I wanted to upload some more of my screen shots of Texas' 2014 season on offense. This time I wanted to focus on the ball control aspects of the offense and with that in mind provide a general overview. What is central to Texas' ball control oriented attack is the run and quick passing game. I didn't include many straight-ahead run plays because the base run schemes are so well-integrated with the other concepts. Below you may be able to note zone and power run schemes at the heart of the bootleg, read-option, and play-action schemes, minus of course the straight-ahead quick and drop back passing game.
The first series of pictures are some of Texas' bootleg plays. I've grown to really love this concept. It serves to punish the defense's initial response in run defense, fitting gaps and pursuit. You see eyes and hips turned as well as steps taken by the defense towards what will quickly become the back side of the play. That's winning initiative! These schemes typically involve a receiver coming across formation behind the OL. This can serve two purposes, he can block the edge defender if needed or continue his path and release into the flat. There is usually a play side out-breaking route and a back side intermediate crossing route serving as a high-low (or low-high) read and the QB still has the option to pull the ball down and run. As for the toss-sweep I included, below it is a bootleg off the same run-action, creating an "easy" gain after having gashed the Sooner front. Looking ahead, as Texas' OL-play improves and gaining 3 to 4 yards on base run schemes becomes a near-certainty, these bootleg concepts will be like stealing. Also needed is quicker recognition and decision making from the QB position.
Next is the read-option run game. I personally like that Texas operates from both under center and shotgun, each have their advantages. Also, if rumors are true regarding Texas utilizing faster tempos, operating from both alignments could yield a great deal of defensive confusion. Nevertheless, below are a couple examples of the now ubiquitous zone-read option scheme and a speed option play. There is also a shovel option built into this offense as well. All are reads on an edge defender. Texas can read-option run with most of their base run schemes and also vary the read defender when pairing it with quick pass concepts, what are referred to as run-pass option (RPO) plays.
As mentioned above, RPO schemes are integrated throughout the run and quick passing game. Texas will typically pair a zone or power scheme with quick passing game routes like stick, bubble, slant-flat, and out breaking routes against leverage. These reads are relatively simple. The first and last pictures are examples of a "read away from Mike" or RAM principle. The others, zone and power paired with the bubble, slant, or slant-flat are reads of the alley defender. The beauty of these reads are that they are already pass game reads for similar concepts in the quick game. So, they are "just like" concepts to enhance user friendliness for the QB. These concepts serve to keep an extra man out of the box on shotgun run concepts, in these cases the Mike and alley defenders are keyed. As execution of these plays improve, the offense will begin to realize a more explosive nature.
Now we get to some quick passing concepts. First are a couple sprint pass concepts. These are meant to use the threat of the QB run to spring a deep or quick route open to one side, usually the field side. The second example is of the QB's bad read and INT in the RRS. You'll see the speed-out by #8 is clearly the right throw, but the QB instead throws into trouble to #11 with poor ball placement to boot! Lastly, I included a corner route against cover-2, a "Spot" or spacing route against underneath zone, another speed-out against very soft CB coverage, and a deeper route concept that scored for Texas. Throughout the season, the QB-play was a mixed bag, but I give credit to Texas' young signal caller. There wasn't any relief coming from the sideline, a luxury often afforded struggling young passers. He had to stick with it every snap and he did that, no matter how bad it got, and it got very bad at times.
All in all, much of what plagued the offense was inconsistent play from both the OL and QB. In the OL's case, physical mismatches and missed assignments plagued many schemes. In the QB's case, slow and missed reads along with OL mishaps synergized to doom many possessions for Texas. Now imagine these schemes with a significant improvement in OL and QB-play. I for one am very optimistic about that. The team requires much work at this point, but I suspect there will be noticeable improvement by the time the 2015 season is underway. These things tend to take time.
