THIS IS NOT A BASKETBALL COACH! I've had this written for days but feared coaching news will hit the moment I post it. So maybe this will jog the coaching news.

One of the great questions this spring is how Gattis plans to incorporate the stuff Michigan's been doing with his ideas. Draw up a play coach twitter already found this one and drew it up:

Boundary Pin & Pull RPO is already tough for the Defense to Diagnose!

➕ Adding Swing from the Pistol RB really puts the Overhang Defender in a Bind

✌ Love seeing RPO out of Two Back!

Excited to see what @Coach_Gattis does in Ann Arbor! pic.twitter.com/JCDndCLRj3

— Coach Dan Casey (@CoachDanCasey) May 4, 2019

…because it really takes you through how Gattis thinks. I also wanted to break this down because it shows how Gattis's changes to the offense are more of a renovation than a teardown.

THE STANDING STRUCTURE: PIN AND PULL

As Coach Casey said, the most basic part of this play is the "Pin & Pull" running concept. Michigan developed this over the course of 2018 against any kind of front willing to put its last DE inside the tight end (basically everyone but Northwestern and Michigan State). It's the mullet of running plays: zone on the backside, power on the front, with one of the pullers responsible for kicking an edge defender.

This won't be on the final exam. I just wanted to establish that this is something Michigan's offensive players have down so much that they were building traps and such into it. I also wanted you to get familiar with the ways that defenses can muck it up. The big one of course is those linebackers high-tailing it after the ball.

As Casey mentioned—and as I covered when we were first drawing it up last year—the nice thing about Pin & Pull plays is they're hard for the backside defenders to read. The linemen in front of them are blocking like inside zone, and you don't want to get caught over-pursuing against that. Then they find out they're supposed to be pursuing! Here they are running it against Indiana's Over front.

The guy who ultimately makes this tackle is #34, the linebacker set up in the middle of the field. The guy who's really the key to this play however is #43, the middle linebacker. If that dude shadows the running back and gets to the gap at the same time, it's no yards, or a blocker used up where he's in the path of where everyone needs to go. Let's watch him here:

#43, the linebacker who starts just under the hash mark

I mean it sucks to suck but he did everything he could up until physics and its good friend Michael Onwenu took over. If he's there, it means Onwenu isn't picking off somebody else. His arrival to this play is what made that signal in your fan brain go off that this play was probably going to end soon.

[After THE JUMP: What would Speed In Space Do?]

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Now think like Gattis. Who on this play is doing something unimportant that could instead be messing with that key middle linebacker? Ah, you:

​I've already shown the first wrinkle that Gattis added: By making the quarterback the runner, he freed up the running back to run a flare screen option out the other side. Buh-bye backside guy:

​But what if you don't want your quarterback doing the running? Like, we've got fullbacks and stuff to do that right?

Putting the P in RPO

Let's go all the way back to last year's Penn State game. Michigan had an RPO to Zach Gentry off of their run action that I was so excited about at the time I wrote my Neck Sharpies on it just to savor it more.

This RPO read the middle linebacker, not the WLB. They're counting on the WLB to be stuck outside on Gentry, and there's no way to recover from that without help on the inside.

​Unfortunately we ran this just the once to my recollection. Anyway, it's in Michigan's playbook, and it's a good play, getting the defense stretched between the frontside and the middle.

Alabama ran a similar play last year, when Gattis was coaching under "co-"OC Mike Locksley. The split backs here are very Locksley and it's Alabama's base lead zone running play, but the read is the same and it's for the same purpose: keep the MLB from coming down on the run he's in the best position to defeat.

The second slant there isn't needed, but it's a real read. Tua Tagovailoa has to set for a beat to wait for the slot receiver, Jerry Jeudy, to clear. Watch the overhang linebacker (the guy just under the top hash mark) here closely because you wont' be able to see it in the Michigan clip I'm going to show later on. First he's inside the hash mark:

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Now he's not:

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This is called "buzzing." Normally defenses line up a player over every eligible receiver, preferably within 8 yards. That's because if you don't that receiver is going to start the play open, and you'll get quick hitches or seams in your face. One way to get around that is to have a linebacker "buzz" the receiver on his release, hanging out for a few steps before snapping back to his zone as the receiver heads deeper into a safety's zone or inside to another linebacker's area.

So that's the QB's second read. If that LB buzzes, he should wind up with outside leverage on your slanting receiver and most likely will have responsibility for covering the flat, meaning as long as another linebacker isn't dropping into the middle your slant should be open.

Let's Call This Play Everybody Gang Up on Jordan Anthony

Now it's time to think like Gattis.

Let's go back to the base pin & pull play versus Indiana again. We've already used the quarterback. Is anyone else not doing something that could otherwise be pulling away a linebacker? Okay, you, the extra tight end:

​You're just crack blocking? That doesn't always go well. Come back to the backfield; you're now a fullback run threat:

​Voila. The defense here isn't complying with our "let's show this versus a simple look" but let's not hold it against Brown that he's trying to change things up with a 3-3-5 Uche package and a Cover 2 shell. Doesn't matter. There's still a backside middle linebacker, and we're still going to mess with that guy.

Now we've got the MLB being pulled by the swing pass, the MLB having to worry about a backside keeper by the quarterback, the MLB having to worry about being the only unblocked guy who can get to the fullback handoff, and…is there anything else we can put on this poor guy?

Josh you asshole.

Sure enough, he's getting read. If he goes after the run, that leaves the other linebacker, Uche, with both the swing pass and the slant. If he backs up to help Uche, he'll never get back to help against the run. He does what any optioned player would do: he kinda stands on his toes doing nothing. That doesn't help either.

​Patterson waits for the slant to clear the overhang linebacker, Josh Uche, playing the role that #34 was playing in the IU example. Without Anthony backing up, Uche's now getting stretched by two receivers moving in opposite directions.

​He's got to buzz the slot receiver because you gotta buzz slot receivers, when your Metellus is that high, and that puts Uche outside of Black. There's no recovery.

Things & Stuff:

This is a real pass play. Patterson has to read the coverage to make sure Black gets inside of Uche. He should, but it's no guarantee. It's easier to tell on the Alabama version, but the other slant is also there. With the MLB already looked off and the routes too shallow for safeties to help, it's a simple enough read.

The defense couldn't defend it much better with this playcall. The MLB is put in a huge bind with the RPO. With the RB moving top speed one way and the run play going the other way, Jordan Anthony can't cover either well by standing still. But I think he did a fair enough job; he hung in long enough to make the quarterback pull it, then was still in position to maybe catch up to the running back.

Or could they? I think the way they're coached here is Uche does have to replace inside on in-breaking routes while the MLB takes the swing pass, based on this one time I remember Peppers getting slanted and Gedeon had split after a running back. That's a good rule for preserving matchups and a bad rule when you've got Uche against Tarik Black. Uche does start with good leverage for this route, however, and a more experienced pass defender doesn't let the WR cross him that smoothly. Probably.

Or could they 2? Ideally Anthony backs out, forces the handoff, then explodes after it.

The DE gets stared out of the play. It's nice when an unblocked DE forms up like he's getting zone read when he isn't, isn't it? There isn't a good way for Hutchinson to tell he's not the optioned guy here. A defense that respects the option won't have that DE going hell for leather at the quarterback most likely, or if they do they have the MLB scraping behind that, which means the slant should be open.

The offensive line took on a complicated twist blitz like no biggie. Sorta. Ruiz got shucked by Hudson, who would have had the fullback in the backfield on a handoff. Still that's good blitzing by Hudson, not an identification error. Gawd that's nice to see.

Thinking like Gattis is now a thing. I love how you can follow his mind in his play designs. Take a play that Michigan already runs well, find the guy doing a thing that isn't as likely to help, and see if he can do something that's more central to the play.

The guy doing a thing that isn't as likely to help is usually a fullback or extra tight end. There's been a real philosophical break here. Harbaugh likes his extra blockers because they make for extra gaps and extra defenders who have to beat blocks. Gattis sees lead blockers, arc blockers, and crack blockers as less valuable than other things he could be doing to the defense with  that material.