People have watched Steve Spurrier’s offenses over the years dating back to his days at Florida and on the surface they tend to conclude that he’s an Air Raid guy and what he runs is not that dissimilar from what Texas A&M runs.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Steve Spurrier still throws the football around in Columbia but relies more than ever on a power rushing attack

The Old Ball Coach may utilize three and four receiver sets dating back to his time at Florida in the 1990’s but he’s a West Coast offense aficionado at heart. Spurrier will run the ball out of one back sets with South Carolina much like he used the I formation with the Gators and he’ll even use traditional running plays like the toss sweep with pulling linemen (which has fallen out of favor as more and more line up in the gun). More importantly, in the passing game, Spurrier’s offense is based on throwing the 10 to 15 yard downfield routes that characterize the West Coast attack with check offs to the backs rather than the slot receivers that are utilized in Air Raid concepts.

Since Spurrier arrived at South Carolina in 2005, he has gradually placed a greater emphasis on the running game than he did at Florida. It may surprise you to learn that the Gamecocks ran the ball 537 times in 2013 and threw it just 383 times which equates to a run/pass ratio of 58/42. However, that isn’t much different than the Gamecocks’ run/pass ratio of 57/43 in 2012. In contrast, South Carolina’s run pass/ratio in 2008 was 48/52 and it was even more skewed in 2005. Even so, he’ll get in the gun and run these plays with a running back, tight end, and three receiver sets. It may look like the Air Raid from that perspective but the philosophy and plays themselves are vastly different.

Spurrier has not been able to recruit the same types of quarterbacks at South Carolina that he did at Florida and he also doesn’t have access to the same type of talent at receiver or athletic offensive linemen suited to pass blocking. Instead, he’s found himself embedded in an area with lots of bigger but less athletic linemen and running backs. As a result, he’s adjusted his style to incorporate more power run elements and with a greater emphasis in the passing game on the play action pass rather than the dropback game. As Spurrier has gotten older, he’s actually become more flexible and moved away from his pass first philosophy that he used at Florida all of those years.

For example, South Carolina’s two deep at offensive tackle features five players between 6 foot 5 and 6 foot 9. The “smallest” player on the offensive line is either 6 foot 5, 307 guard Mike Matulis or 6 foot 2, 309 pound center Cody Waldrop. Tailbacks Mike Davis and Brandon Wilde are both over 220 pounds. Spurrier has three tight ends that are 6 foot 5 plus and are capable blockers.

In the process of becoming more of a “run first” coach, Spurrier has favored the inside/inside zone and power plays with guards pulling. His tackles, 6 foot 8 Corey Robertson and 330 Brandon Shell simply aren’t mobile enough to be used that much as pulling linemen. To that end, Spurrier allows his offensive linemen to typically go hat on hat with the zone running game and take the defender where they want to go with the backs reading the blocks behind them. In addition, with pulling guards, Spurrier’s offense sometimes looks like a throwback to what you would see in NFL in the 1960’s (by the way, that’s when Spurrier was in the league). He will run an old fashioned power sweep with the tight end blocking down, the tackle blocking down, the center reaching the playside defensive tackle, and the guards pulling and taking the first defenders inside and outside the hole.

South Carolina’s run game typically struggles when facing quicker defensive linemen that can get upfield and get penetration. For example, Davis rushed for just 51 yards last season versus Missouri which featured ends Kony Ealy and Michael Sam.

It’s ironic that as he has gotten older, Spurrier has become more of a running coach even though he is better known for his passing game which set the Southeastern Conference on its head during his time at Florida. Spurrier’s passing game is based on the West Coast concepts of timing and the quarterback and receivers reading the defenses and adjusting their routes accordingly. In addition, Spurrier tends to place a great deal of pressure on his quarterbacks by using a lot of seven stop drops where the quarterback has to hold the ball and tries to deliver it downfield. Finally, the outlet receivers in the offense are the running backs and tight ends rather than the slots as they are in Texas A&M’s offense.

For example, Spurrier’s quarterbacks have ranked in the top half of the SEC every year since 2010 in average per attempt. However, because they hold the ball and throw it down the field, they take greater risks in terms of interceptions and sacks. Although the departed Connor Shaw threw just one interception last season, he’s more the exception than the rule. Until Shaw grabbed the reins of the offense in 2012, South Carolina generally ranked in the bottom half of the SEC in interceptions thrown and sacks allowed. Shaw played a big role in that but what has helped immensely is that South Carolina now relies a great deal more on the running game to set up play action passes versus man coverage. Finally, running back Mike Davis ranked second on the team in receptions last season and Davis and Marcus Lattimore combined to catch 46 passes in 2012.

A&M defensive tackle Ivan Robinson and his teammates have their work cut out for them Thursday night

Spurrier’s passing plays place a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks to read blitzes and delivering the football to the outlet receivers as opposed to keeping people in to protect. His quarterbacks have a tendency to take a lot of hits because of this.

Spurrier made a living in the 90’s of completing corner routes versus cover 2 and curl routes versus cover 3. His passing plays have one name designations depending on whether they go to the right side or the left side (routes start with R for the right side and L for the left side). Basically, the outside receiver to the play side either starts inside and eventually runs a corner route back outside (cover 2) or runs a curl to the inside (cover 3). The slot or outside receiver to the opposite side runs a post behind this. In addition, Spurrier can call smash routes (known as Corkers) where the outside receiver runs a hitch and the slot runs a corner route. He likes to do this once he gets to the opponent’s 30 to 40 yard line to go for touchdowns as opposed to getting into the red zone where he can be compressed by the field.

Off of play action, Spurrier runs a play called Mills in which the playside slot runs a dig or crossing route some 15 yards down the field and the outside receiver runs a post behind this. If the safety takes the dig, the post is open and vice versa. This is an effective route versus quarters coverage because the playside safety has the receiver running the deeper route (the corner and linebacker have the shorter routes) and is caught in a coverage bind. In all of the preceding routes, the backs and tight ends check for blitzes and run swing or out routes as alternate receivers.

Spurrier has evolved into more of a traditional power run, West Coast type of passing attack as he has spent more time at South Carolina. Texas A&M’s defense really needs to be able to get upfield like Missouri did last season but the Aggies are limited with their two deep at defensive tackle which features more size. Even with bigger defensive tackles, it’s going to be difficult for the Aggies to match up head to head with South Carolina’s big interior linemen who can grab cloth and shove you around. In addition, as South Carolina has become more of a B gap to B gap running game, it’s placed greater emphasis on having a Mike linebacker who can step up and meet running backs in the hole. For all of the praise foisted upon sophomore Mike Jordan Mastrogiovanni in the off season, he’s going to have to be a B gap to B gap player in the opener and meet pulling linemen and backs in the hole and stalemate them.

In contrast, A&M’s defensive ends have gotten more athletic since last season as sophomore Daeshon Hall has a bigger role and freshmen Myles Garrett and Qualen Cunningham are in the two deep. They’re facing 6 foot 6, 330 pound plus tackles and are outweighed by 75 and even 100 pounds. However, like Ealy and Sam, they have great get off and move well laterally. They’re going to have to get upfield to provide a pass rush as well as turning running plays back inside and beating the reach blocks that make the zone running game go. Davis is a north-south runner and if someone is getting penetration then he can’t be a one cut runner.

In the secondary, A&M’s is now bigger at corner with newcomer Victor Davis joining veteran Deshazor Everett. Theoretically, that should allow them to hold up versus South Carolina’s outside running game. However, Davis will get tested early and often via either in the drop back game or in play action. Defensive coordinator Mark Snyder has praised Davis for having a short memory but he has issues in coverage in scrimmages going back to last summer, be a good tackler in space (something that Snyder said he has to work on), and not get beat deep on play action. Freshman free safety Armani Watts is going to have to keep things in front of him and be able to play corner routes run by slots in coverage. However, he’s also going to have to be an eighth man in the box much of the time and hold up against the run at 180 pounds versus running backs who will outweigh him by 20 to 40 pounds. Senior Howard Matthews has reportedly had a good camp but he is going to get tested in the box versus the run and in coverage (not a strong suit of his last year).

In all likelihood, South Carolina’s big offensive line and backs will be able to run the ball at A&M because they are just much bigger and more physically mature. The keys for the Aggies will be to generate upfield pressure via their ends to force negative plays such as turnovers and sacks whenever possible. In addition, Spurrier likes to get lots of people out as receivers in the passing game and minimize the number of people in protection. A&M’s linebackers and schemes should be geared toward overloading those protections whenever possible but that would place the secondary in even more man coverage situations.

A&M also has to be able to avoid South Carolina going inside zone, inside zone, inside zone, and then going over the top to a wide open receiver for a touchdown from outside the red zone. They then have to find a way to hold up physically in the red zone itself and make the Gamecocks kick field goals.

Due to an influx of talent, A&M is certainly better equipped to do those things than it was a year ago. However, it remains to be seen if they can match South Carolina physically, athletically, and from an experience standpoint in their matchup. Finally, a young defense is opening on the road against a team that is well equipped to attack them inside in the running game and downfield in the passing game. For A&M, any type of early success should build confidence that they can stay with the Gamecocks. Even so, if the Aggies don’t have that type of success, then their faith in the scheme and each other will erode quickly and could snowball into the type of performances that we saw far too often last season.

