Thoughts on Stopping Heupel's Offense

[1974Vol]

I have heard a few analyst (talking heads) say our team is going to take a step back this year, because in year 3, SEC DC’s will start to figure out Heupel’s offense. From a pure layman’s perspective, it looked to me like Kirby Smart has it figured out. All you need is five cover guys who can match up with the Vol receivers and a nose tackle that can collapse the pocket right up the gut. It also looked like Georgia had some success early in last year’s game bringing a blitzer off the slot receiver. I think Tennessee cleaned that up later in the game, but that’s just my unprofessional opinion.

You may have noticed on most plays our QB’s take a shotgun snap at about a two step drop depth and that’s where they operate from. Again, my layman’s guess is this helps negate rushers coming off the corners because it creates an angle that favors our OT’s. Because our QB’s are so close to the LOS, 3 +/- yards, it does make them vulnerable to a push up the middle but no one but Georgia seemed able to do that with any regularity. It also makes our QB’s vulnerable to an A gap blitz by LB’s but both Small and Wright have been very good at picking those up.

So it would appear from my “casual football fan perspective” the “secret” to stopping CJH’s offense is to have a stable of DB’s that can run and cover at an NFL level, and a nose tackle that can consistently beat double team blocks by our center and guards and collapse the pocket up the middle. There are only two teams in this league currently that have that kind of talent and unfortunately, we play them both every year. The Gators could get back there, maybe LSU is close. I just don’t see anyone else in league that can keep our offense when its clicking from hanging up fiddy.

Strategy wise, hats off to Napier last year for accepting the fact he couldn’t stop us with his defense and decided to just go on 4th down every series to play keep away. If our defense continues to improve there will be more rounds in that Russian Roulette cylinder. I know there are some for real football coaches on here so would appreciate your prospective on stopping Heupel’s offense.

 

[Vol865]

You have to be able to drop 7 or 8 and stop the run/affect QB with a light box. Other than that, the only thing stopping the offense is itself.

 

[TheVolsFrog]

They act like CJH can't tweak the offense to negate what the defense is doing.

 

[cherokeeeVOL]

It also helps Kirby that he had so many blue chip players along the D-line that were just much better players than our O-line could block. They did their job which makes it easier to defend the receivers down field when the QB has almost no time to throw the ball. Not sure what you can do to scheme around getting manhandled along the line of scrimmage. Maybe they can send Joe on rollouts? Not sure how accurate or if that fits his game or not though. I hope Cooper can get back soon or hopefully Ollie has improved significantly since he was in there last. One thing that gives me hope is that last year's game was a significant improvement over year 1's game. Also, I think Squirrel is faster than our receivers from last year. Maybe he can outrun the DBs and be physical.

 

[tennesseepride84]

I don’t believe Kirby figured squat out. If you remember Hendo missed on a couple of long balls that would’ve scored and changed the narrative of that entire game, not to mention the crowd was incredibly loud causing us to false start and threw us out of rhythm. I don’t believe Kirby did anything schematically to cause us problems, we shut ourselves down.

 

[TNVOLFN]

A. It takes superior talent
B. You must have intimate knowledge of the Briles/Heupel system rules - i.e. defending the outside choice route and the slot choice route; stacked WR rules & motion to stack WR's ... Watch UGA last year, they were grabbing our guys at 7 to 9 yards, which is the depth that dictates what route our WR is going to run.
C. You must have safeties that can run and cover the slot
D. We blister people with the pass, but if a team stop our run game, we are toast.

Press man coverage on the WR's who are on the Line of Scrimmage eliminates a lot of the Choice routes we depend on in our offense (choice routes depend on the leverage of the defender). A press man Read is suppose to be a go Ball - if a choice route is called.

UGA has all the ingredients: Superior talent, intimate knowledge of the system, Safeties that can cover the slot, and a DL that can stuff anyone's run game.

 

[1974Vol]

It also helps Kirby that he had so many blue chip players along the D-line that were just much better players than our O-line could block. They did their job which makes it easier to defend the receivers down field when the QB has almost no time to throw the ball. Not sure what you can do to scheme around getting manhandled along the line of scrimmage. Maybe they can send Joe on rollouts? Not sure how accurate or if that fits his game or not though. I hope Cooper can get back soon or hopefully Ollie has improved significantly since he was in there last. One thing that gives me hope is that last year's game was a significant improvement over year 1's game. Also, I think Squirrel is faster than our receivers from last year. Maybe he can outrun the DBs and be physical.

Dont'e Thornton is supposedly as big as McCoy and as fast as Squirrel, so even with Hyatt's and Tillman's departure we may be even better this year.

 

[1974Vol]

I don’t believe Kirby figured squat out. If you remember Hendo missed on a couple of long balls that would’ve scored and changed the narrative of that entire game, not to mention the crowd was incredibly loud causing us to false start and threw us out of rhythm. I don’t believe Kirby did anything schematically to cause us problems, we shut ourselves down.

I agree, it was Georgia's talent not anything schematically that hurt us, plus the rain didn't help

 

[1974Vol]

A. It takes superior talent
B. You must have intimate knowledge of the Briles/Heupel system rules - i.e. defending the outside choice route and the slot choice route; stacked WR rules & motion to stack WR's ... Watch UGA last year, they were grabbing our guys at 7 to 9 yards, which is the depth that dictates what route our WR is going to run.
C. You must have safeties that can run and cover the slot
D. We blister people with the pass, but if a team stop our run game, we are toast.

Press man coverage on the WR's who are on the Line of Scrimmage eliminates a lot of the Choice routes we depend on in our offense (choice routes depend on the leverage of the defender). A press man Read is suppose to be a go Ball - if a choice route is called.

UGA has all the ingredients: Superior talent, intimate knowledge of the system, Safeties that can cover the slot, and a DL that can stuff anyone's run game.

So you're saying it really is the Jimmy's and Joe's ! lol

 

[ftsandersvol]

UGA has all the ingredients: Superior talent, intimate knowledge of the system, Safeties that can hold and cover the slot, DBs that can hold and cover the outside, and a DL that can stuff anyone's run game.

FTFY.

 

[TNVOLFN]

So you're saying it really is the Jimmy's and Joe's ! lol

Always, my friend.

 

[KnoxRealtorVOL]

I don’t believe Kirby figured squat out. If you remember Hendo missed on a couple of long balls that would’ve scored and changed the narrative of that entire game, not to mention the crowd was incredibly loud causing us to false start and threw us out of rhythm. I don’t believe Kirby did anything schematically to cause us problems, we shut ourselves down.

I think it's a mix of both. Kirby knows the formula and has the talent, but Hooker also just played a bad game. We got the looks we needed, Hooker just didn't connect on them.

He really only played 2 bad games last year, Pitt and Georgia, but Georgia just came at the worst possible time. They definitely had a lot to do with that, but he was just off all night.

 

[Other_Guy]

So basically all any team has to be is as dominate as Georgia, the back to back national champs.
How many defenses are going to be as good as Georgia?

 

[VolBricks]

Go watch the Missouri game last year, their D-line ate our O-line up in the first half (second half was different). Mizzou D-line was consistently up field and Hooker was having to get rid of it early. This year I expect our o-line will take a step back in production and so far Milton has not shown that he wants to run (even though I believe he is more than capable). I would expect Heupel to try and give Joe more planned QB runs just to keep the d-line honest. I do not think SEC D-cord's have "Figured" out Heupel's offense, there is nothing to figure out it is not a gimmick it just spreads you out and makes you not be able to disguise what you plan to do. Heupel spreads out your D so that you have to show if you are playing man coverage on the outside. GA beat us because they had 5 DB that were more physical and could cover our receivers long enough for the D-line to make something happen (Hooker run or get rid of the ball).
I do not think that Heupel runs Milton against VA or APSU, my thought is that he breaks that wrinkle out for the Gators in the Swamp.

 

[LouderVol]

I agree for the most part. I would only add that the DT in the middle also blows up our run game which is a key part of our offense. The coverages are a lot easier when your safeties aren't having to play run support. and if the defensive line is doing its job it also frees up the LBs to similarly do their job. A good run game makes them commit to stopping that first, which opens up short plays over the middle where the LBs were. We can also use guys like Fant to stress the LBs and keep them from focusing on any single job.

I think that is the key part of Heupels space and speed plan. Get the defense having to consider a lot of things, covering all the space from our WRs, covering a RB or TE coming out into that new space, and making sure with all that space the middle is still plugged against the run.

Takes great discipline to do that against our speed. Takes either great athletes or great scheming to cover the space. Obviously if you are elite at any one area it makes the rest easier.

 

[AlwaysOrangeNeverBlue]

They act like CJH can't tweak the offense to negate what the defense is doing.

This is very much overlooked, in my opinion. If you watch tape of his UCF offenses and even prior iterations, you can tell he does a lot of tweaking based on personnel and matchups.

 

[sonofUT62]

That game changed on the punt, and the two missed shots that HH unfortunately missed, plus the missed sack that Bennett turned into a TD run. If stopping this offense was as easy as these mouthpieces made it to be, then Clemson would have done it with more talent Than what SC had and us playing without 3 key offensive pieces.

 

[sjt18]

I have heard a few analyst (talking heads) say our team is going to take a step back this year, because in year 3, SEC DC’s will start to figure out Heupel’s offense. From a pure layman’s perspective, it looked to me like Kirby Smart has it figured out. All you need is five cover guys who can match up with the Vol receivers and a nose tackle that can collapse the pocket right up the gut. It also looked like Georgia had some success early in last year’s game bringing a blitzer off the slot receiver. I think Tennessee cleaned that up later in the game, but that’s just my unprofessional opinion.

You may have noticed on most plays our QB’s take a shotgun snap at about a two step drop depth and that’s where they operate from. Again, my layman’s guess is this helps negate rushers coming off the corners because it creates an angle that favors our OT’s. Because our QB’s are so close to the LOS, 3 +/- yards, it does make them vulnerable to a push up the middle but no one but Georgia seemed able to do that with any regularity. It also makes our QB’s vulnerable to an A gap blitz by LB’s but both Small and Wright have been very good at picking those up.

So it would appear from my “casual football fan perspective” the “secret” to stopping CJH’s offense is to have a stable of DB’s that can run and cover at an NFL level, and a nose tackle that can consistently beat double team blocks by our center and guards and collapse the pocket up the middle. There are only two teams in this league currently that have that kind of talent and unfortunately, we play them both every year. The Gators could get back there, maybe LSU is close. I just don’t see anyone else in league that can keep our offense when its clicking from hanging up fiddy.

Strategy wise, hats off to Napier last year for accepting the fact he couldn’t stop us with his defense and decided to just go on 4th down every series to play keep away. If our defense continues to improve there will be more rounds in that Russian Roulette cylinder. I know there are some for real football coaches on here so would appreciate your prospective on stopping Heupel’s offense.

Add a good home field advantage, elite athletes and depth at every position, and some wet weather....

Honestly the beauty of Heupel's scheme is in its simplicity. There is a counter to every approach to stopping it. He forces D's to "show" by spreading them out. He then prevents them from disguising their D very easily with tempo. He confuses their communication with formation, movement, and tempo. None of this is confusing to the offensive players but makes defenders' heads swim.

The best defense is the one aided by the new clock rule. Hold the ball. Run the clock. And hope to have 12+ play drives that keep the ball away from UT's O. That is one reason that the panic over not paying NIL is misplaced. Depth of talent for UT is more important than having a few stars. It is nice to have elite players but it is more important to have bunches of really good defenders to sub in and out.

 

[Namorto1]

Good assessment. You also need athletic backers and DL to negate the QB from escaping the pocket and getting chunks of yards. Georgia covered everything last year. But very few teams have the talent to man up 1x1 in space with us. Milton just needs to make good decisions and accurate throws. Officials letting teams hold off the line of scrimmage helps. You can't underestimate how much Georgia's crowd disrupted our offense too last year and we didn't handle it well. Florida will be a good test to see how we have progressed in that respect.

I think our offense will continue to evolve and thus the recipe to stop it will have to continue to evolve. Expect more throws to both TEs in middle of the field and RBs out in the flat or on bubble routes. Joes needs to hit a high % of these throws. I understand the intent of the tempo and primarily playing 3 WRs at a time but I hope we rotate on alternate series a bit more this year with more WR depth. We need to wear opposing DBs out and let the WRs run routes at tempo at all times. Even the best cover CBs get tired and when they get tired they will make mistakes. I expect our rushing attempts may pick up a bit too this year, because our RB pool is deeper. Seldon will have some special packages in the gameplan as well I think. We averaged 40 rushing attempts per game last year. I'm betting we are at 45 per game this year. I trust that our defense will improve from last year so while our offensive may not be as efficient, they very well may get more possessions simply due to the fact of our defense getting off the field more often. I trust Heupel and 40 pts per game seems to be his floor.

 

[sjt18]

Also it isn't like Heupel has been hiding these concepts and suddenly sprung them on the world since arriving at UT. He had the same approach at UCF and Mizzou. There has been more than enough film to study for a long time.


However Heupel DOES need a good QB and an OL that can run block. The pass pro isn't often very demanding. As someone mentioned, the drops are consistent and short. The QBs get the ball out quickly.

If the QB isn't a good decision maker and accurate or the OL cannot open run seems then it all stalls.

PS- Heupel seems to be a master at self-scouting too.

 

[BruisedOrange]

A. It takes superior talent
B. You must have intimate knowledge of the Briles/Heupel system rules - i.e. defending the outside choice route and the slot choice route; stacked WR rules & motion to stack WR's ... Watch UGA last year, they were grabbing our guys at 7 to 9 yards, which is the depth that dictates what route our WR is going to run.
C. You must have safeties that can run and cover the slot
D. We blister people with the pass, but if a team stop our run game, we are toast.

Press man coverage on the WR's who are on the Line of Scrimmage eliminates a lot of the Choice routes we depend on in our offense (choice routes depend on the leverage of the defender). A press man Read is suppose to be a go Ball - if a choice route is called.

UGA has all the ingredients: Superior talent, intimate knowledge of the system, Safeties that can cover the slot, and a DL that can stuff anyone's run game.

First of all, that's the most concise evaluation I've read. Nice research--nice articulation!

I'm eager for that matchup this year, to see if Heupel schemes our routes differently for Georgia, slants the pass blocking while keeping TE and RB in the backfield and half-rolling out the QB, runs a shuttle pass like a trap play into that 0-hole vacated by the NT's rush, etc.
...or if he brings out a new formation, like a heavy-package lead blocker to bust some runs, with receivers shield blocking downfield on safeties, trying to spring some big runs.

I think our regular offense would beat Georgia if we were close to equal in size/speed/talent across the board. But we're not there yet, so I'm curious how Heupel will play that this year.

 

[EZE]

It also helps Kirby that he had so many blue chip players along the D-line that were just much better players than our O-line could block. They did their job which makes it easier to defend the receivers down field when the QB has almost no time to throw the ball. Not sure what you can do to scheme around getting manhandled along the line of scrimmage. Maybe they can send Joe on rollouts? Not sure how accurate or if that fits his game or not though. I hope Cooper can get back soon or hopefully Ollie has improved significantly since he was in there last. One thing that gives me hope is that last year's game was a significant improvement over year 1's game. Also, I think Squirrel is faster than our receivers from last year. Maybe he can outrun the DBs and be physical.

Bingo. The team that controls the LOS wins the game most of the time.

The counter to OP’s NG scheme? Have OLs that win the LOS at a high percentage.

 

[37620VOL]

The offense makes you pick your poison. That is why it is always 3 receivers, 1 RB, and 1 versatile TE. If you counter with 2 deep safeties and 3 more DBs to cover the WRs, then it's hat on a hat in the running game and you get shredded. Also, the wide splits prevent the nickel from helping against the run. If you bring a safety up, you'll do pretty good against the run but you likely get shredded by air.

UGA played 2 deep the entire game. They dictated that we run the ball. UGA did a pretty good job against our run using just their front 6. We ran the ball 42 times compared to 33 passes. Our longest completion was only 28 yards. In proving that TOP is the most useless stat there is, this was probably our best TOP game of the season.

To recap:
The key to beating this offense is to be good enough against the run with your front six, play deep safeties, and don't let anything get over the top.
The key for our offense is to be able to run the ball effectively 6 on 6 against any defense in the country. Force an extra man in the box, then it's passing game heaven.

 

[KeyVol14]

He was at UCF for 3 years and nobody could
figure his offense out then and nobody has been able to in the SEC outside of UGA.

I was watching SEC network and Chris Doering said Texas A&M and UF are trending up while we are trending down. Makes absolutely no sense

 

[McDad]

Also it isn't like Heupel has been hiding these concepts and suddenly sprung them on the world since arriving at UT. He had the same approach at UCF and Mizzou. There has been more than enough film to study for a long time.


However Heupel DOES need a good QB and an OL that can run block. The pass pro isn't often very demanding. As someone mentioned, the drops are consistent and short. The QBs get the ball out quickly.

If the QB isn't a good decision maker and accurate or the OL cannot open run seems then it all stalls.

PS- Heupel seems to be a master at self-scouting too.

Can you dive a bit more into the concept of self scouting?