AFM interview with Brian Kelly

Submitted by MCalibur on

I've been poking around the internet trying to stich together some information for an upcoming diary and I came across an really interesting interview with Brian Kelly in American Football Monthly that doesn't quite fit into the main thrust of the diary, but I think it'd be of interest to the board. It's behind a paywall, but I wanted to post a few of interesting snippets here. Hopefully I stay within the mgoblog guidelines for ethical free advertising:

RE: Offensive Tempo and play signaling. Kelly said they operate with various tempos much like RR does. He also said they do not change personnel packages; TE is on the field all the time.

RE: Run Scheme. Outside zone or Stretch. Specifically avoids the zone read for fear of injury; guess he doesn't read MGoBlog (the FOOL!).

RE: most productive pass concept. "...push the ball vertically by sending four. Regardless of the formation, send four at them right away and see how they adjust."

Seems to me like our installation of the 3-3-5 is specifically targetted at Notre Dame as it incorporates specific strategies for handling these concepts. Looking at the schedule though, I can pick off 6-8 teams that run a spread: Connecticut (OC has specifically referred to it as a spread offense), Indiana, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn St., Purdue, UMass (?; doesn't matter), Bowling Green (?; doesn't matter).

Sure, something more typical will need to be schemed for MSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ohio State but, those teams are backloaded on the schedule. For Power offenses go with Van Bergen - Campbell - Martin - Roh as your D-Line then go to work.

The idea of installing a scheme specifically designed to the defend against the spread makes a lot of sense.

Magnus

May 13th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^

I imagine that Kelly will want to throw the ball deep quite a bit with the receivers and the quarterback he has on the roster.  If we run a lot of Cover 3, it could be troublesome to defend four verticals.  It will be important for our spur and our bandit to interrupt the releases of the slot receivers and tight ends.

Magnus

May 13th, 2010 at 5:26 PM ^

I'm not a big fan of quarters.  Then you've got four guys bailing out as soon as they read pass.  That's a recipe for letting up a lot of short stuff.

IMO, Man Free is the way to go if you're expecting four verticals.  I think that might put us in a bind without Woolfolk back there playing deep, though.  I'm not satisfied with our speed at the free safety position.  I think Emilien and Gordon might have shortcomings if either one is the lone deep safety.  Not only are they inexperienced, but neither one has the great speed to make up for slow play recognition.

I'm expecting us just to play a lot of Cover 3 and try to get quick pressure on the QB.  But it would be great if we had a true centerfielder back there who could punish quarterbacks who hang the ball up deep.

NomadicBlue

May 13th, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^

I also think it will be vital to get a lot of pressure on inexperienced quarterbacks early in a game.  Unfortunaltely, that means we will need to rely and count on at least one inexperienced d-back in this situation.  The first two games of the season will be tough.  let's hope our secondary speed can make up for some of the inexperience early in the season. 

ldoublee

May 13th, 2010 at 11:40 AM ^

The "?" after Bowling Green should be a "!". They ranked 6th in passing yards per game at 316 and threw the ball 596, which was 3rd most--behind only Houston and Texas Tech.

WichitanWolverine

May 13th, 2010 at 12:01 PM ^

Yes, but Sheehan, who threw for 4,052yds and 27 TDs, has gone to the NFL, along with Barnes, who had 1770yds and 19(!) TDs.  Phew...

According to their 2009 roster, they had 2 senior QBs and 3 freshmman QBs last year.  Hopefully this equates to an outcome very dissimilar to the 2008 Toledo game.

WolvinLA2

May 13th, 2010 at 6:03 PM ^

Also, their #2 WR and their #1 TE (who had almost 1,000 yards between them) were both seniors.  They return their starting RB, but lose their major backups (their highest producing returning RB other than the starter had 7 carries last year).  

They will be starting a QB who has never thrown a college pass before, who will be throwing to a very inexperienced WR corps, and a RB who will have to carry the load on his own.  Keep in mind this running back is 167lbs and was only asked to carry the ball 13 times a game last year because they threw so much.  He's also their second highest returning receiver.  BGSU games will be the Willie Geter show, or they'll lose a lot.

Yay for convincing myself we'll beat BGSU...

colin

May 13th, 2010 at 12:25 PM ^

but I think if you asked RR about his favorite downfield pass, he'd also say Four Verts.  It's a pretty bitchin' concept.  And it's definitely the first downfield pass he installs.

jsquigg

May 13th, 2010 at 12:52 PM ^

Kelly lies!!!!

He ran the zone read with Collaros last year.  He will adapt his offense as necessary, which makes Notre Dame scary for the future and also makes it important for RR to put them in their place early on.

BiSB

May 13th, 2010 at 2:24 PM ^

Pressure the quarterback, early and often.  ND lost their two best lineman from last year.  Get some pressure in their young quarterback's face, and I'll feel much better about life. 

Give him time back there and we're looking at the possibility of Michael Floyd running downfield against Kovacs or a true freshman spur/bandit.

I'll take option A, please...

JC3

May 13th, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^

Kelly loves that four verticals play. I watched a Cinci game last year and they literally ran it six or seven times. It's really tough to defend.. and Pead also had some nice catches because he was left alone in the backfield.

A play I've seen them run a lot this spring is that inside shovel pass that Florida used with Aaron Hernandez. I've seen it pop up on at least three videos so I wouldn't be surprised if they use it against us.

the_white_tiger

May 13th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^

Connecticut (OC has specifically referred to it as a spread offense),

Hmm, I was pretty sure that they ran a pro-style offense, if you have the source where it was referred to as a spread offense I'd like to see it. I remember them running a lot of under-center power running plays with a huge offensive line.

MCalibur

May 13th, 2010 at 8:37 PM ^

Follow this link. It takes you to UConn's official athletics site. On the right hand side of the screen there is a video menu and one of them is called "Inside Spring Football - Coach Moorehead". Watch it. I cant link to the video directly, sorry.

Moorehead uses the following terms specifically to describe his own offense: multiple set, no huddle, tempo spread offense.

Of course, none of that precludes UConn from running power runs, but that's what the man said.