By vteffect

These past few months have been interesting for the folks who cover Clemson football. They had to familiarize themselves with Chad Morris’ offense – an up-tempo, spread-the-field attack that is unique in the ACC.

Because of that crash course in the new offense, it seemed wise to drop an e-mail to one of Clemson’s beat writers, to get a detailed explanation of what makes this offense tick. And Larry Williams came through in a big spot. He covers the Tigers for the Rivals website TigersIllustrated.com, and previously covered them for the Charleston Post and Courier. (Follow him on Twitter at “LarryWilliamsTI.”)

What follows is a paraphrased version of Williams’ lengthy, comprehensive e-mail about Clemson’s offense. This is a good way to learn about the scheme because Williams obviously had more time to sit down and explain it than Morris did on a teleconference today, or Tech’s defensive coaches did after tonight’s practice (though you’ll hear from them in a bit, with some quotes later in this entry).

And Williams obviously has a better understanding of the offense than those of us who have not seen Clemson play, because we’ve spent the past four Saturdays doing little besides writing about Virginia Tech.

OK, here we go – a bullet-pointed primer on Morris’ offense, with a tip o’ the cap to Williams …

** Morris’ offense might get a “spread” label, but it is different than what Mike Leach ran at Texas Tech (and what Leach disciple Lincoln Riley now uses at East Carolina, which the Hokies played in Week 2).

While both offenses spread the field and try to create space for their best athletes to get the ball, the Morris offense (which he picked up from Gus Malzahn, the current Auburn coordinator) owes its origins more to a Wing-T influence that you saw in Urban Meyer’s offense at Florida. Malzahn, Morris and Meyer all want to establish the run, with two-back looks, whereas the Leach system relies almost entirely on throwing the ball.

** The basic goal of this offense – establish a running game, then go deep once the defense is committed to stopping the run. Williams and Tech’s coaches both mentioned that even though the Tigers use “all sorts of funky looks and motions,” as Williams put it, their running game is still very much an I-formation-style running game. Those quirky formations and pre-snap motions are just designed to entice linebackers and defensive backs into making the wrong decisions.

** One thing Williams noted was that this isn’t the first time Clemson has used this type of offense – or one like it. Rich Rodriguez was Clemson’s offensive coordinator in 1999 and 2000, before getting the head job at West Virginia. He used a spread offense that tried to get playmakers in space, with one-on-one matchups.

But unlike that system, Williams noted, the Morris/Malzahn offense uses a two-back power running game (which can wear out defenses), just like Meyer’s system, and also throws deep balls more frequently.

Those deep balls are often successful, as they were for Auburn last season, because defenders were confused by what was going on in the backfield – and thus, there was one-on-one coverage on the perimeter. And maybe those defensive backs also bite on the backfield motioning, which makes for a pretty easy throw for the quarterback to a wide-open receiver.

** Then there’s the fact that Morris’ offense doesn’t huddle. Morris wants to run 80-85 plays a game – by signaling plays in from the sideline. That makes it hard for a defense to substitute. Generally, Clemson snaps the ball with 20 seconds remaining on the 40-second play clock.

** One specific play to watch for on Saturday is the jet sweep to wide receiver Sammy Watkins. He has 15 runs this year for 92 yards, and probably a good chunk of them are jet sweeps. Check out this video of Watkins running the jet sweep against Wofford, to get an idea how Clemson might try to use him Saturday.

Watkins was so successful on these plays against Auburn (seven total runs for 44 yards), Williams noted, that Morris had quarterback Tajh Boyd fake the handoff to Watkins on end-arounds and sweeps – and Florida State’s linebackers were caught out of position. Thus, a lot more open space for other skill players.

** In terms of Boyd’s responsibility in this offense, he does get to change the pass protections at the line (the linemen did it themselves last year), but he doesn’t audible a lot, because Morris wants to just get up there to the line and run the play, and keep the defense on its heels.

The Tigers will run up to the line, and then Boyd looks to the sideline and gets a play that Morris has called after seeing the defensive alignment. But the thing is, Clemson doesn’t have a lot of plays in this offense, Williams noted. Just a bunch of different looks/formations that it runs the limited number of plays from.

So there you have it. Williams was also kind enough to pass along three stories about the offense …

** Chris Brown of SmartFootball.com with an Xs-and-Os breakdown of the scheme

** Chris Low of ESPN.com with a blog on Malzahn saying his offense isn’t a spread

** SI.com’s Stewart Mandel with a piece from 2009, when Morris was a high school coach in Texas, about the wide-reaching impact of Malzahn’s offense.

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Now, on to some things that Tech’s defensive players and coaches said after tonight’s practice …

** All-American cornerback Jayron Hosley shadowed East Carolina receiver Lance Lewis and Arkansas State’s Josh Jarboe. But he won’t do that this week against Watkins, who moves around a lot before the snap.

“They’ve got so many weapons,” said secondary coach Torrian Gray. “You might as well just line up and play ball. … You can’t really key on one guy because they’ve got so many talented guys.”

So Gray will use the field and boundary cornerback roles – which is what Tech usually does. The shadowing strategy was a departure from that.

Watkins will mostly be Kyle Fuller’s responsibility, Hosley said, because Watkins is usually on the field (wide) side. DeAndre Hopkins, if he recovers from his sore hamstring, will line up against Hosley on the boundary (short) side of the field.

“From film, you see that they like to get Watkins the ball, whether it’s bubble [routes], screens, anything,” Hosley said. “He’s a true freshman, but he doesn’t show it on film. He plays like he’s been around the program.”

** Gray expects the Hokies to play a lot of nickel, as they did against East Carolina.

“I imagine we’ve got to match up our speed with their speed,” he said. “I imagine we’ve got to go that route.”

** Defending Watkins will be a big test for Fuller, a first-year starter who has been “a great open field tackler to this point,” Gray said.

This is a big spot for Fuller, though Gray noted that he started as a true freshman last year in the ACC championship game, for the injured Rashad Carmichael. Fuller struggled and Carmichael replaced him at halftime.

“He’s a lot different,” Gray said. “He’s a year older. So I imagine it’s probably harder starting as a true freshman in a championship game [than Saturday’s situation].”

** East Carolina’s offense spreads the field as well – though, as we’ve established, it is not the same as Clemson’s. And Hosley notices another difference.

“[The Tigers] definitely have more speed as far as receivers,” he said. “They have a complete receiving corps, not just one guy who will be their man.”

** Hosley said he is playing at 182-183 pounds. He wanted to get to 185, but he’ll take his current weight, since he was 173-174 last year – far too light to be an NFL cornerback, and that seems like where he is headed after this, his junior season.

** Gray called Watkins a “phenomenal, phenomenal talent” who can catch short passes just as well as deep balls.

But not many people are talking about Clemson’s tight end, Dwayne Allen (6-4, 255 pounds). Gray called him “unbelievable. You don’t usually have that type of threat from that position.” Allen has 14 catches for 216 yards and three touchdowns.

“He’s probably going to beat most linebackers,” Gray said. “He’s probably going to be better than a lot of safeties that he sees. At least, we got to give our safeties a chance to cover him.”

** The Tigers’ offense is fast in two aspects – with its players and the tempo with which it runs plays (see Morris’ goal of 80-85 plays per game).

“They’re a speed team,” Gray said. “If you let them outside, they’ll hurt you with all the speed sweeps, with the quick bubble screens, and the wide receiver screens. They’ve gotten a lot of big plays off those type of things, or even catching a short five-yard pass, [Watkins] has taken a few of those the distance. You got to be great on the perimeter. You got to tackle on the perimeter. They’re going to make you tackle in space along with all the other things they do.”

Based on what Gray has heard from a defensive coach he knows at Auburn – a coach who practices against this offense – this is going to be faster than ECU’s offense.

“We haven’t quite experienced [an offense] at the tempo that these guys are supposed to be,” Gray said. “A lot of people will call it from the sideline, but it’s a slower tempo. They’re just calling it. So it’s going to be interesting to see how fast that actually is.”

Based on what Gray heard from the Auburn coach, he said, “You’re surprised by how fast the tempo is, and it gets you tired. … We’ve got to be prepared for that and get our calls, get aligned, see things and be ready to go.”

** Tech’s defense uses a lot of disguised coverages to confuse opposing quarterbacks, but Gray isn’t sure that the Hokies will be able to confuse Boyd, simply because of the way the play is sent in from Morris to Boyd – which puts the onus more on Morris.

“With that type of offense, they call the play from the line,” Gray said. “So I don’t know how much you’re confusing them if the coordinator’s going to call the play. He’s seeing the coverage [before having the play signaled in]. He’s actually doing probably the work for [Boyd].”

** Another interesting point from Gray, about the noise at Lane Stadium, when he was asked about Boyd making his first road start.

“For us [Tech’s defensive backs], it’s actually easier to play on the road from a communication standpoint because it’s so loud in here, those guys can’t hear each other,” he said, acknowledging Clemson’s tempo combined with the noise could cause an issue for the defensive backs, but he thinks they’ll be sharp enough after practice this week.

** The Marshall game was the worst of the season for Tech’s secondary, Gray said. Could that be a wake-up call heading into this big game against Clemson?

“If I talk to you next Monday and we play our [butts] off on Saturday, then maybe it was a good wake-up call,” Gray said. “You never want to have a bad game, but you’re not going to get up like you want to probably for every game. We weren’t as focused and as sharp as I’d like us to be that game. I don’t see there’s any reason why that would be the case this Saturday. I think I know a lot about those guys [his defensive backs], but when you’re going against a talented group like this, we’ll find out a lot.”

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** Inside linebacker Bruce Taylor put into quote form what Williams mentioned above about Clemson wanting to establish the run – and not just being a pass-only spread team.

“I think it’s different from ECU because they have a capable running game,” Taylor said. “They can beat you running the ball and the quarterback is every bit as capable – maybe even more than the ECU quarterback. And it’s an ACC school, so they’re probably going to be better athletes.”

Taylor also knows Clemson will take more downfield shots than ECU, which opted for quick, short passes.

“ECU, it was kind of easy to sit on what they were doing,” he said. “They’re real predictable, but Clemson, they do a lot of different things that we have to be prepared for.”

** Taylor went to high school in Myrtle Beach, S.C., so he is looking forward to this game.

“I definitely had this one circled,” he said. “Not that it’s any more important than any other game, but it’s a little bit more important for me, with me going to high school in school in South Carolina, having a lot of family in South Carolina, a lot of friends in South Carolina that are either South Carolina or Clemson fans – the majority of them are Clemson – so it’s going to be fun going out there and maybe hopefully having some bragging rights to take back home.”

** Taylor had high praise for Boyd, but because he throws deep (unlike ECU quarterback Dominique Davis), he will have to hold the ball in the pocket, which Taylor and Tech’s pass rushers like to see.

“From a first-year starter guy, he looks very, very composed and confident in the pocket, which a lot of times you don’t really see in a young quarterback,” Taylor said. “Hopefully we can throw him off this week with some of our schemes.

“Seeing limited film on him – we just watched film on him for the first time today – he looks like a quarterback. A lot of times, you can tell when it’s just a guy back there playing quarterback that’s a good athlete. Like the guy from App State [DeAndre Presley], I feel like he’s more of an athlete playing quarterback.

“But with Tajh, I see a lot of Tyrod [Taylor] in him, from just his poise and him throwing the ball. He’s got that good release, quick release, pretty strong arm. But also, he can hurt you running the ball. He’s a dual-threat quarterback, not a dual-threat athlete.

“He’s going to sit in that pocket. He’s not afraid to take a hit. If we get great pass coverage in the back end, we do have some great d-ends and we have some blitzes that will hopefully get some good pressure on him.”

** Between East Carolina and Appalachian State (which ran offenses with all spread principles) and Arkansas State and Marshall (which had offenses with some spread), the type of offense that Clemson runs will be nothing new to Tech.

“A lot of people were taking hits about our out-of-conference schedule, saying it was weak,” Taylor said. “But I feel like our out-of-conference schedule did a good job of preparing us for what we’re going to see in the coming weeks. It’s 2011, and everybody is trying to run some version of the spread. Having those different teams in the first four weeks that ran their own little version of the spread, now I feel like Clemson, they do a good job of putting all those schemes together.”

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** Charley Wiles is pleased with the progress of his defensive line, but Tech’s pass-rushing success (fourth nationally with 14 sacks) goes hand-in-hand with how well the defensive backs are covering, he said.

“It’s a whole unit – back end, good coverage equals good rush; good rush, good coverage,” Wiles said. “It’s a combination of that. We’ve been doing what we do in terms of we’re mixing up our coverages. We’re playing a lot of man, making them hold the ball – not completely just man, but man-free and matchup zone stuff that makes guys have to hold the ball, and that obviously helps a bunch.”

** Wiles mentioned that even though Clemson does a lot of funky things, its offensive line blocking is still pretty much the same as what Tech has seen.

“I guess no one’s running any traditional offenses anymore,” he said. “It’s all spread. So the teams that we’ve played, these guys [Clemson] are like a mix of App and Marshall, ECU somewhat, and Arkansas State. But what we’ve been getting up front is basically a lot of carryover. There’s a ton of bells and whistles with Clemson’s stuff [with the pre-snap motion]. With that core [the offensive line], it’s power, it’s zone.

“But they’ve got all the back end stuff [in the offensive backfield] to go along with it. The perimeter is a challenge for those guys [Tech’s perimeter defenders], because of all that stuff, and you’ve got to bring a guy over and you can’t have wandering eyes. And you’ve got to be very disciplined there in the perimeter. For us [defensive line], it’s a lot of what we got last week, a lot of what App did.

“A lot of their deep shots, they max up [in protection]. They’ll be in some funky formation and basically it’s an I-formation-type, but they’re getting to it a little different, lining up a little different. But you’re still getting the same protection you would on a power pass, for instance, but they’re just getting a one- or two-man route. But they’ve got those guys [receivers] that can go. They max it up and throw it down the field, and in some form, a little play-action with it.”

** Tackles Antoine and Derrick Hopkins, brothers from Highland Springs High, don’t have gaudy stats, but they deserve a lot of credit for Tech’s run defense (43 yards allowed per game) so far.

Derrick has been more of a factor, stats-wise: two tackles for loss, one sack, six quarterback hurries and one forced fumble. Antoine has half a tackle for loss, two pass breakups and four hurries.

“They’ve been very physical,” Wiles said. “Those guys are really technically sound. When you play teams like this, they’re not doing a ton, from a blocking combination standpoint. This week will be very similar. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re going to be successful. But your [tackles] are getting a couple blocking combos. That’s it. Now, can we hold up and be physical and come off blocks? They’ve [Hopkins brothers] been very physical.”

Neither Hopkins brother is enormous (about 6 foot and 300 pounds), “but their lower bodies are strong – big butt and leg,” Wiles said. “They’re built for this. Everybody wants TFLs and sacks, but respect is stopping the run. That’s going to be a big part of this week. [The Tigers] run the ball. Last week, their quarterback didn’t run. They did a lot of things, but he wasn’t a factor in running [16 carries, 19 yards]. This week, Tajh is a factor in running, so you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the quarterback taken care of.”