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I smell football. We're almost ready to stop guessing at what this offense can do and start seeing if we were right. The hype pieces are winding down, but I've got one more for you. These are five offensive concepts that State either hasn't ran a lot of or hasn't ran super successfully as of late, but that I'm excited to see in 2024 because of the rebuilt personnel. Let's dive in.
Zone with Jordan Waters
I didn't think State was a great zone team last year. It didn't run a ton of zone with Armstrong and the other ball carriers struggled to read zone particularly well, sans maybe Jordan Houston, who struggled to break tackles at the second level. The line blocked some of these concepts well, especially in the latter half of the season. With four starters back and a high-level center to plug in, run blocking should be a strength. With the advanced skill set of Jordan Waters, a patient back who will break arm tackles, zone plays should hit at a much higher rate for State. You're going to see a lot of this.
Split Flow Slide RPO
This is essentially modern triple option. It's a dual-read RPO for McCall that can land you on a zone run for the back, a McCall keeper, or a slide route for Justin Joly in the flat. All of these are very compelling options. Joly is so good in space, and McCall can not only make things happen on pull and keep reads, but he's really good at reading this stuff too as a quarterback who played in a base triple option system at Coastal. State ran this some last year, but as mentioned, it wasn't a great zone team. Pennix also didn't quite have the year you had hoped for. With the combo of Waters, McCall, and Joly in these concepts, you're dangerous in a lot of ways.
Read-Based Vertical Routes
Many downfield shot plays in football can be bucketed into one of two categories: coverage reads or called shots. Not every play fits into these categories, but many do. For example, a Mills concept, which is discussed below, in the way that Coastal ran it is a designed shot play. The above play is called a shock concept, which features a slot fade from the number two receiver. This becomes the first read against man, but is not usually part of the play against zone. It's a situational shot that depends on a coverage read, and State's elevated personnel at wideout gives it more chances to win one-on-one in concepts that give the quarterback options like this against man. Things like shock, different cover 1 alert routes, and even four verticals give State opportunities to get downfield, and its vastly improved receiving corps should give it more a shot to win out of breaks, deliver on back-shoulder balls, and just generally find success.
Glance and Stick RPO Concepts
Post-snap reads are a strength for McCall. He's just a cool operator. Stick and glance and things he's thrown a lot, and you can tag these RPOs to any run concept and feel good about the post-snap decision your quarterback is going to make. State ran these types of things a lot with Devin Leary. Armstrong was also pretty good at it, although the volume was much lower. With a big body involved like Justin Joly who can box out defenders and make traffic catches, this becomes an even more compelling set of concepts to run at a higher volume.
Play Action Downfield Concepts
If you're a regular TRT reader, we're beating a dead horse a little here, but the most exciting thing about McCall is the vertical concepts he opens up. He is the total package in these kinds of plays, which require a lot from the quarterback. Comfort in the pocket and ability to move and recreate the pocket is critical on these longer developing plays, and it's a strength of McCall. He's great at reading these, and his downfield accuracy is as good as any quarterback in the country, truly. Yankee and Mills were two he threw a lot at Coastal that State just didn't do a ton of last year, and it was really unsuccessful when it did. McCall can make these things work, and I'm looking forward to some creative ways to get to these concepts such initiating Mills with a KC jet motion, inverting Mills with KC and Rogers, running it out of an offset stack like above, and more. There is so much you can do now with these types of concepts unlocked for you.
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