I've long thought that the Art Briles offense just isn't effective against the top defenses. Just look at Tennessee in '22. The only teams with great DBs across the board on their schedule was us and UGA.
We were weak as he'll up front, so they got their yards, largely in the ground but we took away yards after the catch they destroyed Bama with.
UGA was great at all 11. They allowed no free releases, they went heavy man coverage, so the wide alignment didn't create gaps to exploit. In a year that Hooker usually knew who would be open before the snap, and was the most efficient passer in the nation, he held onto the ball until he was buried by the DL. The decent pro-spread teams UGA played had much more success. That was the best offense that system produced, and it only scored 13 against the one team they played that could just line up, man-up and have the athletes to keep up in bump- and- run.
Now when i look up Arkansas with Briles, TCU with Briles, and watching us Saturday, I see a lot more 12, or even 21 personnel, when the Briles offense traditionally was 11 personnel. I see all receivers running patterns, not half the field loafing because they're actually not targets, etc. I don't see a lot of stacked receivers, guys sitting outside the numbers, RPO more plays than not. We had a good mix of called runs, called passes abs RPOs as well.
All this to say, that the Briles system, like Lebby runs at MSST, and similar to what Heupel runs, has a very defined set of rules, that KB seems to not fit in the way he once did. Now, i know a lot has been made of the impact KB had on Kiffin, with Kiffin incorporating more option routes, RPOs, tempo, and focusing on a playbook small enough for college kids to master as part time football players. My question is, did KB move just as much towards Kiffin? He did call the plays for Kiffin when Kiffin evolved his system at FAU. Not to say anyone else is Kiffin, he's the brightest offensive kind active in FBS right now. I'm just thinking we're closer to the third SEC team with Lane Kiffin's offense, than the third team with Art Briles's offense.
Just some thoughts.
We were weak as he'll up front, so they got their yards, largely in the ground but we took away yards after the catch they destroyed Bama with.
UGA was great at all 11. They allowed no free releases, they went heavy man coverage, so the wide alignment didn't create gaps to exploit. In a year that Hooker usually knew who would be open before the snap, and was the most efficient passer in the nation, he held onto the ball until he was buried by the DL. The decent pro-spread teams UGA played had much more success. That was the best offense that system produced, and it only scored 13 against the one team they played that could just line up, man-up and have the athletes to keep up in bump- and- run.
Now when i look up Arkansas with Briles, TCU with Briles, and watching us Saturday, I see a lot more 12, or even 21 personnel, when the Briles offense traditionally was 11 personnel. I see all receivers running patterns, not half the field loafing because they're actually not targets, etc. I don't see a lot of stacked receivers, guys sitting outside the numbers, RPO more plays than not. We had a good mix of called runs, called passes abs RPOs as well.
All this to say, that the Briles system, like Lebby runs at MSST, and similar to what Heupel runs, has a very defined set of rules, that KB seems to not fit in the way he once did. Now, i know a lot has been made of the impact KB had on Kiffin, with Kiffin incorporating more option routes, RPOs, tempo, and focusing on a playbook small enough for college kids to master as part time football players. My question is, did KB move just as much towards Kiffin? He did call the plays for Kiffin when Kiffin evolved his system at FAU. Not to say anyone else is Kiffin, he's the brightest offensive kind active in FBS right now. I'm just thinking we're closer to the third SEC team with Lane Kiffin's offense, than the third team with Art Briles's offense.
Just some thoughts.