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Notre Dame Football
Breaking Down the Temple Offense
September 1, 2017
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It doesn't take a good offense to be a double digit win team. Just ask the 2012 Fighting Irish. Or for that matter, the last two Temple teams.
Temple had back to back 10-win seasons mostly because they played great defense. By most metrics the offense was not even average. They finished 86th in S&P+ on offense in 2015 and only slightly improved to 79th last season.
That was in year four of Matt Rhule so there was enough evidence to show that the ceiling of the offense under him at Temple wasn't going to get much higher unless they made a change in philosophy.
Rhule's moved on from Temple to Baylor and has been replaced by Geoff Collins, a coach known for defense. He's going to play the same brand of aggressive defense that Temple did under Rhule, but his vision on offense is much different.
No longer will they be playing keep away and milking the play clock on every snap. Collins has turned to former Coastal Carolina coordinator Dave Patenaude to transition the offense to a more uptempo spread system.
There isn't as much statistical analysis that can be done on Patenaude's offense at CC because there just aren't a lot of places where you can find stats for FCS programs, but I do know that his group put up a lot of points, helped them win a lot of games (4 straight FCS playoff appearances), and they were one of the best in the country at that level.
As you probably guessed, there isn't much film publicly available on Coastal Carolina either. There were only four games that I could find from 2013-2016.
Watching those games gave me enough of an idea as to what to expect from him at Temple, though. We might as well jump right into it.
There is a lot of small things to prepare for when it comes to the running game for Temple. It was much more straight forward with Rhule. There was more two back and power, but we should expect to see primarily one back in this match-up based on what Patenaude ran previously. Occasionally he may choose to has split backs in a shotgun formation, but for the most part the formations should be 11 (one back and one tight end) or 10 (one back and zero tight ends).
Especially in '13 and '14, CC was in 10 what seemed like over 80% of the time. With Temple losing some tight ends from last season and having their four top receivers back, that's a formation that I think Notre Dame will see quite a bit on Saturday.
This matters because it means the Irish are going to probably end up in nickel quite a bit. It also matters because it changes the dynamic of the run game for Temple. The quarterback, whoever that may be, is going to be more heavily involved in the run game whether that is through designed keepers or the option.
Zone read is going to be a big part of it, but Notre Dame also has to be prepared for speed option and some triple option looks as well. Here's one example of that against North Dakota State in 2014 where a receiver motions to backfield and eventually becomes the pitch man.
It's just something that forces the defense to be assignment sound to play all three options. Last season the Lamar defense went against a similar look and that allowed for the dive to bust through for a touchdown.
Last season the CC offense was very run-heavy due to poor quarterback play. With uncertainty at quarterback for Temple, it wouldn't shock me if they were that way in this game with plenty of option looks for Notre Dame to deal with as well as quarterback runs like this one.
There's nothing fancy about motioning to empty and running a quarterback draw, but it's often effective when the defense is so focused on the pass. CC had success running this twice against Lamar for first downs.
They knew the linebacker was going to walk out with the back in coverage and that left the middle wide open. Brian Kelly did something similar against Oklahoma in 2012.
via GIPHY
Notre Dame also has to be ready for Wildcat as well. They will line up in it and sometimes motion the quarterback out to receiver and direct snap to the back. I saw that from Patenaude a few times including this red zone play where it was supposed to be a pass against North Dakota State.
They need to prepare for the quarterback run game, but ultimately it will be Ryquell Armstead that they have to stop the majority of the time. He can run physical and he's also got some burst like he showed here against USF.
They can't play at the tempo they want to play at if they aren't running the football. The Irish stopping the run is obviously going to be a huge factor in this game.
Almost all versions of the spread offense involve short passes that compliment the running game, but I didn't see too much of that in the games I watched. I did, however, see plenty of quick one read throws where the ball got out quickly. I saw it when Patenaude had an experienced all-conference quarterback and even more so when he had an inexperienced one last season.
That means Notre Dame's defensive linemen and other blitzers are going to have be prepared to get their hands in passing lanes to deflect the football like this free blitzer does.
The biggest reason why I expect plenty of one-step out of the shotgun passes like this is that I believe they'll want to make sure they get their receivers as many touches as possible. Both Adonis Jennings and Ventell Bryant are taller targets at 6'3", but they can do damage after the catch as well.
Mike Elko and Clark Lea might be preparing for a different offense than the one they faced last year in their bowl game, but they are definitely aware of the personnel Temple has returning. Jennings in particular went off for 154 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. He can do damage in the open field.
I think he'll be someone that the try slip the ball out to on tunnel screens.
To be honest, what Jennings can do scares me a bit more than Bryant even though Bryant is the leading returning receiver. Some Notre Dame fans may remember Bryant from when the Irish played at Temple in 2015. He had some nice moments in that game, but also had some big drops.
He has the ability to high point the football and make plays over the top of defenders. They ran the ball a lot in the red zone under Rhule, but I could see them taking more shots to Bryant in that area of the field. Here he is a couple of years ago going above Cole Luke to make a catch.
Especially in the 2013 and 2014 games I watched, I saw West Coast offense types of passing concepts with the quarterback getting rid of the football quickly on early downs. If Patenaude feels confident in his quarterback, then I think we'll see a bunch of that from Temple in this game.
If he doesn't feel confident in the quarterbacks, then I think it will be heavily focused on the running game with some vertical shots mixed in. I'm sure they feel confident that someone like Jennings or Bryant can make a play down the field and will want to test Notre Dame's corners.
Elko and company might have a game plan for what they expect to see and they may have to make quick adjustments to what Patenaude is actually doing. That's the mystery involved with playing a team with a new offensive coordinator with mostly new personnel in week one.
This is my best guess based on what I saw from Patenaude before. Whatever he chooses do to, I feel pretty confident that the offense Temple runs this year will look very different than the offense they ran last year.
Temple had back to back 10-win seasons mostly because they played great defense. By most metrics the offense was not even average. They finished 86th in S&P+ on offense in 2015 and only slightly improved to 79th last season.
That was in year four of Matt Rhule so there was enough evidence to show that the ceiling of the offense under him at Temple wasn't going to get much higher unless they made a change in philosophy.
Rhule's moved on from Temple to Baylor and has been replaced by Geoff Collins, a coach known for defense. He's going to play the same brand of aggressive defense that Temple did under Rhule, but his vision on offense is much different.
No longer will they be playing keep away and milking the play clock on every snap. Collins has turned to former Coastal Carolina coordinator Dave Patenaude to transition the offense to a more uptempo spread system.
There isn't as much statistical analysis that can be done on Patenaude's offense at CC because there just aren't a lot of places where you can find stats for FCS programs, but I do know that his group put up a lot of points, helped them win a lot of games (4 straight FCS playoff appearances), and they were one of the best in the country at that level.
As you probably guessed, there isn't much film publicly available on Coastal Carolina either. There were only four games that I could find from 2013-2016.
Watching those games gave me enough of an idea as to what to expect from him at Temple, though. We might as well jump right into it.
A typical spread run game
There is a lot of small things to prepare for when it comes to the running game for Temple. It was much more straight forward with Rhule. There was more two back and power, but we should expect to see primarily one back in this match-up based on what Patenaude ran previously. Occasionally he may choose to has split backs in a shotgun formation, but for the most part the formations should be 11 (one back and one tight end) or 10 (one back and zero tight ends).
Especially in '13 and '14, CC was in 10 what seemed like over 80% of the time. With Temple losing some tight ends from last season and having their four top receivers back, that's a formation that I think Notre Dame will see quite a bit on Saturday.
This matters because it means the Irish are going to probably end up in nickel quite a bit. It also matters because it changes the dynamic of the run game for Temple. The quarterback, whoever that may be, is going to be more heavily involved in the run game whether that is through designed keepers or the option.
Zone read is going to be a big part of it, but Notre Dame also has to be prepared for speed option and some triple option looks as well. Here's one example of that against North Dakota State in 2014 where a receiver motions to backfield and eventually becomes the pitch man.
It's just something that forces the defense to be assignment sound to play all three options. Last season the Lamar defense went against a similar look and that allowed for the dive to bust through for a touchdown.
Last season the CC offense was very run-heavy due to poor quarterback play. With uncertainty at quarterback for Temple, it wouldn't shock me if they were that way in this game with plenty of option looks for Notre Dame to deal with as well as quarterback runs like this one.
There's nothing fancy about motioning to empty and running a quarterback draw, but it's often effective when the defense is so focused on the pass. CC had success running this twice against Lamar for first downs.
They knew the linebacker was going to walk out with the back in coverage and that left the middle wide open. Brian Kelly did something similar against Oklahoma in 2012.
via GIPHY
Notre Dame also has to be ready for Wildcat as well. They will line up in it and sometimes motion the quarterback out to receiver and direct snap to the back. I saw that from Patenaude a few times including this red zone play where it was supposed to be a pass against North Dakota State.
They need to prepare for the quarterback run game, but ultimately it will be Ryquell Armstead that they have to stop the majority of the time. He can run physical and he's also got some burst like he showed here against USF.
They can't play at the tempo they want to play at if they aren't running the football. The Irish stopping the run is obviously going to be a huge factor in this game.
Expect quick passes to try for YAC
Almost all versions of the spread offense involve short passes that compliment the running game, but I didn't see too much of that in the games I watched. I did, however, see plenty of quick one read throws where the ball got out quickly. I saw it when Patenaude had an experienced all-conference quarterback and even more so when he had an inexperienced one last season.
That means Notre Dame's defensive linemen and other blitzers are going to have be prepared to get their hands in passing lanes to deflect the football like this free blitzer does.
The biggest reason why I expect plenty of one-step out of the shotgun passes like this is that I believe they'll want to make sure they get their receivers as many touches as possible. Both Adonis Jennings and Ventell Bryant are taller targets at 6'3", but they can do damage after the catch as well.
Mike Elko and Clark Lea might be preparing for a different offense than the one they faced last year in their bowl game, but they are definitely aware of the personnel Temple has returning. Jennings in particular went off for 154 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. He can do damage in the open field.
I think he'll be someone that the try slip the ball out to on tunnel screens.
To be honest, what Jennings can do scares me a bit more than Bryant even though Bryant is the leading returning receiver. Some Notre Dame fans may remember Bryant from when the Irish played at Temple in 2015. He had some nice moments in that game, but also had some big drops.
He has the ability to high point the football and make plays over the top of defenders. They ran the ball a lot in the red zone under Rhule, but I could see them taking more shots to Bryant in that area of the field. Here he is a couple of years ago going above Cole Luke to make a catch.
Especially in the 2013 and 2014 games I watched, I saw West Coast offense types of passing concepts with the quarterback getting rid of the football quickly on early downs. If Patenaude feels confident in his quarterback, then I think we'll see a bunch of that from Temple in this game.
If he doesn't feel confident in the quarterbacks, then I think it will be heavily focused on the running game with some vertical shots mixed in. I'm sure they feel confident that someone like Jennings or Bryant can make a play down the field and will want to test Notre Dame's corners.
Elko and company might have a game plan for what they expect to see and they may have to make quick adjustments to what Patenaude is actually doing. That's the mystery involved with playing a team with a new offensive coordinator with mostly new personnel in week one.
This is my best guess based on what I saw from Patenaude before. Whatever he chooses do to, I feel pretty confident that the offense Temple runs this year will look very different than the offense they ran last year.
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