Texas Tech: Air Raid??

I disagree. The touchdown in the first half to Morris came on mesh; except they had flipped the combo. Morris ran the flag and the other guys were meshing. They definitely ran Y-Cross a number of times. They ran Y-stick in the first half but Texas's defense wasn't really open to it.

They ran a lot of four verticals (obviously), they ran a lot of All-curl, and the play late in the game over the middle that was incomplete on 3rd down in the red zone (after the pass interference on Crabtree) was "shakes."

The final drive they ran four verticals several times. Harrell explained Leach's coaching in post-game interviews, and even said it was their four verts play. They still call it "6." Harrell said Leach tells the QB to read the defender: if the receiver has him beat, you throw it out in front like a real go or fade, and if the DB is step for step with his head turned away, you throw it at the back of his head for a fade-stop and let the receiver make a play, which is not only what happened on the TD, but two plays earlier it had happened with the pass to the other side for a first down.

I mean, he has definitely evolved. I didn't see a lot of shallow either. Obviously lots of screens, but that's always been part of the offense too. I mean Leach has been running the offense for a long time. If I was running that offense I would not expect to do the exact same things for over a decade in the same conference. Nor would I expect Leach, who was there when the offense was invented, to run the exact same things you can find on a Tony Franklin DVD or a Kentucky cutup from 1997. But it's all there, and it was all there last night.

The biggest thing Leach has seemed to do is more flipping around of the concepts. I think they started doing that when Welker was there, where they can run mesh, Y-sail, stick, etc from both sides rather than the traditional Airraid way with everything all right handed. That's a function of Leach being in four wides 80-90% of the time, rather than the old Airraid two-back.

Does anyone have the link to that 4 vertical article?

where can I find that?

www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=e1cdab3c788a1ec7ab1eab3e9fa335ca3ec35dda94194e2e


thanks for the analysis, Mr.Brown

I just want to add a little to what spreadattack said. First, as always, he is correct in stating that Leach ran his base offense last night. What I found particularl interesting was how many times they ran All Curl. Leach likes this concept more than Franklin. But what's interesting is how he runs All Curl. The first time they ran it they converted to Shakes because Texas their safeties sitting on the rails high. Texas dropped their safety down and got into primarily a one high look. After this, Tech stayed with the All Curl. By my count they ran it 5 times last night.

Besides what spreadattack said, another reason why they look like they are not running as much of their base is because they do a lot more packaging to either side of the formation than they did before. For example, they run a lot of Double Dig on the backside of Ace and Dart.

Another thing is that they do more dig/post (same side and opposite) than in the past. This is primarily because of the amount of quarters that is played throughout the Big 12.

It's still the same offense, but they continue to throw in more wrinkles.

One reason why they did not run a lot of Shallow last night was because Texas pretty much played most of the game in a one high look. They started out with two, but rolled and robbed to three or one and its variations most of the night. Tech's version of the Shallow is best versus a 2 type coverage; conversely, Richt's shallow is better versus three, because of how they run their choice route and because its a single side flood.

The Shakes conversion actually goes back to his days with Heupel at OU. If they got any type of a two-shell look the QB made like he was shaking a martini and that signaled that they were converting to Shakes. Now, it's a simple sight adjustment. The problem, obviously, is when teams rotate post snap to some type of 1 high look. That's what they got caught in last night the first time the ran the play; I suspect, that afterwards they just killed the conversion rule for the game.

This year they have run a lot of Shakes or Shallow in general. The lone excepton being K-State, which in the beginning played a lot of 2. Earlier I stated that the Big 12 was a big quarters conference. While this is still true, most teams fire-zone packages are run from a 1 high look. I think this explains why we have been seeing more All Curl, Y Over, etc than in previous years. Remember, a couple years ago they ran very little Y Over because of the amount of 2 shell they got - particularly Tampa 2 which effectively walls the over route off - sort of a picket fence for the route when you think about it.

what is the "shakes"

6, 60, and Shakes are not the same plays...at least not in the old Mumme/Leach playbook. 60 is X and Z outs with H and Y verticals. 6 is all vert. 66 is hitches outside, which converts to 6 against press man. Shakes is in the 90 series...different QB drop and protection.

Wasn't meaning to say you were wrong, sorry. I was really gearing what I said to the Corso/Harrell paragraph. I guess it could be that Leach has lumped all the "6" protection vert/outs/hitch plays in to a single "read route" concept.

That is the article. You're right about 66 and 60 and all that. They shorten 60 to "6" both for simplicity and for kind of motivation reasons ("we're gonna score 'six'!"). I think that is one thing Leach has done at Tech, before he got there I don't think four-verts was as big a part of the Airraid package. He lets his receivers do some adjusting on the play -- settling if guys hang over the top, settling in outside zone windows if they are there, and throwing the fade/go to the backshoulder vs. man if the receiver doesn't beat the defender deep.

Shakes is obviously a 3-vertical play with Norm Chow/Spurrier corners on the outside and a post by Y. (he gives the post flexibility, can flatten it under deep coverage and to run away from man, split Cover 2 safeties, or merely take it deep on a deep post.)

No

this ( bruceeien.com/offense/mumme/96.gif ) converts to this ( bruceeien.com/offense/mumme/96c2.gif ) vs a 2 high look

With Leach is this a pre-snap and audible, or a route adjust, or both ?

this was hemlock's answer, who knows his stuff: "The Shakes conversion actually goes back to his days with Heupel at OU. If they got any type of a two-shell look the QB made like he was shaking a martini and that signaled that they were converting to Shakes. Now, it's a simple sight adjustment. The problem, obviously, is when teams rotate post snap to some type of 1 high look. That's what they got caught in last night the first time the ran the play; I suspect, that afterwards they just killed the conversion rule for the game."

yes it can be run out of a 2x2 and 3x1 set

just have a shoot by a slot replace the swinging back

in a 3x1 the back would swing to the single receiver side