 41-14 lead early in the 4th quarter. After that point Rice began playing almost exclusively from the shotgun and passing heavily, as offenses tend to do when they’re down big. I excluded this set of plays from the sample, because they were so situationally-influenced as to not represent Rice’s “normal” offense at this time. Additionally, the first 14 plays of the Wake game were quarterbacked by Wiley Green, after which Tom Stewart took over. The MTSU sample includes 65 plays, covering the entire game, all of which featured Tom Stewart at QB (aside from three Wildcat plays).

As a final note, I can’t guarantee that the charting here is 100% accurate, due mostly to poor quality video and TV camera angles. (In particular, it was sometimes difficult to tell exactly which players were lined up wide, and thus whether Rice was in 11 or 12 personnel). But I’m confident I charted these plays accurately enough to depict the way the offense was called in these two games.

Under Center vs. Shotgun

Perhaps the simplest thing we can chart is where the QB lines up. More often that not he’ll be under center or in the shotgun. Rice did use the pistol formation, with the QB shallower than in shotgun and the running back directly behind him in 2019, but not that I saw in either of these two games.

Having your QB under center is more old school. It facilitates both traditional running plays (by allowing the RB to have some downhill momentum at the handoff) and play-action passes (the fakes are generally easier for the QB to sell than in the shotgun). The shotgun is generally considered better for most passing plays. It allows the QB to have a better view of the defense both before and during the play and by putting more space between him and the pass rush. It’s also necessary to have your QB in the shotgun to run RPOs and spread option plays like the zone read, staples of many or most modern offenses.

In the Wake sample, Rice was under center 46% of the time and in the shotgun about 54% of the time. In the MTSU game, Rice was under center 27.7% of the plays and in the shotgun 72.3% of the time. The three Wildcat plays were charted as shotgun. [Note: all percentages rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent.]

This is a pretty stark difference! Keeping the QB under center is relatively rare in college football now. Many offenses don’t do so at all. In the Wake game, Rice stayed relatively true to Bloomgren’s Stanford roots. The Owls lined Green or Stewart up under center nearly half the time. By contrast, they did so with Stewart in the MTSU game only about a quarter of the time (though again that’s still more than most teams do).

Personnel

Personnel packages are typically denoted by a two-digit system. (Those of you who have read my Film Room columns will be familiar with it). The first digit is the number of running backs or fullbacks and the second is the number of tight ends. The number of wide receivers is five minus the sum of the two digits (since the other six offensive players are typically the QB and the OL). So 11 personnel, the most common personnel group at essentially all levels of football now, means 1 back, 1 tight end, and 3 wide receivers.

There are several possible combinations, of course, and during the data collection I charted them in pretty granular fashion. I charted 10, 11, 12, 20, and 21 groupings individually. I lumped 22, 23, and 32 groupings together as “heavy” packages. But for drawing conclusions, I think it’s more instructive to bin them into two groups: 10, 11, 12, and 20 personnel in one (which I’ll call the “spread” packages) and 21 and the “heavy” packages in the other (which we can just again call “heavy”).

How Rice used personnel

A quick primer on why some of those groupings are where they are: all of the 20 personnel plays (six from MTSU, two from Wake) had the QB in the shotgun with a running back on either side and three receivers. The 12 personnel plays were all from the shotgun as well. Most had at least one of those tight ends split wide. (Only 9 of 28 total 12-personnel plays between the two games had both TEs tight to the formation, either inline or at H-back).

So what’s the tally? In the Wake sample, Rice used “spread” personnel 54% of the time and “heavy” personnel 46% of the time. In the MTSU game, they used spread personnel on 64.6% of plays and heavy personnel on the other 35.4%. Not as big a difference as the under center/shotgun splits, but still a fairly significant one.

Formation

Perhaps more instructive than personnel is the formation. I charted those in three bins based on the number of players lined up as receivers. (n.b., *not* the number of players who are “wide receivers” on the roster). Four- or five-wide sets were labeled as “spread” formations. Three-wide sets were labeled as “base” formations (reflecting the prevalence of these formations). Two-or-fewer-wide sets were labeled as “heavy” formations. There are a million more granular and specific ways to describe formations, of course, but I think this way is instructive enough for our purposes and could be charted with relative ease and speed.

We can describe in some broad ways how these formations reflect the intent and goals of offenses that use them. Sets with two or fewer receivers will seek to gain advantages in the run game by outmanning the defense at the point of attack, using a large number of blockers. This also allows the outside receivers to get one-on-one matchups. That’s advantageous if you have, say, 6’5” Bradley Rozner on a shorter cornerback.

How Rice used formations

Four- and five-wide sets seek to spread defenses out, giving more space for receivers to get open. This also forces the defense to keep fewer (and often lighter) players in the box. That can open things up for the run game as well. Three-wide sets are the most balanced. They allow offenses to put several players into the pass formation without compromising the number of blockers or pass protectors much.

In the Wake sample, Rice used base formations on 33.3% of plays, spread formations 15.9%, and heavy formations 50.8%. In the MTSU game, Rice used base formations 52.3% of the time, spread formations 6.2%, and heavy formations 41.5%.

The big takeaway lines up exactly with what we expect: Rice significantly bumped its usage of three-wide sets under Mack’s influence in the MTSU game, with a notable drop in the number of two-or-one-wide sets.

The odd part is that Rice actually used four-or-five-wide “spread” sets *more* in the Wake game, by a fairly notable percentage. I think there are two explanations for this. The first (and easily the most important) is game state. About half of the “spread” plays in my Wake sample occurred late in the game, when Rice was down 34-14. While they had not totally abandoned the “Stanford offense” stuff by this point, the deficit and dwindling clock were clearly influencing playcalling by this point. If you limit to say, the first half of that game, when Rice was either tied with Wake or trailing by 10 points or less most of the time, Rice only ran three plays in a “spread” formation.

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It may also have been influenced by player usage. It’s not noted in the section above because of the way I grouped them together, but Rice actually used 11 personnel more in the Wake sample than in the MTSU game. (The increase in “spread” personnel was driven largely by a big uptick in 12 personnel plays).

Early in the season, August Pitre had a clear role as the third wide receiver. By the time of the MTSU game, it had become clear that the only two players the staff truly were going to consistently trust as receivers were Rozner and Austin Trammell. (The two combined for almost 65% of Rice’s total receptions in 2019). They may have been hesitant to use sets with four or five players wide but only two of those players being true wide receivers (especially as Jake Bailey and Zane Knipe continued to battle injuries late into the season).

Motion

The final thing I tracked that’s worth noting here is the use of pre-snap shifts and motions. To clarify, a “shift” is when a player changes positions before the snap, such as a running back splitting out wide. They must be set in the new position for at least one second before the ball is snapped. “Motion” means that a player is moving at the time the ball is snapped. Such actions are legal as long as the player is not moving toward the line of scrimmage. Both types were lumped together in one count during data collection here.

In general, an offense that shifts or motions before the snap is either trying to catch the defense off-guard or out of position at the snap by forcing them to adjust on the fly, and/or trying to force the defense to declare its coverage. The way a defense responds to shifts or motion will often reveal whether they’re playing zone or man coverage, or possibly whether they’re playing two high safeties or just one.

In the Wake sample, I counted only three times when Rice used motion or a shift, just 4.1% of plays. In the MTSU sample, I counted 13 such plays, for exactly 20%. Not a particularly high percentage of the plays, but still a significant increase.

What Didn’t Change

In a nutshell, Mike Bloomgren loves to run the ball and use fullbacks. In addition to the above, I also charted whether each play was a run or pass—a *called* run or pass. More specifically, sacks and scrambles were charted as passes. I did not attempt to track which plays were RPOs—and the number of plays in the I-formation.

Rice actually ran the ball more in the MTSU game. (58% of plays compared to 52% in the Wake sample, though again I think that can be largely attributed to game state). In addition, Rice used the I-formation or some variant of it (QB under center, RB deep, at least one FB in between QB and RB) on 100% of their under-center plays in both games.

Conclusions

We didn’t need to do all this charting to just say that Rice’s offense got “more spread” or “more modern” for the last four games of the season. But this exercise does allow us to be much more precise in describing how it changed. I think it was valuable just for that.

It’s also worth noting that, while I didn’t chart the exact play each time, the types of plays Rice ran didn’t really change, just the proportions. The RPOs and spread option runs that became more prevalent late in the season were there early. (I highlighted the Glance RPO in my Wake film room and Tom Stewart scored on a zone read keeper in that game as well).

The ultra-heavy sets and power toss plays that Rice relied on early in the season didn’t disappear. The proportions of those plays (and the formations/personnel groupings used to run them) just altered, which of course makes sense. They weren’t going to install a new offense overnight. They were just going to do more of what their players were comfortable with.

Film Room Archives: Read more breakdowns from Carter

It’s that last point that it’s important as we go forward—do what your players are comfortable with. Tom Stewart took the reins for the majority of the 2019 season. Naturally, the staff had to maximize what he did best coming out of a modern spread system at Harvard. If TCU transfer Mike Collins is the 2020 starter, it’s likely the offense will continue to look as it did over the last third of 2019. If JoVoni Johnson takes the reins, the coaches may install more plays resembling the multi-TE pistol option plays he ran at Conway HS in Arkansas. They used a bit of that style in his one start against Marshall last year.

It’s great to have a wide repertoire of plays, formations, and personnel groupings in your arsenal as Rice does. The Owls are clearly blending the old school approach of Bloomgren’s Stanford offense with modern spread principles brought by Jerry Mack. But it can make finding the right blend of those disparate styles a challenge. More still, it can be difficult to strike the balance between teaching players new things that could make them more successful or sticking to what they already know.

Rice found the winning combination over the last section of the 2019 season. Can they do it again with a new quarterback in 2020? Time will tell.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: UTEP Review

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Rice football finished out the season on a three-game winning streak, making for an exciting finale in our 2019 film room series.

Hey y’all! Welcome back to the final Rice Football Film Room of the 2019 season. We’ll highlight one play to Austin Trammell that I just enjoyed, and two plays by redshirt freshmen that show how bright the future is for the Rice offense.

Texas Flood

Setup

About midway through the third quarter, Rice is down 16–14. The Owls have the ball 1st & 10 at the UTEP 34. They’re in 12 personnel from the shotgun: Aston Walter is the back, Jaeger Bull is the inline TE to the left, Jordan Myers is at H-back to the right, and Trammell and Bradley Rozner are wide to the right with Trammell in the slot. UTEP’s in a 3-3-5 look with one deep safety on defense.

The Play

Rice goes max protect, keeping 7 guys (the OL, Walter, and Bull) in to protect. That’s more than enough, because UTEP drops all the linebackers and DBs, leaving only the three DL to rush. Eight in coverage vs three guys running routes should make things easy on UTEP in coverage here.

Rice is running a route combination commonly referred to as a Flood concept, which involves running three routes of different depths all to the same side of the field. The idea is to stretch the defense vertically, and it’s particularly effective against a zone coverage like this one (which appears to be a variation on Cover 3). For the QB, the reads go high to low: first the go route from the outside receiver; next the out route from the slot; and finally the flat route from (in this case) the H-back.

Here, the outside corner sinks into his deep zone and stays over the top of Rozner, taking that read away. So Stewart’s next read is Trammell, who runs a double move, faking a post route before breaking back into a deep out. Both inside DBs to that side are preoccupied watching Myers in the flat (the apex guy falls over, but Trammell is long past him by the time that happens), and the deep safety is in no position to get over in time to defend an out route. So Austin finds a nice open spot in the zone, and the ball should go to him

Stewart does a great job of reading this play. He’s got the ball out right as Trammell is breaking back toward the sideline. His ball placement isn’t perfect; ideally you’d lead Trammell to the sideline with this throw. But Trammell shows fantastic body control, smoothly turning back to the ball and then continuing the spin to carry himself upfield without ever really breaking stride. Nothing special about this play. Just a well-run concept, a good read by Stewart, and a great play by Trammell.

The Need for Speed

Setup

Having kicked a field goal on the prior possession, Rice has the lead 17-16 and has the ball 1st & 10 at its own 48. The Owls are in 11 personnel, with Walter next to Stewart in the shotgun. Rozner is the X receiver to the boundary, and Trammell, Myers, and true freshman speedster Zane Knipe are in a bunch trips set, tight to the formation. UTEP is again in a 3-3-5 type look with a single deep safety.

The Play

Rice shows play action. Stewart fakes a handoff and Myers comes across the formation to sell split zone action. But ultimately we again end up with three rushers against seven blockers, though this time, with Myers charged with coming all the way across to block the edge rusher, the rush nearly gets home anyway. Walter helps out, though, and the two of them divert the rusher upfield in time for Stewart to step up and make the throw.

I can’t get a full picture of this concept since the camera doesn’t go wide enough, but it looks like Stewart’s first read may have been Trammell, because he looks that way for a while before coming back to Knipe. Here, since Rozner was the only receiver to the boundary, his go route completely clears out his side of the field.

With Knipe darting across the field on a dig route, he ends up wide open, with nobody even in his ZIP code by the time the ball arrives. The throw’s a bit late, but we can forgive Tom for that, because it’s not easy to get the ball out in time for a guy with Knipe’s raw speed. In any case, the placement’s a little better, and Zane turns it smoothly upfield for a big gain. The gif cuts off there (sorry, it was long already), but Knipe nearly manages to stiff arm the safety and get to the end zone. An offseason in the weight room might just fix that!

JoVoni on the Rise

Setup

Just one play later, Rice has it 2nd & Goal at the 8. The Owls are in a shotgun 12 personnel look, with Rozner and Trammell wide, Myers and Bull both inline to the left, and JoVoni Johnson and Walter in the backfield. UTEP responds with what’s basically a nine-man box and man coverage on the two receivers.

The Play

I picked this one because it’s the first of Johnson’s two TD runs and they were both the same play: QB power. This is exactly the same blocking scheme as the numerous big plays we’ve seen Rice get from that 22 personnel power toss play, but by having the QB carry the ball, the RB act as lead blocker, and subbing in another receiver, we now have one less guy in the box for the same number of blockers.

And y’all this one is blocked perfectly. From Myers inward, the TEs and OL completely wall off the defense inside, and there are basically two guys who can make the play. One gets erased by Shea Baker, the pulling guard. The other is expertly cut blocked by Walter. Johnson waltzes into the end zone.

Two plays by two freshmen who, eligibility-wise, will still be freshmen next year. Big things are coming for this Rice offense.

And finally, I just wanted to thank y’all for sticking with me and this column for the year. It’s been a blast doing it, and the work I’ve put in has made me a smarter football fan. I hope y’all have enjoyed it as well.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: North Texas Review

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Rice Football is on a winning streak and the offense is starting to click. Take a look at some of the highlights in this week’s edition of the Film Room.

Hey y’all, welcome back to the Rice Football Film Room. Great to be celebrating another win, ain’t it? Rice’s defense put on a master class in this one, holding Mason Fine and the North Texas Mean Green offense to under 250 total yards and a mere 14 points. In celebration of that effort, we’ll highlight the early pick from Rice’s starting Swiss Army Knife . . . er, Viper Treshawn Chamberlain

You Had Me At A Glance

Setup

It’s UNT’s second offensive drive following a punt and a Rice field goal. So it’s 3-0 Owls, and Fine & Co. have the ball 1st and 10 at their own 25, less than five minutes into the game. They’re in a pretty standard 11 personnel shotgun look, with the TE lined up off the line and outside the LT at H-back.

Rice responds with a 3-3-5 look, with 3 linemen, Antonio Montero and Blaze Alldredge in the box, and Kenneth Orji playing the edge at off-ball strongside linebacker. Rice has two safeties: Chamberlain is lined up in the middle of the field about seven yards off the ball, and the other (I can’t see the number but I’m pretty sure it’s George Nyakwol) is deeper and just inside the numbers to the boundary.

The Play

Hey, we know this one, don’t we? It’s the Glance RPO, a play Rice has run to much success this season, usually to Brad Rozner. The single receiver runs a skinny post (or “glance”) route, and if the safety to that side stays deep (either to bracket him or bail into a deep zone), the quarterback throws. If he comes downhill to play the run, the quarterback hands it off. Nyakwol flows to the line at the run action, so Fine thinks he has an easy read, pulls the ball, and throws the glance.

The key here is some trickery by Rice DC Brian Smith and Chamberlain. Presnap, Fine and the UNT offense don’t see Chamberlain as likely to impact this play. He’s lined up to the strong side and fairly shallow, so they may expect him to move into the box to give Rice numbers against the run. He could also be bailing into a deep zone: perhaps to the middle of the field if Rice is in Cover 3, or maybe even all the way to a deep quarter in the wide side, if Rice is playing Cover 6 (Cover 2 to the short side and quarters/Cover 4 to the wide side).

More: Previewing Rice Football vs UTEP in Week 14

But Chamberlain does neither of those things. Instead it looks like he’s playing a sort of Robber coverage, meaning that he sticks in the shallow middle of the field, reading the QB’s eyes and “robbing” any shorter crossing routes. This, I assume, was a look by Smith intended specifically to counter RPOs, which are often run out of these 11 personnel spread looks. Nyakwol moves to the box to play the run option, and Chamberlain is in place to cover the shallow crossing routes these plays involve (often slants), while also being able to fill late against a run to his side.

Fine actually does a really good job selling the run action, and you can see Chamberlain briefly biting on it before realizing that the QB still has the ball. But at that point, he knows exactly where the ball is going and makes a brilliant break on the ball to grab the pick.

I’ve mentioned on The Roost Podcast before how difficult it is for QBs to process in real time when a defense changes its look post-snap, particularly on quick-read plays like these. This time, it’s Rice that uses that to its advantage. The ensuing interception sets up a crucial early touchdown for the Owls.

Plenty of big plays

Here’s where I note that I wanted this to be an all-Chamberlain column and break down his game-sealing pass breakup, but I couldn’t find video of it anywhere. Disappointing!

I’d give you the big Rozner catch on Rice’s final drive, but it was more of the same of what we’ve seen lately: Stewart put a catchable ball in the area of a single-covered Rozner, who boxed out like a power forward and came down with the ball. Great play but nothing I haven’t shown you before, and the camera is zoomed so tight at the beginning you can’t even see the formation.

So! We’ll give Rice’s other Harvard grad transfer his props. Here’s Charlie Booker’s first Rice touchdown.

Let’s Hit the Book . . . er

Setup

It’s the very first play of the second quarter. Rice has the ball 1st and goal from the 8, up 10-0. They’re under center in 22 personnel, with Booker at RB, Brendan Suckley at FB, Jaeger Bull at inline TE to the right, Jordan Myers being the other TE to the left (I’d say at H-back but he’s so far outside the tackle he’s really more of a slotback), and Rozner as the lone receiver. UNT responds with a five-man front and a whopping ten total players in or very close to the box.

The Play

This is an ISO run, which I believe I’ve mentioned briefly before. The difference between ISO and most plays using a blocking back (“lead” plays) is that lead plays are designed for the blocker to hit the hole and block whomever he sees first (most of these are gap runs, like power or counter), whereas in ISO the blocker has a specific player he’s aiming to block right from the beginning (usually, and in this case, the middle linebacker). ISO is designed to go up the middle, through an A-gap (to either side of the center, i.e.).

This is excellently blocked to the playside, with true freshman walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski and RG Brian Chaffin double-teaming the nose while LG Nick Leverett does a brilliant job getting inside of his man and sealing him off to open the gap.

More: Isaac Klarkowski, the latest Rice Football walk-on success 

Suckley blasts the MIKE back four yards and to the opposite side of the field. The weakside ‘backer for UNT has actually done a nice job sifting through the wash and is in position to make the play, though; it kinda looks like Chaffin was going to come off the double on him, but he diagnoses the play too quickly for that to happen. But Booker does a nifty jump cut and slaps him aside as he bursts through the hole. From there it’s all green grass.

Boy it sure was nice to break down plays from two successive wins. Here’s hoping Rice Football can close the season with a third in El Paso this weekend.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: Middle Tennessee Review

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Rice Football went 1-0 last week, topping Middle Tennessee behind a fantastic offensive performance, highlighted in this week’s film room.

Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Rice Football Film Room. Sure feels good to be coming off a win, doesn’t it? So in honor of Rice’s best offensive performance of the year (even if almost all of it was in the first half), we’ll focus on that side of the ball this week.

Rozner’s Rebounds

Setup

It’s late in the first quarter, with Rice holding a 3-0 lead. The Owls have the ball at the MTSU 30. They’re in the I-formation with 21 personnel (presumably—the camera angle is too tight to see the receiver to the top but I’m guessing it’s Trammell) with Brendan Suckley as the fullback. Aston Walter is the running back and Jaeger Bull is the inline tight end to the left.

MTSU is in a base 4-3 look with two deep safeties. The boundary corner (remember, the short side is the “boundary”, the wide side is the “field”) is showing press coverage on Bradley Rozner, who is the wide receiver to that side.

The Play

MTSU brings five rushers, with the weakside linebacker blitzing. Both backs stay in for Rice. So even with Bull running a stick route the Owls have numbers in pass protection and manage keep Tom Stewart clean.

Rozner stutter steps at the line, preventing the corner from jamming him and getting a clean outside release. From there, he runs a simple go route (or “fly route” or “streak” or whatever you prefer—football coaches have an annoyingly large number of terms for “run straight down the field toward the end zone”). With the free safety stepping up (I assume he has responsibility for one of the backs if they leak out on a delayed screen to his side), there’s no help over the top. Stewart just lofts the ball into the end zone.

More: Takeaways from Rice Football vs MTSU

From there it’s all on Bradley, who as always, does an excellent job of boxing out like a power forward and coming down with the ball. An MTSU fan watching this play might be screaming for a push-off, and Rozner does extend his arms a little bit to gain separation. But there’s enough contact both ways that I think it’s a good no-call.

We’ve talked a lot lately (here and on the podcast and in numerous other pieces on the site) about the ways Rice is modifying the offense to get more points. But they’re not going to abandon Bloomgren’s base principles entirely, and this play archetype (draw defenders into the box with heavy personnel, throw over the top to big/athletic receivers in single coverage) was working perfectly for the Owls on Saturday. The other two of Rozner’s TDs, while using different formations and personnel groups (the second, for instance, was out of a two-back shotgun spread set with three receivers), were just variations on the same principle.

Walter to the House

Setup

It’s late in the first half and Rice is now clinging to a three-point lead after MTSU clawed its way back from a 17-0 deficit. Rice has the ball 2nd-and-4 from about the MTSU 34. They’re in 22 personnel: Suckley and Walter are the backs again, and Bull and Jordan Myers are the TEs, both lined up inline to the right (Rozner is the single receiver, his feet visible way up at the top). MTSU responds with an appropriately loaded box, with nine guys within seven yards of the line of scrimmage and in or just outside the tackle box.

The Play

This looks like the power toss play that we’ve highlighted (both here and on the podcast) before, but it would more appropriately be called a toss sweep, I think. “Power” runs involve a backside guard pulling. The puller on this play is actually Brian Chaffin, who at RG is the frontside guard.

Some sweep plays involve pulling both guards, but LG Nick Leverett is instead sliding inside to take the 1-tech DT, who knifes into the space vacated by C Shea Baker (who climbs the second level right away). It’s a good job by Leverett, too; if he doesn’t get that block the 1-tech probably catches Walter in the backfield, but he manages to redirect the bull rush and shove him out of the play.

More: For the first time this season, Rice football found a way to finish

Anyway, the run is well-blocked to the playside, but with the strong safety charging hard Rice doesn’t have a numbers advantage, even with Suckley as a lead blocker and Chaffin on the kick-out block executing perfectly. Bull and Myers do a great job sealing the edge as well, which gives Walter two gaps he can work with. When the safety choose to plug the outermost gap (and gets caught in the wash of Suckley’s block), Walter showcases his excellent vision and cuts back inside, slipping between Suckley and Myers.

Now the free safety is in position to make the tackle, but Walter again shows off his vision and savvy. He’s got more green grass to the near side of the field, but he can see the FS has an angle on him to make the play that way. So he cuts back the other way through a tighter window, using the safety’s momentum against him and slipping free into the open field for the score. It’s not even a particularly violent cut—Aston doesn’t have the short-area explosiveness that, say, Juma Otoviano does—but he makes it at just the right time to catch the safety completely off-guard. It’s a really excellent piece of running.

Sealing the Win

Setup

Two minutes to go. Two MTSU timeouts. 3rd-and-11. A three-point lead and the offense has done almost nothing the whole second half. It’s big boy time, y’all.

Rice is in 12 personnel, a two-back shotgun look. Walter and Charlie Booker are to either side of Stewart. Rozner is wide to the boundary. Jaeger Bull is in the slot. Austin Trammell is split so wide to the field that you can only barely see him enter the play at the end of the gif. MTSU’s in a three-man front with two stand-up edge defenders, a single off-ball LB, and five DBs (two deep safeties).

The Play

Now here’s one we haven’t broken down before: it’s outside zone! And an uncommon variation, too: you don’t see a lot of two-back shotgun outside zone. Again, I’m not the person to break down the minutiae of blocking schemes, but essentially, in outside zone, the whole line flows one way toward the sideline and the running back follows, looking for a crease to cut through. Like I said, there’s usually not a second back, but here he acts as a lead blocker to help keep the playside edge defender from sealing the edge.

Here, the playside edge guy manages to get upfield pretty far before Clay Servin and Booker can seal him off, so right away Walter knows he’s going to have to cut the run inside. As it happens, the hole opens up (and it’s not a big one!) between Chaffin and RT Justin Gooseberry. Walter shows outstanding vision to see the crease developing—based on the angle of his head there it must have been at the very edges of his peripheral vision—and he stops on a dime and explodes upfield.

He’s into the secondary in a flash. Two MTSU DBs maybe have a chance of stopping him just short of the marker, but one is erased by a beautiful downfield block by Bull and the other simply doesn’t have the angle to counter Walter’s speed.

First down. MTSU does get the ball back, but even a backyard lateral play can’t save them, and Rice football gets its first win of the season!

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: Southern Miss review and Marshall preview

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This week’s edition of the Rice Football film room feature we take a look back at the Southern Miss game and preview the Marshall offense.

Welcome back to the Rice Football Film Room, y’all! As usual, this week we’ll be taking a deeper look at a couple plays, one from Rice’s previous game (another heartbreaker, this time to Southern Miss) and one that gives you an idea what to expect from the Owls’ upcoming opponent (Marshall, coming off a big win over WKU, getting them to a half-game from the C-USA East lead).

Southern Miss

Setup

This Rice football season has been demoralizing enough without me putting another sad breakdown into your lives, so let’s pick a happy one here, shall we?

Rice has the ball 1st and 10 at the Southern Miss 15-yard line, down 13-0 with about 6:04 left in the third. They’re in a three-wide shotgun look, though it’s technically 12 personnel because the widest receiver to the field side is TE Jordan Myers.

Southern Miss is in an even front with nickel personnel, and both safeties are about 6-7 yards deep. It looks like they could be in a Quarters or Cover six look (Cover 6 is Cover 2 on one side, usually the short side to bracket the X receiver, and Quarters/Cover 4 to the other), at least initially.

The Play

Marshall brings the house, blitzing the weakside linebacker and the boundary corner. The remaining DBs play man and it looks like the middle linebacker is spying Wiley Green.

With only five blockers to six defenders (Jaeger Bull runs a route from the inline TE spot), the Golden Eagles have the numbers advantage in the pass rush. The RB (I think it’s Charlie Booker) does an excellent job of picking up the inside blitzer (the backer), since the corner has farther to go. It’s Wiley’s job to get the ball out before the corner gets home.

The blitz has left the four remaining DBs in man. The strong safety follows Bull across the formation, leaving Austin Trammell isolated on the nickel, with the field corner covering Myers on a whip route (basically faking a slant before turning back into a short out route). Trammell runs a double move (a post corner), appearing to break his vertical route stem inside before turning back toward the corner of the end zone.

Trammell sells it well, but what really makes this play go is the chemistry between him and Green. I couldn’t isolate a frame that was clear enough to show it (I gotta start making some higher-quality gifs!), but watch that gif enough times and you’ll see that Green pump fakes *exactly* as Trammell is starting to fake his inside break. The DB bites, Trammell blows past him, and Green drops it in perfectly for a touchdown. You might normally like to see him lead the receiver a bit better, but in the end zone yards after the catch are moot, so I have no issues with Trammell having to slow up and turn around when he’s got that much cushion.

Marshall

The Marshall offense is going to be a challenge. While in some ways they are a fairly typical spread-to-run offense, they do so from a variety of personnel sets. In particular, they make extensive use of their tight ends, lining them up inline, wide, and at H-back, and using them as both blockers and receivers. Their top three tight ends rank first, second, and fifth on the team in catches and first, fourth and seventh in yards, with a combined seven of Marshall’s 12 receiving touchdowns. But they can also hit big plays over the top, with two WRs averaging at least 19 yards a catch on 9+ receptions.

Setup

It’s 1st and 10 Marshall from the 25, four minutes into the game, no score. The Herd are in a 4-wide look, but it’s actually 13 (!) personnel, because the boundary receiver and the two slot receivers are all tight ends (the aforementioned top three: from top to bottom of screen, Armani Levias, Devin Miller, and Xavier Gaines). WKU is in nickel personnel, showing a single-high look.

The Play

There’s nothing fancy about this play: in fact, it’s one I’ve broken down for Rice in this column before. It’s the Glance RPO—you can tell it’s not play action because the offensive line fires off the ball to run block. Marshall QB Isaiah Green is reading the inside DB, lined up about 8-9 yards off the line. If he doubles the receiver, Green hands it off. If he flows toward the line to play the run, Green throws the skinny post to a single-covered receiver.

Here, the DB seems to sort of slow play, presumably hoping to muddle Green’s read. But sometimes trying to play both options means you can’t actually play either, and when Green pulls to throw, the DB is left in the dust.

More: Previewing Rice Football vs Marshall

The point I wanted to make here is that, as you may have realized when I pointed out the personnel, that’s not a WR lined up at X and running that route. That’s six-four, two hundred and fifty-five pound tight end Armani Levias, who just casually blows by WKU cornerback Trae Meadows on a vertical route for a wide-open touchdown. Tight ends aren’t supposed to run like that! I mean, NFL tight ends maybe! Where did Doc Holliday find this dude! I call shenanigans!

So yeah, it’s not hard to see why Levias leads the team in catches, yards, and touchdowns. Marshall will run the ball first and foremost, and Isaiah Green has been inconsistent at QB—he’s completing less than 59 percent of his passes, with that dragging his yards per attempt down to a pedestrian 7.0—but they will absolutely hit some big plays if Rice isn’t prepared. You don’t have to be the most accurate QB in the world to be effective when you’ve got fleet-footed wide receivers and a 255-pound gazelle playing tight end for you.

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