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Notre Dame Football

Long to Bring More Uptempo and RPOs to ND?

January 1, 2017
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With Mike Denbrock leaving Notre Dame for what seems like a demotion to call plays at a Group of 5 school, the writing appeared to be on the wall. Brian Kelly was preparing to take full control of the offense again.

But then the unexpected happened.

Notre Dame went out and (now officially) hired Memphis offensive coordinator Chip Long. He just finished calling plays for the Tigers this season and led their offense to a top 35 ranking in yards per play. In fact, it improved on the yards per play from the previous season when they had first round pick Paxton Lynch quarterbacking them. They lost Lynch and six other starters on offense and got better under Long.

It was a highly productive unit that finished 16th in points per game (38.8) and tied for 14th in plays over 40 yards or more (23). All in all, not too shabby for a first year coordinator calling plays for the first time in his career.

He certainly had plenty of influence from his head coach, Mike Norvell, who previously called the plays for Arizona State. It's my understanding that Long was the primary play-caller, though. The offense just looked very similar to the one Norvell had run at Arizona State so successfully before he took the head job at Memphis (three straight years of being in the top 30 according to S&P+).

We don't know if Long will be the play-caller at Notre Dame or not (update: we know now he will be), but I'm assuming that Kelly is likely going to still have the final say. And we don't know this for a fact, but I think it's safe to say Long will also coach tight ends since he did the same at Memphis, Arizona State, and Illinois. Considering that Long likely had other options to be a Power 5 OC at other programs this off season, it's doubtful he would accept the job if he wasn't at least going to have heavy influence in the scheme and game plan.

Okay, so here's the part where everyone thinks that Kelly is going to be Kelly because "Get used to it" and all of that. Well, Kelly just had to make changes to demote or fire two of his friends on the staff that he had been extremely loyal to. I'd say all bets are off as to how Kelly is going to approach this season, the most critical one of his coaching career.

Long will bring some concepts with him from Memphis that could be sprinkled in or potentially become a big part of the offense next season.

What do we know about Long's background?

This is always important to know because although Long has only been a coordinator for one season, he has obviously been coaching at high level for several years. He was a graduate assistant twice under Bobby Petrino at both Louisville and Arkansas before becoming the tight ends coach under Ron Zook at Illinois. The reason he got that gig is that he followed Bobby's brother, Paul Petrino.

This is important to note because both Bobby and Paul are known to be outstanding offensive coaches that adapt to the talent around them. That's why Bobby, for all of his faults, has been able to find success with classic pocket passers like Ryan Mallett at Arkansas and zone read wunderkind Lamar Jackson at Louisville. Petrino has had teams that sling it all over the field and he's had top ten rushing offenses that pound the ball inside. He adapts to what he has on his roster.

The next guy Long worked for, Norvell, showed that he was adaptable to how he used his talent too back when he was at Arizona State. It's at ASU where Long started working with the type of offense he ran at Memphis.

Multiple tempo offense with plenty of RPOs

Memphis ran a no-huddle offense under Long, the same as they ran at Arizona State under Norvell. I don't think we'll see Kelly go full no-huddle any time soon, but the Irish have dabbled with some uptempo. I can see the hiring of Long being an indicator that they will play more of it in the fall.

Last season the Tigers ran 76.8 plays per game. Arizona State was over 80 plays a game three times during Norvel and Long's four years there. The highest that any Notre Dame team has run per game under Kelly is 75.

Memphis wasn't constantly going 100mph all the time, but in the four games I went back and watched from this season, they would turn it up a notch at certain times. After a big play, they typically were hustling up to the line to run another quick play. If they saw something in the defense they could exploit, like a specific personnel package against Houston, they put their foot on the gas pedal until they scored.

I'm not sure if we can expect to see more of that from Notre Dame with Long on the staff or not, but I do anticipate that we are going to see many more run pass option (RPO) plays next season. The Irish have run them a bit in the last couple of seasons, but Memphis ran them very frequently.

An RPO is when a run play is called, but the quarterback has the option of tucking it back and throwing it to a receiver. It's something that has spread wildly over college football because of the illegal man downfield rule not being strictly enforced. A flag is supposed to be thrown any time a lineman is three yards or more down the field on a pass, but it's not something the refs call even when it is blatant.

Plenty of offenses have taken advantage of this and Memphis was certainly one of them. This RPO worked brilliantly in the red zone against Western Kentucky. Every linebacker stepped up because they read run, including the linebacker who was on the slot receiver. The Memphis quarterback read it and then pulled it back to throw instead of hand the ball off.

via GIPHY

This is absolutely a brutal play for linebackers to have to defend. Every key they see in front of them says it will be run. If they are passive, they will probably get blocked. But when they step up to attack, they can be vulnerable to plays like this.

Michigan State's linebackers are ultra-aggressive and they are a team I would have loved to see Notre Dame run RPOs against. Perhaps this season we'll see it.

This RPO Long called against Houston is a perfect example how it can exploit defenses that aren't disciplined. There are multiple pieces to this one.

Everyone in the middle is running one play and the two receivers at the top are running another. The cornerback and safety bite on the bubble screen action while the outside receiver fakes a block and runs straight down the field uncovered. Touchdowns don't get much easier than this.

The great part about it (or bad part for the defense) is that if the corner ran with the receiver down the field, the quarterback still had the option to throw the bubble. And if all of that was covered, he could also run the ball himself.

via GIPHY

Those two examples are touchdown plays, but often times Memphis would go down the field calling run plays and the quarterback would see a look he liked and hit a receiver on a hitch for "free" yards.

I think the addition of Long at offensive coordinator means we'll see much more of these calls. It's something I could see Brandon Wimbush excelling at.

Motion, motion, motion

It was rare to not see pre-snap movement from Memphis' offense. Long consistently forced defenses to defend the entire field with his motion. He would send a receiver in motion to fake a jet sweep just to force the defense to account for him. He would run the ball inside, but have his tight end run down the seam to try and take a linebacker with him.

Some of that is not that different than Notre Dame's offense under Mike Denbrock, but I thought Long was a bit more creative with the motion he uses to get the football to some of the play-makers on the perimeter. Just like this bubble screen that came from motion that resulted in a touchdown versus Western Kentucky.

The receiver who motioned out of the backfield might be just for show on a run inside on one play, but if teams don't defend this properly, then they are going to throw it to him. These are the kind of touches I hope to see CJ Sanders get. He's the most dangerous player in the open field Notre Dame has on the roster and if he isn't going to be targeted down the field, then this is how they should get him the football.

via GIPHY

I liked this motion with the tight end even more than the previous play. Long, a tight ends coach who played the position in college as well, got his tight end involved in many different areas. This play where he came across the formation to lead block on a screen against Houston was something that I haven't seen run this way often.

Houston didn't send anyone with the motion and that made it possible for them to have numbers on the outside to block for the screen to the wide receiver. Alize Jones might not be a great in-line blocker, but he is athletic enough to block a defensive back on the move like on this play.

via GIPHY

These are the kind of plays I'd love to see integrated into Kelly's offense.

What I liked and didn't like

In addition to some of the motion, RPOs, and uptempo concepts I saw from Long's offense, there were other things I really liked seeing that should be encouraging to Notre Dame fans. I watched Memphis' offense versus Western Kentucky, Houston, South Florida, and Temple.

I thought there was a good mix of run and pass overall. I know some have already expressed concern with how much Memphis threw the ball last season (they ran it only 49.1% of the time), but I think that was a product of the line not being a strength for them more than anything else. And I saw adjustments that showed Long wasn't married to the pass despite that.

Memphis was typically in 11 personnel (1 back and 1 tight end) in most games. They could not run the football against Temple (22 yards on their first 20 carries), but in the 3rd quarter Memphis made the adjustment to go to 12 personnel (1 back and 2 tight ends).

They lined up a tight end and a H-back to one side and ran power behind it for their best run of the game.

via GIPHY

They ran the exact same play out of the exact same formation on the next snap. The running back took it to the house and Memphis took control of the game.

Against USF, I saw Memphis run the exact same run three times to attack a weak spot they saw in the defense. They were in a different formation each play.

Another thing I really liked seeing against USF was Memphis running an unbalanced line on a few plays and I would love to see Notre Dame incorporate this more into their offense. And they also used a heavy package in the red zone with a fullback where they took got the ball to 1 yard line and came back with play-action for a touchdown immediately after.

via GIPHY

I'm not someone who thinks the Irish need to go back to the I-formation as their base offense, but it's clear they would benefit from utilizing more "heavy" personnel inside the 5 yard line. Hopefully that is something Long can convince Kelly to use next season.

As for what I didn't like seeing from Long's offense, there was another red zone possession against USF where he ran three straight passes that were essentially 50/50 scenarios. It wasn't exactly three straight fades, but at some point if they were unable to run the ball, it would have been nice to see him run a scheme to get a player open.

I also thought he was a little predictable on 3rd down. I lost count of the number of slants they ran to try and convert 3rd down plays in the four games. I was actually surprised to not see a defender jump a slant for an interception in any of those games.

Those might not even be an issue with Long at Notre Dame because it's unclear how much say he will have in calling the plays. It's just something that jumped out at me that when watching and figured it was worth noting.

Overall, though, I really liked most of what I saw from the Memphis offense under Long. I think that Kelly made a very good hire and that Long can bring a lot to the table as offensive coordinator. The easy choice would be to go safe and pick a coordinator that Kelly knows. Hiring someone like Long that can hopefully infuse new ideas into the offense is the type of move I did not expect to happen, but I think it's the right move.

Throw in the fact that he has a reputation as a great recruiter and this hire looks even better. I'm very excited to see the kind of impact Long can make in 2017.
 
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