The Furman Film Review went over well earlier this week, so a quick thanks to everybody who interreacted on that thread as the response was overwhelmingly positive. I try to watch upcoming opponents just for the sake of feeling like I know what to expect. For LA Tech, their new HC is Sonny Cumbie. He's a former Texas Tech QB born and bred in the air raid. Most notably he was the OC for TCU from 2014-2020. When he got there they had Trayvon Boykin at QB who was a menace. The scheme made him nearly impossible to stop, but as the ARO became more popular and defenses found some answers, combined with Boykin moving on, they never found the same success after the first couple of seasons. The interesting thing about Cumbie's version of the ARO is that he's much more multiple in terms of personnel and formations than purists like Mike Leach, Dana Holgorsen, or Sonny Dykes.
Lets run through the LA Tech v Mizzou game from week one. One thing to note here: the QB that LA Tech ran out there for the first three quarters of that game (Downing) threw 3 ints and was benched. His replacement (McNeil) started this past weekend against Stephen F. Austin and was, well, less than efficient. He has some tools though and I've got to assume he's their guy again this weekend.
First snap of the game. Watch the QB manipulate the zone defenders by looking left off the snap towards a bubble before working back right to the open man. WR drops it, but this is the exact way GT attacked our soft zone in the opener. As was mentioned in the Wednesday film review by @Larry_Williams, NC State in particular excels in the short passing game. Last year they wore Booth out underneath throwing to Emeka Emezie on the same concepts as you see here from LA Tech.
Later that drive. Design here is good and if you think we won't see this one, go ahead and pass it to the left hand side. CB to the bottom loses his assignment on the motion and does a nice job switching with the S in real time, but as he bails to cover the deep half they throw where he left.
A couple drives later. Hello Joseph Charleston. He had a pick on the opening drive off a tip that was nullified due to DPI on the corner. Happy to see a former Tiger having success but you'll see him again.
This goal-to-go play pretty much sums up LA Tech's biggest issue defensively. They don't tackle well. Granted, this is an opener and most teams have transitioned to less live work during camp so it's something that tends to work itself out over a full schedule.
Explosive play here offensively for the Bulldogs. 2 things of note presnap. They don't run much FIB (formation into boundary) and what that means is when they go trips, which is quite often, those 3 guys are lined up to the field. The angle here doesn't do it much justice, but look at their spacing. In college, there's 60' from the hash to the sidelines. The WR to the top of the screen is outside the numbers and the inside slot is fairly close to the hash. There's probably 40' of space between these guys and that creates a ton of issues for a defense. Running zone against this is incredibly unreliable because you have so much grass to cover and in man you're truly on islands. Also puts your LBs in a real sticky spot because it's on them to contain the box. Help is a long ways away. Josh Huepel is the best in the country at using spacing to his advantage - they go so fast it's a little hard to see but look how far away the WRs are from the OL. With the way our secondary has handled open field tackling and the quick game, I'd be lying if I said this scheme wasn't a little concerning.
Beautiful defense here from Mizzou. When the RB motions out, the LBs start talking, the DL shifts and then the DE bails to man-up on the RB against what they have to assume is a screen look. Then the ability to get pressure with 3 guys has to make us Clemson folks smile knowing the kind of horses we have up front.
Interesting little cover 1 look from LA Tech right here. DE bails into that middle zone, replaced in pressure by the OLB to the far side of the screen and the safety drops into center field. Everything else is man coverage, so the other safety being so far off the slot leaves a nice window. We've seen DJ show a little reluctance to pull the trigger on these quick, middle-of-the-field throws. With all the talk of opening up passing game between the hashes, some short dig/slants inside stand to attack a relative weakness for them. Obviously being overmatched, their main goal is not to get beat over the top.
Mizzou broke out the wildcat with Luther Burden a handful of times, including this one in the red zone. Note the angles and tackling (again) in space.
The backup QB, McNeil, comes in late in the 3rd quarter. After a curl is dropped on his first throw, here's his second snap. He's a lot bigger than Downing - listed at 6'6 and he's got some arm strength. Off the drop step he drives this ball perfectly and it's a throw they didn't ask Downing to try and make. The other thing is again look at the spacing. Remember how wide I talked about them being earlier? Having guys consistently lined up on the numbers if not outside of them? Here the outside WR has more room to the boundary and that's by design. If you can get DBs to counter this with outside leverage, you've opened up pandoras box on inside releases. Here it is again later in the game. When you have a QB that can make that throw across the field, it's hard to stop. We saw Trevor Lawrence make a living on this.
A moment to appreciate pocket awareness and maneuvering. Quick feet here from Cook to evade and climb through the pocket. In man coverage with everybody's back to him, if he can just get through the scrum, it's easy from there.
Eye candy. Does it actually work? Ask Joseph Charleston. Everybody keys in on the motion and is flat-footed while #85 is flying by them. Same concept here the following possession. #11 on defense is flat-footed letting the TE work past him because he's trying to hold contain on the jet sweep/pop pass. Poor footwork here by the QB and the ball sails a little bit. #6 for LA Tech, Smoke Harris, probably ran 5 miles behind the line of scrimmage pre-snap in this game.
I didn't make note of any particular plays involving this guy, but I really like #13 Myles Brooks at corner for LA Tech. Their new DC came from Stephen F. Austin and brought this guy with him. Dabo mentioned their corners having good length - this cat is legit 6'2. He's likely an all-conference type player in their league.
I expect a more inspired performance defensively from the Tigers and while the LA Tech roster doesn't stack up well, their offensive scheme is built to attack our weakness and inexperience in the secondary. I'd be willing to bet they end with 50+ pass attempts as they didn't even try to run the ball on Mizzou, finishing with less than 10 yards. I think it's important to note how awful Mizzou looked against K-State in getting beat 52-14 after taking LA Tech to the woodshed. Mizzou's only offensive points came at the end of the game on some backups. Just hope the progression we've seen from DJ continues and everybody's confidence is sky high heading into Winston-Salem to end the month. With a night game in the Valley, a tough week where the coaches have challenged some manhood, and guys rallying around the Bresee family, I just can't help but feel like LA Tech is the sacrificial lamb.
Lets run through the LA Tech v Mizzou game from week one. One thing to note here: the QB that LA Tech ran out there for the first three quarters of that game (Downing) threw 3 ints and was benched. His replacement (McNeil) started this past weekend against Stephen F. Austin and was, well, less than efficient. He has some tools though and I've got to assume he's their guy again this weekend.
First snap of the game. Watch the QB manipulate the zone defenders by looking left off the snap towards a bubble before working back right to the open man. WR drops it, but this is the exact way GT attacked our soft zone in the opener. As was mentioned in the Wednesday film review by @Larry_Williams, NC State in particular excels in the short passing game. Last year they wore Booth out underneath throwing to Emeka Emezie on the same concepts as you see here from LA Tech.
Later that drive. Design here is good and if you think we won't see this one, go ahead and pass it to the left hand side. CB to the bottom loses his assignment on the motion and does a nice job switching with the S in real time, but as he bails to cover the deep half they throw where he left.
A couple drives later. Hello Joseph Charleston. He had a pick on the opening drive off a tip that was nullified due to DPI on the corner. Happy to see a former Tiger having success but you'll see him again.
This goal-to-go play pretty much sums up LA Tech's biggest issue defensively. They don't tackle well. Granted, this is an opener and most teams have transitioned to less live work during camp so it's something that tends to work itself out over a full schedule.
Explosive play here offensively for the Bulldogs. 2 things of note presnap. They don't run much FIB (formation into boundary) and what that means is when they go trips, which is quite often, those 3 guys are lined up to the field. The angle here doesn't do it much justice, but look at their spacing. In college, there's 60' from the hash to the sidelines. The WR to the top of the screen is outside the numbers and the inside slot is fairly close to the hash. There's probably 40' of space between these guys and that creates a ton of issues for a defense. Running zone against this is incredibly unreliable because you have so much grass to cover and in man you're truly on islands. Also puts your LBs in a real sticky spot because it's on them to contain the box. Help is a long ways away. Josh Huepel is the best in the country at using spacing to his advantage - they go so fast it's a little hard to see but look how far away the WRs are from the OL. With the way our secondary has handled open field tackling and the quick game, I'd be lying if I said this scheme wasn't a little concerning.
Beautiful defense here from Mizzou. When the RB motions out, the LBs start talking, the DL shifts and then the DE bails to man-up on the RB against what they have to assume is a screen look. Then the ability to get pressure with 3 guys has to make us Clemson folks smile knowing the kind of horses we have up front.
Interesting little cover 1 look from LA Tech right here. DE bails into that middle zone, replaced in pressure by the OLB to the far side of the screen and the safety drops into center field. Everything else is man coverage, so the other safety being so far off the slot leaves a nice window. We've seen DJ show a little reluctance to pull the trigger on these quick, middle-of-the-field throws. With all the talk of opening up passing game between the hashes, some short dig/slants inside stand to attack a relative weakness for them. Obviously being overmatched, their main goal is not to get beat over the top.
Mizzou broke out the wildcat with Luther Burden a handful of times, including this one in the red zone. Note the angles and tackling (again) in space.
The backup QB, McNeil, comes in late in the 3rd quarter. After a curl is dropped on his first throw, here's his second snap. He's a lot bigger than Downing - listed at 6'6 and he's got some arm strength. Off the drop step he drives this ball perfectly and it's a throw they didn't ask Downing to try and make. The other thing is again look at the spacing. Remember how wide I talked about them being earlier? Having guys consistently lined up on the numbers if not outside of them? Here the outside WR has more room to the boundary and that's by design. If you can get DBs to counter this with outside leverage, you've opened up pandoras box on inside releases. Here it is again later in the game. When you have a QB that can make that throw across the field, it's hard to stop. We saw Trevor Lawrence make a living on this.
A moment to appreciate pocket awareness and maneuvering. Quick feet here from Cook to evade and climb through the pocket. In man coverage with everybody's back to him, if he can just get through the scrum, it's easy from there.
Eye candy. Does it actually work? Ask Joseph Charleston. Everybody keys in on the motion and is flat-footed while #85 is flying by them. Same concept here the following possession. #11 on defense is flat-footed letting the TE work past him because he's trying to hold contain on the jet sweep/pop pass. Poor footwork here by the QB and the ball sails a little bit. #6 for LA Tech, Smoke Harris, probably ran 5 miles behind the line of scrimmage pre-snap in this game.
I didn't make note of any particular plays involving this guy, but I really like #13 Myles Brooks at corner for LA Tech. Their new DC came from Stephen F. Austin and brought this guy with him. Dabo mentioned their corners having good length - this cat is legit 6'2. He's likely an all-conference type player in their league.
I expect a more inspired performance defensively from the Tigers and while the LA Tech roster doesn't stack up well, their offensive scheme is built to attack our weakness and inexperience in the secondary. I'd be willing to bet they end with 50+ pass attempts as they didn't even try to run the ball on Mizzou, finishing with less than 10 yards. I think it's important to note how awful Mizzou looked against K-State in getting beat 52-14 after taking LA Tech to the woodshed. Mizzou's only offensive points came at the end of the game on some backups. Just hope the progression we've seen from DJ continues and everybody's confidence is sky high heading into Winston-Salem to end the month. With a night game in the Valley, a tough week where the coaches have challenged some manhood, and guys rallying around the Bresee family, I just can't help but feel like LA Tech is the sacrificial lamb.
