Caveat: This is an HD post, hence her referring to us as a "disgruntled fan base"...
First-year Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler is in a tough spot. He’s got one of the ACC’s most disgruntled fan bases tracking his progress every step of the way. The debut of his offense in the spring game wasn’t exactly an instant classic, but it also wasn’t an accurate reflection of the progress made throughout the entire spring. I caught up with Loeffler recently to get his take on it. Here are the highlights of our conversation. …
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/55247/qa-with-vt-oc-scot-loeffler
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"They’ve always had an edge on defense. We want to have the same on offense"
Sounds like he's on the right track.
Can someone copy/paste that so we don't have to give her the click?
A couple of things I found interesting:
Loeffler referred to it is as a "the West Coast system". That's the first time I've heard him refer to his scheme as that, but I guess that makes sense with the slants, crossing routes, and involvement of the H-Backs. Loeffler has emphasized running the ball, and Shanahan's variation of the west coast offense blended with zone blocking schemes (and now pistol / option concepts) has consistently produced great runners. I'm excited thinking about the potential, but am worried that Loeffler wants to do too, but my blood pressure drops when I remember that he was meticulous enough to just install a simple and small base offense this spring.
I do feel better about the o-line. Loeffler confirmed again that the coaches were swapping the linemen around to see how they fit best, and it seems like they want to nail down a starting five in early August. I think we saw a bunch of good individual performances throughout spring, but not a cohesive group effort. Hopefully we'll see that during one of the final August scrimmages.
An effective West Coast Offense, along with the traditionally tough VT Defense sounds like a formula for success to me; only thing better would be to bring back BeamerBall to its glory days.
By now the term "West coast offense" has lost most of it's meaning, in the same way that "alternative rock" has. It's so broad, and could can contain so many concepts, that two teams could be running a "west coast offense" and they'd look nothing alike.
It's just a blanket term fora pro-style, multiple formation, focusing on exploiting personnel rather then systemic match-ups, and most of all ball control offense.
I don't think it's lost its meaning, as much as it has expanded and evolved. When I think of west coast offense, fundamental things like: precision passing routes timed with the QB's drop, horizontal attack, players in the backfield being part of the passing game, still come to mind.
My point is that the West Coast offense was so successful that it has permeated all of offensive football to the point that every offense could claim to be West Coast. Thus, describing an offense as "west coast" will give very little insight into what the coordinator will be running.
Zone blocking or man? Trap blocks and/or toss sweeps? 1x2 personnel, 2x2, 1x1, or even 1x0? Run for short yardage or pass for short yardage? Power back or Scat back? QB in the running game, or a pocket QB? A modern "West Coast" offense can have all of these, or only a handful.
EVERY offense now has routes which coincide with QB footwork, focuses on attacking the defense horizontally, and has players in the backfield being a part of the passing game. From Rich Rod, to Chip Kelly, to Paul Johnson... they all have those elements that Walsh built his Championship teams around. The only offenses with a real lack of West Coast concepts are Single-wing high school offenses. No College or NFL offense will be successful without drawing heavily on West Coast principles.
Nowadays, when someone says that they run a "west coast" offense, all it really tells you is that the QB will be under center frequently and... Well that's about it. The rest is just assumed in a modern offense.
That's why I consider it a definition which is useless.
I hope you're right about the RBs and HBs as a part of the pass game. I've always admired Andy Reid's offense and his ability to get his playmakers in space. If Coleman has hands, he'll be a huge asset in a WC scheme, especially on RB screens. He's so short, he'll get completely lost behind the linemen, giving him the space to bounce around and hit huge gains. I can only hope they learn to execute, unlike the offenses of yesteryear.
That was good, and reassuring. But that last question... "Do you feel like the personnel you have fits what you want to do?" I wish Scot would have said: "No, Heather, I brought in two coaches that literally have no idea what offense I want to run."
That was a pretty obvious question.
If we're only at a quarter of the offense installed, I wonder how much will be in place by late August. Hard to fathom, and Bama is going to be tough. I'm pretty anxious to see how the offensive line develops as well, in terms of personnel. Does McLaughlin stay on 1st team? It's good to see Loeffler optimistic, and it seems like he's very pleased with the overall progress from spring.
With regards to your concerns about how much will be in place by late August, CSL pretty much covered that. He said that once you've got the foundation, the rest is pretty easy to install. I LOVE this idea, by the way. It's been said time and time again that Beamer and co. find the need to scale back the offense every October and now we've got a guy who, guess what? wants to install the basics first and build from there. What a concept. It's almost like this guy has coached major college football successfully before or something.
Like I said, it was an HD interview.
I thought the question was more about the players fitting the system than the coaches understanding it.
I second this. I really hope the players digest lots this summer and go out and compete. As long as we have the fight and attitude within, success will come
That actually makes sense...
We only installed 25% of the offense? So we're install and master the other 75% during the summer? Seems legit.
I think it is more that they installed the base formations, blocking assignments and personnel for 25% of the playbook. The other 75% will come from variations on those formations, play-actions, counters, and other plays coming from the same formation. Once they know where they need to line up, then they work on their routes, changes in blocking assignments, etc. While it may be only 25% of the plays, I think it's safe to assume that it's over half of the knowledge needed to be successful.
Along those lines, does anyone know more about what that percentage could look like? (The percentage of knowledge that has been learned already). I think that's a more useful number than the "25% of the offense installed" that's been thrown around a lot.
That said, > 50% is reassuring, but I'm just looking to get a better idea.
This turned out a lot longer then I expected. Sorry, I just love the mechanics of football. If playbook construction interests you, go read playbooks. You can find many different types online. Here is an example http://www.centuryinter.net/midway/chris/westcoast/wco.pdf
Oh god, this is my favorite topic about offensive football and Imma have to take this opportunity to educate. Why is the first 25 percent of a playbook so much slower to install then the last 75 percent? VERBAGE.
Think about a game situation. You have 11 men on the field, you have "x" amount of time to call a play before getting assessed a penalty. You have to figure that "Y" amount of time will run off as players get to the huddle, "Z" amount of time will run off as players hear the play in the huddle, "W" amount of time will run off as players run into formation. That doesn't even factor in making package substitutions (gotta run in that fourth receiver and run off your slow Tight End for your 3rd and long play!)
That only leaves you with "X - (Y+Z+W)" amount of time for the coordinator to figure out what play he wants to call, get the right players on the field, get the play call to the QB, have the QB relay the call to the players, and have the players understand what is going to happen.
This means that on gameday, there is VERY little time for any actual coaching. The players need to know EXACTLY what they need to do when they hear a play call. Loeffler didn't spend this spring just teaching his players how to run a zone stretch, a bootleg, and some passing plays...
He spent this offseason teaching them the structure of his play-calling terms. He spent this offseason teaching them how to learn new things. Now the offense knows what a running play sounds like, which hole the RB will try to run through, how to line up based on the play call, when to come in motion, what routes to run, when the offensive linemen should pull or trap block, etc. Now that they know these things, Loeffler can easily build on this foundation.
For example, Loeffler already has a name for the five wide formation we saw in the spring game (Let’s call that formation Hand, “five fingers=five wide”). Now I don’t recall Loeffler running any Jet Sweep with JC Coleman in the slot out of the “Hand” formation, but let’s say he wants to add a bunch of plays as easily as possible. It’s quite simple. Loeffler can just attach a word like “Jet” to the formation to highlight the pre-snap motion, and then a number to signify who’s getting the ball and where they are carrying it.
Hand, Jet 56. Short and sweet, easy to remember. It tells the offensive players EXACTLY whose getting the ball, how their getting it, and where they are going. (The first number is JC’s position number, and the second is the “hole” he’d be aiming for. Most modern rushing offenses use some form of a numbering system). Voila, we’ve added a Jet sweep! But let’s not stop there, let’s create a whole package!
Hand, Jet 56, Cat 13 (cat=counter… want to stick to 1 syllable words, remember, very little time for extra syllables in the huddle. Also it’s easy to remember, Cats love hanging out on counters!). That could be a fake hand off to JC on a sweep, with a QB keeper (the QB’s number is 1 of course) into the 3 hole.
Hand, Jet 56, Rev 37. That could be a reverse where JC get’s the sweep hand-off and gives it on a reverse to another receiver, like Knowles.
Hand, Jet-80. This could be a play-action off of the jet-sweep motion, to punish those Safeties who overreact to seeing JC in motion. (Some teams will use a number like 8 to signify all of their play-action passes. This allows them to play-action off of any run they have. Even though the offense is using the same routes, which keeps it simple for the offensive players, they are doing it out of different formations and different backfield action, making it complicated for the defense. Really efficient way to coach)
BAM! Just like that we’ve added a significant number of plays to the “five wide” formation (obviously these play calls are oversimplified, but I think they prove my point as to how relatively easy it is to build your playbook if you have the play calling structure in place).
Most importantly, the players only have to remember a few key words (Jet, Cat, Rev) and they’ll be able to use those principles in ANY formation! Want to Jet sweep with Knowles from under center with two TE’s and Edmunds in the backfield? Just call out “Ace, Jet 38” and we’ll see the Knowles come into Jet motion pre-snap and get a hand-off heading for the 8 hole (Ace is a common name for the 1x2 personnel grouping, all you Madden players know this though)
Now we’ve more then doubled the number of plays we’ve had without adding much verbage for the players to remember. They can now run a counter, a reverse, jet-sweep, and play-action out of any formation. Loeffler can “build” virtually any common run from scratch by calling out the formation, the action, the player, and what hole to run for.
The hard work (getting the players to learn the play-calling formula) is over, now comes the hardest work. Teaching the nuances of each players position. Blocking a Jet sweep for a Tackle in five wide is a lot different from blocking a Jet sweep from Ace formation.
bro
excellent post, you should click that typewriter on the upper right.
This is a great read for someone who's never played organized football besides intramural flag.
Glad you like it!