Hey Coach,
BYU is a pain to game plan for on defense, and that’s not just because they’ve got a future first round pick at QB.
In 2020, OC Jeff Grimes set out to create a scheme that was “cheap” for the offense to learn, but “expensive” for a defense to prepare for.
In plain English, that means having lots of formations and motions, but not a ton of base plays, and forcing the defense to react to you.
Today we’re gonna talk about a couple examples of that, and how each of them fit into the toolbox and serve a purpose.
BYU’s Favorite Motions & Shifts
Whatever defenses you’re facing, it’s important that you have the ability within your scheme to do SOMETHING that forces them outside their comfort zone. If you can be multiple and have answers for different schemes already built in to what you do without getting too complex with your players, even better.
That’s one thing that BYU does very well, and today we’re going to look at two examples.
11:37 1Q vs San Diego State 2020
The San Diego State defense is one of the craziest and most unusual you’ll see anywhere in college. They’ve got a base “Odd-Stack” front at the core of their structure, but within that structure it seems like they can line people up almost anywhere.
So what do you do against a team like that? You can’t always trust your reads in the pass game with this defense’s ability to move people all over the place after the snap.
BYU doesn’t like to complicate things. When in doubt, get numbers at the point of attack and run the football. If a defense is going to be crazy and give you all sorts of light boxes, you need to be able to make them pay.
This double motion package is something you’ll see a fair amount of if you watch from BYU last year. First, the H-Back will come across the formation and form a wing surface into the boundary, then the Z receiver will run and carry out a jet fake going the other way.
San Diego State actually adjusts well to this first motion by spinning the near safety down, but the motion by the Z receiver the other direction softens them up and makes it harder to commit to pursuit on the backside. Not only that, but the jet motion gets the corner to move in tighter to the edge, which just brings him closer to the pulling tackle.
BYU picks up five yards here against a very tough defense in a goal-to-go situation with this play.
10:34 2Q vs Louisiana Tech 2020
This is a natural progression from the jet sweep package that Jeff Grimes loves so much.
A lot of odd front defenses like this work hard to keep the alignments for the box defenders the same on every play.
As a result, it’s going to be a lot easier to get the guys in the secondary to move than it is the front seven.
This concept works well to play off the threat of the jet sweep to the wing side of the formation, and put the corner and safety to that side in a bind.
That jet sweep action and the outlet route in the flat off of it aren’t just designed to get the corner to come up and be completely undisciplined (though it’s great if he is).
The more realistic outcome is that the corner plays wide to stay outside of the release of the H-Back, who is simulating a block for the jet sweep fake.
While the corner is buzzing his feet and staying outside of the release of the H-Back, the FS and SS are collapsing on the seam route by the Y.
As a result, the H-Back can turn upfield and accelerate, and he’s got almost an entire third of the field to himself where the QB deliver the ball with a healthy margin of safety.
This is one of the many tools in the toolbox of this offense, designed to attack these kinds of MOFO/Quarters alignments, and because the Cougars can line up so many different ways, they’ve always got the ability to create looks that give each and every different defense trouble.
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